AC Milan got knocked out of the Coppa Italia, with the trophy now out of sight, following a 2-1 defeat against Atalanta at San Siro. Despite taking the lead, the Rossoneri failed to succeed and below are the player ratings.
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 couldn’t do much about either goal and he made a couple of good stops during that second half. But it wasn’t exactly a lively game for him despite conceding twice.
Calabria (6): One could argue that his positioning was far from great on the first goal, but that was more so a collective collapse (and a few other individual mistakes). The captain actually did well on the ball and also made a crucial block at the end of the first half.
Gabbia (6.5): Really good from the Primavera product, always breathing down the neck of his man and winning the ball back with strength several times. It was a shame that he had to come off, because he had done very well up until that point.
Hernandez (6): A nice assist after a trademark run down the left-hand side, but the feeling is that he could have caused Atalanta even more trouble. Of course, playing at centre-back, he was quite limited in his movement. When Pioli did put him on the flank, he missed a good chance to level the game.
Jimenez (5): It was a nightmare for the youngster, first losing duel easily in the build-up to the first goal (it was the start of everything). He then caused the penalty and regardless of the referee’s decision, there is no doubt that it was poor defending. He got beat and tried to make a last-ditch recovery, which rarely works. Hopefully, this will be a good lesson for the youngster.
Musah (5): His positioning was inexplicable on the first goal, marking absolutely no one, when Koopmeiners was his man to mark. He didn’t have much success in possession either, apart from maybe one or two shots (but he also missed quite a few). Not the performance he was hoping for.
Reijnders (6): The Dutchman had a great hand in the first goal, composing himself under pressure before passing it straight to Leao. He certainly seems to know how to start a dangerous attack, but he could have done much better in the second half. Most likely, he was a bit tired which is understandable given that he always plays.
Pulisic (5.5): He had a very lively and positive start to the first half, showcasing his skills, but we just didn’t see enough of this in the second half. Not to mention that his delivery in the final third wasn’t good at all, which is not what we are used to seeing from him. As one of the stars of this team, eh must do better.
Loftus-Cheek (5.5): Although he used his strength on a couple of occasions, he didn’t do it enough and also failed in the decisive moments. A night to forget for him, after what had been a positive outing against Empoli.
Leao (6.5 – MOTM): He gets the award simply because that goal was brilliant. We have seen the winger miss chances before this season but that finish was spot on, and he also had some good moments after the goal. Although he lost some 1v1s, he at least succeeded with quite a few and perhaps should have had an assist when he set up Theo.
Jovic (5.5): It was a tough evening for the Serbian, who couldn’t follow up on the Cagliari success. He had a couple of good touches and flicks, but he was ultimately let down by his technique this evening. Just not in sync with his teammates either.
Substitutes
Kjaer (5.5): He looked a bit sluggish in his positioning and didn’t work with the same ‘freshness’ in his legs. He was probably never meant to feature tonight, in fairness, and Gabbia most likely would have done a better job had he stayed on.
Simic (6): Showed off his strength in a couple of duels and did what was needed from him really. He also got that header which could have resulted in a penalty, with a potential handball at the end.
Terracciano (6): It was a strange position for him, we feel, but he at least did a decent job of cleaning up and winning the ball back.
Giroud (5.5): Virtually no impact on the game. It’s not a 5, though, because he didn’t get the service from his teammates either.
Adli (5.5): Some of his crosses looked threatening but ultimately, they didn’t lead to anything and with two strikers on the pitch, Milan needed more from the No.7.
The manager
Pioli (5.5): We get it, the Coppa Italia was never a priority for Milan this season. And we are not even referring to the substitutions, which can all be justified more or less, but rather the formation change after the second goal. The Rossoneri had done well up until that point, so there was no real need for what looked like a 3-4-3 of sorts. It just didn’t make sense.
Pioli Botched CL Coppa Italia and Serie A and he got 117 m maldini got 80m and brought Scudetto nice management
sounds racist
Maldini a coach ? Why compare coach with director?
Jovic was so invisible that he didn’t even get a rating – rightfully so.
That’s a mistake haha, but added now!
How could Adli a rating of 5.5? Makes not sense. He got the ball moving with the limited time he had. Unfair assessment
Agree
No Jovic? I don’t blame you for not noticing he was on the pitch.
Honestly, there was no need to change the formation, but if you are going to use wingbacks, Theo should be one and put a proper CB in there. How many guys are we going to play out of position and not expect mistakes to happen?
Jovic was invisible but honestly, the strikers on this team get no service.
This guy is harsh on Pulisic with the ratings. He can’t be decisive every game, but his workrate was still there and he did force a tough save by the keeper which was one of the few good dangerous chances this team created.
Finally, how does VAR not even send the ref to look at that handball on the monitor? It clearly hit his elbow and his arm is away from the body. What is the point of VAR if they are going to screw up just as much?
Playing left back as centre back.
Playing right back as left back.
Playing right back as left back.
When they simply can be fielded on their natural position. Kiss. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Golden trio Furlani-Moncada-Pioli strikes again…fantastic management this season you clowns…😆😆😆
#ClowndinaleOut
One of those games we lost to Pioli’s tinkering. His starting system was weird, his subs made it even worse. Milan had no chance after he introduced Terraciano and Simic for a weird formation and already down a goal.
Musa as a wing-back has never worked before and didn’t this time either, yet he insisted until the last second. Musa already cost us points against Lecce I think playing there.
I’m tired of seeing him get one or two games right and then one very wrong.
All that being said, the Jimenez challenge was never a penalty imo. Ref, or rather VAR, messed up big time.
Pioli musn’t ever play Musah out wide ever again. He is totally useless out there. He’s pretty useless wherever he plays tbh
Tell me you’ve never watched a full match without actually saying it😂😂
Don’t agree. Poor assessment of the player.
He doesn’t have a system, although James Hornby would disagree. Systems are consistent. There is nothing consistent about how we play from game to game. And “Pass to Leao, DAI DAI DAI” isn’t a strategy.
Great subs and set-up Pioli. Genius…
Useless coach
It was gabbia injured ?? Woww…
The coach deserves minus 5.5.
This exit is solely on him.
Milan was getting some consistency over the last few weeks and this genius decides to change the formation and play everyone out of position.
You have 4 healthy CB why is Theo still playing as a CB?
Musah as a wingback.
I would say I feel sorry for the players that they have to put up with this coach, but they had the opportunity to get rid of him and chose not to.
From the players I’d like to single out Leao. Nice finish on the goal, but more importantly his effort. He didn’t give up until the end. He was trying to win until the last whistle.
The clown coach burned out his best players and still lost the game because he thinks that he could outsmart Gasperini.
Management needs to wake up. Put Bonera in charge until the end of the season. Anyone but this current fool.
June can’t come soon enough.
Well, let’s not forget Leao had Calabria in on goal and couldn’t execute a simple pass. Should have been a goal. These things are the difference between winning and losing. That’s not on the coach. Neither are terrible VAR decisions.
Leao wasn’t great in the game by any means. He made mistakes like everyone else. The whole team was out of sort because of the formation.
But his effort wasn’t lacking. He is usually the first to give up, but that wasn’t the case today.
It’s weird that you have to praise your supposed best player for not giving up, but that’s the state we are with our supposed best player.
Finally you recognize Leao’s fighting spirit…nice one Z.
It’s almost, almost as if, winning against sitting ducks means nothing when faced against a half-decent opposition.
On Pioli’s tactics, I had a hard time understanding the team’s shape today and frankly I think nobody, not even pioli did actually know.
What’s the point of having one of the best lefbacks in the world (Theo) if it’s to start him as a centerback while we had 3 centerbacks available and use a kid who is clearly not ready as a leftback ? Does Pioli has a grudge against Simic ?
The common sense prescibes having Calabria as rightback, Theo as a leftback and Simic-Gabbia or Simic-Kjaer as the centerback duo.
I didn’t understand if Musah was a wingback or a midfielder today, in either case he was bad.
Reijnders seems again to be doing well against small teams, but then dissapears when the opposition steps up. Is it overuse ? Is it his true level ? I don’t know.
Loftus-Cheek seems to be more and more like a fraud.
For the forwards, I understand they weren’t delievered with good balls, but their displays was pretty bad.
The subbed players seemed to add a little life to a fading and frustrated side, but again, they were brought on too late.
So in a nutshell, we out of the scudetto race, of the coppa Italia, Europa League is out of reach and even a fourth place might be a tall task.
So… how long do have to keep Pioli ?
A little overboard on the negativity. How is the Europa League out of reach exactly? ANd we are pretty solidly in 3rd place right now, so how is 4th going to be a tall task?
It’s not surprising that players have a tougher time against tougher teams than against poor teams, that’s kind of how it works. They weren’t great, but they played well enough to win, if a few small things go there way. We got screwed on at least one penalty no call, and possibly the penalty against Jiminez. We also shouldve had another goal if Leao could have made a simple pass to put Calabria in on goal. Against tougher teams, which Atalanta is, these little things can make the difference.
“How is the Europa League out of reach exactly? ”
In Europa League, there is Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool and Atalanta among our opponents. Frankly I don’t see how we can beat any of those 3 teams.
“ANd we are pretty solidly in 3rd place right now, so how is 4th going to be a tall task?”
I said “might” The team seems to be doing worse and worse each game, the confidence is plummeting and giving our injury history, who knows ?
Loftus-cheek is a scam, Chelsea scam Milan with this guy after all we had scammed them with Tomori, Giroud and Pulisic. Only a good viewers can see that Loftus-cheek is a big time fraud. My question is why always starting him at AM …. did anyone noticed that he is the only player who hasn’t really won a clean ball back without a foul on opponents. I hope it will not be too late to sell him.
Not surprised by the Leao rating but wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a 4.5 either. He meant well, decent effort and fine goal but was very wasteful in possession giving away the ball regularly while also making poor crosses/passes often over hitting them. I would argue that he should have done better and would highlight tripping over the ball when on the break in the opponent’s area as a (funny – had we not lost the match) example.
You’re right, it was very difficult to assess him tonight. He definitely can do more, but maybe what he did was enough for two goals
I heard in the TV commentary that Musah is looking to transfer out. Fine. I think he gets overplayed when more deserving players should be fielded. He’s versatile, but still raw and certainly not in a position to pout about his playing time or role.
I think they were talking about Musso not Musah
They definitely were. I heard the same commentary and they were talking about the Atalanta goalkeeper, not the Milan midfielder.
With the exception of a few matches, the midfield trio of Reijnders, Musah, and RLC hasn’t worked all season and didn’t work against Atalanta in the league. That being said, I still found the switch to a 3-4-3 strange tonight.
We are back to square one. Another real test, another defeat. Some individual positives but we are not a team and it all comes down to a dysfunctional midfield. As a unit, these players are incompatible, not to mention their individual shortcomings. I’ve been saying it since the Inter match; Bennacer is the only one worthy of starting. The others are bench material with Reijnders the best of the bunch.
Serie A and Coppa Italia gone but top four and Europa League still there to fight for. A proper attacking midfielder and a proper defensive midfielder are needed. If we’re lucky, we’ll find them in the Primavera. Otherwise, big signings are needed.
I saw that tackle from Jimenez and smiled…. I like him alot. He’s so full of confidence. That PK was a lesson for him….An experience player wouldn’t mark like that except Theo and Adli…Their sense of marking is poor, but Theo is improving though😂 I would never have subbed off Jimenez has that might’ve damaged his confidence more than the penalty conceded.
I’ll accept the defeat. Let’s move on❤️🖤
As long as musah is on the pitch we will lose … this player is so bad I cant understand why he is playing football … pioli Loves him soooo much for some reason … and what the hell is the match today .. who plays where and what and what the hell is going on ! This game just shows how bad pioli is as a manager … sack him … throw Musah and florenzi(i know injured but man thats a relief)
What I don’t understand is this “Leão not enough” on the title and then, MOTM. Not enough, how? He scored our goal, dammit! If not for the collective defensive failure (definitely not Leão’s fault) and not for Jimenez screwing up (again, not Leão’s fault) we’d have won 1-0. What’s with all the criticism regarding Leão? He is obviously back in form lately, and he scored a gorgeous goal. I agree with Leão MOTM but I don’t agree with the title “Leão not enough.” It seems like whatever Leão does, some people are never satisfied. He is a forward. His task is to score goals and assists. He scored a goal. He produced crosses/passes that would have been assists if his companions had been more clinical. Leão did do enough. It’s his companions who didn’t.
Puiisic: had a spectacular shot that went on target and close to the post; it would have been the equalizer if Atalanta’s goalie hadn’t pulled off a miracle. This was not mentioned by the rater, here. Puli is another player who is often quiet, then scores. That should have been a goal if not for the merit of the goalie.
About Primavera guys: people keep asking for them to start. They are kids. They are not experienced. They make bad mistakes. They can help with depth in an injury crisis situation but today you had an example of why kids are not yet first team material. Jimenez was extremely naïve in trying again to rescue that duel, resulting in the PK that delivered the win to Atalanta. It’s not the first time a young guy does something like this. There is a reason why senior players are paid to be the first team players. It’s called experience.
I don’t think you understood the context of the statement “Leao not enough”. It was likely in reference to his goal not being enough to win it and not a comment on a poor individual performance.
That said, as my above comment mentioned for all the good he did today, he was also responsible for many negative displays. I appreciated his intensity and effort in this match but he was very wasteful and inaccurate aside from the goal. His crossing/passing in particular were very poor. For a player who is paid handsomely for his offensive contribution the bar needs to be held high because we all know he contributes almost nothing defensively.
You’re probably right on both points you made.
Your nickname suits the comment perfectly here.
At least Leao kept trying tonight.
We just never looked dangerous really. A lot of tired legs in midfield and attack.
Jimenez played well, I feel sorry for him.
The better team won
Well is one way to put it.
His stats tonight:
18/24 (75%) Accurate passes
1 (0) Crosses (acc.)
2 (1) Long balls (acc.)
1 Shots blocked
3 (0) Dribble attempts (succ.)
7 (0) Ground duels (won)
3 (1) Aerial duels (won)
15 Possession lost
1 Fouls
Jimenez played like a donkey tonight. I thought he was Saelemaekers for a minute. I see his potential and why not try him out during Coppa, at worse he played like he did and at best he keeps delevoping. TBH, I wish Pioli would have played Bartesaghi because he is one of ours and not Madrid own. Pioli tried to many tricks tonight and lost his money to them.
If Pioli had opted to play Bartesaghi instead of Jimenez, Milan probably would have won it. Bartesaghi is so much calmer and wouldn’t have made such a reckless tackle inside the box. And also the first goal probably wouldn’t have come if Bartesaghi was on the ball instead of Jimenez.
Not that I care too much about the coppa italia. BUT to say that it was never a priority is wrong. Milan are out of the scudetto race pretty much and have been knocked out of champions league, o Ya trying to win some silverware would have been nice. Pioli did try to win as he deployed his starters, it was his tactics yet again that lost us the game.
The last month of positive results was just masked by poor teams. I’m not trying to always look at the negatives but it’s the truth.
When is pioli going to learn? Well, never. Once again a 4 3 3 and whether it changes to a 4 2 3 1 or not on paper it’s a 4 3 3 and not a natural 4 2 3 1 and it hurts us so much. I continue to stress how can you play loftus in an attacking mid role. He is not made for that role and we suffer so bad cause of it. Then switch to 3 4 3 that we’ve barely used and when we do three at the back it almost certainly fails.
He’s going to continue damaging this team. The only good thing is that every team below us in the table has been so poor. Serie a this year is weak besides the two top teams.
Once again de ketelaere bullied.
It’s the midfield that let us down today. L-C and Reijnders weren’t good. Musah did well in first half but not in second half. Jovic couldn’t do anything; not his fault, he wasn’t getting any service from the midfield.
Oh well, maybe it’s for the best. We have enough injuries. We’d have two more games against Fiorentina, plus the final if we advanced, plus the Supercopa games (different format with more games this year) and then we’d have more injuries and more difficulty keeping up with the top four in Serie A. Certainly I wanted a trophy but if we get top 4 and a deep Europa League run, it will be a decent season, in the midst of such a bad injury crisis.
Can’t even go 90 minutes without an injury. There’s too many for it to be one thing. Bad training, bad load management, bad field and bad conditioning probably a little bad luck sprinkled in there too
Gabbia’s injury was a concussion. He got kicked in the head in that exchange. Nothing to do with what you’re saying although it is true that we have a huge number of muscle injuries which is not acceptable but this one wasn’t one.
Bad boot.
Damn it.
For those calling for Pioli to be sacked we haven’t won this stupid cup since 2003.
I’ve no idea why this competition is so hard for us.
Hopefully Mourinho gets sacked before Pioli and Conte can go and ruin Roma.
“Hopefully Mourinho gets sacked before Pioli and Conte can go and ruin Roma.” One thing you’ve said that I 100% agree with. Bravo.
How many more defeats are the Roma owners going to accept!
I agree with your sentiment as well. I do not want to see Conte in charge and it would be disastrous. just think how much squad upheaval Conte would demand if he were to take charge.
Pioli defenders were trying to tell us yesterday that Pioli picked inter to win the scudetto because he was playing mind games.
You have to have a mind to play mind games.
Fire him already.
Enough of him
It was nice to see that Gabbia seems to have benefited from his loan at Villarreal as he came back better; had a very good game until his injury. This is encouraging.
Consensus in multiple venues is that Atalanta’s PK shouldn’t have been awarded. Jimenez got the ball first. Again refs make decisions against us. Stats show that Milan gets unfavorable wrong refereeing decisions much more often than Juve. I saw an article a couple of months back showing a positive balance of 30 decisions in favor of Juve while we are deep into the negative. Juve being Italy’s most popular team, I bet many refs are Juventini. I don’t want to look like a conspiracy theorist but stats do show this trend. It’s a fact. The reason why is my speculation but facts are facts.
Not a good game by anyone, starting with the coach. I only want to highlight Terraciano did quite well for his first game with no training, while Musah was awful.
At least many of the youngsters got some valuable time. Onto securing 3rd place and doing something in the UEL.
Musah was good in first half for most of the time. Bad in second half and did fail in Atalanta’s first goal but it was a collective failure.
I will repeat it here, why is a Madrid player getting a look before ours? This would be a perfect match to play Davide Bartesaghi. He is more steady and understands the game better than Jimenez.
We have this fascination with underestimating our own players, ie CDK/Brahim. Then we end up empty handed with our players never getting chances to develop.
I’d rather loose giving our lads a chance than do the same with another team’s asset.
This is another game where all the money we spent on our midfield shows why it was a terrible decision to sign those players. When the going gets tough, none of them ever performed, when they do, it isn’t consistently.
Hodge podge management gets you a hodge podge, unsynchronized team.
“I will repeat it here, why is a Madrid player getting a look before ours? ” Spot on! We spent money on a midfield that probably isn’t going to produce until a couple years out from now. If they really thought u can just change the most important area of the team completely and instantly get results then they’re even more brain dead that I first thought
“I will repeat it here, why is a Madrid player getting a look before ours? ” Spot on! We spent money on a midfield that probably isn’t going to produce until a couple years out from now. ”
Well… You might care, Furlani might care, but… The coach doesn’t. They never do. Nor they should. The coach thinks first who are available and then who are the best options for each role. That’s it. He makes the decisions based on those things and not try to be a fortune-teller. It’s not their task to think who owns who and when does the contracts end for this or that. They play who the coach think are the best options on each matchday.
Well said
“I will repeat it here, why is a Madrid player getting a look before ours? ”
That’s easy and very, VERY logical. Because the coaches usually choose the players he think are the best choice for each match from the available players. They never – nor they never should – choose their players based on who owns the player or for which team he’ll play in the future. The coaches only care about the fact that they are available NOW.
And for Pioli this is even more true as even he knows that he will not be coaching the team next season so why the **** should he care or think about which of the options will be Milan players next season? He only wants to win the match TODAY and not worry about next season.
Your reply is very logical.
But shouldn’t the management try to convince Pioli to not rely too much on Jimenez ?
I think it’s safe to say that, given the intention of selling him this winter, the management convinced Pioli to not rely on Krunic anymore who went from being “the most important player for Pioli” to “not good enough”.
Maybe they should but coaches NEVER like it when the management interferes with their decisions. Berlusconi did that and none of the coaches liked it (at all). But then again… Who cares if that would hurt Pioli’s feelings as he’s got only (max) 5 months left.
PioLOL should join Fenerbache with his idol Lord Krunic, and management should buy Koopmeiners to fill very needed DM on the field
Koop is not a good DM. He’s so much better when allowed to go forward and an excellent player overall but not good at pure DM.
Same like Kessie who isn’t pure DM but he works at DM and also scored some goals.
So for 44 minutes we were the better team. Then Atalanta scored an instant reply to Leao’s (well taken) goal, and the side just seemed to get flustered. No real ideas after the break, and once we were chasing it was just too much. Like others here have pointed out, I think the starting defense should have been Theo-Simic-Kjaer-Calabria. Nevertheless, the squad put out by Pioli was almost the strongest we could field at the moment. Going by this and the player’s reactions after the final whistle, I find it hard to believe that they “didn’t care” about this competition. It’s Pioli and his dumb@ss ideas that lost us this game again. The attack down the left hand side strategy worked in the first half, with the classic Theo to Leao for the goal, but after that something else was needed.
We’re missing creativity in the middle, RLC is not cutting it. And sorry, it’s not going to be Adli. When Bennacer returns I think it should be him and Musah as the double pivot and Reijnders higher. He doesn’t have his shooting boots on, but he can pass and we need to be unlocking our attackers with through balls, instead of forcing them to run 30 yards trying to dribble through the defense.
Their goal at the end of the first half knocked us off our perch
This team seems to have lost something called “mental fortitude”. We do well in games where the opposition doesn’t score or just barely reduces the gap. If however, we get equalized or we have to chase the difference, aside from few exceptions, we lose. The players become nervous, frustrated and whatever plan gets thrown from the window.
Now on the tactical aspect, it seems like we played a 4-2-3-1 but at the same time a 3-4-3 ?, with Musah like a wingback (and he really isn’t good there) and Calabria as a third CB I think ?
Yes we did align our best players in the midfield, but not in their strongest, RLC is clearly not a creative midfielder (he was bought as a central midfielder in a 4-3-3 system) and Musah can’t play on the side.
In the end, the midfield neither provided good balls for the attack, or good occasions, and neither provided support for the defense.
Sorry but Musah has no business to be a starter. He was definitely the worst on the pitch – by miles. Has he ever played well for Milan?
Personally, I don’t care. Pioli should have fielded all primavera players for all I care. Jimenez needs to develop and be allowed to make mistakes.
Its Coppa. Who cares?! I’m glad we are out – the whole thing is a hindrance. Need to focus on Roma, the league and EL. Period.
The kids are alright. We are firmly in third. And need to make most of EL.
I think people are caring because we have a lot of new players in the dressing room and we still don’t have an identity and many supporters want to know what kind of squad do we really have. I like you don’t really see losing in Coppa as a huge negative but some bemoan that it is a loss and they want to see a consistent run of form, even if its a cup match.
You’re right. I don’t care about the coppa italia but the fact is pioli tried to win the game by playing his strongest team and once again failed. It’s a worrying sign that we never got out of that slump, we were just playing poor opponents. Still to this date haven’t played an excellent game and he continues to play formations we should never be playing
Do people STILL think we don’t need a striker because we have Jovic??? LOL. Musah plays like a chicken with his head cut off – very very raw. Has a lot to learn. 20M for a backup?? Yikes Georgio, yikes. Lucky we hold on to 4th.
You would think that people who have been yelling “BENCH GIROUD! GIROUD IS OLD AND SUCKS. JOVIC IS A GOD!!” would be quiet for a few days but I’m sure they will start demanding that Jovic starts again against Roma on Sunday…. 🙂
And Musah… Wow… Has he even once played a decent game in Milan? Yesterday’s performance was the worst of them all. Made me almost miss Urby Emanuelsson and Kevin Constant.
Well, while Musah did have a bad game yesterday, i would like to defend him a little bit. He just turned 21 and needs some direction and consistency from the coach. Seems like every time he plays Pioli has him playing in a different role. RB one time, now wingback. That’s definitely not helping him. He gives everything when he is out there and has an endless motor. With some direction and some more experience I think he can be a valuable player.
Maybe. But ATM he hasn’t been useful at all. At least there is a lot of room for improvement. That’s for sure. 🙂
Am I the only one who feel that we played reasonably well with this 3-4-3? I only saw 2 issues which is Musah struggling badly at RM and our left side is defensively vulnerable.
Perhaps we can play Jimenez on the RM? Since Calabria and Pulisic are on that side and better in defending.
On the left, we can let Theo and Terracciano interchange.
HA HAAAAAA. Lol wow where to begin
Jimi at the start looked lively but poor at the same time. If Calabria made those same mistakes he’d be crucified but because it’s new kid he got the “new player” and “youth” pass as evidenced by his extremely generous rating of 5. It should be waaay less. Holm was schooling Jiminez while game but Calabria who had two brilliant tackles and a header out at the end of the first half barely gets a pass. His rating should be higher. Those were clear goal saving tackles and as usual doesn’t get credit.
Second half, Jimi had horrendous passing and made me realize why Primavera and first team Serie A are two different things. And then the penalty was all green and naivety. What Did I say about Jiminez positioning and defending from the last game? and someone else commented that if it was a bigger team he’d get smoked… which was exactly what happened smh. Plus on Atalanta’s first goal both him and Theo were caught upfield….after we’ve scored? At a research? Why are they up there? The nerve to even try to call out Calabria on the first goal smh when both the left sided CB and left back were nowhere to be found smh.
And sorry what were we talking about the other day? PK saves over footwork? Lol 😂
I get people love their Primavera / youths but they’re Primavera for a reason and this is a big club with massive expectations. That stuff gets swept under the rug if you’re maybe Lecce but this is big time.
Puli and RLC looked ok early on. The starting tactics weren’t bad, it was the change later on in the game that did us in.
We had the better passing and creation but they had the better open chances..
CDK is interesting with almost two assists. He has something, just needs personality . CDK also got the hockey assist in the goal. That was great by him. Poor defending by Milan. Happy for him.
Gabbia was great until that collision which was unlucky. Sick assist from Theo. Almost telepathic with Leao. But otherwise,.I thought Pioli could have pushed him up earlier. Terraciano HAS undoubtedly got to be the golden child. First player I’ve ever seen that DIDN’T need a phase in period for Pioli’s tactics 🤭
The switch to a 3 at the back caused major confusion and slowed the game down tremendously. Holm and Miranchuk in the second half man marked either Leao, Terra or Theo once the ball got to their side. Was very interesting to watch. It basically nullified our whole system.
Never seen a guy that can lose the ball and immediately get it back like Musah. So make what u want of that. Also guy can’t shoot to save his life. We bought a bunch of poor shooting mids last summer. What a shame! Golden boy Adli came on to win the match though. Not gonna say anything there. I must say Jovic headers once he gets ball are incredibly accurate.
So many predictions here and elsewhere had a clear Milan victory when Atalanta had us this season. I couldn’t understand it..ppl say I’m pessimistic but I come down critical when we win vs small teams and uplift to them when we lose. Its called clarity and how to keep a level head. And here I am thinking we’d make semis of Copa in a weaker side of the bracket but I did expect this was our only trophy to be won this season. Oh well, let’s consolidate 3rd because we know we treat Europa like Copa…we don’t really care that much
Jimenez need time to growth but RM will buy back him after he develop, better not help RM develop player anymore after Brahim case. Better sign Juan Miranda free rather than develop jimenez . Puli & Tiji i think ACM best signing this season , the others just average player( atleast until this half season , maybe they will develop next season ) . CB are ACM real problem , using Theo as CB limiting his talent & skill , ACM need starter CB that ready to play and no need adaptation. The coach must take responsibility too , fielding player not in their natural position, changing formation each match. I hope De zerbi or Italiano replace pioli at the end of season
Ok first off I agree we shouldn’t be developing other team’s players. Its Diaz pt 2. Jiminez has decent offensive skills. His defence lacks (even after the Empoli game we saw this). Barts is better defensively by far but it’s also not saying much. Milan is not a place for young players to be afforded time to grow. The blame is put on him for this loss basically. That’s not the right environment. The demands are too high.
Puli is great this season and is having his best year. Tiji is a bit above average, nice passing but that’s really about it.
I am not sure a poor performance by one Primavera player in one match in one tournament that we have not won since 2003 should mean we have to wait until players are in their mid-20s to give them a chance.
The bigger question for me is at what point did Milan get distracted by Jimenez (and now Terracciano and whoever else we decide to sign) and give up on Bartesaghi.
When did things change between the decision to:
– give Bartesaghi a trial as a kid when he was presumably one of the best of his generation;
– keep him at every level up to Primavera;
– promote him to the first team in the summer and give him opportunities in the first team;
– keep him in the first team squad at the beginning of the season;
– get to the Copa Italia and an opportunity to give him some games,
and then OH LOOK A SQUIRREL.
My children have better focus.
And this gets repeated over and over again.
Oh and then one mistake and their career is finished.
No other sport does this.
“I am not sure a poor performance by one Primavera player in one match in one tournament that we have not won since 2003 should mean we have to wait until players are in their mid-20s to give them a chance.”
I think your paragraph resumes a big problem is serie A right now. Wasn’t it Allegri who said that players should be in their mid 20s to give them playtime with a big team, because before that they’re too green ?
Many Italian teams are culprit of under-using their youth and Milan is no exception. I think this is one of reason of a generally very poor italian national team recently.
Now regarding the players, I have no problems using Terracciano since we bought him, it’s Jimenez who will go back to Madrid anyways that bother me.
Facts!
Lol cant believe Allegri said that especially given now that he has no choice but to utilize Juve youth players, makes it ironic. It boils down to club culture too. Remember the Frattesis, Barellas etc typically come from smaller teams where they are more likely to play youths and more forgiving on errors
Yep i find it so weird too how they bring up these youth players. Bertesaghi has been with us since pre season and suddenly he’s not good enough to be given a chance. Camarda two months ago was the first youth player to play and now he’s no longer called up and Jimenez traore and Simic are suddenly favorites. Where’s the consistency? Ruining bertesaghis development at this point
Yep Bart’s should have had a better shot especially seeing the difference in the Empoli game between the two players. Bart’s used his defensive positioning skills very well.
“I am not sure a poor performance by one Primavera player in one match in one tournament that we have not won since 2003 should mean we have to wait until players are in their mid-20s to give them a chance.”
Mid 20s??? Who said that? All I said was there’s a difference between Primavera/youth players and first team Serie A….a very stark difference that got exposed vs Atalanta last night. Add that to the expectations of a big club and you have a recipe for disaster…unless you’re an exceptional talent or something or have a club culture that is kind to that. You can try those things at Lecce but at Milan the stakes are much bigger. Jiminez got exposed brutally, I hope he plays the next 3 games so we can see if it’s a one-off but I doubt he’s going to get playing time soon …for “protection”. Playing in the Primavera system is not the same as top flight football. Those who have top flight football under their belt at a young age on average will do better than those whose majority of time is spent on the youth leagues. Its very simple
So now we are giving CDK “almost assists” and “hockey assists”. You are going to hurt yourself if you keep reaching like that.
“So many predictions here and elsewhere had a clear Milan victory when Atalanta had us this season. I couldn’t understand it..ppl say I’m pessimistic but I come down critical when we win vs small teams and uplift to them when we lose.”
There is so much in this delusional little comment.
First of all “ppl say”. Who are these people that you imagine are talking about you?
And “uplift to them when we lose” doesn’t really make much sense, but I’m sure that’s not what you are doing here, as they just lost and it seems you are more concerned about gloating and saying I told you so, starting out your comment by laughing. Seems like almost rooting against the team and especially the new players who weren’t signed by Maldini. Nobody is bigger than the club, not even the great Maldini.
Also Nostradamus, i didn’t see many people predicting an easy Milan win against Atalanta so don’t hurt yourself patting yourself on the back so hard.
But please keep the great insights coming like Milan play better against weaker teams and have a tougher time against stronger teams… that’s really some brilliant analysis.
Pioli should take responsibility for this lost. I have said it time without number that Theo at CB won’t work against any decent team.
Theo carried more weapon as LB. But Pioli tamed him all 90mins with the CB of a thing. The back four should have been Theo, Simic, Gabbia and Calabria.
Why did Musa stay on for 90 mins doing nothing.
Jovic and Giroud as striker won’t create anything themselves. They are not the type. We need striker that is pacey, striker that is good on 1 vs 1. Striker that can easily drop to the wingers and allow the wingers occupy the striker position within interplay. We need striker this January, Good one at that.
Giroud and Jovic only impact is to flick the ball.
This management must invest this January and invest big.
Musa doing nothing? Oh, he did a lot. A lot of negative things. Worst on the pitch. It’s going to be a looooon month without Bennacer if we have to endure Musah on the pitch…
I don’t know why we play Jimenez over Bartesaghi when RM owns Jimenez and we own Bartesaghi… it’s very strange.
NO MALDINI NO PARTY
In the 1st half we had a lot of possession and territory but were lacking a cutting edge and consequently didn’t create chances.
It seems to me that our guys were running hard to have this control. In the 2nd half our levels dropped.
This is partly due to tiredness but it’s also due to our style of play, which is all about running hard and not controlling the midfield with calm considered passing.
RLC has talent and had some brilliant games like v PSG but more often than not he is ineffective.
Musah does not do well on the right.
Our midfield lacks quality, simple as that.
We need to sign a true regista who dictates the tempo, and forces our team to play smarter.
Then we could play Bennacer and Reijnders as Mezzalas, where their talents are most effective.
At this point I see Adli, RLC and Musah as backups, albeit expensive backups.
We need someone in the mold of a Xabi Alonso/ Casemiro/ Kante
Come on let’s get real ,some of you are ranting on about the same old deal ,,the fact is we lost and deserved to …With our team we seem to think possession is the only way to win a football game ,,the fact is we lack creativity..We just do not seem to relax on the ball ⚽️ sometimes we seem to do ok ,then the next game we do not ..I feel sorry for jovic ( yes in my opinion) Olivier Giroud is still a better bet ..
In fact when Olivier came on alongside jovic ,,I thought we could get something out of the game ,,but the same pattern of play continueud that is failing to deliver decent balls into the box ..The crosses are not precise enough…Decent deliveries to Giroud will produce goals ,,,especially from early crosses int the box ..by that I mean early and not players trying to dribble there way into central positions rather than getting balls wide and putting in deliveries.
Our midfield unfortunately does not produce consistent..Rejendeers I think is vastly overrated,,,Loftus cheek had a very poor game ,,I do rate him ,but again he overdoes things ,,but sometimes I am not sure where he is supposed to be playing .pulisic works extremely hard ,that cannot be faulted,,but again overdoes things ..Rafeol leao ,,,has the ability to unlock any defence ,,but he was often beaten to the ball ⚽️,,,that said he is always a threat and must always be included in the team ..Yes he scored a wonder goal against Atalanta..
These words may seem negative,,but not meant to be as i still believe the season can still be a success.
The next game we will win against Roma ,,Olivier will be on the scoreboard again ..He is doing a much better job then many of you are indicating..
Just look at his stats this season 37 years of age 2nd top scorer in one of the toughest leagues in the world .9 goals 6 assists ,,,His record thus far ,,that total I believe will end up at around 20 goals ..
We still need Oliviers service …just provide him with decent crosses and he will score goals ,,also his heading ability is still world class …I have watched this man play so many times over the years ,,and he still is class ..i have also been involved with football for a very long time ..