AC Milan suffered a big blow in the derby last night as Inter found the back of the net a whopping five times. Several of the Rossoneri players failed to perform and Olivier Giroud, at the age of 36, was the best of the worst.
It was a tough night for Milan and the fans, losing their fifth consecutive derby against Inter. The players will have to pick themselves up as Newcastle in the Champions League awaits next week, which won’t be an easy task.
As per today’s edition of Gazzetta Dello Sport (see photo below), several players did poorly for Milan in the derby. Giroud was the best of the worst with a 5.5/10, providing the assist for Rafael Leao and combining well with his teammates.
The likes of Mike Maignan and Rade Krunic also got a 5.5 by the newspaper, doing their duties with some difficulties but without fatal mistakes. Simon Kjaer was next at 5, ‘always in difficulty’ but still superior in most of the 1v1 duels.
Theo Hernandez, Tijjani Reijnders, Rafael Leao, Noah Okafor and Luka Jovic also got a 5. The Frenchman did well in the attacking phase but made more than one silly mistake at the back, which was costly for Milan.
Davide Calabria, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze all struggled to have an impact on the game and thus got a 4.5. The worst, however, was Malick Thiaw (also at 4.5) as he made fatal mistakes on the goals for Inter.
Well basically I agree with the ratings …
Yes Olivier Giroud was far from brilliant but he worked hard for those around him , he got into good positions but the service from him never arrived.
Lotus cheek I thought did ok ,and better than most ..
Pulisic well where was he ,,didnt seem to have any real conviction going foward ,,and hardly touched the ball in the first half …it is little wonder he was subbed but I know the subs came on late ,but the minutes they were on we looked even worse ..Rafeol leao …A great player ,but he overdoes things sometimes, in trying to take on one to many players ,rather than put a decent delivery into the box ..Yes he did score a goal so i suppose deserves a higher rating than given .
Any how that’s the past ,,,inter knew are defense wasn’t that brilliant and picked the right moments to attack ..We had plenty possession,,but created very little ..
We will get back on track ,and beat Newcastle on Tuesday …..it’s early days in the season , and yes don’t laugh, we will still challenge for the scuddeto this season .
I agree with these ratings. Giroud at least did something. Leao could have done more but he did do something. Kjaer and Krunic tried. So too somewhat RLC. But Reinjders, Puli and the rest were invisible
The game was lost tactically, if you don’t blame the coach, then something is wrong somewhere. In his interview, he wasn’t remorseful not did he accept he did wrong, even b4 the game, he was asked about his preparations, he clearly stated that he didn’t watch any of the past games, how can you not watch where and how you previously lost 4 times? For those who say it’s just a game in the 4th round, I remember when we played friendlies in December, in Saudi or so, we played badly and some fans here kept saying it didn’t matter, “it was just some friendly games”,what happened when the 2nd half of the league started, they loaded us goals and all the Pioli supporters either kept mute or joined in the #pioliout tantrums. Einstein said you can’t do the same thing , same way all the time and suddenly expect different results.
Concerned fans are worried and they sure have a right to be, the season we won the scudetto that Pioli goons keep talking about, that season was all on individual efforts of certain players and nothing tactical from the coach, the days Diaz, Theo, Leao or Giroud played well, we won and nothing more.
Last season, he kept using a particular set of players and brought in subs for 10 – 20 mins and whenever the “team A” got tired, he would eventually bring in about 7 new players in another match and expect a miracle, who does that? He started the same thing this season, from the 3rd match, I knew Pulisic was not fired up, RLC doesn’t play well in 2nd half of matches, during our pre-season Pulisic played well from LW and it allowed Pobega show case his attacking and scoring prowess, but he changed it and he would bring on players to play wrong positions and for few minutes and allowing people start thinking he doesn’t have the right squad, give this squad to Pep, De Zerbi, gasperini and see wonders.
The coach needs to change many things and stop being adamant or arrogant
Has to be said. Tbh, I was confused by Pioli’s thinking on the substitutions.
A solitary sub on the hour (straight swap on the right) which changed nothing, then waiting until the 77th minute when the game was effectively over, to make a host of changes which included taking from our midfield to introduce two strikers and bring on Florenzi for Calabria (another mindless change). We were lucky that Thiaw survived from the 24th minute on a yellow card otherwise we might have been looking at a defeat far worse..