AC Milan moved into second place in Serie A with an important, if unappealing, victory against Empoli on Sunday, which has shown the side’s ability to earn scrappy wins when needing to.
Milan, as expected, dominated the early stages of the game but failed to make the most of any of their chances until the 40th minute when Noah Okafor found Christian Pulisic on the edge of the box, and the American found the back of the net. The goal was originally ruled out by the referee, but VAR rectified the decision and the Rossoneri held their lead.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) have their ratings from the victory, and they have offered both Milan’s and Stefano Pioli’s performances as a six.
As expected, Christian Pulisic has scored highest in the ratings, earning a 7 from the paper, for his decisive goal. The American proved the side can look to him in the absence of Rafael Leao, and this will be greatly appreciated.
Fikayo Tomori, Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders all received scores of 6.5 for their performances.
Mike Maignan, Malick Thiaw, Theo Hernandez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Noah Okafor, who assisted Pulisic’s goal, received a score of 6 from the paper.
Elsewhere, Davide Calabria was given a 5.5, as was Luka Jovic, whose Rossoneri future looks bleak, with reports suggesting the club are leaning away from offering him a new deal.
Yunus Musah earned a 6.5 rating after replacing Reijnders in the 62nd minute. Pierre Kalulu and Samuel Chukwueze earned a score of 6 for their respective performances from the bench.
I was at the stadium for the game with friends, who like football but don’t watch Milan, so I guess they were objective when they said it was a boring display. It was funny to see that Giroud, Théo, Bennacer and Adli were practicing together (passing the ball) before the game as they’re all French-speaking. Adli seems very friendly, and very close with Théo.
As for the game, I really don’t understand the ratings. Jovic was invisible and Chukwueze missed almost everything he tried. I’m not sold on Reijnders but I like the character so I hope he’s going to improve. Regarding Chukwueze, at some point I think it’s not only about confidence. Pioli implied that he’s not working hard. If he’s not good when he’s playing, then he shouldn’t play. He has all week long during practice to prove the coach that he can be useful on the pitch. Maybe he’s our current Gourcuff/Paqueta/De Ketelaere.
Also, we need someone for corner kicks and free kicks. Tonali was barely above average in this area but now we really have nobody. I stopped counting the many corner kicks we had yesterday, all poorly kicked. That’s a lot of wasted opportunities.
Some positive; Tomori looks already in shape and Bennacer starts to return to his pre injury form. Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek look like leaders now.
Well done you!
I hope your friends enjoyed the amazing atmosphere of San Siro even if the game was pretty ordinary.
Always interesting to hear the perspective of someone at the game, you see so many little off the ball things the tv never shows
Well Florenzi has been doing pretty well at that (Milan scored on 2 corners mid-week), but he was out this game.
“Also, we need someone for corner kicks and free kicks”
Florenzi’s two assists from cornerkick on Thursday don’t count?