Sandro Tonali — A promising playmaker that has the world under his feet
(This article was published in Total Football Analysis — TFA2020 magazine, written on December 17th, 2019. I want to repost this article due to recent transfer rumours linking Tonali to AC Milan)
The Italy national team is currently experiencing a transitional period with the rise of young prospects from many well-known clubs across the country. They are on course to replace veterans such as Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini or Salvatore Sirigu amid the fact that a few of them still need some first-team experiences to eventually make it into the 23-man squad. Nonetheless, it is worth noticing that almost a half of their recent squad playing against Armenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina were players is players are under 24 years old, which shows a very bright future for the national team when those players are fully fulfil their potential.
One of those under-24 players who is currently thriving in Serie A and the national team is Sandro Tonali, a key player in Brescia’s promotion campaign last season. The young midfielder has caught the eyes of many with his performance for the Italy U19 back in the 2018 UEFA Under-19 European Championship. Since then, the hype has really started to lift off with him being the star man for Brescia and helped them secured promotion to Serie A by securing the Serie B trophy.
At the age of just 19, there is a certainty that many big things will be yet to come for Tonali not just in the upcoming year of 2020, but also in the foreseeable future. Even more, there are expectations that he will follow the path that Andrea Pirlo used to walk onto given the fact that both all started their careers in Brescia and has a similar style of play. This tactical analysis will provide an analysis of Tonali’s performance in 2019 with Brescia in both Serie B and Serie A. Meanwhile, using statistics and footages, we will take a look at the near future to see how far can Tonali go and what aspects can he improve during the period.
His role under Eugenio Corini
Last season under Corini, Brescia lined up in a 4–3–1–2 formation that saw three central midfielders created a midfield-three and screened the space in front of the back-four. At times, this can also be seen as a 4–1–2–1–2 diamond shape when central midfielders Emanuele Ndoj and Dimitri Bisoli played just below Brazilian midfielder Rômulo. The same can be said this season, even when Corini was told to dismiss from his role and he was replaced by former Juventus defender Fabio Grosso. With him returned to the managerial spot at the start of December, there are no signs that he will change his system and the principles that helped his side secured the Serie B trophy last season.
For Tonali, he is used as the single pivot in the midfield diamond as he took on the role of a regista. Similar to Pirlo, who he received many comparisons towards, he tends to dictate the team’s play using his passing ability and able to make passes up the pitch to start attacks. But, according to Tonali himself, he said he is a more of a mix between the Italian legend with Gennaro Gattuso in an interview after his international debut. Furthermore, Corini said he would be a Daniele De Rossi type of midfielder thanks to his energetic style of play and the willingness to connect the team not only by his passes, but also through his movements.
His words about not being totally a Pirlo type but more of a mix between the former Milan midfield duo are even solidified given the fact that he is not being used as a pivot in the national team’s lineup. That role is handed to Jorginho, who is a complete passer and has the ability to use his passes for creating attacks for the team. There, Tonali occupies the right central midfielder position which allows him to roam more from his positions and bring his teammates into the team’s attack.
Nonetheless, it is possible for him to move flexibly in between those two positions during the match and depending on the situation. The important thing to keep in mind is he has to maintain the instructions that are given to him by Corini while still demonstrating at best his preferred style of play. Still, in the future, there are still rooms for improving his versatility as he can take on the attacking midfielder position and become a decent thread during the offensive transitioning scenarios.
With him being the only pivot in Corini’s lineup, the scenario of him involving in the team’s build-up doesn’t seem to be a surprise and unfamiliar since it has occurred since last season. During the process, both full-backs tend to stay deep with the two centre-backs to offer two available passing options and allow them to match the number of opposition’s players, therefore, preventing them from at least losing the numerical advantage.
In these situations, Tonali will also position himself near the passing block and becomes the top of the block while also taking on the responsibilities of bring the ball out of defence. He usually acts as the focal point during the build-up process as he aims to receive passes from the defenders and then drive forward with pace. There, it is viable for the Italian youngster to make penetrative passes that start attacks for his side and linking up with the attacking players up front.
One of the standout attributes that can be seen when watching Tonali plays is how intelligent he is in terms of using his positioning ability to benefit the team. During the build-up process, the Italian midfielder tends to position himself just behind the first pressing lane. The benefit of this is allowing the defenders to break the lane just using a penetrative pass that heads towards his position. While it also comes along with the risk that Tonali can be suffocated quickly since the opposition’s strikers and midfielders will move close to him, his technical moves will become a good option for him to escape the challenge or draw a foul from those players.
Also, this allows both Ndoj and Bisoli to push higher up the pitch while still maintaining the connection with Tonali. They will be able to create a flexible passing triangle with him whenever he is controlling the ball as the team aim to progress the attack into the final third. This also reduces long passes that should be made during either the build-up phase or the transitioning process, which can result in Brescia losing possession in a dangerous position.
The option of moving the ball forward in a quick fashion using short passes and combinations is viable for his side and the stats also demonstrate it clearly. While they are not a side who hold much of the possession, their average number of back passes (39.29 back passes compared to 73.65) and lateral passes (108.82 lateral passes compared to 198.47) are quite low compared to their opponents. In contrast, they register a higher average of smart passes with 5.53 smart passes per 90 minutes and their opponents’ average record of only 4.53.
Similar to his trait of involving in the team’s build-up in a constant way, Tonali also aims to maintain his support range with the ball carrier as short as possible. Again, using his positioning ability, he will pick out an available pocket of space that is near the ball carrier himself to occupy. There, after scanning through the pitch to find potential receivers and identify which of the opposition’s player can threaten him, he will position himself in the best possible way to both receive the ball and progress it into the final third. His body orientation also plays a key role in helping him to make decisive passes towards the teammate that he directs the ball towards.
Playmaking and assisting abilities
With the fact that he usually stays deep to join the defenders in playing out from the back, he also gains another significant advantage which benefits him quite often whenever he is on the ball. Against teams who tend not to press aggressively and high up the pitch, Tonali will have more space and time to scan the field for potential receivers. It gives him a wider perspective of the situation, thus, allows him to make better decision in terms of making passes.
For a player who has such good vision like him, it is no surprise to see Tonali attempting to make long passes whenever possible. Furthermore, his anticipation is also key in these types of situation since he should know how fast and how far his teammate can run, therefore, aiming his pass in the most precise way. It prevents the scenario of losing possession during offensive transitioning situations and forcing his teammates to defend against a sudden counter-attack.
His vision also contributes in a noteable way when it comes to making through passes. The way that he creates those smart passes that put his teammates into an active state to either create a chance or convert it into a goal makes him stands out from other midfielders who are at a similar age to his. No matter if it is an open play situation in which Brescia are building their attack from the back-line or it is a counter-attack scenario that him and his teammates are bursting into the final third, similar to the shot below, the Italian prospect would still be able to find one of the teammates who are ready to receive the ball.
Just an intelligent off-the-ball movement that allows a player to enter the defender’s blind side is enough for Tonali to link up with that player through a smart pass. This usually puts an attacker into an active state to enter the 16-yard box and even allows him to involve in a 1v1 situation with the goalkeeper. Having a striker with the calibre like Mario Balotelli in their squad, Brescia have a lethal goalscorer who can turn up at the end of Tonali’s passes and convert them into goals. Unfortunately, the former Manchester City striker is still attempting to pick up his form since he only scored three goals in ten matches.
Apart from being able to direct his passes towards the player that he intends to, crossing is also another viable option that Tonali tends to use to find the attackers inside the 16-yard box. Again, this is when his vision comes in handy as he will be able to pick out teammates who are already positioned themselves in free space to pick up the ball.
With a soft curve and a floated cross, it is possible for Tonali’s pass to be driven towards the mentioned player, which is demonstrated perfectly in the shot below. Unfortunately, amid the fact that his crosses are very decent and found the intentional destination, many of them were dragged wide by the attackers and missed the opportunity to score for Brescia. Given the fact that he only makes 0.85 crosses per 90 minutes across all competitions this season, it is also not much of his preferred way to connect with his teammates. One of the obvious reasons that can be seen is his position focuses more on playing centrally rather than drifting wide. Both central midfielders are already responsibled for occupying the half-spaces and Tonali only has a few occasions where he pops up out wide, receives the ball and send crosses into the box.
Given the fact that many usually compare him to Pirlo, there is a question raised about if his style of play truly makes him a successor to the former Juventus midfielder. As Cheuk Hei Ho (@Tacticsplatform) pointed out in his analysis about Tonali, the important factor to consider when analysing a playmaker is the intensity of him linking up with the teammates around him rather than just relying on his passing attributes.
Applying that statement to this passing network of Brescia in their match against S.P.A.L., it is clear to see that the opposite thing happened to Tonali. While Pirlo, throughout his career, tended to have a significant number of the team’s passes went through his foot, Tonali didn’t have such thing in the mentioned match. While there are still a considerable amount of links being created by him (28 links), his number is just enough to help him places third among the players who played the match, behind centre-back Andrea Cistana (39 links) and right-back Stefano Sabelli (29 links). This shows the trend of distributing the ball towards the right-hand side more often by Brescia players and since Tonali positioned himself slightly further to the opposite flank, the Italian midfielder wasn’t able to create much links with the defensive duo and central midfielder Bisoli.
A technically and physically-gifted player
On occasions where Tonali controls possession, the Italian midfielder tends to dribble more often as he attempts to exploit pockets of space being left by the opponent. His ability of reading the game in general and read the situation itself is outstanding as he knows what he has to do in certain situations where he is put under pressure to avoid losing possession.
But this trait of his also comes along with a major disadvantage for him since the opposition’s player tends to commit a foul on him in order to win the ball back for his side or just even stop his dribble. On average, he already suffered almost two fouls this season and his total already racking up to 34, the eighth-highest record among the leagues along with attackers like Torino’s Andrea Belotti or Lecce’s Filippo Falco. If he continues to be fouled on a constant basis, it won’t be a surprise to see him being injured at a certain point in the near future, which may hinder his progress too.
Still, during situations where isn’t fouled, that is because he applies his technical moves in bypassing the pressure from the opposition’s player. This is extremely useful for him and the team when playing against teams who tend to press high, similar to Inter in the shot below. Combining that with his anticipation, he managed to predict Lautaro Martinez’s intention of jumping to block a long pass and moving slightly to the right to prevent a back pass. Just a small touch on the ball which allows it to be stopped and then he turned to the opposite direction to Martinez’s movement. It created space for him to execute a pass that headed towards his teammate and allowed that player to continue the team’s play without any significant disruption.
In several of other situations, Tonali is able to keep possession for his team is because of his great use of his physicality to shield the ball. When facing pressure from the opposition’s player, he tends to turn his body towards that player and use his strength to hold him off. This allows him to call for support from his teammates and wait until they come around to offer picking up the ball up.
At times, he even uses his physicality to support his teammate, similar to the shot below. In a 2v2 situation against two Hellas Verona players, he used his body to shield one of them while using his hand to control the other one. Thus, it created space for his teammate to continue his dribble up the pitch.
While technical moves are beginning to be a part in his style of play, pace has already been an important factor that benefits him in the team’s offensive transitioning situations. Off the ball, he maximised the ability of sprinting forward in a quite beneficial way. Especially during counter-attacks, it is possible for the Italian midfielder to run from inside his team’s half towards the opposite one in just a few seconds. Even on the ball, he demonstrates it exquisitely through his dribbles as he aims to beat his markers all by his own before deciding to take a long shot from outside of the box or lay it off to one of the attackers.
In the shot below, that was the case when Brescia players attempted to launch a counter-attack in their match against Hellas Verona. It only took Tonali a few seconds to catch up with the rest of his teammates while also able to pick up the pass from Alfredo Donnarumma. Such a counter-attack like this situation required players to be able to identify available gaps that they can position themselves into while still need to make the most out of their pace to get to that area in the quickest way, and Tonali has both of those attributes to become a dangerous counter-attacking threat for his side.
A set-piece threat
If you accidentally come across the footage of the match where Brescia lost 3–1 to Genoa this season, it is worth fast forwarding the video to the 33rd minute and watch the spectacular free-kick from Tonali. The quality of the free-kick already spoken for itself as it completely beaten almost all of the Genoa squad and even their goalkeeper Ionuţ Radu.
It is also quite enough to talk about how good Tonali is in direct set-pieces situations and proves the reason why he is chosen to be Brescia’s main free-kick taker not only for this season, but also the previous one. The ability to curve the ball to such a hard angle is simply amazing amid the fact that it can be considered as a cross that headed towards the far post. Still, that free-kick is out of this world in terms of how good it is taken and the direction that it flew from the spot to the goal, there would be hardly a chance for the opposition’s goalkeeper to stop it.
Along with him being responsibled for taking free-kicks, Tonali is also chosen to be the corner taker of the team and several of these situations again proved the correct decision of Corini. In the shot below against AS Roma, Tonali directed his corner towards the far post for Donnarumma, who did manage to link up and made a header to Pau Lopez’s goal. Unfortunately, his header went a bit too high and the visitor weren’t able to open the score before the first half ended.
It was not the first time that similar situations happened across Brescia matches this season. Not under two times that Tonali sent well-taken crosses into the 16-yard box for his teammates to convert them into goals. But amid the fact that they do have such good aerial players such as Chancellor, Cistana or striker Florian Aye, most of those chances still went wide or went straight into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Defensive contributions
“I guess there are similarities with Pirlo in a way but I also add a lot of grin in there, so maybe more Gattuso.” — Sandro Tonali (2019).
This season, Brescia tend to defend quite narrowly in their 4–3–1–2 defensive shape and aim to keep the opposition away from their zone 14. With Tonali at the heart of their defence, he becomes the link between the midfielders and the defenders as he is able to drop in between Cistana and Chancellor to create a back-five when defending against teams who have good attacking force. It is also viable for the Italian midfielder to stick to his position and form two distinctive defensive lines in front of their 16-yard box with different responsibilities.
It is quite easy to understand why he considers himself as a more of Gattuso type of player and receives many comparisons about it. His energetic style of play and impressive work rate are the two reasons behind those similarities since Tonali can be a bit more active during situations where he can win the ball back for his team rather than staying in his position. He rarely shies away from a challenge and would always attempt to put a foot of his into it with the aim of recovering the ball without diving into tackles.
Still, the average number of 0.95 fouls committed per game is somewhat a considerable number and given the fact he already received 4 yellow cards this season, he is close to being suspended for a Serie A match. His characteristic of being aggressive in most of the defensive situations that he involved in can also lead to the team suffering unnecessary free-kicks around their defensive third. Against teams who have quality takers such as Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo, those chances might come back and haunt them, forcing them to lose valuable points in their battle for relegation.
In addition, it is good to acknowledge how good he is in anticipate the situation well to put his foot into it on time and without committing a foul on the opposition’s player. The shot below against Lecce demonstrates it quite precisely with Tonali being able to acknowledge about Cristian Dell’Orco’s intention of putting a cross into the box. He sprinted towards the former Sassuolo defender to put a foot in just before the ball left his feet, forcing the ball to bounce back to Dell’Orco’s feet and went out for Jesse Joronen’s goal-kick.
Besides from making crucial tackles that save the team from dangerous attacks, Tonali can also make interceptions that cut down the passing intention of the opposition’s players. Again, he makes a good use of his anticipation to read the situation and identify where the ball will be directed towards. After that, he will use his speed to run towards the passing direction and aim to position himself in front of the receiver to intercept the pass.
Tonali is especially good in this term as there are many occasions where he was able to step into the passing direction to block the pass. Then, using his vision and passing ability, he can launch a quick counter-attack for the team as the attackers aim to attack the opposition’s defensive line with pace. With 4.69 interceptions made per 90 minutes and a total of 77 interceptions made after fifteen matches, he currently ranks thirtieth among the leagues and fourth in the squad, just behind Cistana, Sabelli (both have 101 interceptions up to now) and Chancellor (83) in that order.
Conclusion
It has been such a dramatic 2019 for Tonali as he became a key part in the Brescia’s squad that won promotion to Serie A. Furthermore, he even earns himself a regular spot in the national team under Roberto Mancini, which makes his chance of making the final squad to the Euro 2020 even higher. Still, he is just 19 years of age and given how he has progressed up to now, there are a lot of big things waiting for him in the near future.
The upcoming year will be a somewhat decisive year for his career with several of the big names are already sniffing around for his signature. If he is able to secure a move to one of those clubs, he will have a higher chance to enhance and develop his abilities and attributes even further to what he is at now. There is a certainty that rumours will continuously coming in for him with the January transfer window is coming nearer and nearer; for now, though, he remains as one of the key players for Brescia and will give everything for his team in their relegation-battle campaign while also aiming to make a U-turn to their season.
