AC Milan put in what was far from their best performance of the season against Lecce but was good enough to get the job done professionally, thanks to Rafael Leao’s brace.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) has their ratings from yesterday evening’s game at San Siro, starting with the overall performance from Milan and Stefano Pioli’s as head coach, both of which earned a 7.
Rafael Leao was the best player on the pitch and rightly earned an 8 after a match-winning brace, but Ante Rebic struggled and received the lowest score which was a 5.
The rearguard were not tested much as Lecce sat deep and waited for their moments, with Mike Maignan getting a 6.5, Pierre Kalulu a 6, Malick Thiaw and Fikayo Tomori the same while Theo Hernandez got a 7.
In midfield, Made Krunic was given a 6.5 and Sandro Tonali a 7 as they dictated the tempo and kept possession well. A bit further ahead, Brahim Diaz got a 6.5.
Junior Messias struggled and only got a 5.5, while off the bench Simon Kjaer and Ismael Bennacer did well – earning a 6.5 – and Alexis Saelemaekers was given a 6.
Wow. My personal bias against Diaz must really be clouding my perception. Everyone said he played a good game, but I honestly can’t think of any good moment of his. I thought his game was very similar to what we see from CDK, who is always criticized (with good reason).
I agree that Rebic was the worst, though.
You’re right. It was a poor performance from him since we know how he can play.
He struggles against defensive opponents. He’s fantastic when we play counter-attack football but really struggles when we need to pick up a key to solid defensive play (usually smaller teams than us)
I think Diaz i better when he is out wide and dealing with the left or RB rather than a big central defender and a midfielder tracking back. Similarly, i think Salemakers does better in the middle. Wouldn’t mind trying CDK out wide instead of Messias. He may have more space out there and a few good games will boost his confidence.