AC Milan were left with a bitter taste in their mouths once again as they dropped points against Cremonese at San Siro last night, drawing 1-1.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport has their player ratings from the game, starting with the overall team performance which earned a 5 out of 10 while Stefano Pioli’s choices got a 4.5.
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The best player on the field was Rade Krunic who came off the bench and got a 6.5, while Pierre Kalulu was the worst as he scored a 4.5 for taking out Malick Thiaw in the build-up to Cremonese’s goal.
Mike Maignan received a 6 while Davide Calabria, Thiaw, Ismael Bennacer, Aster Vranckx and Divock Origi were all given a 5.5, as was Rafael Leao who came on.
Fode Ballo-Toure, Charles De Ketelaere and Brahim Diaz scored a 5, while Alexis Saelemaekers got a 6 and Junior Messias was awarded a 6.5 for his hand in the equalising goal as he won and took the free-kick.
Elliott and Red Bird are just like Trotters Independent Traders. We have Gary who is like Rodney, and Paul who is like Del Boy.
They just keep repeating: “This time next year, we’ll be millionaires”
How can Pioli get a 4.5 after winning the league after all this time?
Do they really think they know better than him? He’s the coach, he knows best. He’s perfect, flawless. Only fake fans and fake journalists criticise him.
There. Pioli supporters are awfully quiet, so I thought I should share their perspective in their place.
It’s for this match.
And they’re right, our second squad is one of the weakest squads ever.
He should have let Leao, Tonali and Giroud play from the beginning of second half.
Well, yes, second squads are generally weaker. That’s why smart coaches play with the first squad. Lautaro Martinez played the whole match and scored for 6-0 in the 92th minute. They were 5-0 up and their best player was still playing, doing his job, what he’s payed for.
Players in England have been playing every 3 days for years, without complaining. It’s perfectly achievable. Maybe you rest a player or two if they really need it, but that should be it.
Team cohesion takes years to build. It’s easy to blame the reserve players but It’s also unfair to put the whole blame on them
You don’t realise.
Milan had big injuries impact in past 2 season because of not rotating players frequently and properly.
Even if you put same 11 players game by game, the will not reach result. It is because they can’t. It is physically impossible.
Red Bird and Elliott gambled with data after leaving Kessie Donnarumma and Hakan with Romagnoli for free and they lost that gamble. You can’t expect that Vranckx, Thiaw, De Keteleare, and Tatarusanu will reach same result like players left for free.
A professional club has data on each player’s injury risk. I agree that sometimes the risk gets high and they need a rest, but do you really expect me to believe that the injury risk suddenly rises for the whole team each time we play against a weaker opponent and they need to be rested?
I doubt there was a need for that. It was just a choice to be overly cautious. In my opinion the risk of losing points every time we play a weaker team outweighs the risk of someone getting injured, if there is no data showing that the risk is high. And it’s not just my opinion, but also Guardiola’s, Klopp’s or most choaches.
Also, Milan had injury problems because they don’t have an issue buying injury prone players. After all, you can’t get good players for cheap if they don’t have some issues (Florenzi for example).
Dude. Milan don’t have quality team.
That is bottom of story. Pioli have at most 10 solid players, and others are like rookies.
In every team sport you must have adequate substitution. You don’t need to have Neymar on Bench for Leao, but if you have Rebic, he needs to score at least 7 in season. If you have Vranckx he needs to create at least 5 assist per season etc…
If you don’t have impact from any player you don’t have player at all.
So Milan “saved” a little money for not extending Kessie, Romagnoli Hakan in short term. But in long run, Milan will lose at least 100 million of revenue in next year, they won this season in Champions League, and that will affect the team, because now you need to sell players and not buy anything, to cover that loss. If they pen those 3 players just for 2 season, still would make a profit for this year, and had adequate change throug season to reach 4th position..
But…
Red Bird and and Elliott did big damage in long term just in 1 season.
Pioli have more than you argue.
Team value in serie a look like this:
Napoli 629m
AC Milan 547m
Inter Milan 534m
Juventus 420m
Atalanta 329m
Roma 317m
Lazio 274m
The fact is that milan are under performing
Lazio
Lazio throw away their european competition & coppa italy. They only play in serie A. AC Milan focus on serie A last season and they win scudetto but get out early from CL group stage and coppa. The squad starter AC Milan are high but very low for their bench player. Even guardiola,klopp,ancelotti will be have hard time coaching AC Milan to stay on CL and serie A with this current bench player now
“because now you need to sell players and not buy anything, to cover that loss. ”
Nope. Milan will make a profit this season. They have no debt. They don’t “need to sell” anyone. Although the REALLY “need” to sell deadwood like Origi etc. But financially they’re not there.
I fully agree that letting players go for free is a huge mistake, and we are obviously a weaker team now. It’s just that we should still be able to beat Cremonese comfortably without them.
Not with our second team.
Our second team players are: Florenzi, Balo Toure, Thiaw, Gabbia, Vranckx, Adli, Pobega, Rebic, Messias and Origi.
On paper you have names. You have players. But in reality, you have 0 impact.
Now look at this second squad team:
Donnarumma, Kalulu, Romagnoli, Thiaw, Balo Toure, Kessie, Krunic, Hakan, Rebic, Messias and Origi.
It sounds completely different. If you see impact of Kessie, Romagnoli and Hakan in this year, you can bet they would play good in Milan this season too.