Milan players after Juve clash

Player Ratings: AC Milan 0-0 Juventus – No grinta as individuals struggle

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

AC Milan failed to win the must-win clash against Juventus after an extremely lacklustre display underneath the San Siro floodlights. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri, with more or less all of them struggling big time. 

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.

Starting XI

Maignan (6): He wasn’t forced to any tough saves, as Juve only had two shots on target, but did okay all things considered anyway. There were a couple of misplaced passes but also some good ones, so he gets a pass here.

Emerson Royal (5): The Brazilian was beaten far too many times and was even forced to take a yellow card, and a free-kick in a dangerous position, on one occasion. In addition to this, he didn’t add anything when going forward and lost all of the 50-50 duels.

Gabbia (5.5): In terms of his defensive duties, it wasn’t horrible by any means and that was helped by Juve’s unwillingness to attack the space. That being said, he wasn’t bold enough with his passing and that hurt Milan quite a lot.

Thiaw (5.5): The German had a great block at the start of the second half, but also a very poor moment in possession which could have proved costly. In any case, just like Gabbia, the biggest issue was his lack of bold and vertical passes to the midfielders in space.

Hernandez (5.5): For a player of his calibre, even if he had one or two good runs forward, we can demand a lot more. He did do okay defensively today, so there’s that, but this game was the perfect opportunity to burst forward (or at least stretch the Juve defence) and he didn’t do that enough.

Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders
Photo by AC Milan

Fofana (6): He won back the ball several times, in a couple of complicated situations as well, and at least tried to make something happen in the first phase of the attack. He was often free in between the Juve attack and midfield, but rarely got the ball.

Reijnders (5): Definitely one of his worst games with the Milan shirt. He did find the right space on some occasions, but the decisive pass was always misplaced by him tonight. He also skied a free-kick from a good position after Theo laid it off. Then again, the worst part was his passing in the decisive moments.

Musah (5.5): It was a good defensive display by the American and frankly, it was needed given how Emerson Royal struggled. In attack, however, he played way too many hit-and-hope passes (above all crosses) with no real destination.

Loftus-Cheek (5.5): He was rather invisible for most of the game and only attempted his trademark run on a couple of occasions. With the game being the way it was, we would have needed a lot more of that from him to break through.

Leao (5.5): Some good moments, but no end product. He deserves praise for trying but it was not a continuation of his recent positive. Nothing was flowing, though, so maybe more of a collective issue overall.

Morata (5): He worked hard, but there were too many dives from him tonight, which is getting quite frustrating to see. The referees are not falling for it either. Furthermore, he fouled the Juve players several times, while having little to no impact inside the Bianconeri’s penalty box.

Substitutes

Pulisic (6): Things did pick up a bit with him on the pitch and he at least tried to find a way through, but to no avail in the end.

Calabria (5.5): He didn’t look at all convincing with some misplaced passes and questionable positioning in both phases.

Chukwueze (5.5): The winger didn’t have much to work with, we get that, but he had some really poor passes except for the last one which was decent. Still, not an impact sub.

Pavlovic (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.

Tags AC Milan AC Milan Player Ratings Juventus

74 Comments

    1. Honestly these rankings could have been better, overall the team was very solid, but they should have been more direct, and he should have brought on Abraham for Morata despite the fact he was very good with his work rate, immediately he changed Musa and Royale you could see the vulnerability on the right, honestly Calabria has no business been in this team, it would have been better to bring in Terraciano and Okafor, they are more direct and powerful than the 2 that entered.

  1. Utterly useless performance. Constant side and back passes no fast breaks allowing Juve to dam the defense. They did well to stifle us.

    Fonseca’s plan was useless. Not even sure what it was. Juve was always toothless upfront and instead of hitting them with pace Milan did… nothing really.

    Questionable lineups with RLC Musah both starting. Too defensive. Why?

    1. It depends on the coefficient at season end. Italian teams will have to advance deep in the three European tournaments (Champions, Europa, Conference) and do that better than other leagues; we need to be one of the two best coefficients for us to get the fifth spot again.

  2. Here in my city the local club used to set up matches for a draw like this – No goal scoring moves, no danger whatsoever, a big absolute ZERO….just saying…

    1. To be fair I would have been far more entertained watching my local team from the second best league in Denmark than watching this atrocity of a performance.

  3. I don’t agree with this rating. Yes the match was boring, Juve was kind of playing -ve football.

    The only player that I had a problem was Morata. He seems to have forgotten what a striker is supposed to do on the pitch and spent all his time winning tackles and losing the ball.

  4. A performance to put you to sleep. No imagination no creativity…the team is just not evolving…our right hand side was totally ineffective. Should have started with Chuck, Musah just did not do it for me. RLC has completely dropped of the radar, time to shore things up if we are to keep up with the leading pack.

  5. The most boring game of the year and probably the decade.
    What was that 442 nonsense from Fonseca?
    Both teams should lose a point instead of getting one.

  6. I’m glad that I only got to watch the 2nd half. Fofana and Pulisic(when he came on) looked like the only competent players on the pitch. Nothing flowed well at all. And what’s with the full screen ads here? If this keeps up I’m just gonna stop coming to this site.

      1. God. I’d hate to have seen how it was in the last week. Your site drove me to start using an ad blocker several weeks ago. It was almost unusable.
        Now I don’t see any ads at all.
        Not sure what that does for your revenue but you brought it on yourselves by tacking the p!$$.

  7. SMH. The team and the coach get a collective 4 for having no drive, no ambition, no urgency. We looked like we were the ones who were ahead on the table and not needing a result while playing at home against a handicapped Juve. Our first and only shot on goal happened at 94 minutes which tells it all.

    Maignan, nothing to do, clean sheet so he gets a pass. 6

    Emerson, terrible, was eaten alive, did very little that was right (did improve a bit in second half). 4.5

    Thiaw and Gabbia, not bad but not good. 5.5 for each.

    Theo, defensively better than in previous games but absent in offense; 5.5

    Fofana, MOTM among Milan players which wasn’t that hard because the others were so weak. But he did try hard, recovered a lot of balls, had a decent attempt that went high. Only Milan player who did better than just a pass so 6.5

    Reijnders, a pale shadow of his previous brilliant performances. 5

    RLC, did he even play? Nowhere to be seen. 4.5

    Musah gets a pass, showed effort; unlike what the rater here said, some crosses were decent but nobody took advantage of them. 6

    Rafa, tried hard, actually helped the defense but was ineffective in offense; 5.5

    Morata, diving, fouling, nothing positive. 4.5

    Subs

    Puli tried but didn’t accomplish anything. 5.5

    Chuk, same as Puli. 5.5

    Calabria, it showed that he is coming back from long inactivity. 5

    Pavlovic no rating

    Fonseca, 4. Can’t he read that some players weren’t contributing? Could have tried Abraham given that Morata wasn’t doing anything. A banged-up Puli is still better than RLC, maybe Puli should have been brought in sooner. The lack of ambition feels like it was coming from the head coach who didn’t even say that this was a must-win game.

    Juventus and Motta, nothing to write home about either although they have the excuse of missing several players.

    Boring, low quality game by both teams (for different reasons).

    1. Because Emerson and Calabria are such huge liabilities that Musah needs to play defense and he does that better than Chuk. Without Musah helping Emerson we concede at least two goals.

    2. Bcos Musa is a far better player both technically, tactically and defensively, did you bother to notice immediately Musa and Emerson came off for Chukwueze and Calabria, our right side became vulnerable…

  8. I expect nothing more when juve is the opponent. They play anti football for the past 5years and I always know when we play the expect a boring game with no shots. That’s why they haven’t lost in serie a, not because they’re a great team. 11 behind the ball at all times, happy with the tie at all times and if they get anything more even better.

  9. Scores are pretty fair, we looked completely lifeless and out of ideas in attack. Some positives in defense, and the final score is not that bad, but we basically didn’t have a single proper chance. Maybe the international break can also be blamed, but what a terrible showcase of Italian football’s most classical game.

      1. True. Still koopmeiners was essentially neutralized, and even Emerson took control of his side in the second half. But it was a terrible game overall, no doubt

    1. How did our right side become vulnerable?

      Calabria was the first player to actually tackled Yıldız.

      People just making stuff up about the club captain. Bizarre.

  10. Wonder what was wrong with Pulisic. Sure could’ve used a healthy starting Pulisic. Ik he didn’t have any shots, but his ability in small spaces was evident in his cameo, the team was sloppy in possession and he could of helped that, also an extra creative outlet

    1. Jamaica spent 180 minutes doing their best to kick him and, on occasion, assault him, during the international break. He’s probably bruised from his ankles to his back.

      If you haven’t watched a few CONCACAF competitive matches, it’s truly hard to believe what the referees allow. The only European comparison would be lower level Scottish Football, and even their referees would blush if they watched a CONCACAF official at work. The World Wrestling Federation had better referees.

      1. Yvan- Yes, CONCACAF is a league that allows for hacking players and cheap shots. I always hope the USMNT players get out without an injury.

  11. yes, it was hard to watch, but we played against a team that didnt lose any league games yet, so i cant agree with all the negativity here (just Morata had way too many bad touches that cost us some oportunities already in the making). its still a point in one of the harder fixtures.

    the tough part of the season is done now. the remaining calendar is much in our favor (very good mix of hard games followed by easy and important followed by unimportant, etc.) and i strongly believe that we can still enjoy a nice winning streak.

  12. we do worse against small teams, after great performances against good team. this was not a great performance, wo we’ll be fine against Empoli 😀

  13. Boring match of the season probably.
    0% creativity
    This team need a leader, someone to dictate the play. Some random use less passing.

    RLC and Royal should never start.

  14. Fonseca has become so afraid of the defensive vulnerability that he fielded the Madrid formation against a Juventus side that had no attackers. I guess his supposed “plan” worked, since Musah was effectively helping the always struggling Emerson, but more should’ve been done about the attack. For starters, the changes should’ve been made sooner. It’s not like Juve changed in the second half and became more dangerous. If Puli wasn’t 100% ready, then Chuck was a valid option. We were so toothless on the right without a dribbler. All they had to do was shut our left lane, with Theo and Rafa always being met by two or three opponents, and our hopes of scoring or even creating a clear opportunity vanished. Abraham remaining on the bench, but Pavlovic coming off was even weirder. I remember it was Fonseca who wanted Abraham in the team, now it’s like he detests both him and Jovic. Morata was probably our worst player along with Royal, he should’ve subbed him off. All in all, the center forward issue is deepening with each passing game. Morata gives his all and I guess him dropping back is a good tactical asset in some instances, but he’s not doing what he’s supposed to do. Remember that disallowed goal against Napoli? He should be involved in that manner at least two or three times per game, much like Giroud, despite receiving strange criticism.

    Our scudetto hopes (if we even had any) were shattered long time ago, so it’s hardly the worst result in the world. However, we should start winning against teams like Slovan and Empoli. That won’t happen with Morata playing as an additional midfielder, Musah being our right winger for additional defensive certainty that our RBs can’t guarantee ever, and Fonseca making substitutions in the 70th minute.

    1. Yes, LoftusCheeks was useless. It would have been a lot more movement with Pulisic on the pitch. I hope Fonseca saw the difference.

  15. Well RLC was not the worst Milan player on the pitch which is ok for him. He ghosted until end of the first half before making a brilliant run then attempted a couple more of those in the second half, one of which after struggling to get past an opponent he then tried to simply get rid of the guy by openly pushing him from the back with all the frustration and strength in his arms. Comical. He just can’t dribble.

    The only time I’d see Reijnders tho was when he stood over a set piece before kinda smiling and then wasting it. Did absolutely nothing.

    Morata too was really bad, well he’s been bad to me almost ever. Don’t know what guys praising him sees in him. He only presses hard which I can do, some playmaking, diving a lot and complaining.

    Whatsoever Fonseca tried with setting the team like that, to play like that, must be careful studied to avoid being repeated this season or I’ll lose it. That was utter rubbish.

  16. Well that was a frustrating watch.
    Agree that Fofana was our best player.

    It was a real wasted opportunity though.
    Playing a well below strength Juve. They has no strikers and very little depth on the bench.
    Why did we pick such a defensive line-up?

    Musah did ok and was energetic. But the combo on the right of he and Royal offers very little going forward.
    Thought Leao tried hard. He was playing centrally a lot with the tactics being used. Not his strength.

    RLC was anonymous in the first half. But was not playing as a CAM at any point. It was like he and Fofana were pivots and Rjeinders was roaming. Mostly on the left.
    We were putting all the talent on the left and neglecting the right.

    Fonseca gets a 3.
    Line up was too defensive.
    Tactics didn’t work.
    Then he was way to slow changing subs.
    The 3 late changes really didn’t have time to make an impact.
    When Pulisic came on he played centrally as a midfielder and Musah stayed on the right for another almost 20 mins.
    Why did Morata stay on all game.

    1. “Tactics didn’t work.”

      In my eyes Fonseca’s tactic worked perfectly. He still thinks he’s coaching Lille and was aiming for a 0-0 instead of trying to win Juve. At home. I bet he was popping champagne after getting his dream result yesterday. Fng awful. I bet he even instructed the players to stop every attack to minimize the risk of Juve countering. Good old “scared little girl” tactic from beginning till the end.

  17. I thought Musah had a decent game- protected Emerson well. Chuck when he came on was terrible. Dribbling and losing the ball and his crosses going up into the stands. I didn’t want to see anymore of that. RLC didn’t do much. Leao was OK, but didn’t have space to work with.

  18. What did you see when Chuck came in that gave you any hope? He was terrible. He is OK against teams when their defense is not structured- against a good defensive team like today he loses the ball dribbling and his crosses were Sunday league quality at best.

    1. Our only shot on goal came in the 94-th minute after his cross for Theo. Besides, he came on ten minutes earlier, it’s a bit unfair to judge him. He did not make the best of two semi-promising attacks (horrible cross straight to goal kick and miscommunication with Calabria), but he brought dynamism to a right flank that was creatively subpar, to put it mildly. Musah did his defensive duties, but was useless going forward where his crosses looked like passes for Juve’s defenders. Not only was Fonseca’s late subs an obvious mistake, but they were also indicative of his approach to not lose the game instead of winning it.

  19. Musah has potential. Emerson needs to be benched. Calabria, although not good either, was better when he came on. RLC doesn’t seem to do anything important ever! A shame Pulisic was to beat up from the break. The attack looked pathetic.

  20. Really a boring match, a big match feels like a friendly match. Both team affraid and failed on doing something. A waste of 90 minutes for the fans

  21. Yawn.

    We played defense.

    Our CB’s struggled a big without a striker as a focal plint.

    We saw Emerson get abused by anyone on Juve’s left. We saw him blow nearly every offensive move that ran through him. I think I saw other players avoiding giving him the ball in the 2nd half.

    We saw Musah, Fofana and Gabbia cover for Royal.

    It’s time to bring back Calabria in the minimum until we are able to find whatever it is we think we need out there. It is not Emerson. Nice guy, below average player. Calabria is at least average and the effort he gives for his love of the shirt makes him above average.

    Pulisic is clearly our Talisman.

    Leao was a 6. He pressed better than I have seen him do before. His movement off the ball was consistent thorugh the game.

    Chuk was horrible. I’ve been so hopeful after some solid starts, but Motta clearly coached his guys to stay on his left. I am pretty sure he never touched the ball with his right foot the whole time he was on the field.

    Fonzy disappointed me today. He waited too long with the subs. Abraham should have come in to replace Morata and Okafur should have replaced Rafa.

    In the end we got a point from Juve. We didn’t lose ground. Let’s take this defense forward and build on it.

    But for the love of Milan, please use the bench better coach.

  22. What a disappointment! It was boring, and some of the players were far below the standard of Series A. Four newcomers, Emerson Royal, Morata, Abraham and Pavlovic, are a complete flop and hopeless. January, they should leave and be replaced by decent ones. What happened to Jovic??? The writing is on the wall, and with the current performance the team will end up mezza classifica!! Act now to avoid further disappointments.

    1. “Four newcomers, Emerson Royal, Morata, Abraham and Pavlovic, are a complete flop and hopeless.”

      Instead of improving the decent squad from last year they’ve managed to weaken the team considerably this summer. Like people say about Fonseca: you get what you paid for. Although that’s not completely true either as for 17M€ on Emerson and another on Pavlovic you are getting sh*t… None of them are worth 2M€.

      And also reminding once again… The ones responsible for buying Emerson should be sacked and beaten. ASAP. His value will never rise. He brings nothing on the table. No one will pay a single dime for him. So why did pay 17M€ for him? For future profit?????? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 GTFO!!! 😀 😀 😀

  23. “The ones responsible for buying Emerson should be sacked and beaten”

    I’m still rather furious after last nights performance so I’ll go a step further, sacked and pelted with stones 😛 Hell I’ll even throw one or two of them.

    I saw FC Midtjyllands away match against Slovan Bratislava that send the Danes out of the cl qualification after leading the match and fixture up until the last few minutes of the match and if we play as we did yesterday then I think there is a fair possibility that we wont win on Tuesday.

    It’s not more than a few days ago that Moncada said that we hired Fonseca as we wanted to play in a certain way and always dominate at home but I’ve rarely seen us play as lousy and toothless as we did yesterday and that includes the entire banter era considering the crop of players we had at our disposal back then and of all the remaining 35 years I’ve supported the club.

    A few years ago I was considering moving to Milano and even looked at some apartments but glad I never took the leap and moved and I’m actually seriously starting to consider taking a break from this team as it’s starting to become a waste of my time and constantly ruins my mood.

      1. Keep your support martin. Your mood can be ruined, but that the sacriface for this trophyless cardinale milan.

        Something that don’t kill you will make you strong. This trophyless cardinale milan can make your mentality strong. Face it, be patience.

        1. Well I’ll always support the club in spirit but whether I’ll keep watching the matches might be a different matter as I’m already dealing with a lot of stuff in my life with a family member being ill and bound to die and to put this bs on top of it doesn’t really help my mood to any extent. I’ll probably give it a couple of matches more and then call it quits for the season if they can’t muster anything better.

    1. I hear ya Martin.

      Its hard to have so much wasted time and mood affected. My wife said i should take a break, she’s not wrong.
      Its getting harder to find the game too, my subscription has been terrible for showing Milan games.

      I’m generally disillusioned with the direction of the club. There is less and less I can identify with as Milan since these owners took over. They removed the heart and soul from the club.

      How much did we spend in summer to get 1 good player, fofana.
      Its beyond a joke now.

      I hope fans protest in Milan and stop going to games.

      1. Well knowing our local fans then they wont protest as they’ll just shut up as a clam or write some silly self entitled bs where I actually would like to see them starting a riot.

        I still think Pavlovic can come good with a bit of time but yes i agree the mercato wasn’t exactly bringing much joy from my point of view either.

    2. Han.g in there buddy. I don’t think it’s as bad as banter era. That was the only time that I skipped matches and it’s heartbreaking as a real fan to do that. Banter memories are almost ptsd. It was a truly atrocious period. However what they are doing currently is so bad. The decisions are terrible but at least I don’t mind getting up at 6am to see the players we have in the team. Remember…. Mesbah,.constant etc those were some times

      1. Well my intention wasn’t really to imply that we was as bad as back then but at least in the banter era with far inferior squads they at least fought for us even if they technically was inadequate to do a great job. Nowadays we have a superior squad compared to that era but our players seems to believe that they can show up when it fits themselves and therefore the performance Saturday evening stands as bad in my view as the banter era they could and shoud have done a far better job.

        1. I agree that this specific match was banter era quality and that says alot. It’s quite worrying we can regress to that level in a game. Let’s hope it’s a one off

  24. On a personal level this was a fantastic performance. I had trouble sleeping for some time now and kept waking up in the middle of the night and finding it hard to fall back alseep. Well, this game fixed all of that. Not only have I never fell asleep that fast but also I stayed asleep. Had to finish watching this morning with copious amounts of coffee. Congrats boys! You did it 😁. Well done

    1. Thats great you benefitted from the snooze fest.

      I watched Old heart Rossonero take on the game. It was funny, he was grateful anyone would watch a report on that “match”

  25. Acmilan did very well infact they perform very well they played their best games and to cram it up Acmilan new are now adapting to the system

  26. The coach who says we didn’t take risks in attack is the same coach who fielded a defensive lineup with Musah and RLC????? LOLOLOLO

    Comical.

    We should sign Fonseca to a 10 year extension! He the perfect coach for Redbird: below average; doesn’t ask for transfers; doesn’t question management or ownership, shuts his mouth about lack of talent; blames the players for loses instead of accepting any accountability; blames tactics in Italy as a reason we cannot perform like we do in Europe as an excuse when he loses; loves the free Puma gear; alienate our star players; practically gets every tactic wrong then again, blames the players; continues to start the same player over and over (Emerson) despite him being the worse on the pitch; couldn’t see the talent he already had in Kalulu or Maldini or Adli etc….…..what more could you want in a leader??

    Sign this man for the next 10 years pls – and TY Gerry!!!!

    Wonderful!

    1. Oh ya and I forgot – has never won anything of any significance (Ukrainian league doesn’t count gents) – so he doesn’t know how to win titles and cannot pass that experience down to the players – so no threat of ever winning a title – cause, you know that would cost Redbird $$$ – and we cannot have that!!! so we are good!

      FORZA FONSECA!!!!!!🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

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