AC Milan held up their end of the bargain by beating Newcastle United at St. James’ Park, but it wasn’t enough in the end to secure Champions League knockout stage football.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) has their ratings from the game, starting with the overall team performance and Stefano Pioli’s management which both scored a 6.5 out of 10.
The man of the match was Mike Maignan who made a world class save to deny Bruno Guimaraes as he scored a 7, while the most disappointing player was Ruben Loftus-Cheek who got a 5.
Davide Calabria got a 6, Fikayo Tomori scored a 7, Theo Hernandez and Alessandro Florenzi were both given a 6.5 as the Milan rearguard held firm despite the selection issues.
In midfield, Tijjani Reijnders got a 6 and Yunus Musah a 5.5 as they were often bypassed, while in attack Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao all got a 6.
Tommaso Pobega (6), Luka Jovic (6.5) and Samuel Chukwueze (7) all came off the bench to make their mark on the game.
These ratings are closer to reality. I feel a disconnect with what I read about the team and what I see during the matches. I would like to know people’s thoughts on the following.
1. I keep reading “the new signings just need time”. While I agree with that, that is the case for projects that are starting out, not three years in with Scudetto and CL aspirations. They also brought this on themselves by mostly signing unproven players with no Serie A experience
2. The owners and managers lost the privilege of time and patience after what happened with Maldini, Massara, and Tonali
3. The skill and workrate that Diaz and Tonali brought to the team were massively underrated and left a huge gap.
4. The midfield is the main problem, leaving the defense exposed and the attack isolated. I’ve seen enough to know that the players we have are incompatible to function as a unit, not to mention their individual shortcomings.
5. Krunic is an unfair scapegoat and will do better than the new guys if played alongside Bennacer
6. How much of the current bunch do you expect to be here next season?
The main guy we failed to replace imo is that snake Kessie. Him and Bennaser helped us form one of the top defensive midfield pairings in the world. Since then, we’re only going downhill from there in that department. I remember Tonali+Benasser getting run over by serie a top midfields.
Also, we only have one really solid CB in the squad. The remaining CBs are unreliable (as opposed to Pioli’s first seasons when Kjaer was a beast).
I agree to some extend. We really missed the boat with a DM. Since they Kessie days we havent had a consistent defensive person there. Bennacer is amazing and can do it but he has missed a lot of time. We also are forgetting last year Bennacer and Tonali sometimes got overrun and we also lack creativity. (Diaz was incosistent and let’s not talk about cdk who didnt work out). Part of the reason Pioli moved to a 4-3-3 with more “dynamic” midfield players is exactly that; to have more attacking options. Remember, last year we played great when Diaz was great and struggle when he didnt. Even our scudetto year, it was build on solid defense, not necessarily attacking prowess. my 2cents, with a 4-3-3 we need a solid DMF (see ManCity or Liverpool, Madrid and even the golden barcelona with busquets) . We have Bennie but he’s been out too long.