Andrea Stašková has recently joined Milan Women from Atlético Madrid Women in a deal that can greatly benefit the Rossonere from an attacking perspective.
Who is Stašková? The Czech international started her footballing journey at Sparta Prague in 2016 before moving to Serie A’s Juventus in 2019, winning three Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia and three Supercoppa Italiana.
Failing to qualify with her nation for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup is undoubtedly disappointing for Stašková. However, this can be seen as a positive for Milan as it could allow Stašková more time to integrate into her new team, gelearnhe team’s tactics, and adapt to her new roles. Now, she can focus entirely on preparing for a competitive season in Italy.
This tactical analysis and scout report will therefore study Stašková’s abilities and look at how Maurizio Ganz can use the Czech striker in attack in an effective way while keeping a balanced formation and lineup. The analysis will also compare Stašková and her rivals for the striker role in order to have a complete idea of the best options and the most suitable solution for Milan’s attack.
Stašková’s impact on Milan’s attack and tactics
Stašková’s arrival can change a lot of things in Milan’s attacking plans and even in their formations since Ganz is already a head coach who changes his formations a lot and has been alternating Milan’s shape regularly during the last period. Stašková’s presence within the team will oblige Ganz to find a suitable plan that fits not only Stašková’s abilities but also Kosovare Asllani, Martina Piemonte, Chanté Dompig and Lindsey Thomas.
At the moment, Ganz’s Milan have been using the 4-1-4-1 formation while opting for the 4-3-3 formation and the 4-2-3-1 at other times. Now, with the arrival of a true striker who plays well inside the box like Stašková along with Piemonte, it will be somewhat more helpful to opt for a formation that includes two strikers and make use of both Stašková and Piemonte at the same time with Asllani playing as an advanced playmaker just behind them in a 4-3-1-2 formation, guaranteeing an excellent attacking trio with dangerous abilities for any opponent.
Another option would be to use Asllani and Thomas as wingers and opt for one of Stašková or Piemonte as a striker. But in all cases, Stašková has the advantage of having a regular spot in this Milan side, knowing that only Piemonte can rival her for the striker spot since she is a very talented and valuable forward.
At the same time, Asllani can play with Stašková in the same lineup since Ganz has already been using the Swedish international as a winger or an advanced playmaker most of the time and not as a striker. Plus, the Czech international has more experience and talent than Chanté Dompig at the moment — therefore, she is more likely to have the advantage over the Dutch player.
Despite this advantage, Stašková still has to prove her worth at Milan and regain her excellent Juventus form now that she’s back in Italy. Indeed, her experience at Atlético Madrid would surely help her in the coming years in terms of experience. Yet, she will have to work hard in order to re-adapt to Serie A’s playing style and mentality as soon as possible and make an impact needed from her as quickly as possible to help Milan score more goals and improve their standing.
Goalscoring skills
Stašková is a rare player who still aims at a goal from a distance and often shoots while retaining a high success rate. She uses this ability whenever she notices that goalkeepers aren’t 100% focused or when afforded the space necessary for attempting such powerful shots.
This excellent shooting technique allows Stašková to always pose a threat on the ball even when retreating to receive from a deeper teammate in midfield like in the following example. Her shot power is a unique feature that differentiates Stašková from the rest of the strikers, even the ones who are more skilful than her.
Scoring such difficult goals puts Stašková in an excellent position compared to her rivals. And the fact that she also uses her physical strength to get past opponents and shoot with extreme power helps her become even more useful to any team. Stašková has an average of 49,4% shots on target per game, and this rate can be improved even further if she continues working on this area of her game and if she is used appropriately at Milan.
This example below highlights Stašková’s ability to get past opponents using her body while still having the endurance to make a shooting decision and shoot on target to score a tough goal.
In addition to her ability to finish attacking actions excellently, Stašková is also good enough at headers. She uses this type of shot quite often, exploiting her 183 cm height and trying to win aerial duels as much as possible, especially inside the box. Currently, she wins 45.7% of aerial duels but can be even more helpful in this regard, as it was an essential aspect of her game at Juventus in the past. For instance, the following goal against Inter Milan highlights the player’s outstanding abilities in the air. It shows that Stašková doesn’t fear attempting headers from distance, even when disturbed by opponents.
Stašková is a reliable player from set-pieces and often creates danger in such situations as she usually positions herself very well and knows when to move without the ball to confuse defenders and get to the ball first. These striker traits are shared between both Stašková and Piemonte.
If both players play alongside each other, set-pieces can be extremely dangerous for Milan when having these two players inside the box. During this corner which was executed by Valentina Cernoia against Roma Women, Stašková moved towards the near post before the execution of the corner and waited for the ball before deviating it towards the near post and not towards the far post as it usually happens, catching the goalkeeper out and scoring a beautiful goal.
Stašková can surely help Milan a lot in the goalscoring department since she has the ability to score goals using different shooting techniques — and in complicated situationlan will just have to know how to use Stašková in the best possible way in order to exploit her goalscoring skills as much as possible.
Assists and ball protection
Stašková is not only a good goalscorer but can also help Milan in different aspects thanks to her accurate passing abilities, ball protection and ability to create dangerous actions from complicated situations. This means that Stašková is not a player who waits for easy opportunities but prefers to battle to win duels and create chances for herself whenever possible.
Ball protection and playing with her back against goal is one of Stašková’s key strengths and she uses this ability so often in order to keep the ball at her feet while fixing her marker and trying to turn whenever possible in order to shoot on goal.
On the following occasion, Stašková was able to control the ball while being marked and she didn’t allow the defender to touch the ball before turning towards her right and quickly shooting with her left foot to score a very difficult goal. And the credit for such actions goes fully to Stašková since she was not only able to resist the defensive disturbance but she was also able to turn and shoot using her “weaker” foot with success.
With a passing accuracy rate of 76%, Stašková can be considered one of the most reliable strikers in terms of passing accuracy in Serie A. Nevertheless, it should be made clear that Stašková often opts for simple passes and not really for key passes or key crosses, which increases her passing accuracy rates.
At the same time, these simple passes can be extremely dangerous as she often performs these passes as layoffs to players coming from deep and aiming to shoot on goal. Therefore, she often holds the ball at her feet with her back to goal while waiting for her teammate to get closer in order to give her an assist for shooting. Sometimes, she even runs horizontally while being marked in order to provide the pass in a more secure way and guarantee that it reaches its destination without interceptions.
This example highlights one of Stašková’s passes to a player coming from behind, and this shows that Stašková is a striker who helps in terms of playmaking; she is a team player and creator — not ‘just’ a goalscorer. Ganz can work on this aspect further and make Stašková an even more efficient player in terms of playmaking while keeping her goalscoring duties.
Conclusion
Andrea Stašková will most likely be a very useful player for Milan Women who need such clinical and powerful strikers who have the experience needed to succeed in a difficult league like Serie A and against opponents who are getting better and better such as Juventus and especially Roma. The right usage of Stašková will define whether she will succeed at Milan or not and finding the adequate balance between all the team’s attacking players will most likely require a little bit of time yet it will prove very beneficial for the Rossonere in the long run.
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