Malick Thiaw made his debut for the German national team last night and although they lost 1-0, he was by far the best player for his team. After the game, he was praised not just by the manager but also Antonio Rudiger.
Thiaw played from the first minute and was several good interceptions to stop promising attacks (see highlights here). He was named the best German player on the pitch by Bild, who gave him a 2 (with 1 being the best, and 6 the worst).
After the game, Germany manager Hansi Flick spoke to the media (via MilanEye) and had only good things to say about the Milan centre-back. Rudiger also spoke to the media (via Scout7Calcio) and also took the opportunity to praise Thiaw.
Flick: “If you want to single someone out from the team, it’s Malick Thiaw, who played very solidly and maturely. He was one of the highlights of tonight’s game.”
Rudiger: “He surprised me. He started on the right foot and showed great personality. He played a really really good game.”
Of course, this comes as no surprise to the Milan fans who saw the youngster do really well in the second half of the season. Hopefully, he can keep this up because consistency has been his main flaw thus far.
Time to move Kalulu to the right and pair Tomori with Thiaw
They will play Calabria at right
Yeah. Kalulu is too rash and too small, hes better at right, and as backup for center.
Kalulu of 2022-2023 has no business in the starting 11. He needs to improve a lot to regain his spot.
Really? Him and Tomori paired in our Scudetto season had one of the best showing statistically. He’s ready.
https://sempremilan.com/tomori-kalulu-milan-defence-2022-23
I’m fully aware how awesome Kalulu was in 2021-2022. But you must be blind if you cannot see the huuuuge difference/drop in performance this season compared to the scudetto season.
He was decent before his injury, but yeah, you are right. One more thing to note is that we were playing with Tata as GK for major part of the season.
Really? Tomori-Kalulu pair had one of the best statistics in Serie A in our Scudetto season.
“The numbers of the last 10 Serie A games tell a story: only two goals conceded (against Lazio and Verona) and eight clean sheets collected. That means Milan are the joint-best defence in the league having conceded 31 goals all season, and that sends an important signal also in view of next season”
This is from an article from May 2022 and it refers to Tomori-Kalulu pair
He refered to 22/23 as a season. And yes, Pierre was disastrous last season. Well that’s just how young players are. Sometimes the curve is extremely high, sometimes extremely low.
Tomori & Thiaw are the main CD’s moving forward. Kalulu had an inconsistent season, but is flexible to play both CD & on the right. Kjaer needs to back up, and Gabbia needs to be loaned out. But another tall defender wouldn’t hurt.