AC Milan failed to clinch all three points against Newcastle this evening despite a plethora of chances. Several players did well, while others struggled, and down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Maignan (5.5): It may sound harsh, but given that Newcastle didn’t have a shot on target when he was on, we have to judge him by his distribution. He missed several ‘easy’ passes this evening and the injury was just the icing on the cake.
Calabria (5.5): He struggled against his man on the right flank and was also booked for dissent, which is something you don’t want to see. Rightfully taken off after the first 45 minutes.
Thiaw (6.5): So much better from him tonight, winning almost all of the duels along with his colleague at the back. He also dared to drive forward with the ball which opened up a lot of space.
Tomori (6.5 – MOTM): He was full of energy after serving a suspension in the derby and looked very good from start to finish. He was always ahead of his man, so no complaints can be made.
Hernandez (6): The Frenchman had his moments while going forward but also lacked the final touch tonight, both with his crosses and shots. We know he can be more clinical.
Loftus-Cheek (5.5): Sure, he did win quite a few duels but he struggled to have an impact in the attacking phase. There was one sequence where could have set up Leao for a certain goal, but failed the easy cut-back pass.
Krunic (6.5): Very good in both phases from the Bosnian this evening, directing the play with purpose and also breaking the lines with his passing.
Pobega (6): A nice defensive shift from him, adding size to the midfield, and he wasn’t bad on the ball either.
Chukwueze (6): He had a somewhat rough start to the game but improved towards the end of the first half. In the second half, just as he was gathering some steam, he was taken off by Pioli.
Giroud (5.5): Yes, he had to do a lot of battling out there tonight, but he wasn’t always in the right position. Milan especially had a few good crosses at the near post and he wasn’t there to receive them.
Leao (5.5): A sliding doors moment with that chance in the first half, which he needed to convert after such a good run. The Milan fans were right to be frustrated with him tonight, as he also lost some balls.
Substitutes
Florenzi (6): His first action wasn’t great, taking a shot on the edge of the box, but his movement was good and he added a lot to the attack. The crosses might need some work, but a few of them were great (one perfect for Leao).
Reijnders (6): He offered some more solutions going forward compared to Pobega and had a few good moments. Just about a 6 for him though.
Pulisic (5.5): He wasn’t bold enough when it mattered, getting into good positions and then taking too much time.
Musah (6.5): The American was very impressive off the bench and really helped Milan make a final push in the game. He needs to get more playing time, perhaps starting against Verona at the weekend.
Sportiello (6): Saved Newcastle’s only shot on target and it was a good effort too. He will need to continue like that in case Maignan’s injury is serious.
rafa deserves a 1. hell, even that is generous
I knew pioli is the dumbest yet luckiest coach in the world.
But starting pobega in milan first match of ucl is just a new low.
He never looked comfortable with the ball and most of the time he killed milan’s momentum because of it.
How can he kept giroud for 90 minutes?
Because giroud is his talisman? His lucky charm?
No plan b at all.
I know milan wasted many chances at first half, but as a coach he should have done some changes during 60 minutes mark because clearly leao and giroud weren’t having their night.
There are two Bald coaches right now hated by the fans
Pioli and Eric T Hag
And who would you put in his place if you fired him
De zerbi would be a dream
Are you even watching our games??
Pobega did well, much better than Loftus.
Due to 2 injuries Pioli had no chance to take Giroud off the pitch.
ARE YOU watching the game?
Pobega never looked comfortable with the ball and he never made any link play with theo or leao.
Would have been different scoreline if reinjders started the game.
Pobega did good but miss sitter. Thiaw was OK, Tomori OK.
Florenzi did well, Sportielloa very well we didn’t had back up keeper and Florenzi last year.
Musah awesome and Chukwueze needs more courage and confidence.
Giroud should be substitute also Leao.
We can’t have Giroud and Leao 100 percent every game. Loftus was OK.
Krunic had good moment.
Lost 2 points means you can’t have luck every time. But everything depends about PSG, if they going to win Borussia and Newcastle and also if we win some points against PSG and we must win Borussia.
Most important thing is to gain momentum and experience this year and fight for Serie a.
This time next year we are going to be champions.
Not when pioli is still d coach
We can definitely qualify next round of UCL if Pioli is taken off right now
#BaldyPioliOut
Pobega (6): A nice defensive shift from him, adding size to the midfield, and he wasn’t bad on the ball either.
Whoever rated him must have been watching another match
A 6!? Haha he was terrible
Hahaha 😂😂😂 foh with that rating. 6? For what exactly???
For playing football. Some places rated him with a 7, have nothing to do with Milan or being “biased” like some clowns here claim. Did you consider the problem is your brain and being a clown? I would bet on it.
Funny how a clown is calling other people clown.
Anyone with normal set of eyes could see pobega was sub par.
His touches were horrible and he couldn’t link with theo / leao
Sure. And yet he got a 6 or better from EVERYONE. He is so popular everyone is pulling a rating for him and giving him more, right? From UK to Italy, everyone. 😀
Pobega was worse than RLC and Pulisic offered more thank Rafa otherwise no complaints with the ratings
Sure, RLC had 5 accurate passes in 72 minutes. LOL. You definitely rate people by their performance, not your opinion. :DDDD
We need to settle on a starting line-up
Leao—————-Giroud/Jovic—————Chucky
————Reijnders————-RLC———————
—Theo——Tomori———Thiaw———Florenzi
————————Maignan—————————
The tucking in of our full backs appears to fit Florenzi quite a bit.
…sorry and Krunic/Musah
Florenzi is miles above Calabria… that’s a fact.
This is true. That cross he delivered in to Leao’s head was something Calabria just cannot do.
Remember abate crosses tho?
I think Calabria is being respected because he represents the academy, other than that, on a balance of play, no way he’s better than Florenzi, I have been saying this for years.
Calabria may just have one to two months were he plays exceptionally well above his standard, and somehow it will cover for the numerous average performances. Welcome to Milan. #emotionalClub
when it comes to passes and crosses, florenzi trumps calabria… but when it comes to defending and 1 v 1 situations, calabria comes out on top.
Don’t forget that florenzi also played as a midfielder and a winger.
As stated above.
Chukweze was just steaming and he got subbed off. I felt so irritated.
Take off Leao for Pulisic, take off Giroud for Jovic and bring in Tijjani for Pobega.
Pioli is such a useless and clueless coach.
I’m fuming
Yes he should change Leao for Pulisic. And remove Giroud put Okafor. We could have more impact in left flank without Giroud and Leao.
Pioli don’t have more imagination.
HEI PIOLI WIN POSSESSION
Why is Pioli so obsessed with playing Giroud when you have Okafor and Jovic on the bench? Should have subbed off both Leao and Giroud for Okafor and Jovic. Even though Pioli knows RLC is injury prone, he still started him in every game, and now he got himself an injury, It is such a relief we have Sportiello and Musah in the team otherwise it would have been a disaster. Guys, we have to praise Tomori and Thiaw for such a good recovery after those abysmal performances. Also, Krunic and Theo have been our most consistent players for the season.
@Doki, thank you!!!
Wonder why Pioli decides to obsessively play certain players till exhaustion and injury when he has been given rotation depth.
He has Okafor, Jovic and Musah but will always play leao, giroud and RLC till burn out.
It’s not Leao thinking he is prime Suarez in finishing 😂Leao!!! I still maintain that Leao is a liability mostly for us, we either cash in and get serious players or get a coach who can manage these players into a team. RLC was decent in the defensive phase it was Krunic who was missing. Musa should be starting and Reijnders should replace Krunic.
I think the idea is to have a deep lying playmaker (Krunic/ Adli), supported by 2 very energetic mezzala midfielders (RLC/Musah); (TR/Tommy boy). We have the right depth to rotate effectively, it’s just that I this time I do not trust Pioli to have the right tactics and execution.
Well that was a boring match
Both teams were bad.
Milan mezzala’s and forwards were awful.
Newcastle confirmed my opinion about them. Frauds.
Can’t believe I’m saying it but 42 year old Florenzi was the best player on the pitch and he only played 45 minutes.
Pioli needs to rotate going into next match vs Verona.
n8, n9, n10 should sit on the bench. Start Musah instead of RLC, Pulisic instead of Leao and Okafor or Jovic instead of Giroud.
I could go on about Leao, but it’s like beating a dead horse. Plus his fanboys will get upset.
Also, don’t wanna hear anyone say that Milan shouldn’t sell Maignan. Don’t care how good he is, you can’t count on him to stay healthy. Man got injured standing by himself. Best ability is availability.
Pioli seat is getting hotter.
On to Verona.
Forza Milan
“Can’t believe I’m saying it but 42 year old Florenzi was the best player on the pitch and he only played 45 minutes.”
True. Best on the pitch by a huge margin too.
Pobega wasn’t doing all that bad, I meant we did DOMINATE the game with Pobega and Krunic ffs, Newcastle didn’t even have a single shot on target before late in the game; So, I don’t know why you are all hating so much on these guys. What more do you expect? They might not be the most glorious names in the footballing world but they did their job well enough tonight.
I think it was a good shift – BUT frustrating all the same. We didn’t score and Leao’s body language isn’t what expected from a leader and the one wearing #10. Not to mention that we lost 2 players too. We should’ve won by 3-4 goals at least, but it’s just wasn’t our day.
Man of the match was obviously Pope, but for our side it’s Tomori. Pleased with his performance tonight.
Pobega wasnt that bad and was unlucky not to score, however he is not the most creative player same as LTC. So playing with two big physical mezzalas kind of backfired on Pioli since the team lacked creativity from the mid. Almost as if Pioli set up his team with the small clubs mindset thinking more on not to concede rather than to score. Which is a shame since Newcastle was the easiest team in the group from which we should bag 6 points in totall.
I think that is the idea. He wanted more physical and athletic midfielders, not more creative.
Leao’s head is still on the 3-1 derby moment.
Glad that I saw less of inverted wing back nonsense in this match. But Pioli should really think about plan B, or even plan C or D on a single match. From the previous 5 matches, whether we’re winning or losing, the substitution was so predictable and identical.
And.. Leao just got the official MoTM. Just what???
Yes thank god he didn’t do alot of the inversion
Thought was just me but thanks for confirming 😁
And i agree as well, we need more options for attacking. Seems like we only found out urgency late towards the end of the game when it was stretched
Official MOTM has to be Pope. Leao??? Lol 😂
Chuk didn’t do jack sh*t. Complete lack of vision. Pobega was caught on wrong foot too many times. Leao had two sitters, then went and act like a spoiled brat for the rest of the game. Hernandez tried but got frustrated as game dragged on. Tomori was a beast today. Thiaw is a completely different player next to him. A lot more confident.
Newcastle on home turf, this was (at least on paper) the easiest match of the group. And they blew it.
Seriously. He can’t pass, can’t finish, but he can dribble a whole lot…
Chuk was the brightest player in the second half before Pioli took him off, you clown. Making dribbles, winning free-kicks, crossing balls. Taking him off was the dumbest decision of the night.
Like I said, a whole lot of dribbling that leads to nothing. Go back to your video games kid.
Agreed. We’ll see how he develops but I don’t see anything worth 30m rn.
You don’t know jack about football and it shows every time you leave a comment. Chuk was literally the best player on the pitch for the first 15 minutes of the second-half. You have no argument.
I guess if you are a child that is impressed by fancy dribbling that doesn’t lead to anything, yeah he was great. Let me know when he actually scores a goal or gets an assist, or contributes to a score in any way.
What dribbles? Everytime he got the ball he tried to dribble past three players but they closed him down with close to no effort. Many build up actions stopped at his feet.
I can see I was right about Krunic being the new Tonali on this site. He gets an extra point added to his rating every week. Several misplaced passes in the second half that could have led to goals. Pobega for Reijnders was idiotic. I’m not sure what Chuku brings. He is the equivalent of someone who talks a lot without really saying anything. A lot of dribbling that leads to nothing. Giroud could’ve been taken off in the seccond half. Otherwise a strong performance from Milan. Deserved a win.
What is deal with Maignan? You cannot give a big contract to a keeper that gets injured this often. And doing nothing he gets injured. It’s a problem.
You don’t understand anything about football, pal. ”Strong performance” You’re an idiot.
Yes, you foolish child. When you get 25 shots, 9 on goal and hold your opponent to 1 shot on goal in the 94th minute, that is a dominant performance. Wasteful but dominant. But you are just one of these idiots that just look at the final score and think they know how the game went. grow up kid.
Pioli 0, leao 1, suddenly tomori is our best cb again, whatever thuram did to thiaw
Krunic went from being our worst mid when we had Kessie and Tonali, to now being our best mid lol. That speaks volume. Can’t wait for Bennacer to be back. Also Pioli should man up and bench Leao when he is not performing. He has options now. For the game it was such a waste not to get the 3points since Newcastle is the weakest team in the group on paper. It wont get easier with Psg and Dortmund.
Leao is a talented player, but I strongly believe that he greatly overestimates his abilities on the field. His casual approach often leads to missed opportunities, and this has become a consistent issue. I can’t help but question the feedback mechanism within the coaching staff. This situation can’t persist any longer. Whenever the team is performing well, he tends to make costly mistakes. While he can make difficult plays seem effortless, he struggles with the fundamentals. That can only be pointed back at his attitude on field.
Not sure what the defence have to do to get a higher rating, they were solid throughout and had some good attacking players in their pocket. Showed that Tomori might make the odd mistake but boy did he make a difference in our ability to play high up the pitch safe in the knowledge the opposition couldn’t waltz in behind like Saturday.
Distribution from the centre backs was good on the whole, Florenzi I thought might be a weak point but he was solid.
Leao should sit out next match, Okafor should get the nod.
Leao needs a kick up the backside. That’s all I’m going to say after this game. He just doesn’t take things seriously. He’s devolving into Balotelli
Leao doesn’t deserve over a 3. Your star player shouldnt be playing like this. Theo was average and Calabria was bad. Two cb’s did well and loftus bullied tonali until he got injured. Chukwueze should not have come off. Giroud and leao should have been taken off. Musah and reijnders did well and maignan is starting to irritate me with these injuries out of nothing.
Hmmm Leao issue is for another day…he’s becoming a burden for Milan gradually. Hmmm
Pioli is a dumb coach…musah only got his chances because cheek is injured and tired. He is adamant to give new players chance except in a emergency. Musah had a good day today. Makes a mediocre players like krunic becomes an important player in a big club like Milan. Just imagine the position of krunic in a team like dortmund. Am just tired of this coach. And he can’t frustrate my love for my beloved club, I have been supporting the club before he came as a coach. #PioliOut must trend
#PioliOut
Pioli out! He’s such a bum!
I must admit got this wrong ,I said we would win this match ,,,I was also confident,Olivier Giroud would score ..
We should have won the match ,simple as that ..
To many seeking self glory when a final pass would have been a better option…We certainly should have scored at least one goal …We were the better team .
Rafeo leao ,,,a great player ,but why does he sometimes overdue things ..he lost a lot of possession by holding onto the ball too long ,instead of passing..
It’s one point ,but two lost .We are in a difficult group.
Man of the match tomori ,,superb his timing of runs perfect , and his tackling spot on ..Musah when he came on was another definite plus ..
Fact
What a wasted opportunity, a team new to CL and we have them at home after they have had a rough start to the season.
Mark my words, that is the easiest game we had in this group!
Leao thinks he’s Mbappe, he is not.
Giroud should not be starting at this level, especially with Okafor on the bench.
Now we also have 2 injuries to MM and RLC, bloody disaster.
MM is the most injury prone keeper I have ever seen.
This team always looks like chaos, please get a grip and have some composure
Start Musah….no, he started Slowbega 🤦♂️. Musah looked great. Puli have energy as he seemed to have had some rest now. Chuku will take some time but he did get more comfortable as the game went on which is a promising sign. Tomori also rested so he looked fresh and did well. There were a few times he used his pace to close down attacks which I don’t think Kjaer would have been able to. Best of the bunch at the back. Pioli really needs to rotate more heavily. Get the others involved (Inzaghi literally put Acerbi who had zero minutes this season into a derby smh) as fresh players give good energy.
On the other hand, Leao should have scored but one too many dribbles, as well as Giroud near post…that was either a flick or back heel tap to goal. Smh. There’s something about Leao’s ball control that needs to be improved. It seems he needs work on air to ground controls specifically. For a professional footballer, this is not good enough. I saw similar in the derby. Volley height balls seem to give him problems to bring under control.
We squandered 3 points here with tougher opponents to come based on what I’m seeing in the PSG -Dort game. Hope RLC is not injured badly but…. anyways won’t get into that. And I’m sorry Pobega was trash. Krunic was ok, he did well but also lost the ball which they failed to take advantage of.
And then we come to Mike. Who was that person who said I was crazy to think that Mike should have been sold instead of Tonali? He’d net us about the same if not more. He’s too injury prone for a GK sorry. And imo can be replaced. I also believe Sportiello is good enough. Get him fit , let him do well and then time to cash in afterwards
A bit too harsh on Pobega, let’s not forget he is meant to be a bench player. He is more than decent for a substitute player I think.
Totally agree though on your (brave in this comment field) comment on Mike. I also thought that instead of Tonali, either Mike or Tomori should have been sacrificed – always assuming we had to sell (that’s another story…)
I mean Mike a fantastic keeper, elite level. But he seems to be too fragile and more importantly, I agree he is easier (not easy though) replaced.
On this note, my choice would have been Tomori. He is English, he carries the overpricing, he would have brought easily more than 50m. Certainly less than Tonali but still enough to make a good mercato. Anyways, this is just theory now.
You are saying sell tomori even after inter Derby?
Or you must be inter fan than Milan.
He is best defender we have with pace and personality.
Kjaer is becoming old, so only thiaw and kalulu, new argentenian players are less than 22y old.
Tomori is future of Milan atleast for next 4years
@al8319 bro this is almost exactly what I thought about who we should have sold. And in that exact order. Prob Mike and Tomori best candidates to roll. And have someone better partner Thiaw. Not that Tomori isn’t good but has deficiencies as a CB.. Mike waaaay too injury prone and is an easier case for a sale. But we have what we have now. Still I maintain sell Mike in the summer
Was literally calling for RLC to be subbed, (so as to manage his work load). Pioli did not sub him off with his first set of subs, then boom! Injury.
Leave Chukueze on. Sub Leao and Giroud
Well, Pioli has proven time and again that he has no ability to read a game. Its like he has a game plan (setted from the start of the season) and HE WILL USE IT, dont matter whats happening.
Pioli have game plan from start. To win the possession
“Wasteful” is too kind a word for tonight. We had everything from poor decision making to outright stupidity in front of goal. Still, it was a good reaction after the derby. The attack and defense will sharpen up with time but I am very worried about the midfield. Krunic, who is a solid and reliable squad player, should not be our best midfielder. Reijnders and Loftus Cheek need to be a lot better than what we saw these last two games. I personally think we will have two new signings starting alongside Bennacer come January with the current midfield providing depth
they gave mike a 5.5. lol
That was a frustration rating because he’s injured yet again lol
Sportielli 6 who hardly touched the ball.
There should be no rating for him for playing last 15mins
What? He saved Milan the point with a great save.
Please they should sack this man alway from this club, he can’t handel this club as a hand coach again.
UEFA gave Leao MVP award. Did we miss something?
Fotmob had 9 players with higher ratings than him just from a statistical standpoint, smh. They could have chosen any of those. Pope literally kept Newcastle in the game. Easy MOTM. I just hope this is a sign that we’re finally paying off UEFA so we should make it out of the group now 😂
Leao was very dangerous and created many opportunities. His finishing like the rest of the team was off, but he did make Newcastle look foolish on many occasions.
Well Pope pocketed them all tonight.
That bad judgement in front of goal was brutal tonight. Leao got very frustrated and made some mistakes. I hope he’ll pick himself up. Pioli should have replaced rafa and giroud. Both need a rest. We have the depth now. No reason why a 37 year old player should play this much (internationaly and club lvl). I like musah coming on. I feel cheek’s injury will not be deeply missed, musah can do it. Shame that was the easiest game of the group. Hope we can pick up our game soon to advance in cl. Please pioli use our back ups more. Otherwise, those guys will dip in form, which is normal when they never get to play. Also, i see that we have hard time breaking defenses when they park the bus, same as last year and he still hasn’t figured it out. Hopefully this is the last season that i seen him as milan coach. Yes the players were mostly at fault for tonights tie, but pioli should have replaced misfiring players, maybe play 2 forwards to get those 3 points, something. Better luck next games i hope.
All our chances came from complete chaos. Mistakes made by Newcastle. How often did we see something that looked like organization or something tactical?
We had a lot of chances created, and came close to winning, but not from something practiced.
Pioli hopes his players can pull off individual brilliance which hides major flaws.
Pioli relies too heavily on certain players and that causes him to not sub them when they are playing poorly and other times to get injured. Both things happened tonight.
My other team is Arsenal. Watch them play and you’ll see how a good manager coaches.
We needed 3 points out of this winnable home game. We got 1.
Line-up against Verona:
—-Leao————Jovic————Chucky
———-Reijnders——RLC—————-
———————Musah——————–
Theo——–Tomori—-Thiaw—-Florenzi
——————-Sportiello——————–
Give Giroud, Pulisic, Calabria, Krunic and Maignan a break.
I insist: is Maignan made of crystal?! Because something like that isn’t possible, I’ve never seen a goalkeeper get injured so much in my life…
Still too much individual play and not enough teamwork. Leao trying to dribble the entire team. Theo trying to go end to end every time. Too much dribbling. Leao will shoot the ball from outside the box, but every time he is in the box he won’t shoot, tries to dribble into the goal. A good performance but wasteful in the end.
True. We rarely see those 1-2 triangle passes amongst our players. Maybe menagment thought it would be too much to replace pioli this summer after the departure of M&M and the arrival of many new players. Anyways, i hope better results and better performances will come. And next year get a new coach, pioli has reached his limits.
Can’t believe we didn’t get Singo when we had the chance to replace Calabria as a starter at RB….SMH. Now we have to rely on Florenzi? Lol.
Watching Taremi play today and man did we miss out. Huge mistake not to get another number 9. We played well but couldn’t score and that will likely come back to haunt us.
Pioli need to take out underperforming players even if they are his star players. Just look at leao casually strolling on the pitch as if nothing is at stake. Giroud sometimes is so annoying. Could have scored 3 goals alone in the first half. And what the hell was that shooting from distance all about. The coach have lost it all in his head
Missed opportunity in a really tough group.
The fundamentals were there. We again dominated and this time created some chances but they weren’t taken.
For that reason I’d give the majority of the players solid 6s and 7s but Leao and Giroud really let us down.
Leao’s attempted back heel was Balotelli-esque and had it been Balotelli he’d have probably been shot. Balotelli should be the warning for a player like Leao.
Giroud also showboats sometimes. There was a moment where he went for an overhead instead of simply heading it.
Great to see 25 year old Tomori play like a 23 year old Tomori. If he and Thiaw can maintain their form then they can form a defensive partnership for 5 years.
Florenzi was great. No idea why his crossing was criticised he put in a beauty to Leao who, again, missed.
Had Leao or Giroud taken any of their chances we could’ve secured the win. Unfortunately injuries denied Pioli the opportunity to the sub them (for those criticising Pioli you can only make 5 subs in football and I don’t think it would’ve been sensible to force Maignan and RLC to play with injuries).
And for those calling for Maignan to be sold – how about we wait to see how serious his injury is.
Looking at these comments it seems different fans want Maignan, Calabria, Krunic and Leao sold and Pioli sacked – what is the point?
Pulisic should’ve replaced leao not chuka when he was a constant threat. Okafor should have been given a chance when giroud wasn’t producing. We have the depth now and pioli should use it.
Agreed.
I had the exact same thought when he made that change. But you can also understand the reason to keep your best player on the pitch.
Just more evidence Pioli is obsolete.
Go and support someone else then.
That Giroud attempted bicycle kick drive me bonkers. Why would he do that when he had positioning on his defender and is good in the air. That’s a simple header. Do that stuff when we’re up 3-0 not when we’re looking for the goal 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
Wasn’t Maignan injured during national team duties?
These games should not be played during club seasons. It is ridiculous. It penalizes clubs who pay their wages and do not receive compensation from Fifa if their players are injured outside of competitions they are not involved in
It’s called injury insurance, every club has it and it means the club don’t pay during injury, the insurance does.
Yes, him and Theo were both training by themselves all week because they were hurt. Then, Deschamps still plays them the full 90 in a meaningless friendly against Germany. Now look where we are. I hope all you who defended Deschamps are happy.
Some of us still care about international football and care less about dirty, rotten, money.
Pioli STRUGGLES..!!!!!
Lack of strategy, too much pressure on the mainstay formation..
Pioli – 0
Please sack Pioli for God sake
The easiest games in the group will be against Dortmund. Dortmund are absolute trash, they cannot defend. They play in a crap league.
Let’s see how milan will play against that’s trash dortmund you said. Be humble you just been humiliated 5-1 in the derby and couldn’t take a foocking 3 points against newcastle despite having most on target shoots and possession
If Milan team pay attention to Curva
Get the banners Pioli out by Curva
With this tight schedule and lesson learned from Inter, Milan should go back to 4231.
(4): Calabria/Florenzi – Thiaw/Kjaer – Tomori/Kalulu – Theo/Bartesaghi
(2): Krunic/Reijnder – Musah/Pobega
(3): Pulisic/Chukwueze – RLC/Adli – Leao/Okafor
(1): Giroud/Jovic
I have to say I had such mixed emotions about the ovation for Tonali.
It was wonderful for the fans to show their love but equally tragic that a player that loved no longer plays for us.
And if we don’t have a Tonali really what is the point?
What is the point of supporting a football club if the players keep changing?
What is a football club?
A name? What’s in a name?
A location? Most fans don’t live in the location.
Particular colours? Really?
Its history? That’s in the past. And even still the club will sack legends on a moments notice (and I am not just talking about Maldini).
Surely the current players have to be a major factor since they’re the ones fans watch each week and cheer for.
And if they keep changing all that is left is:
– the name;
– the location;
– the colours; and
– the history (that we just shat on).
So what is the point?
What do Milan have to show for their 80m or whatever they got for Tonali?
Berlusconi was able to give us a love story regardless of financial aspect as he run it from his own pocket. I feel in love with this club more than 25 years ago since in our country Italian football was closest to us streaming on TV and I was a fan of Italy NT and AC Milan from 90’s as a kid.
Football itself changed, clubs are ran as modern companies, profit and marketing is above everything.
And that’s what I see Milan became – another generic company ready to erase the history if it meant high profit for owners. And it’s not only Milan, whole football world is becoming a generic platform for making high profits from sponsors, fashion etc.
Also players. No more attachments to club colors. They are highly paid influencers first, generic fashionistas and only then footballers. Sponsors bring in more money than football actually.
That is why Tonali’s departure hurt me so bad. He was a player with an old soul of AC Milan. The one from 90’s and 00’s. The one where Galliani locked Rino into locker room until he changed his mind of leaving in 2005. The one where Inzaghi secretly signed contract extention and then fired his agent for being greedy.
That’s my view and opinion.
I hear you.
But we also need to challenge the myth that football clubs are like businesses.
Football is a business – part of the entertainment business.
But football clubs are not run like businesses.
Virtually no football club is the primary source of income for their owners. The wealthiest clubs, particularly now, are an exercise in sports washing, sometimes washing away the crimes of some of the most brutal regimes on the planet.
Most clubs are losing a fortune. And most clubs are not run anything like a credible business.
Very few businesses ‘buys’ and “sells’ and ‘loans” its employees or assets to their competitors, and virtually no business would turnover 25-50% of their staff every few months or sack their CEOs or managers after a few weeks (let alone months or year) of bad results.
The myth that football clubs are ‘businesses’ normalises the insane transfer market that we have now because the media and fans believe that football is about buying and selling players rather than actually playing the game of football.
And this is what is destroying the modern football. And it also makes absolutely terrible business sense because fundamentally it’s making supporting football clubs pointless.
The Super League was a desperate attempt by the big European clubs to save themselves from insolvency. When it collapsed Agnelli said that football clubs were struggling because young fans don’t follow football clubs they follow players. Is it any surprise?
I have started to follow former Milan players. I now also follow Como because Cutrone plays there. I don’t care that he seems to have forgotten how to score – I love Cutrone. I love everything he represents and represented when he played for Milan.
But the other issue with this is that it’s just so short sighted. The teams that have done the best (on the pitch) in the past 20 yers of transfer chaos have been those teams that have shown restraint – mainly the top sides like Bayern, Juve, Barca, Real Madrid, Man City in recent years i.e. teams that have consistently won titles.
All of those teams have squads that have played together for years.
The BBC Juve defenders played hundreds of games together over 6-7 years. None of those defenders were ‘best evers’ by themselves but together they were one of the ‘best ever’ defensive partnerships.
And this is the thing that people just don’t get. It’s not about having a team of Galacticos. Look at PSG last season. It’s about having a TEAM. To win titles you need a talented, tightly woven and well managed team. But the talent for so many of these elite footballers is often not the challenge. Getting the right manager is key and the tightly woven part is the hardest.
The reason we are years behind these top teams is because we are in fact years behind them. Our players have not played together long enough and have years to catch up.
Leao is lazy, self sufficient, inconsistent. Not a big player
Theo…play one match very well and next ten mediocre…
Pioli has 2 strikers on the bench but he kept misfiring Giroud for 90minutes. He was flop against Inter and Pioli doesn’t want bring another striker. Okafor has expereince playing at CL as well.
Once again this game only showed Piolis tactical unawarness ..
Musah will bench RLC soon. And people flame Pobega. He is tactically more mature than Reijnders and doesn’t leave holes behind him. Reijnders just looks better with the ball, but he had the same effect in the end. Good game, a bit unlucky. Against PSG it will be way harder. Dembele, Mbappe, Kolo-Muani, french national team attack.
Pioli is the dumbest coach I have ever seen whole my life. Pioli looks back and change Fu…ing Krunich.
Giroud is 47 years old it’s time to change him time by time.
we missed a win!
I don’t get all the hate on here for Calabria (our captain) and Pobega and even Florenzi ??!!
Calabria was fine, just got booked for showing some passion, people need to show some respect, he has been solid for 10 years and always gives his all, he is our captain after all. Just because he doesn’t come from some shiny foreign land does not mean he should be disrespected constantly !!??
Pobega is solid and reliable if not flashy, it was his assist that led to Leao’s big chance where he fell over trying to back heel. Again seems people hate on him for very little reason, I don’t get it.
Florenzi, for all the abuse he gets produced the perfect cross for Leao to score, but he missed…..
Seems people on here really hate our Italians!!!
Why not try supporting and have some respect for our captain
“Why not try supporting and have some respect for our captain”
Maybe because hating is so much easier? They have all that angst that needs to be vented out. Pobega did his part and Florenzi was the best on the pitch for Milan. Like it or not. 😛
Him and Pobega will always be flamed. Even when they play better than new signings…