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GdS: Milan player ratings for Inter win – Gabbia the goalscorer, Leao must do more

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

AC Milan earned a well-deserved three points in the Derby della Madonnina and this morning, a report has looked at the ratings of the Rossoneri’s players with no real surprises. 

There are few things better than a win over rivals, but for Milan, they have been without that feeling for far too long. Now, they feel it once again after 250 days. Paulo Fonseca set his team up brilliantly and nullified Inter’s tactics, and when Matteo Gabbia headed home euphoria set in.

As a whole, the Diavolo earned a score of 7 from Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) this morning, and it comes as no shock to see Matteo Gabbia being given the MOTM with a rating of 7.5, the scorer of the winner and a fantastic performance to go alongside it.

The scorer of the first goal, Christian Pulisic, and the creator of the second, Tijjani Reijnders, were given a 7 each. Both played fantastically and were real outlets for the Rossoneri to build from, looking to create at every occasion and doing so well.

Emerson Royal, Youssouf Fofana, Alvaro Morata, and Tammy Abraham all were given a score of 6.5, as was Mike Maignan, maybe slightly low for him after a very good performance including a fantastic save in the second half.

Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez, and Ruben-Loftus Cheek were given 6s, and Okafor was given a 5.5.

Rafael Leao was given a rating of 5 from the paper, he showed glimpses of excitement, and he made a few nice chances towards the end of the game. However, he should have scored when played through by Abraham. Once again, he has to do more.

Fonseca was given a 7.5 for a fantastic managerial performance, his tactics neutralised the Inter threat and his side played with courage just as he demanded. A deserved score after a difficult week.

Tags AC Milan Inter Milan

62 Comments

  1. What a beautiful day! Finally walking in Milan and it’s not black and blue. Somebody checked if Calhanoglu is ok? 🙂 Unexpected win, even better.

    Inter fans raging that they had less rest than Milan after UCL and that their players seemed tired, those tears are so tasty.

    Now let’s see if it’s the start of a trend or if it was just a miracle. Inter fans are bragging that they saved Fonseca. Petty but true.

      2. Not defending Bart here but we can still blame management (NOT THE OWNER) here. Allthough this is not the time since we are still enjoying our win last night. Morata doimg a better job as am than our current midfielders says a lot.

      1. Haha I just take it as a part of the show now! Some still can’t figure that fans are unhappy when it’s not going well but why not.

        Let’s just enjoy a huge win, it’s rare these days. Some good signs though, I’m the first to criticize Reijnders but he’s been excellent. What a trajectory for Gabbia, now I think he earned a starting spot. Grinta! Sesso e Gabbia!

        1. I’m delighted for Gabbia!
          I’d love to see him as captain

          Pulisic and TJ were great too

          I also think Tammy is good to have, he is passionate and not afraid to shout at Leao, he can only be a good influence

        2. “Some still can’t figure that fans are unhappy when it’s not going well”

          You are just too blind to see it. You wouldn’t recognize happiness even if it bit you in the @ss.

    4. Absolutely, consistency is the key now. Let’s look to get a series of good wins together before Madrid. Consistency of results and starting XI.

      Fonseca has to build the team around Mike, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo, Reijnders and Pulisic. Sadly, Leao is not a priority now unless he sorts himself out.

      He’s in a lose lose position, no top coach is going to sign Leao at the moment.

    5. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I knew he was going to say that Inter had a day less to rest and prepare, that City tired them out. So how is it when Inter has two equally high-quality squads 🤣🤣

  2. So what did Leao get? My patience is running out with this guy – every year it takes him half a season to get up to speed. And some would argue last season we didn’t even get that…

    2. From the photo it looks like he got a 5, which seems generous.
      The good news is that we are no longer dependent on him to score goals. We just need an extra bit of courage from Fonseca to leave him on the bench so he can become motivated again.

      1. He will start playing better if the whole teams plan won’t be like last seasons, if Leao does something in attack we might win. When the rest play and create chances without Leao I doubt he will start playing worse.

      2. Yep – which is ridiculous that he needs leaving out to get motivated. Look at Morata, Abraham, Gabbia, Pulisic etc – showing real passion while Leao’s stroking the ball backwards…

        1. Both Theo and Leao were heavily criticized earlier this season for what happened in the Parma and Lazio games and both were put in a situation were they had to redeem themselves and prove they’re not lazy and desinterested players.
          While yesterday’s performance was far from perfect from Theo, it was certainly a good performance as he was defensively more composed, focused, won may balls, played with the team, earned some fouls and didn’t allow Dumfries to get the best of him like he usually does.
          As for Leao, we might as well have put a cone instead of him.

          1. Agree – Theo was great, Leao continued with the nonsense performances. What happened to the Leao who came on against Lazio? Baffling…

        2. True. Very passive of leao. Morata defended more than leao. Also. It highlights theo’s hard work in defense, as he gets 0 help from leao. He is the highest paid in our team for gods sake. Wonder how hard he trains during the week. Maybe he likes to party too much.

          3. 6 opponents ? That’s quite the improvment. Last year he was only drawing 2 or 3 opponents, and now he manages to draw 6 by being a cone 🙂

        3. I think Leao needs a coach to kick his @ss….remains to be seen if Fonseca is that man. Rather than drop him, play him and if he doesn’t run then bring him off at half time, that’s more of a statement. What would Jose have done? Surely he understands he can’t just do the attacking bit…..

          1. He can just only do the attacking bit IF he is a danger/threat with the ball being marked by 2 or 3 like in the past. The defenses got in his head, his problem is mental, leave him in the whole game against a lower tier team. Have Ibra pull him aside.

    3. Thankfully we have the more reliable figure in Pulisic. The way he helps defend and willingness to defend is night and day compared to Leao.

    4. There’s a very clear pattern of NOT playing down the left. I can’t wrap my mind around it but it seems Fonseca clearly instructed them not to. A lot of focus down the right. Every time he got the ball he played it back…

  3. How did Emerson Royal get a 6.5 when he left his man on the goal? Defender can’t get over 6 if it is his direct fault for a goal. If he had 2 assists or goals, maybe…

    2. He redeemed himself after that, he’s far better and looked more confident in the 2nd half. Not that bad if you’re considering it’s his first derby.

    3. Agree with IGOR 100 PERCENT ROYAL LEFT HIS MAN COMPLETELY AND DOES NOT DESERVE 6.5 MAYBE 5.5 . HOW DO YOU LEAVE YOUR MAN TO GO TO TRIPLE UP ANOTHER PLAYER. TERRIBLE !!

    4. He did exceptionally well in second half though, you gotta admit. Besides that was probably the only mistake he did. From the previous games that’s huge improvement

  4. I really don’t understand what the media is doing…

    Leao did perfectly ok in the game. He completed a few dribbles, provided an outlet, made dangerous runs.

    It was not his best game but it was not his worst.

    And he was better than media and fan favourite Reijnders who once again didn’t offer very much in midfield, got pushed off the ball too easily, provided little cover to defence (which makes Gambia’s performance all the more remarkable), slowed down counters, misshit a crucial pass to Leao.

    Yes he put in that cross (and that exquisite pass to Abraham) but Leao had as many highlights.

    1. Bro you seem to have a genuine beef against Reijnders, please stop.
      I’m not a big fan of him either, and I consider him to be overhyped, but anyone yesterday could saw that he did deliver a good game. Does he have all those media and people in his pocket ready to lick his boot whenever possible ? I don’t think so.
      He moved up, tracked back, his passing was fast and smooth and thanks to him, our attackers we in good positions when receiving the ball and that allowed us to win many fouls (forcing Inzaghi to sub half his midfield at around the hour mark). He did everything a good midfielder was supposed to do, you just set up an artificially high standards for him and nitpick every single mis-step that he does. He didn’t have many highlights but he is a pivot, you can’t expect a pivot to have as many highlights as a left winger right ?
      Leao was bad yesterday. It’s not just missing sitters, it happens to the best of them. Lautaro, a top 5 striker who seem to have many fans here has yet to score a goal. But Leao yesterday neither tracked back, neither pressed and didn’t make himself available for a good pass. At times it almost looked that he didn’t want the ball. Abraham tracked back deeper than him and was also present higher than him.
      People critcized him as well as Theo, but no one had Theo on their radars yesterday, you know why ? Because he made his performance do the talk.

      1. It’s not even that he doesn’t see Reijnder’s value. It’s that in his book Reijnders is over rated but Calabria is God. LMAO …

        1. Isn’t he the one always demanding respect for every Milan player yet he has this incredible HATE towards Reijnders. Hypocrisy at its best. 🙂

    2. I think it boils down to the fact that he did very little, it was VERY noticable that Pulisic and especially Morata were working their backsides off to help in defense, and Leao wasn’t, and then we he did get set free on a break, he blew an excellent scoring opportunity.

      There’s also the fact that the press treat Leao much like a quarterback in American football. When things go well, he gets tremedous credit and when he isn’t doing well, it’s the end of the world.

      I believe that he was the worst player on the field for us, yesterday, other than maybe Okafor, even if a 5 might be a little rough (though a 5.5 or 6 would probably have been right).

    3. “And he was better than media and fan favourite Reijnders who once again didn’t offer very much in midfield”

      Talk about bias… 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

      Holy sh*t, you must be blind as a bat if you honestly think Leao was better than Reijnders. Unbelieavable.

      1. There’s a stream of them on yesterday’s Ratings article. 😂

        I really don’t understand why you have such a low opinion of him.
        He played well yesterday. Was involved in several key moments.
        Including the assist for the 89th min winner. Fofana was good too.

        Unlike RLC he can play double pivot or the CAM.
        RLC was good as a double pivot v Venezia.
        When he plays as a CAM his only good contribution is to ghost into the box as a second striker to finish chances. No creative output.

        1. I get this ‘awaiting moderation’ message pop up sometimes.

          Can you see my comment above about Reijnders where I explain my issue with him?

          To quote:

          “got pushed off the ball too easily, provided little cover to defence (which makes Gambia’s performance all the more remarkable), slowed down counters”

          A consistent theme of my comments about players is how quickly they move the ball.

          I cannot stand players who hold onto the ball including when I play myself. There’s nothing I find more infuriating than waiting on a teammate to simply pass the ball.

          Every second a player holds onto the ball their teammate becomes marked, they miss a run, they give the defence a chance to regroup, they kill the attack.

          If a player is to dribble they need to do so quickly and with purpose.

          So many of Reijnders touches are a kind of showboating with no substance. It drives me mad.

  7. Wow, it’s almost like it takes more than a couple games to implement a whole new system. Are we still going for Fonseca’s job? Just need to know where the miserable Milan faithful stand right now

  8. The hatred for Leao from GDS and some supposedly Milan fan is unbelievable, Tammy missed a sitter, so is Okafor they didn’t even near the goal post yl Leao effort was saved yet he deserves a 5 and hate comments. Pulisic is shining cos no attention is on him, and Leao is drawing loads of defender away from our attacker, Is he lazy, may be a good coach can speak to him about his atitude, on his good day he remain the best

    2. I’ve seen that argument for Leao a few times, but it’s basically nonsense.

      Look at the goals that Pulisic scored against both Liverpool and Inter. One he ran 50 meters with the ball and beat both the outside back and a center back for speed, the other he ran through the middle, going through and past three Inter defenders, including Leoa’s defender, who was able to drop off of him because he was static.

      NOBODY contends that Leao isn’t a great talent. He’s bigger, stronger and faster than Pulisic, but Pulisic works much harder and it shows, both defensively and in terms of actual goal involvements. I have no doubt that Leao CAN at least keep-up with Pulisic, and could probably beat his numbers, but so far, he hasn’t.

      1. So you missed half of the Pool players marking Leao when Puli scored in the UCL? And it seems you didn’t noticed 6 Inter-players holding Leao’s hands when Pulisic forced his way into the penalty box to score the opener? Both goals were 100% thanks to Leao. Just like the Gabbia’s winner. 🙂

        1. Ridiculous irony, above. Nobody is saying that Leão attracts 6 defenders. It is true though that he is often double-marked, and in the Liverpool game he was even being triple marked at times. No, Pulisic’s goals against Liverpool and Inter were Pulisic’s merit. But do realize though, that in one of Puli’s 4 goals for Milan this season, he was assisted by Leão.

          Someone, maybe you (I’m not sure if it was you, but if not you, someone else) made the ridiculous comment that Leão was 100% responsive for Inter’s goal because the play started in Leão’s sector. LOL. After the play left Leão’s sector, the play evolved at the very opposite side of the field both vertically and horizontally; Emerson left DiMarco completely unmarked to receive the inital long pass, Gabbia was turned in that play by Lautaro, Fofana was unable to go back fast enough to stop Lautaro too, and after Lautaro received the ball from an unmarked Dimarco, he gave the ball back to a still unmarked Dimarco who scored. How in the hell was all that 100% (no less!) Leão’s fault??? That’s how much the Leão hatred exists here!

          It’s the responsibility of our right back (Emerson) to contain their left winger (Dimarco). It’s not the responsibility of out left winger (Leão) who plays in the diametral opposite end of the field, to contain their left winger (Dimarco). Still, Leão gets in some people’s opinion, 100% of the blame?

          Utterly ridiculous.

      2. This season, so far Leão has played 5 games, while Puli has played 6. In one of his 5, Leão was benched for most of the game, and only played less than one fourth of the game. Still, Leão so far had 3 goal participations. He almost scored against Inter too, with a superb header, saved by miracle by Sommer. He also had a shot on target that wasn’t half bad, but was also saved by Sommer. He also passed a good ball to Reijnders who wasted it; should have scored. So even when Leão is having an off day, he still creates scoring opportunities. But no player in the world assists and scores every game.

        Puli had 6 goal participations so far but he played one game more and had more minutes in another one. And even though Leão has “only” 3 so far, he’s still the second best in goals and assists, behind only Pulisic.

        Source, footystats dot org:

        2023-24, Leão 16 goals and 13 assists, total 29, all competitions including national team.
        2023-24, Pulisic 19 goals and 12 assists, total 31, all competitions including national team.
        However, 4 of Pulisic’s were for the US National Team. So, for Milan, Pulisic’s total is 27. One of Leão’s was for the Portugal National team, so for Milan he had 28.

        So actually last season Leão was above Pulisic in goals + assists for Milan.

        This season he is slightly behind, with one fewer game and another one when he only played the last 20 minutes so in 4.25 games he had 3 goals and assists, while Puli in 6 games had 6 goals and assists. Let’s also realize that in one of Puli’s goals, he was assisted by Leão.

        I won’t be surprised if by season end, Leão is again ahead of Pulisic. I don’t really care who finishes first, I love Pulisic too and the more the better, but do notice that in the last 3 seasons Leão was the most prolific Milan player in 2 of them, and the second best in one of them, second only to Giroud.

        Nobody contends that Leão is a great talent??? Yes, many fans here say he is lazy and must be sold and when he does score/assists they say he just got lucky. The hatred for Leão is huge, here.

        Yes, Leão is not good at defending or tracking back. He does have these shortcomings. Still, due to his high number of goals and assists, he does compensate for these shortcomings, producing many winning goal participations for Milan over the years.

        Fortunately the Leão haters are not Milan’s administrators because it’s pretty clear that the real people with power know that Leão is very important to the team and do not want to sell him; just look at the 175M release clause.

        1. “He almost scored against Inter too, with a superb header, saved by miracle by Sommer. ”

          LOL. Nope. Poor header because he aimed it straight at the keeper while both of the corners were completely open. To be a “superb header” he would have scored. Now it was nothing more than a wasted chance. Even if it was Giroud who had headed that straight at the keeper I would have said what I said above.

    3. “Pulisic is shining cos no attention is on him”

      Hmm… Is that why Pulisic is also shining every time he plays for his country? Or could it be, just maybe, that Pulisic is the most consistent player in Milan and delivers match after match on his on? Naaah, it’s all Leao. Leao was the also the reason why Gabbia scored the winner. Everyone was marking Leao and therefore Gabbia had the space. 🙂

  9. pretty suprising emerson was actually decent, but he should get a 6 rating beacuse he should have done better on that goal i’ve still not changed my mind about him but it was a decent performance

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