There were very few players deemed worthy of even a passing grade as AC Milan’s Europa League journey was ended at the hands of Roma last night.
Milan’s European campaign was ended at the quarter-final stage as they lost the second leg 2-1 against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico last night, meaning they crashed out 3-1 on aggregate.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) has their ratings from the game last night, starting with the team’s overall performance and Stefano Pioli’s management which both got a 4.5 out of 10.
Tijjani Reijnders came off the bench to earn one of the only passing grades as he was given a score of 6, while Ismael Bennacer was adjudged to be the worst player with a rating of just 4.5.
Mike Maignan and another substitute in Samuel Chukwueze join Reijnders as the only two other players who were deemed worthy of a score of 6.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek got a 5.5, then Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez, Davide Calabria, Yunus Musah, Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Luka Jovic got half a mark less.
Olivier Giroud (4.5) matches Bennacer’s team-low score to round off the ratings, ones which aptly sum up what a desperately bad evening it was for the Rossoneri.
When 10 players or so have a bad night it’s a systemic problem, which means aside from the players, the problem lies elsewhere, perhpas the guy coaching them.
If 10 players have a bad night the team doesn’t dominate possession and have 20 shots on goal!
The media is so ridiculous. They literally just look at the result and then either heap praise or sound the alarm.
It’s all so dramatic. There was always a chance Milan would go out to an in form Roma side. It happens.
Not every team that gets knocked out of cups can fire their managers (which is what the media is pushing for so they can write more stories about the replacements).
Ha ha 😂.
If you have forgotten Milan was also the in form team going into the 2 games vs Roma after winning 7 games in a row.
Dominating possession?
It was 57 vs 43 even though Milan played with a man advantage for 75 minutes( including added time). Is that Dominating possession in your mind.
What 20 shots? Another invented nber by you because you don’t watch, but listen to Pioli.
Media look at the results and either praise or sound the alarm! ?
This is a results driven job. If you don’t get results you will get fired. And you act like it was only 1 loss. Milan has failed on every front this season.
You seen so happy we lost.
The sheer joy around these parts that Milan are out.
And you seem to revel in our misfortune.
RLC’s ridiculous volley off the cross bar v Pellegrini’s shot bouncing perfectly back off the post.
But you’re so filled with hatred of our manager and therefore team, that you just can’t see it.
Truly the worst fans in the world.
200 odd minutes of football and we could only manage one late goal by a CB.
If we managed 20 odd shots it only because Roma actually only needed to play with intent for 30 mins in each leg.
Yes that’s incredibly unlucky.
How fans can’t see that is beyond me.
Instead it’s just biles of hatred directed towards our manager.
I mean do these fans even deserve a trophy?
What would they do with it?
Celebrate for 5 mins before calling for Pioli to be sacked.
It’s just toxic.
You expect it from the media but not from fans.
We’ll never return to being a top team with these toxic fans because who ever replaces Pioli will be given the same treatment so we’ll never have stability.
I think you’re not appreciating defensive football well enough or don’t understand it or both. Football is now about possession and shots. Everyone was praising Real Madrid for not succombing to Manchester City. What was the stats ? How many shots per team ? How many corners ?…
You say we had 21 shots to Roma 6, fair enough. Shots on target were 4 to 3. How many actually dangerous shots did we have ? Because smashing the ball from 40 meters to the crowd does count as a shot, but does it ?
And since we’re talking stats, Roma had an xG of 1.57 and us only 1.06, so the score was more or less a clear representation of what happened, it wasn’t just some dumb luck.
We dominated possession wise but Roma (also Inter sometimes, Atalanta, even PSG) doesn’t care about possession, also they were down to 10 men early on. There is such a thing as sterile possession, the one that leads to nowhere.
Why are the fans upset ? Because we were knocked out fairly by a team with an inferior squad who supposedly had in our pocket whose coach just took the job 2 months ago. I think it’s fair to expect a “scudetto winning and UCL semi-finalist” coach as you like to put it, to beat a rookie coach who is training an inferior team.
We lost, an deservingly so, and the way we did is a demonstration that some coaches had found the formula to beat us in a consistent manner and were able to apply it.
The tie came down to moments.
If Giroud had scored a goal from 5 yards out in the first tie then that could’ve changed everything.
If the Pelligrini’s shot hadn’t perfectly bounced back off the post into the path of Mancini that could’ve changed everything.
If in the same game RLC’s shot hadn’t hit the cross bar – different game.
If RLC’s goal bound header had not hit a player’s back side – different game.
This is what games come down to.
And who said Roma’s squad is inferior?
If you’re staying they’re inferior than you fail to appreciate the tiny differences between the top teams.
Why are fans upset?
Because they’re a bunch of spoilt brats who demand instant gratification.
The same bunch of spoilt brats who got so excited about all of the transfers last summer that I am now having to defend.
I didn’t want them but now I have to defend them.
This is the past 10 years of being a Milan fan.
10 years and one Scudetto to show for it.
Whilst I watched a completely bang average Juve side win back to back Scudetti including with our former manager.
Whilst I watched our former players play for our rivals. Look at El Shaaraway out there for Roma.
But still the spoilt brats demand more changes. It of course can’t be all of those signings last summer.
No, it must be Pioli.
That’s why we went from controlling the midfield in Champions League ties last season to bypassing our midfield in the Europa League this.
No Tonali. No KRUNIC.
Since Krunic left we’ve had a massive hole in our midfield and our midfield has become a black hole of possession where players try and dribble and hit Hollywood passes.
But the spoilt brats call out for more.
Why exactly did the spoilt brats deserve a trophy?
Do you really think you get to moan and moan and moan all season long and get a trophy at the end of it?
Do you have any sense of shame?
“Do you have any sense of shame?”
And who do you think you are ? Always condescending, typing endless paragraphs about what a fan should be, should be happy with and sad with and putting labels on people because they don’t agree with your view ?
Did you win the prize of the fan of the year or something ? Did someone appoint you to handle “badges” to who is a good fan or not ?
Maybe next time, before we talk about a topic, we’ll ask for your permission first, if you agree or not ?
Quit the condescending tone and start respect other people’s opinions, you’re not better than anybody here. We’re all Milan fans for decades and want to see the team win. Or are we supposed to be happy with the 21/22 scudetto for the remaining of our lives because we didn’t win a trophy a decade prior ?
On to the game, the “stats” don’t lie, Roma had a higher xG, the shots we had are a padded stat. If football was about how many shots, everyone will be shooting as soon as they reach the 30m, 40m mark, that’s is easy, actually winning is not.
Now, if you want to talk about football, what went right and what went wrong yesterday, I’ll be happy to engage in that, but if your reply is going to be another one of those “I’m a better fan than you because,…” spare yourself and spare me your nonsense.
@ Giga94
I’ve had more respectful arguments with Inter fans than some of the so called fans down here.
In fact that Inter Fan fella that comes on seems more respectful than you lot.
As a general rule, fans don’t celebrate exits from competitions…
You can feel the joy down here.
As for stats, well famously they do lie. Famously stats are less credible than ‘lies’ and ‘damned lies’.
If ‘fans’ are so blinded by hate for the club that they missed all of the goal mouth action I can’t help them.
@Giga94.
That’s gold!
Made my day
@ Maldini’s heir: just because you don’t use insulting words or called people “stupid or dumb” like many do here, don’t make your arguments more respectful.
In many in your posts, you always talk about what a “fan is”, question the loyalty of those who disagree with you, tell them to go support others clubs,… That is very disrespectful and also condescending. So perhaps, before criticizing the others, reread your own posts sometimes.
“If ‘fans’ are so blinded by hate for the club that they missed all of the goal mouth action I can’t help them.” No one asked you for help here.
“As for stats, well famously they do lie. Famously stats are less credible than ‘lies’ and ‘damned lies’.” The thing is, the 40 shots was YOUR argument, when I brought the others pieces of information that you, for some reasons, didn’t mention, now the stats are not credibles.
Again, I’ll say this another time: I don’t care what you think of me, I don’t aspire to be a “good fan” by your standards. You don’t know how I reacted to yesterday’s defeat and it’s disrepectful to assume as such. I don’t know you personally, nor I intend to, so keep your arguments about what a fan should be to yourself. That will spare you times typing that could be spent elsewhere.
If If If… If an aunt had balls, she’d be an uncle. We lost 100-0 to a inferior team with a rookie coach. If… If… If… If we had a decent coach with even one tactic we’d won. If Giroud were 5 years younger we’d won. If Tonali was here… If… If… If…
We lost. We had the worse coach. That’s it.
@ Giga94
I meant respectful about the team, the manager and the players….
Again, it’s a fan thing….
I one of those crazies who defends my team when other people insult them. It just so happens that those ‘other people’ claim to be other ‘fans’.
The examples I gave were a subset of the 40……
Of the 40, some included hitting the post and missing shots from 5 yards out.
I concur, Giga94
Yours sincerely, Euan Macdonald
I don’t know how to you could give a better mark to RLC than Leao
How dare RLC hit the cross bar and then have a goal bound header inexplicably blocked by a defender’s back side.
How people are missing the huge amount of misfortune in these two legs is beyond me.
Literally every bounce went in Roma’s favour and Milan had 40 shots on goal!
Did you actually watch the games or you looked up the stats to find the ones that favour your view ?
Well I clearly did since I am referring to specific incidents whereas you’re referring to questionable stats.
Well I do question that because everyone here, including the players were dissapointed and agree that yesterday was a bad game but you seem happy that we got overall 40 shots (not on target) and assume Roma’s qualification is just pure luck.
But hey, I forgot, you’re a better fan and more “loyal” than me, the “spoiled brat who has no sense of shame”.
@ Giga94
The manager and the players are right to be disappointed and to take responsibility.
They’re right to be hard on themselves and to demand more.
But fans are supposed to support the manager and the players through thick and thin.
This whole fan thing seems to be so hard for people to understand.
“This whole fan thing seems to be so hard for people to understand.”
Again, your elite level of fan is too hard for us mere mortals, so don’t bother yourself trying to explain it, it won’t do any favour.
@ Giga94
It really shouldn’t be this hard to explain what being a fan involves.
Not celebrating exits from tournaments so you can insult the manager and players, and claim some weird victory in some entirely subjective online debate being one of them….
“Not celebrating exits from tournaments so you can insult the manager and players, and claim some weird victory in some entirely subjective online debate being one of them….”
Did you see me celebrating or something ? You’re just implying stuff and using them as arguments for made up parameters.
Do you realise how insulting and disrespectful your posts actually are ?
@ Giga94
I do have a problem replying to you for some reason…..
For someone so sensitive about being insulted do you not see how insulting it is to the manager and players i.e. the people that actually count, for fans to doing a pile on the day after a debate?
A pile on that ignores the fact that we were actually incredibly unlucky to go out (given we hit the cross bar and missed a 5 yard shot and lost 3:1).
@Maldini’s Heir: so far in this website only you and Boulden manage to make me comment on personal stuff.
I find it quite intriguing and interesting that you judged me on stuff you don’t know about, that I never said and that you made up and still insist to act like you’re the one who is right.
I never personally insulted a player or a coach. Criticizing a performance and saying that X is better than Y is not insulting. Telling someone that he is “not loyal” or “spoiled brat” and “has no shame” is insulting and disrespectful. The fact that you seem to act that it is okay, is quite frightening to say the least.
And also I remember requesting not replying to me if you’re again going to resort to personal attacks. If you find it so bothersome to reply to me for reasons I’m not interested it, then I don’t see why you bother replying to me.
@ Giga94
The day after a defeat you post:
“When 10 players or so have a bad night it’s a systemic problem, which means aside from the players, the problem lies elsewhere, perhpas the guy coaching them.”
Now do you think that’s a respectful thing to say about Pioli and the players after a disappointing defeat?
I get this is the internet and people say stuff, but would you say that to their faces?
@ Maldini’s Heir
Saying that there is a systemic problem with a team, or that 10 or players had a bad night is not insulting, is called assessment or criticizm. It might be faulty, it might be right, but it’s not an insult.
I don’t know if I’d say people to their faces that they are “spoiled brats”, “not loyal” or “have no shame”, it’s indeed a luxury that can be afforded with keyboards and internet.
@ Giga94
Nope.
a) you said 10 players (that’s every outfield player who started) who put everything into a game had a ‘bad night’ and you maintained this position even after I pointed out how much bad luck we had.
b) you referred to a ‘systemic problem’ where ‘the problem lies elsewhere, perhaps the guy coaching them.” which implies you’re calling for Pioli to be sacked.
Surely a sensitive soul like yourself can see that that’s not a very nice thing to say about the man who turned the club around, brought us back to Europe, and won a Scudetto after a tie against an in-form Roma side and where we had a few unlucky moments?
@ Maldini’s Heir
That’s your assessment I don’t agree with it.
I don’t think we were eliminated because of some “luck”, we were clearly outplayed, our xG yesterday was 1,06 while Roma was 1,57 despite playing with 10 men for most of the games. 40 shots don’t mean a whole lot, very few of them were actually dangerous shots. What I saw yesterday was a team with no plan whatsoever. And this is not the first time, that a team who employed similar tactics to yesterday’s Roma was actually able to beat us handly while we pad ourselves with stats like shots and possession.
I do think that Pioli’s tactics are to blame here (as well as many of the players) and I’ve outlined several times while I thought that this Europa League was his last chance, and, if he fails in it, he should be replaced.
“a sensitive soul like yourself”. Ok I’m going to seriously ask you to STOP calling me by any name whatsoever.
Omg are you seriously blaming the luck now???
What kind of stats you are talking about? ‘Ewwww, brothe, what is THAT?’
How you are trying to defend our game and Pioli is mad crazy.
Did we watch the same game???
Some people were crying about the referee too. Like he didn’t give us a pen for that handball where Giroud was the one who played the ball with hand first.
When do we start confronting the truth? When our excuses will end?
We played like a crap, no tactics, no strategy, no passion, no coach and yet you are talking about stats and blaming the luck dayumn
‘Crying for penalties’ is what fans do.
Celebrating defeats because it will get the manager sacked is not.
No, genius. No one said Giroud’s was a pen. We’re talking about Bove throwing Tomori to the ground in the box, and in the first leg – Lukaku’s offside before the goal and the obvious pen denied us at the end. All from a ref who we never win a game with. Going into the game last night 0-1 down instead of 1-0 up which we should’ve been are two entirely different scenarios.
I’m very happy for you that you find so much comfort in 30 odd long range shots the sail comfortably high and/or wide.
While your opposition keeps you exactly where they want you.
Re RLC. All he seems to do well is being on the end of moves created by others. Strange for a midfielder.
Leao was far more involved in the game. Admittedly his final touch was often bad. But he was always creating as well as causing a player send off and winning an assist.
Did Roma want RLC hitting the cross bar from 10 yards out?
Was that all part of De Rossi’s genius plan?
It’s not ‘finding comfort’ it’s SUPPORTING THE CLUB.
It’s called BEING A FAN.
It’s called WINNING SOME/LOSING SOME.
It’s called being normal.
When Pioli gets sacked, and when his replacement fails to qualify for the Champions League next season, this mob down here will not take any responsibility.
They’ll just move on and turn on the next victim.
It’s all just armchair criticising from people who simply don’t deserve success.
Being normal? Nothing you write here counts as normal. 😀 😀 😀
But hey, at least you are the ONLY Milan-worthy fan here. The best. Best ever even. I wish everyone were as great fan as you. We all look up to you. One might say you are our idol.
“Did Roma want RLC hitting the cross bar from 10 yards out?”
Yes. It beats the option of RLC hitting the net instead. Oh wait… Roma must have wanted him to not shoot at all as MILAN HAD INCREDIBLE 40 SHOTS during the 2 matches! 40!!!! OMG!!! They should be in the final for that, right?!! 40!!! WOW! Scudetto-worthy performance, right? And Milan had more possession too!!
You realise you’re talking about the team you claim to support?
This isn’t an argument you’re having with me.
You’re just insulting the manager and players.
Yet you think you’re fan.
Another fan who seems absolutely delighted with the defeat.
Bizarre.
Claim to support? Oh yes, I forgot that you are the only true fan here and everyone is a fake. LOL. You and your ego are something else… 😀
“Another fan who seems absolutely delighted with the defeat.”
Show me where I ever even hinted anything like that? Oh right, you can’t. But hey, as long as you are the only Milan fan – and the best one. We all love you and your superior knowledge and opinions. No other fan ever even deserves to see Milan play. Everyone should be exactly like you.
The enthusiasm with your posting down here sort of suggests a degree of joy.
Go on admit it.
Those endorphins are buzzing now that you’ve been ‘proven right’. You being ‘proven right’ is more important than the team winning.
Oga shut up.
The almighty fan. Who is so blinded by stats and mediocrity that he can never be subjective.
But he is also a hypocrite. He terms critiscism of the team play not a fan worthy behavior, BUT HE DOES THE SAME TO ADLI WITHOUT ADMITTING IT.
THE HYPOCRISY IS SO SUFFOCATING. And always wishing for krunic, or complaining about the transfer, or just around bitching. But when others do it they are automatically not Milan’s “fans”.
Good lord you are annoying. Hey here’s a thought why not go support Como like you always hamper on, or another low level/mid level team. At least you won’t be smothered anymore by the so called inter fans in Milan clothings.
After all that is your M.O telling others to go support another team🙄😒
“Those endorphins are buzzing now that you’ve been ‘proven right’. You being ‘proven right’ is more important than the team winning.”
LOL. You are describing yourself here. Not me. So… Touché (straight at your own ankle).
Well given the other day I described myself as being ecstatic for being proven wrong about the summer’s transfers…
But according to you I was right about the summer’s transfers?
Because you think the season has been a disaster. Which means the transfers were a disaster?
No. It’s all Pioli’s fault.
You show more loyalty to people who have won nothing with the club than the man who has.
“Because you think the season has been a disaster.”
Never said that. Why are you always putting (false) words into others’ mouth? I have no joy in Milan losing, yet you claim I do. I never said this season was a disaster, but yet you do.
Just stop with the lies already. Getting REALLY tired of your daily BS. Yeah, we get it. You are the only worthy fan and everyone else should go and support Genoa or something.