The art of the metronome! One article to understand how Modric reshaped Milan, one statistic to dominate the five major leagues!

Some signings change everything from day one. Luka Modric is the jackpot drawn by AC Milan. Although the Croatian midfielder landed in Serie A at the age of 39 and is now in his late teens, age has never been a yardstick for measuring legend.

Since debuting at San Siro wearing the red and black jersey, Modric has not only shown master-level competitive status, but also built a new winning culture in the locker room. Coach Allegri has placed him at the core of the tactical system. This season, Modric has always been the "metronome" in the three midfielders to control the context of the game, showing amazing efficiency on both offense and defense.

In addition to leading Serie A in passing data, Modric has a more profound impact on the team's tactical genes. Let’s see how Mr. Ballon d’Or reshapes the Rossoneri.

Tactical innovation

As Albertini pointed out in an exclusive interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Modric followed Pirlo and successfully transformed into a deep-lying playmaker, although this transformation occurred late in his career. How is this transformation manifested?

Modric can always calmly respond from a deep position, always provide teammates with ball release points through precise positioning, and effectively disrupt the opponent's high-position press.

When Tomori fell into the wing encirclement set by Lecce, Modric retreated to the back line in time to form a connection point, and easily solved the dilemma through backpass transfer.

Faced with aggressive frontcourt pressure, Modric is accustomed to setting up passing channels in the vacuum zone between the two defensive players.

Even without direct contact, his off-ball movement can still create value. The reason why Gabbia was able to calmly receive Maignan's pass this time was because the Bologna players were afraid of Modric and did not dare to lose their position.

The former Real Madrid superstar often drops back to the back line to create space for central defenders such as Pavlovic to advance.

The Croatian is good at using long vertical passes to directly contact the frontcourt. This pass that penetrates the defense is a powerful weapon to break through dense defenses.

His broad passing vision can always accurately find offensive players who are anti-offside.

Defensive Art

As the hub of the five-midfield system, Modric shoulders the important task of commanding the defense. When the opponent mainly attacks the left wing, he will lead the team to press to the left wing.

If the opponent switches to the right, the defensive focus will shift to the right. This dynamic defense requires a high degree of tactical intelligence, and Modric demonstrates this quality perfectly.

Although his steal data is not outstanding, he has repeatedly completed key interceptions with his anticipation.

In situational defense, he cleverly forced Udinese player Atta to the side, buying time for his teammates to return to defense.

Data witness

Modric leads Serie A in five key statistics: total number of passes, number of successful passes, number of forward passes, number of successful forward passes and success rate of set-piece passes. Before the last round of the league, he ranked first among the players in the five major European leagues in the number of passes per game:

🥇 Luka Modric - 13.47 times (AC Milan, 40 years old)

🥈 Fabian Ruiz - 12.72 times (Paris Saint-Germain, 29 years old)

🥉 Brian Cristante - 12.71 times (Roma, 30 years old)

Currently, he averages 8.42 passes per game, 0.18 goal-making actions, 4.56 shot-making actions, 1.23 penalty area transfers, 1.58 steals and 1.75 interceptions per game, achieving a perfect balance between offense and defense.

Comparative data with top midfielders such as Reinders and De Bruyne show that the Croatian has obvious advantages in core indicators such as confrontation success rate, regaining the ball, proportion of forward passes, and advanced passes.

It is true that the transformation that Modric brought to Milan is far from being fully reflected by data. But what is certain is that the legendary star's on-field performance and off-field leadership are helping the Rossoneri, which ranked eighth last season, achieve rebirth. Of course, this is also inseparable from Allegri's strategic planning.