Milan failed to bounce back from that embarrassing display last Sunday in Verona. Milan now have more defeats (8) than they have wins (7) in 18 league matches.
Starting Eleven
Gianluigi Donnarumma (4.5): The booing by the Rossoneri faithful obviously didn’t help the young ‘keeper, but what can you expect? Gigio was completely at fault on Cristante’s goal for not being able to hold a straightforward header that was directly at him.
That was before he let a pee-roller slip through his arms and legs after the whistle had been blown, which made for sarcastic applause from the Milan fans behind his goal. Not much he could do on the second goal.
Ignazio Abate (4.5): Absolutely nowhere to be seen on the second goal. Awful all-around performance from Abate.
Matteo Musacchio (6): Very solid defensively. Atalanta hardly had a sniff all game, bar the goal. He showed why he should start more games.
Leonardo Bonucci (5.5): The Captain showed his grit and desire tonight, but he lost his man both on the first and the second goal. Not good enough.
Ricardo Rodriguez (5.5): The Swiss left-back played in a few good crosses, but just like the rest of the team, was not good enough on the day.
Franck Kessie (5): A so-so outing from the Ivorian who swapped Atalanta for Milan over the summer.
Ricardo Montolivo (5): Montolivo just blended in right with the rest. It was a game where nobody stood out and everybody was sub-par.
Fabio Borini (5): A workhorse. You can’t ever knock his desire when on the pitch, but frankly, he was just not good enough.
Nikola Kalinic (5): A better than average performance from the Croatian International, but that doesn’t really speak much as he still offered very little going forward, and when he gets a good sniff at goal, he misses.
Patrick Cutrone (5.5): The grit and determination was there from the young striker. Unlucky with the ball that rebounded off his hand in Bonaventura’s goal which was disallowed by VAR, although Bonaventura was in an offside position as well.
Substitutes
Calhanoglu (N/A): Came on too late to have a significant impact on the match.
Andre Silva (N/A): Came on even later than Hakan, so the Portuguese international didn’t have any influence on the game.
Biglia (N/A): Came on with Silva, did nothing except getting a yellow card.
The Manager
Gennaro Gattuso (5): The determination and grit are always there. He will surely rip into his players following this lacklustre performance, but he is also to blame. Gattuso made the correct changes, but way too late in the match to have a significant impact.
These ratings are always so shallow and pointless. It’s like someone just watched the highlights of the match and wrote a superficial line about each player’s performance. Be more insightful.