AC Milan just about clinched all three points against Red Star Belgrade, scoring a late winner, and it was far from their best display. Below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri, with low scores handed out across the board.
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 anything about the goal, as it was a thumping finish from relatively close range. That being said, he did well with his feet and also had a couple of saves, even if they didn’t require world-class interventions.
Calabria (6): The captain looked much better, at least compared to what we have seen earlier this season, as he almost always had a good position in defence. A lot of crosses to his side were cut out and he also had an important presence to narrow the angle on a big chance for Red Star. He arguably also should have had an assist for Abraham, following a fantastic cross.
Gabbia (6): As you would expect, he was very strong in the duels and asserted himself early on. Red Star did create a few dangerous chances and the academy product cleared a lot of balls into the penalty box, finding himself in the right place at the right time quite often.
Thiaw (6): Just like his colleague, it was a very solid display with strength displayed in the duels and anticipations – i.e. cutting out passes further up the pitch – from the first minute. The heart of the defence is certainly not Milan’s problem at the moment.
Hernandez (5.5): A game of two halves, really, as he looked very poor in the first half and then recovered to a decent level in the second. Nevertheless, we can expect more from him in both phases of the game, especially in defence as there were some question marks in that phase tonight.
Fofana (6): It was a fantastic ball over the top for Leao to open the scoring, but some passes before that could have benefitted from some better execution. He needs to eliminate the risky unsuccessful passes from his game, which admittedly is hard, but it’s holding him back a bit. The right way to describe it would be highs and lows in terms of his passing.
Reijnders (5.5): He managed to get into good positions quite often and dared to be more selfish, though his shots proved unsuccessful this time out. The set pieces were also not that great, crosses as well as shots, and it’s clear he can do better.
Musah (5.5): Following Loftus-Cheek’s injury, he was moved to the midfield tandem and while he had some good runs forward, he made a big mistake on the goal conceded. Some while argue that it was a foul, but the truth is that he didn’t protect the ball well enough. A schoolboy error in that position.
Loftus-Cheek (N/A): He was subbed off after just 28 minutes due to an injury, and it’s not possible for us to give him a rating.
Leao (6.5 – MOTM): We saw some very poor passes at the start of the first half, but also a 1v1 with the goalkeeper which was nicely saved and a fantastic strike to make up for the earlier miss. That goal was indeed lovely and he continued to be very involved in the dangerous chances in the second half, even if it wasn’t always fireworks. Still, he broke the crucial deadlock.
Morata (N/A): He was subbed off after just 29 minutes due to an injury, one minute after Loftus-Cheek, and it’s not possible for us to give him a rating.
Substitutes
Chukwueze (6): It took some time before the winger got into the game, let alone touched the ball, but he was involved in the winning goal. The cross for Camarda was really quite nice, even if the finish was difficult, so he gets a pass here.
Abraham (6): He had a positive impact through his energy levels, but there were a couple of chances to kill the game after the 1-0 goal. He definitely should have scored the cross delivered by Calabria, as the net was wide open aside from the defender laying on the ground (which he of course hit). The rating is rescued by the winning goal, but if he had just scored the first, then we could have avoided the drama.
Camarda (6.5): Talk about unlucky, once again, but everyone knows he’s the reason for that goal as the header was very impressive. That is far from an easy finish and the goalkeeper responded surprisingly well.
Emerson Royal (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give a rating.
Camarda needs more time, 10 mins isn’t enough, give him 20 minutes..he makes a difference.
First half was ok, second devoid of energy which seems to be a pattern. Rafa did well, Gabbia and Thiaw continue to impress and Calabria is better than Emerson. Fofana impressive both physically and with his passing.
Calabria was atrocious in the first half. Only slightly better in the second.
Agreed. Emerson actually did better in the 9 minutes he was given than the 85 minutes Calabria played.
Created a shot on goal in 1 minute after coming on.
Made a pass that got Tammy fouled and earned a FK.
Generally more dynamic with Chukwueze than whatever Calabria was doing all match.
Picking between Calabria and Emerson is like splitting atom.
I’d rather pick the option that keeps the armband out of Theo.
Still better than Emerson. Calabria didn’t need Musah to cover him, didn’t give away a penalty, and his first touch isn’t a clearance!! He’s the better option for me
Calabria is better in both fases, he did well in the final 3rd and put in that good ball for Tammy with his weaker left foot. He’s just a better footballer
I would urge you to go back and watch the game again. Not even the the entire game, just the first 10 minutes Calabria already made 3 awful mistakes. If you are Italian you get judged by different standards. All you need to confirm that is just look at how they are still pretending Tonali was some great player, meanwhile he can’t even break in to a mid table club like Newcastle.
Biased Italian fans eh?
Emerson didn’t need Musah to cover for him this match because Musah was subbed off when he was subbed on.
AND he didn’t make a mistake.
Italian fans with their heads in the sand.
Calabria also had that wicked cross which Tammy should have converted. It really should have been 2-0 early in the second half if wasn’t for poor finishing and thanks to Calab’s cross.
This comment is atrocious. Calabria played well.
My few thoughts. Milan got lucky. You have to kill this game off and Tammy had the opportunity and blew it. Glad for the important 3 points.
Chuk will never be a great player if he doesn’t learn to use his right foot.
Leao with a beautiful goal.
They need Pulisic back ASAP.
Also I would start playing Camarda more. He saved the team today and I want to see more of him.
Ruben
Messi
Di Maria
Sarah
Ven persie
Giroud
All the above few listed left footed players right foot is awful…. they does 98percent with their left foot
I don’t know who Sarah is but I didn’t say you couldn’t be superior with one foot but you still have to be able to use the other one.
Also Chuk isn’t even amazing with his left foot so to compare him to those players is silly
Chuck is graded on a curve by these writers. A 6….LOL. Musah, Musah, Musah. Pass the effing ball. He is just foolish. No reason to hold on to it. The rest of the team were marginal at best.
Now imagine what Pioli would do with this squad.
Yes, many players would be injured, maybe Milan would lose against Inter, but you can bet 10plus points in serie a and not the worst game like this against crvena zvezda…
Your memory is failing you. I like Pioli, but there were plenty of games like this under him. And he would not have gone into the Bernabeu and beaten Real Madrid either.
I don’t need to imagine. He had them last season. We dropped out of cl and were pretty poor in serie A.
You do have selective memory, don’t you?
This team play the same as when they were under pioli.
Aside from when we won the derby and in madrid
Oh man, I wish the kid got that goal, the place would have gone mad. Twice he’s gotten unlucky at San Siro. He deserved the goal.
At the same time, happy that Abraham got the winner and made up for the chance he should have scored earlier. I think he is more dangerous offensively than Morata. Fonseca should play Tammy up top and Morata behind him, as Morata plays more like a 10 anyways.
How Calabria a 6? He was pretty awful in the first half and almost cost us a goal, slightly better in the second but not good enough.
Not a great perfomance by the team but it’s 4 in a row in Champions League and we are in very good position to finish top 8 now.
On to the next one.
At this point Reijnders and Fofana need a break. These guys are running on fumes. It’s absolutely shameful that there literally is no backups.
There are back ups, but Fonseca is double limited coach
He should have played RLC in double pivot midfield to give either fofana or Tijani some rest
If he had rested Fofana we wouldn’t have won the game. Fofana was the best Milan player tonight and produced a phenomenal assist; almost scored, recovered the ball many times.
The fact that we played a poor team is no guarantee of a victory, given how bad we’ve been. We can’t afford to rest one of our best players.
RLC is pretty bad and got injured, so what’s your point?
Sad
Actually there is a backup who is pretty decent and we haven’t been using: Zeroli. The way we’ve been thin in midfield, Fonseca needs to call Zeroli up.
Liberali and Traore too, for use at AM and on the wings. Specially now with TWO wingers in the treatment room. It may be tough to start them, but surely they can come on at the 70-75th minute and provide some relief to the first teamers. For whatever reason this club has always had a tough time trusting its teenage talent, with some exceptions.
Somehow I felt that we were gonna win but that we will be stressed until the dying minutes, I guess we’re gonna have to get used to it.
In any case we won and that’s the most important thing. Should we win the 2 last games, we will probably make it to the top 8 (but not certaintly). Our performance is far from reassuring. I hope Pulisic come back soon and we ABSOLUTLY need another midfielder this winter, Musah and Loftus-Cheek cannot be trusted.
Onto Girona and Dinamo !
Well Bennacer will be back soon. If he can stay healthy it will be a big boost but yes another midfielder should be added soon.
Benny’s form is a big question along with his ability to stay healthy. Pretty sure they were trying to offload him before he got hurt. Again …
Bennacer is old business. He spent more time injured that on the field since 2023 and last time he played he was in horrible shape. It’s like Hazard and Neymar in a way.
It’s better to spend money on Ricci and Frendrup and sell Bennacer and Loftus-Cheek when we can.
3 points. Otherwise pretty bad performance and won by squeaking by on superior talent alone. As per usual.
Absolute dog sh!t.
This was the worst game of this season.. This “team” plays worse and worse with every game. No urgency, no focus, no desire, no physicality, totally unconnected. They couldn’t connect more than 2 passes, and everything was 1v1.
Crvena Zvezda totally outplayed them, especially in the 2nd half. Rade Krunic was a beast. I still stand that he was much more important and more useful player than that fraud Bennacer, and his implementation in the starting lineup in Bennacer’s spot led Milan to the semi-final of the UCL in 22/23.
The team plays badly, and the players are undisciplined. 3 yellow cards for stupidity, led by Theo, of course.
Great finish and goal by Leao.
Z, you literally say this after every game. They outplayed us? Really? Here are some stats for you.
We had more possession.
20 shots to their 9
10 shots on target to their 4
more passes, better pass percentage
more corners.
If the numbers were the other way around would you be saying we outplayed them? I doubt it.
It wasn’t a great game by any means but try and be real about it.
Eye test supersedes numbers.
These are Reijnders numbers vs Crvena Zvezda
Minutes played: 90
Touches: 50
Accurate passes: 32/35 (91%)
Key passes: 1
Crosses (accurate): 2 (1)
Long balls (accurate): 1 (1)
Shots on target: 1
Shots blocked: 2
Dribble attempts (successful): 4 (3)
Clearances: 1
Total tackles: 1
Ground duels (won): 7 (4)
Possession lost: 8
Was fouled: 2.
Based on the numbers one can say that he had a very good game but he was invisible during the game and did almost nothing.
Numbers tell a story, but not the whole story.
Milan is getting outplayed in most of the games in the last couple months, just like today.
Even Fonseca criticized the team and said that he wasn’t satisfied. Leao said something similar,
There a difference between saying the team didn’t play well, which they did not, and saying we were outplayed by the other team, which we were not. Fonseca is correct to be unhappy with players but we still had more than double the amount of shots and shots on target than they had and deserved the win. Leoa missed a 1v1 with the keeper in the first half and Tammy surely should have scored earlier. Not a good performance but we were not outplayed. Their keeper was their best player.
It was a bad game but I don’t know if this was the worst game of the season (which isn’t good). But yes in the second half it felt like we had no plan and it was Crvena Zvezda that took control of the game.
“I still stand that he was much more important and more useful player than that fraud Bennacer, and his implementation in the starting lineup in Bennacer’s spot led Milan to the semi-final of the UCL in 22/23.”
A bit of an unfair remarque, Bennacer played more minutes and had more goals and assists and Krunic in both 2021/22 and 2022/23 and in the UCL campaign, while it was Krunic who was in the double pivot, Bennacer was still deployed and played well. When you say that he lost his spot to Krunic, you make it look like he was on the bench, while in the reality the player who lost his spot was Messias. But again, it’s not the first time you show your biais against Bennacer and always took the occasion to show it very well.
I only watched the second half, but I have to say I was impressed by Calabria. Good on the ball good interceptions, and good crossing. (like the one to Abraham) Theo was decent and Rafa was okay. Reijnders was worse but Fofana was again steady. Chuk was pretty good, Camarda was great and Abraham scored the winner, so I can’t complain. I was overall not impressed by the team performance, we were very underwhelming. But I’ll take the 3 points. The game could’ve gone either way, we didn’t deserve to lose, but we didn’t really deserve to win, but I’m happy we did. That’s what I got from the second half.
I meant this as a reply, I’m still the same Kaka’s Heir, I just had a different PFP here.
That is a decent summary
Calabria is just great
Camarda really should play
Tammy was decisive, though should have converted that cross
The backups are Musah and RLC. Now RLC is injured and Musah is preferred as a RM/RW.
So you are right, we have no backups.
Should’ve kept Pobega, Adli and gotten rid of Bennacer in the summer. And kept Kalulu instead of buying Pavlovic.
What a waste of money…
Exactly. Think of all the money saved too. That could have bought us the Theo backu…eh, replacement.
So… How many times will Musah do the exact same mistake in front of our penalty box and gift a goal to the opponents? Will he EVER learn? Nope.
How the f*** did this comment end up HERE instead of the bottom????
Should’ve kept Simic and got Hummels for free instead of Pavlovic for 18M€.
Instead of Emerson for 15M€ we should’ve kept Kalulu.
Keep Adli, sell Bennacer and maybe keep Pobega (although we benefited from some hindsight on that one but he is Italian so he wasn’t taking any foreigner’s place).
That’s 33M€+some change if we sell Bennacer. Imagine the midfielder we could’ve gotten (Ricci, Frendrup maybe Bernabé,…)
If only… 🙁
Management had every opportunity to sign backups for midfield in the summer, and yet they signed emerson… and now our 2 best mids are visibly running on empty. Ridiculous. Shameful that we’re barely scraping a win against this team in our own house
I’m still the same Kaka’s Heir, despite the PFP.
My notes :
Maignan : 6 – Regular as usual, unlike the club
Calabria : 2 – How can he choke against EVERY player, be late on his side, relaunche so bad and still play in Milan ?
Gabbia, Thiaw : 7 – Real OGs
Theo : 5 – I want the real Theo back
Fofana : 6.5 – Good game
Musah : 5 – Tried but Fonseca must align Chuk in the beginning for this game
Leao : 6 – Scored but sometimes indolent, we saw the good Leao in the past few games, today was the annoying
Reijnders : 5.5 – I don’t recognize him, but how can i blame him, nobody seems to follow his right initiatives
Abraham : 7 – It seems he was the only player who made the good efforts even if he is a substitute
Chukweze : 5 – he can dribble but he can’t center, must have started to push the opponents in the defense more frequently
Camarda :
You gave Chuks a 5. You are a dumba**
Horrific performance and lucky to get 3 points.
I’d fire Fonseca for that lineup and performance.
Slovan Bratislava lost all their 6 games.
Red Star lost 5 of 6 games.
They are 2 of the worst teams in the competition and we barely beat them and could have lost
I guess i saw what I expected it to be. Another below average game by a team that can certainly do better! We will go through to the second round, but that is probably the maximum that can be extracted from us at the moment. the focus must be on Serie A, because without that money next year we will be completely screwed.
Camarda : Should play more often
Hope we retrieve Morata, Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek soon
Ibra : -1 – Shot a personnal bullet to a player HE brought
Buona notte
We made 3 very important points but it was rather ugly and the win almost slipped away due to the same defects we keep displaying. While it’s pretty much guaranteed that we will survive the League phase and we even do have a good chance at making the top 8, this team continues to inspire no trust, and we know that when we get to the playoff phase, probably a better team will knock us out.
Maignan – that goal by Red Star was impossible to save; huge powerful shot from short range and well placed, so not Mike’s fault. Otherwise he had a couple of good saves including one at the near post which in the past had been a problem for him. He was passive when they hit the crossbar and if that ball had been a bit lower, it would have been a score. So, decent, but not much more than a passing score. 6.25
Calabria – decent game, great cross that Abraham should have converted. 6.5
Thiaw and Gabbia, they continue to be solid as they haven’t been making mistakes. 6.5 to each.
Theo – He continues to do poorly. He didn’t accomplish anything. 5.5
Musah – that huge mistake leading to their goal lowers his score which wasn’t that good to start with, with some unfocused and confused actions. 4.5, our worst player tonight.
Fofana – after a couple of games in which he wasn’t his usual (probably just fatigue) he was again excellent tonight. He started by missing a few passes but grew into the game, almost scored on a header, and produced a fabulous assist. 7.5, MOTM.
Reijnders – A decent shot stopped with little effort from the goalkeeper, but not much more; hasn’t been as dominant as a few games ago. 5.5
Morata – only touched the ball twice then got injured. No vote.
Loftus-Cheek – also no good moments and an early injury. No vote.
Abraham – A good attempt saved by the goalkeeper, a missed sitter, then a score. Ups and downs, but good effort and the winner, so, 7
Leão – Had an on-target shot well-saved by the goalkeeper, got involved in some other dangerous actions, and scored a very good goal, but also missed some easy balls. Could have been a 6.5 due to some sloppiness and even though the goalkeeper had merit in his missed opportunity, maybe Rafa could have done more there, but the goal he did score which was great, pushes it to 7.
Chuk – Ups and downs but overall decent, showing more energy than most in a time when the team appeared unambitious. 6
Camarda – excellent impact as a late sub; the goalkeeper made a miraculous save into his phenomenal header, sending the ball to the crossbar, and the rebound resulted in the winning goal. 7
Fonseca – Again his team is defensively fragile against a rather weak opponent, and as much as this was a win, it wasn’t pretty and the team did show the same lack of ambition and drive that has been a frequent problem, which is something that a head coach should be able to fix. 5.5
Well, I was too generous with Calabria, because I thought he should have had an assist. But 6.5 is too much for his performance. In any case not higher than 6, maybe even a bit lower, 5.75
“The captain looked much better, at least compared to what we have seen earlier this season”
I’m sorry WHAAAT?
Did you even watch the game or did you say that to be nice since he’s the captain?
He was painful to watch.
I feel like Fonseca is confusing this team more than helping it. And that’s exactly how Milan is playing lately, confused, just dazed and coasting.
All along, we’re reading stories about him trying to get these players to play for each other, like a team. So you see now drifting in centrally. You see neither Theo nor Emerson advancing forward beyond the halfway line. Theo is always a better attacker than a defender, so now we are wondering why his form is off? Because his not good at defending and he’s not giving opportunities to attack to show his worth.
Fonseca has taken away our biggest advantage which is our left flank and hasn’t gotten this team to play any better than they did on Pioli. So he’s not adding anything to the team and taken away what strengths we had.
He is probably lucky tonight to have won this game, otherwise management would had to have been forced to move. I just don’t understand what the plan for this team is. Everyone is confused. The players, and the fans.
The positive is that we got the points tonight despite the lackluster performance. But we can coast like this on the for so long. Given the standings, I would say either our team or Juventus do not make the top four. And I pray it’s not us, otherwise we might reach a catastrophic point.
Idle hands are the devil‘s workshop. Ironic.
I wouldn’t mind if sack Fonseca today to be honest. I think he has already proven that he can’t improve this team.
It feels like we’re degradring, not improving, it just happened that we were lucky to face teams like Crvena Zvezda and Slovan Bratislava, otherwise our results would have been much worse.
In serie A, we never managed to win more than 3 games in a row, that’s too little to fight for a top 4 position.
Since we won, we don’t have a good excuse to sack him, but I think we’ve seen enough to draw this conclusion.
More than the victory I would have traded a draw with Camarda scoring
Aside from the result, Camarda, Fofana being helpful in both phases of the game and maybe the CB duo experiencing actual grown (although there were shaky moments, coming from them in the physical duels within our area), there’s nothing to brag about. Take the result and work harder.
And as I’ve said it before, even in so-so games like today, Calabria looks like a better option than Royal. I can’t remember a game where he doesn’t try at least one dangerous shot or cross (namely tonight the one for Abraham plus a shot on target from long distance). The RedBurd dream right back still hasn’t contributed the slightest offensively.
Worst display…but we won
Poor tactics
+ve
Calabria did better and should start ahead of ER
RLC injured
Gabbia is impressive
-ve
Theo
Lack creativity in midfield
Some selfish play
I don’t like the way Fonseca criticized the team. I think there are better ways to say that the team did not perform to expectations. I think the criticism of his tactics are misguided though. The attackers he many opportunities to score and squandered them. The most common culprit was taking too many touches, as if they forgot how to play a first touch pass. The goal was given yo because Musah went over way too easily. I feel like I have seen some version of that goal several times this season. Some of the passing was comically bad. As a rule managers tend to get too much credit and too much blame…the trend continues here.
Also, people should stop comparing Fonseca with Pioli. This is a different team.
Finally those thinking that Calabria is better than Royal are looking thru rose colored glasses. Aside from one very good cross today he was bad. Not decent, not OK….bad. Management need to purchase another competent midfielder or else decide to give minutes to Zeroli and Liberali. Finally, it’s time to start preparing for life without Theo. His performance tonight wasn’t much better than Calabria’s. Beyond his lack of awareness, the characteristic grinta is gone. He is a shadow of his former self.
Yet we’re still waiting for Emerson’s “one very good cross” 20 games later. Calabria did fine today. He is our only fullback this season who seems to know what that role actually requires – both defending awareness and attacking contribution.
Calabria lost the ball almost every single time he received it in the attacking third. He legit passed to the other team on more than one occasion. His recovery speed is not up to par. Royal is not much better, but he is better.
Emerson does not know when to stay back when Theo is up. We get exposed everytime this happens. At least Calabria know what to do and when in terms of defence. Attacking is less important imo especially for his characteristics. In this game he read several cross field passes and crosses to his side and snuffed out/intercepted passes which I believe Emerson would not have been able to do.
In this game the full backs are not to blame, both of them. They both did their jobs well. Even the commentator said Red Star wasn’t able to get anything going down the right side (their left). Not sure why the hate on Calab. Maybe he’s short or something
You are right about one thing. We need to revamp the fullback position on both sides. Theo hasn’t performed much better than Royal or Calabria this season. His behavior is unprofessional and unpredictable. He is becoming a net negative for the squad which is sad. He is among my favorite players.
Calabria did 2 things that Emerson never managed so far: cross the ball right and score a goal. He didn’t look good in the first half but he improved later on ant that’s a player who came back from injury recently and wasn’t allowed to play very much.
Also for what is worth fielding Calabria has an extra advantage: keeping the armband out of Theo.
I don’t understand all the criticism of Calabria in the comments. I thought he was decent and did his defensive job well.
I didn’t feel anxious watching him defend like I do watching Emerson.
It was a flat start.
Morata had little involvement before the injury. Abraham looked far more dangerous and aggressive.
It’s sad to admit but it was a relief to see RLC take the shirt off and know he was done for the game.
He really seems to add nothing.
I don’t like feeling that way about one of our players but that is what it has come to.
Squad is going to be very thin for the next game.
Also.
The ratings should have given Tomori a 2 for managing to get himself a yellow and suspension for the next game. Without even coming on the field.
Hope we don’t have a CB injury crisis in late January.
i was only afraid for Calabria when he was forced to run or chase the ball, otherwise in 1v1 situations, I prefer him. Emerson is more athletic but somehow jittery on the ball. It is as though he doesn’t want to be caught with the ball at his feet.
Theo is long gone. He is just making up numbers now; his telepathic understanding with Leão seems non-existent now. One time he controlled a high ball back to the opponent almost 3m away.
I have no clue either Warren. I think it’s because he’s short or something. Maybe he doesn’t run like Maldini I dunno. But he sent in a cross for a huge goal scoring chance, created two others, snuffed out some dangerous crosses to his flank and was never in real danger for anything….and this after an injury/not full fitness.
I have zero doubts he’s out best right back in the team when fully fit. Zero doubts!
We won that is the main take away. Crazy how we can go to Madrid and beat them 3-1 and barely win a match at home against red star. Good to see Krunic, he was excellent.
UEFA has granted to Rafa the official MOTM award.
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It is concerning that we are getting an injury crisis again. One way to mitigate it is to call up (and play) Zeroli, Liberali and Camarda; possibly also, for other reasons, Bartesaghi and Jimenez.
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Regardless of Fonseca being right about the lack of drive and ambition from many players, it is 100% wrong to publicly blame the players in the declarations to the press; including because in great part this is also Fonseca’s fault. Do that and you lose the locker room and get the players even less motivated. That’s what Mourinho used to do at Roma and the players simply quit performing for him.
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Rafa now has tied Puli for the most seasonal goal contributions all competitions, 11 for each. With Puli’s absence in the next 3 games, it is essential for Rafa to continue to contribute; Abraham also needs to help. Both scored today but both missed good opportunities too. They need to step up to compensate for the absences of Puli and Morata.
Did you see that the part where Leao publicly criticized the way we played too ? Fonseca is not wrong to call them out. Even Leao admitted the same. Your example, Mourinho criticized his players and lost the team right ? He was fired and where is Roma now ? Still struggling. Sometimes you let the coach coach. Maybe he knows what he’s saying. I’ve been saying it for a while, these guys are stuck in Pioli’s mentality. This is not how Fonseca wants them to play. He’s definitely trying to get them out of this funk
I understand all that but a coach should say those things to the players in the secret of the locker room, not to the press. A player can say those things to stimulate the companions but a coach should not. The coach should say “I’m glad that we won and I congratulate our guys for the victory but it’s my fault that it was difficult; I’ll work harder” and then he can yell at the players behind closed doors. This way the players respect him and like him and try their best to play for him. When instead, he publicly throws the players under the bus, they revolt and get unmotivated. Yes, Roma are not doing well now but when they fired Mourinho actually they had a resurgence and beat us, eliminating us from the Europa League, while with Mourinho they were easy to beat. Subsequently they fell apart again but the firing of Mourinho did motivate the players to play better, although the effect was short-lived. Mourinho always blames his players and then he loses their respect. I just hope that Fonseca will stop making the same mistake.
Are we sure he has not said as much in private with no improvement and the club is not backing him up with discipline? I mean when he benched Leao for okafor, do you honestly think he was not questioned by management?
If he is going to get fired as its likely the case pretty much soon, let him be fired for acting on his own convictions. I would like to know if he had the history of speaking to the press like this at his previous clubs.
Some analyst said he speaks like one looking for a reason to get fired. That might be also be true.
Concerning Roma, the fact remains that they had never won anything in Europe till Mou coached them. What the players feel is topic for another day.
If Fergie was coach dont you think one or two players in Milan would have been given the “hair dryer” treatment and transfer listed by now?
Leao was amazing, and what’s annoying is that people will credit “”Fonseca’s treatment” for this. Lol.
far from their best display? man, this was painful as a kick in the balls to watch
At 1-0 we thought we had it in the bag sort of attitude. Musah once more over carried in front of his defence, his very weakness we all know about (except those who are holding out on hope). This is the reason why Fofana has zero subs like Theo. These guys are not good enough. Also, never mind Fofana who he himself is not absolved from mistakes either, we simply have zero DM. Not sure how we played 4 mids and still look short in the middle. 200 millions and we don’t have a proper midfield. At 1-1, seems to me Red Star were more dangerous and we were lucky to get a result. I’m not even sure how to rate the performance…. Hurray for the points, otherwise meh. Thankfully two players got injured so we can blame it on that, phew (sarc).
Anyways for the positive, what a beautiful goal by Leao. Never understood the whole “it’s time for Leao to step up” bit in the prematch. Esp after carrying the team for so long. MOTM for me as he craved out key chances or was involved somehow. Also nice quasi-assist by Camarda. I think he should just move up to the first team. His eye for goal is incredible for his age. He just knows where that goal is and that’s half the battle.
Good call on Mussah. His problem in my eyes is not technical nor physical- it’s his football brain, or lack of it to be more precise
Musah is a NFL player, not a football player. Great athlete, excellent speed, stamina and strenght but 0 football IQ.
Yep his Footballing IQ is very very poor. Hope he can improve but I just don’t see it in so many games so far
If not sack Fonseca tonight we will lose more and more.This team is disaster with Fonseca
All the haters are unhappy about this convincing performance.
I’m convinced that it was an unconvincing performance
Poor performance. Below average coach and a lot of average players.
With pulisic out we had to play piolis tactics with Theo and leao left side game. But the problem is we have a poor Theo this year and leao runs out of steam which isn’t a suprise. He gave his all in the first half and was finished by the second. Abraham added a much needed spark upfront. He’s been very unlucky not to score more. Glad he got the winner in the end. What was musah thinking with that run…. Where was he going??? Red star weren’t too bad but we gave them too much of the ball. Silly mistakes. I liked how the majority of the team had krunic haircuts. Confused Milan haha. And like others said during the game. Why use all our mids with no back ups… Maybe chuke would’ve grew into the game if he had started and musah or loftus could’ve been put on the bench. Need some youth on the bench. Zeroli for sure. Needs to be developed or we will lose him to Atalanta or similar.
Zeroli is injured I think, but yes we need some youth mids on the bench (Liberali, Malaspina, Vos)
I think one of our main issues is the team’s confidence. Holding back when your up one goal against a serie b level team who has Krunic as one of their main stars is ridiculous. We had control in the first half, all that was needed was the same thing in the second half, with equal commitment to go for a goal. And yes, Fonseca who is in charge is responsible for this as well.
I really like Reijnders but he was a ghost, 3,5 maybe 4. He is a creative player so much overplayed that he looks mentally tired. Perfect opportunity to rest him and play Musah in his position – but nah we play Musah right and bench Chuk who could need minutes.
I read most of ur comments and I laugh ,trust me milan have fantastic players ,if some of this players u criticize here move to another team u will see their true potential ..Cala or royal are good players milan lack a good coach and man management team .milan need a good coach and a good technical director .
royal is ass and he’s been terrible the last 3 years, he should never start for this club
TBH, he should never start for any club.
i don’t get the useless hate on calabria he looked much better than what royal would have and actually had a key pass almost got an assist and sepite royal player more games this season calabria still has more g+a
So… How many times will Musah do the exact same mistake in front of our penalty box and gift a goal to the opponents? Will he EVER learn? Nope.
This coach knows nothing about Rotation, we keep overusing our key players. Also what in the name of nonsense is our midfield rotation, what happened to Zeroli and co I’m honestly sick of watch Musah
I was too drunk to finish watching the match till the end so I actually thought it ended 1-1 as i watched the match up until around the 80 minute or something so pleasantly surprised 😀
Didn’t understand why they kept playing in a rush. So many misplaced passes, and giving the opponent so many chances to score. Too many errors. Even though we needed the 3 points, we didn’t deserve it.
They played in a rush AFTER we conceded a stupid goal. That was unnecessary pressure, totally self-inflicted.
These players do not look like they want to play for Mr Fonseca. Sack him and bring in a manger who’s actually going to create some fire…!