AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw against Atalanta this evening despite creating several good chances. Rafael Leao was the standout player, scoring the lovely opener, and below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
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 (6.5): He was very good with his distribution today and showed his class with a great save on Lookman towards the end. He couldn’t do much about the penalty either.
Florenzi (6.5): A very solid display from the veteran with contributions in both phases of the game. It’s understandable that Pioli took him off, given the tight schedule, but the feeling is also that Milan could have used his crosses towards the end.
Thiaw (6.5): Calm and composed from start to finish, not making any howlers this time out. Atalanta only had a few shots on target, which says a lot, and they struggled big time despite scoring so many goals in the last few rounds.
Gabbia (6.5): He was responsible for a very optimistic shot from outside the box, which wasn’t even close, but apart from that he was really solid once again. Won the ball back plenty of times and nothing changed even when Atalanta made their subs.
Hernandez (6): This rating might sound harsh, especially since he had one or two good runs at the end, but he was a bit too ‘flat’ when going forward today. He can do much more when arriving at speed and we saw little of that. But he was certainly decent.
Adli (7): One of his best displays of the season, without a doubt, having a clear impact on the game with bold passing, constant movement and some great interventions in defence. He was the only one (maybe Leao too) who attempted tough passes, not to mention his vertical passing which opened up Atalanta time after time.
Bennacer (5.5): Not the best of games from the Algerian, yet again, failing to find the right solutions even though his movement was decent. Even when he did end up in good crossing positions, he didn’t exactly shine either.
Pulisic (5.5): He nearly cost Milan a goal with a big mistake in the first half and also missed a great chance in the second. Sure, it was a great first touch to bring down Leao’s pass but you can demand much more from him there. With his quality, this is not good enough.
Loftus-Cheek (5.5): The Englishman had plenty of promising moments tonight but the end product was almost always the same: poor. Above all, he missed a great chance after Leao put it on a silver platter, failing to connect with the ball.
Leao (7.5 – MOTM): Finally, the goal drought in the league has come to an end, and what a goal that was! Simply stunning from the winger, who also deserved at least one assist after setting up both Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic (as mentioned). He was behind almost everything tonight and that goal is so important for him.
Giroud (5): He was often too late into the challenge and lost a few duels, which isn’t usually the case. Granted that the service wasn’t always the best, his positioning was a bit off and this made things difficult for his teammates. Then, of course, he also caused the (albeit questionable) penalty.
Substitutes
Calabria (5.5): Not enough impact in the attacking phase, despite getting into good positions on more than one occasion. Crossing is what Milan needed at the time and he failed to provide it.
Musah (6): Lively and always on the move, getting past his opponent with relative ease in most sequences. A good sub given how the game was going.
Okafor (5.5): He only had a few minutes on the pitch, of course, but had one or two chances to make a difference and he failed to do so.
The manager
Pioli (6.5): It’s hard to blame the manager here, really, as Milan dominated the game and only failed to clinch all three points due to a questionable penalty call. Not to mention that his players missed a few good chances tonight. Perhaps some of the changes could have come earlier, though.
