Three takeaways from AS Monaco’s friendly vs. Genoa
AS Monaco fell to a 1-2 defeat against Genoa, in a hotly contested pre-season clash at the Performance Centre.
While Les Monegasques couldn’t secure the victory, there were still many positives to be extracted from this encounter that served as another brilliant warm-up ahead of the new campaign.
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With this in mind, this gives us the opportunity to focus on three takeaways from this tight encounter.
Minamino’s menace
Takumi Minamino was certainly one of Monaco’s standouts in this friendly, as he underlined why he’s such an integral component of Adi Hutter’s side.
Such a creative force to be reckoned with, his wizardry on the dribble and imaginative passing were important elements of ASM’s final third adventures.
Boasting a low centre of gravity, underrated strength, nifty speed and able to turn on a dime, it was impressive how he excelled in close quarters and with time and space to attack, as his work with the ball at his feet was a highlight.
In addition, the fact he has a handy array of manoeuvres to outfox foes and effectively draws out opponents to manufacture room for colleagues added to his worth.
Breathing life into attacks with his measured through balls, classy crosses and cutbacks and when engaging in intricate link play in condensed zones, Minamino’s passing elevated his threat.
Meanwhile, in terms of his movement, he relished the freedom to exploit spaces all over the attacking half. Be it getting dangerous between the lines, venturing wider to the half spaces and wings, dropping deep to form numerical and positional superiorities or running in behind, Genoa found him a challenging adversary to keep quiet.
Also interchanging with his teammates shrewdly and strategically moving to open passing lanes by pinning foes, the intelligent Japanese international’s performance was full of upside despite the result.
Pressing a positive
Monaco’s high pressing was another interesting aspect of this fixture, for they harried their Italian opposition excellently, in the first half especially, to constantly force turnovers to regain the ball high in advantageous locations.
Aggressive, intense and coordinated, Les Rouge et Blanc made life extremely difficult for Alberto Gilardino’s men, who struggled badly to build out from the back.
Doing a terrific job of not only working as a collective unit to make Genoa commit errors, but also angling their pressure to use their cover shadows to block passing lanes behind them and ushering Genoa towards the touchline to hem the Griffins in, much promise was evident in this aspect.
Serving as a quality chance conjurer for a Monaco outfit that smartly compressed the space available to Genoa to play out and rarely allowed them to execute their decisions coherently, Hutter will have been pleased how his team implemented his plans successfully.
New signing Camara encourages
Starting his first game since joining from FC Metz last week, Lamine Camara put in a solid shift from his central midfield station, showing many glimpses of what an asset he is on both sides of the ball.
Stamping his mark with some dangerous shots, including one wicked strike that hit the woodwork, and a couple of driving runs, he made a fine beginning offensively.
Furthermore, how he spun away from danger to surge ahead on marauding upfield bursts and generated some presentable opportunities for teammates with his polished delivery from open play and set pieces amplified his impact.
Largely on the same page with his teammates with his positioning, Camara also rotated smoothly with his teammates to cause issues between the lines in advanced areas and when popping up in wide zones, which compounded issues for the Genoa backline.
Chiming in with some vital interventions and working hard to press assertively and track runners on the defensive side as well, there were many examples on both ends of why the club were so keen to secure his services this summer to bolster their midfield ranks.