Milan failed to reclaim first place as Inter bagged three goals at San Siro earlier this afternoon. The game ended 3-0 and the Rossoneri will surely be disappointed. Down below are the player ratings.
Starting XI
Donnarumma (5): Made a couple good saves on two low driving shots by Lukaku and Perisic but ultimately could’ve definitely done better for the third goal getting beat at his near post.
Calabria (6): Both fullbacks had a lot of trouble with Inter overloading the flanks and forcing more space on the opposite sides which allowed for switches into 1v1s against the fullback. Calabria handled his flank decently well given that difficult task.
Kjaer (4): Lost Lautaro for the opening goal and just generally looked shaky all game, not either centerback’s finest performance.
Romagnoli (3): Had the unenviable task of man-marking Lukaku and simply wasn’t up to the matchup. Time and time again Lukaku received the ball with his back to Alessio and virtually sealed him off as he got time to pick out passes to runners as shown in the second goal. It’s an incredibly difficult task to stop but knowing that it was coming he had to do better against that consistent style of holdup play.
Hernandez (5): Once again the fullback was suffocated for space down the left and when he isn’t able to get a running head start his crossing leaves a lot to be desired. Had a chance for an equalizer late in the first half but scuffed it just wide.
Tonali (5): Mostly anonymous throughout the game but had a powerful shot saved by the stellar Handanovic, and also failed to bring down Hakimi in the buildup for Inter’s second when it was clear Hakimi would fashion a 4v2 matchup.
Kessie (5): Not the Ivorian’s best game but not entirely his fault either, the instructions were clearly for him to press high which conceded far too many 1v1s to Lukaku against our defense.
Saelemaekers (4.5): Offered nothing on either side, his usual role provides a significant amount of cover for Calabria but that was found to be wanting for much of this game.
Calhanoglu (5): Nowhere near what we’ve come to expect from the team’s best creative outlet, consistently lazy with his passes and frustratingly indecisive with his final ball especially in a first half chance that should’ve sent Rebic clear on goal but instead resulted in a goalkick.
Rebic (4): Not his type of game at all, as with Theo there was no space on the left which severely limited his pace and without his pace he was basically a lame duck for the entire game.
Ibrahimovic (5): Forced two great saves out of Handanovic right out of halftime but ultimately he had to do better to make them practically impossible to save for the keeper.
Substitutes
Meite (N/A): All the subs came on after Inter’s third goal with very little to really play for
Leao (N/A)
Castillejo (N/A)
It happened again, when romagnoli 1v1 against strong opponent. He failed. Should we trust him for the future games ???
Romagnoli has to go. This is ridiculous. The worst defender in Milan history. No progression what so ever. Kjaer and Gabbia played really good together. There is a reason we were on a good run. Romagnoli were not playing.
Pioli has to go it time now to move forward!
Rom should be the next to go he is old slow and out of his league in Acm seria A
This result spells the end of a good run not a Great run!
To think that Ramagnoli want a pay increase?
Pioli played silly defence with a Kjaer coming back from injury out of form Romagnoli?
Then not playing Tomori and Gabbia or Kullu ?
STUPID!
dissatisfying result and performance. the performance against spezia should have been alarming. but then again, this.
i think pioli need to revise the team strategy. other already adapt to milan style of play. so an evolution is needed. maybe nothing radical. but a change is definitely needed.
like how milan reliant on left wing too much? or the flank that lately often been flooded by opponent? a somewhat slow transition play? lack of lethal finishing? also romagnolli as cemented first choice defender?
Romagnoli and Kjaer were terrible for sure and deserve blame (especially Romagnoli as he’s had several bad games in a row). But IMO the larger part of the onus falls on Pioli for not understanding the CB’s he has.
He has to stop leaving them stranded with a high line and with Theo who is never back at LB. If high line is what he wants, then yes Romagnoli needs to go. Or he could just not play this ridiculous high line against counter attacking teams and we’d be fine. Funny how people criticize Conte for never changing his formation but not Pioli when it’s so damn obvious against teams that have quick counter attacks and stack up the midfield.
Well said
Gabbia and Kjaer/Tomori should be 1st choice at CB….they locked Inter out in October….we were at our best without Romagnoli….I also think opponents have mastered our 4-2-3-1 Pioli never changes it…when Ibra was out we had a liquid 4-3-3 with Leao,Rebic and Saelamaekers that….worked…..If we lose to Roma..next week(Highly likely)..we won’t make the UCL….if we don’t Pioli should be fired….he has made questionable decisions like leaving Hauge out of the UEL squad…Olzer,Hauge,Maldini and Brahim ain’t getting the game time they need to improve…Also why don’t we ay a high press like Atalanta..our team is young enough to go aggressive….this team is very talented….Pioli isn’t fully exploiting that talent…e.g a midfield 3 of Tonali, Kessie and Bennacer would be great with front 3 of Hauge,Leao and Maldini…. it’s unacceptable for Inter to be better than us…when we have more attacking talent in our squad….We need a coach who isn’t scared and has a high intensity style….and a new stadium…we don’t share with Inter.
Mie na mang volg ding mang jere.
Does Pioli still think Tomori wouldn’t be good against Lukaku??? Lol. Romagnoli horrible. Lukaku owns him. Roma is neither physical nor fast so what the heck is he doing out there? He’s an old fashioned CB and the modern game built on speed is seemingly passing him by. Horrific. Calabria has to communicate w Kajer on that first goal. Kessie all by himself in midfield. Not unexpected – Tonali not ready needs more time but Miete starting wouldn’t have done any better. We missed Benacer desperately. Aside from the first 10min of second half we lacked creativity going forward. I hope Maldini knows what he’s doing if he’s going to spend big $$ resigning Roma, Hakan and Calabria to lucrative new contracts…Thauvin cannot sign fast enough. Love Salesmakers effort but let’s be honest at best he’s a backup to come on last 20min for energy. Same with Calabria IMO. Better wake up for next game must hold on to top 3 finish!
Can’t knock Calabria, he’s been one of our top 3 players all season, deserving starter 100%. Very, very unfair to say anything less. Tomori and Gabbia should get more time so we know what we need at seasons end and can evaluate properly. Also Romagnoli is not old school that’s an insult to players like maldini nesta etc. He’s just bad at playing a high line so if we keep that style he has to go.
I agree , , Tomori would have done a better job. Tonali wasn’t bad either as compared to Cahanoglu and Rebic . it seems these two can’t perform against big teams. they were a disturbance for the whole game
A really poor display. Romagnoli should be sold. He isn’t good. I trust Kalulu or Gabbia more then I trust him to do the job.
I kinder knew that they will loose track with Inter. They didn’t bought good players in the winter transfer. They needed 2 or 3 player in top level to get the scudetto. And not some cheap players to gamble on. And now they have thrown a good opportunity to finnish first away. I hope they will not get destroyed now and slip further away and out of top 4.
5 defeats already in 2021 shows Pioli is too rigid.Why do we still play a 4-2-3-1 when it’s clear everybody has figured us out….Also why are our too slowest CBs playing when Lukaku is out there(Tomori and Gabbia should be our best pairing for the future)😭…Dzeko will beat us next week and we still have to play Lazio,Juve and Atalanta away…I don’t see us keeping a UCL place…also why are Meite,Samu and Krunic getting minutes ahead of talented youngsters Hauge,Brahim and Maldini….Pioli is losing the plot….if we miss top 4…his job may be on the line.
Great point on the subs. Why are Krunic, Meite, and Samu getting minutes over the youngsters. I also don’t understand… especially when we played v. Crotone and were up a ton he still didn’t try the youngsters, it’s just not bright from Pioli. He’s done well overall but now is when he has to show if he’s a good manager or not. He knows his players and it’s his job to put them in a position to succeed.
Romagnoli was not up to expectations. The team lacks a solid defence when under pressure. A creative play maker will make the difference!
I called it. Should have been Tomori instead of Kjaer as he’s too slow. Kjaer was the slower of the two CBs today and it showed. Almost all of the goals were due to Kjaer but I see the ratings crew couldnt help but stick it to Romagnoli whenever they can. Most ppl here so far down the Romagnoli bashing wagon they failed to realize Kjaer had a worse game
1st goal, he lets a shorter Lautaro out jump him on a jumpable ball for all his aerial ability he (Kjaer) suppose to have. Theo is to blame too as he was slow coming back and Kessie didn’t make the right cover in time. Romag originally got beaten for pace but so would Kjaer let’s not fool ourselves.
Second goal. Why is Kjaer covering the man Calabria is already covering on the overloaded side of a counter? Kjaer fails to mark the man he’s supposed to mark (Lautaro again) and results in a goal. Saelemakers is also culpable here as he needed to continue his covering run and Calabria and Kjaer were out numbered.
Third goal: that was just a sublime finish by Lukaku. If u noticed, inexplicably Kjaer was told to man mark Lautaro in the second half. This led to Lautaro pulling Kjaer further up the field since that half started. Initially Romag did well in the beginning of second half to clear from the space at the back this was creating. But on the third created a 1v1 and we have no answer physically for Lukaku. Pace wise Tomori would have kept up but he might have struggled with the physique of Lukaku. At this point we were chasing the game, this goal was of less importance than the other two.
But yea, Romagnoli was the problem today(SARC)
Romagnoli and Kjaer were terrible but people need to stop the scapegoating. Romagnoli is not the cause of everything. He doesn’t work well in this high line press style of play BUUUUT you must remember him and Kjaer played in leg 1 and won 2-1 and looked good, and Roma and Tomori played in the coppa loss and also looked good. A big difference is Theo was nowhere to be found today so the left was made to be covered by ONLY Romagnoli who is not fast so you can’t expect that from him. Bad game yes but this is on Pioli. How he doesn’t understand the players he has yet is beyond me.
Totally agree with you here. What gets me on this message board is the automatic blame assigned to Romagnoli once we lose a game. It’s as if no one else is to blame.
They were both terrible. And yes Pioli got.ot so wrong. I couldn’t understand how he could have chosen the two slowest CBs in the squad vs such a dynamic forward line.
Also people Tomori is not the end all be all godsend. Before we even had him we were playing amazing with what we had and we were clear top of the table. He is promising and it’s a nice new characteristic to have in our defense and I’m pulling for him to do well! But it’s not the reason we lost and have been doing bad. The main reasons are team mindset/confidence, poor tactics/lineups, and refusal to adapt to our oppoments from Pioli, as well as lots of players returning from injury and not on form.
I agree again here although I think we should redeem him based on his reading of the game, also his pace helps in that aspect. I only agree as well to the extent of squad selection as I really would have like to see what that outcome would have been had we had some at the back in central positions.
You really don’t knkw anyrhing , ro magnolia caused kjaer to be out of position because Kjaer was ball watching for romagnoli . Flopmagnolj caused us three goals dont be delusional like pioli . Pioli is as good as assistant coach or mentor or team manager he has no business managing a game. Bonera seems like a better coach
Respectfully, I disagree. By that logic then Theo caused the goal and u should be blaming him as he caused Romag to be out of position by leaving too much space. Anyways, Kjaer is the covering CB for anything that goes wrong on Romagnoli and vice versa. Like in start of the second half Romag was covering many times Kjaer who was far too high up the field marking Lautaro. So Kjaer on the first goal did what be was supposed to do in covering. The full back then covers CB if u play any type football. Once the play was reset he needed to pick up his original man which he failed to do. You guys make it out like if it had been Kjaer he would have kept pace with Lukaku. He wouldn’t have as well and Lukaku sprinting away from him would have probably looked worst tbh.
On the second goal there is a sreenshot online showing each player was marking their man except Kjaer who once again failed to pick up Lautaro.
I’m not anti-Kjaer or pro-Romag but u guys really need to stop blindly assign blame to one player. If anything THAT is being delusional. Look, Romag handball in the Europa was terrible and was the worst of the two defenders on that night but that’s called being honest. And if u think Bonera is a better coach than Pioli then have a great day sir!
After watching the first half I felt disappointed in Romagnoli cause if Lukaku hasn’t beat in in the run the first goal won’t have occurred…why not make use of Tomori instead of using our so called captain
Romagnoli is our problem in this team and hakan does not have consistency
Don’t blame kjaer I think Romagnioli should be sold the guy is thrash even while icardi was there he always gets the better of him in derbies management should have gone for Benatia or maybe Jerome Boateng
Well, thats an absolute trash performance.. Tired of romagnoli mistake and theo play such a suso with the dribble he failed at most time its became dangerous counter attack..
The coach got it wrong on Rebic, Cahanoglu, and the captain. Cahanoglu was disturbing the movement of Calabria for the entire game , Rebic was blocking Hernandes , , in facthe was manmarking Henandes. I wonder how they got the nod ahead of Leao. These two were not deserving to start. Cahanoglu and the captain are very good when playing small teams. The sooner the coach realise that the better. Gabbia and Tomori are the way to go
Theo was blocked by Rebic. when Theo was moving forward Rebic was not opening space by increasing numbers in the box, instead he moved wide making it easier for Inter to mark both. Calabria and Theo were marked by Cahanoglu and Rebic