AC Milan clinched three important goals after finding the back of the net three times against Empoli. It was a strong performance by several players, above all Tijjani Reijnders, and below are the 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): The Frenchman didn’t have much to do, aside from a Maleh effort that struck the crossbar and an offside 1v1 that he saved. The passing was decent and he commanded the area on set pieces.
Emerson Royal (6.5): He was beaten pretty blatantly at the back once, but then he picked himself up and was involved in the first two goals, playing the passes for Leao and Pulisic respectively. He also had some pretty good tackles in the second half.
Gabbia (7): It was very good defending throughout the game from the newly-renewed defender, always following his man closely and winning the duels as well. He was also strong aerially, which is always important as a centre-back.
Thiaw (7): Just like his partner, the concentration was very high and this resulted in close as well as effective marking. The German won basically all the duels with Colombo and continued to do well in the second half, also playing some of the more ‘difficult’ passes as opposed to Gabbia in the build-up.
Hernandez (6): The captain had some good runs forward and also defended well. However, there’s no doubt that he faded a bit in the second half and as such, it was a pretty bog standard performance from him.
Fofana (6.5): He started the build-up of the first goal with the quick pass to Emerson, and then he also got an assist with the run and pass for Reijnders. Defensively he did well as he so often does, but perhaps he could have been more involved in the general build-up. Either way, a positive night.
Reijnders (8.5 – MOTM): What a player, and for just €20m mind you! He was lively from the get-go and combined brilliantly with his teammates. The first goal was a fantastic strike on the volley, and the second was just as good thanks to the run and smart finish. There’s no stopping him in possession either, at least when he has a game as good as this. Just brilliant.
Musah (6): He had a very good run forward in the first half and also offered necessary help at the back, with Emerson struggling a little. However, he failed to take advantage of a great chance inside the box in the second half, which was a big shame. Still, it would be very harsh not to give him a pass given the hard work.
Pulisic (6): The American was involved in quite a lot and was creatively useful for Milan in the final third, while the movement in general also helped. However, he had a big opportunity to give Reijnders a certain goal in the first half and instead skied his effort. A similar situation occurred just minutes later as well. Therefore, in the decisive moments, he could have done better even if he gets a pass here.
Leao (6.5): He had a very positive start to the game, looking like he woke up on the right side of bed. He was involved in the first goal and then had some really good movement to open up space for Reijnders on the third. On top of that, he played with great confidence in the 1v1/dribbling situations and that is something we need to see. Perhaps you could have demanded a bit more success in those, though, so only a 6.5 here.
Morata (7): It was a great finish inside the box from the veteran, ending the goal drought, and he also combined well with his teammates as always. He faded a bit as the game went on, but that opening goal was still very important.
Substitutes
Chukwueze (6): Positive impact off the bench with some good passes to show for it, including a cross for Abraham which nearly resulted in a tap-in.
Loftus-Cheek (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Pavlovic (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Abraham (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Camarda (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
It’s cleat now that thiaw ans gabbia is our best cb partnership. Keep playing with those 2
Or maybe the opponents just weren’t threatening enough. Thiaw is fast but not as fast as Fik and I think that’s the balance that’s needed. One fast guy and one who’s old school like Gabbia but for this game, I think this was the right pairing.
Thiaw played great against Mbappe and Vinicius just weeks ago and was rarely if ever in trouble due to speed and it was not just because of Tomori. Speed is not an issue. We also don’t play in a way where we need to give speed that much priority in terms of what we need from our CBs, and Serie A itself is not a competition where speed is key for CBs. Thiaw and Gabbia is best pair we have (and by far)
Koulibaly, Bastoni, Skriniar, De Ligt, Buongirono, even Bremer who has more physical power than speed, Acerbi landed in Inter from Lazio and was insane even against teams like Manchester City. Most of the best CBs in recent years in Serie A do not stand out specially for being fast. Thiaw has enough speed in him to shine as long as he keeps on improving on other areas, I’m more worried about that than speed but last few games he’s been doing pretty well
Lol this was just Empoli. Tomori is better not sure why he is not played at all.
Tomori has been saved to play UCL matches this season. Fonseca played him just 11 minutes in the league all November.
Obviously Tomori will play the more important games, whether it’s with Gabbia or Thiaw, that’s the question. Pavlovic so far has been the one weighing down the defense. He definitely needs to improve.
And for anyone saying Fik’s speed doesn’t matter. Y’all need better glasses.
agree
It will be very interesting to see if we get Ricci who is a massive upgrade from playing RLC in the double pivot and when Benna returns. The logical choice would be to either play a 4-3-3 with a midfield of Bennacer/Ricci-Tijji-Fofana or keep formation and advance Tijji to Trequartista and Leao and Pulisic on either side. Either way I’m happiest having Matteo back to full form. The stability he provides is excellent, said he was like Costacurta and people took it as an insult even though Billy was there for 5 of our 7 Champions League titles. Hell there aren’t many center backs in the world that compare to Billy today. Don’t know why people saw that as an insult, you don’t have to be a physical monster to be a great center back.
I think it is not insulting to compare him with Billy, but instead quite a lot exaggerated. Gabbia is good, but Billy was a legendary CB. Even in his final years it always felt safe when Ancelotti brought in good old Billy to safeguard a lead. He wasn’t fast, strong or spectacular in any way, but brought such confidence and leadership to the whole defence line. Always in the right position. A true Rossoneri LEGEND. (If you don’t agree it is just evidence that you are too young to have seen him in action).
Great performance by players and coach.
What are the haters going to complain about this match? Bart, luigi, flyingturtle ,bb, Giga? They were so sure the coach had the formation and lineup all wrong. If only fonseca was as smart as them.
Me? I’m not complaining of anything. I granted to ALL players at least a 6, and even a 7 to Mister Fonseca.
Why the hell are you singling me out?
And yes, Fonseca did well today, which doesn’t mean he is not mediocre. That, he is. Today he got it right and I gave him credit for it. The issue with Fonseca is that sometimes he gets it right, like against Inter, Real, and today, but also he often wants to reinvent the wheel and doesn’t seem to learn from his own successes which in incredibly frustrating! If Fonseca finally learns that this is how we want to see Milan playing, with a stable CB pairing like Thiaw and Gabbia, with Musah helping with the right-sided defense, and certainly NOT sitting Rafa, then I’ll start supporting Fonseca. He is frustrating in how sometimes the team does wonderfully (like today) but then he changes everything again for the subsequent game and we struggle once more.
Look, he did well and I acknowledged it. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. We want to see Fonseca being consistent, and he hasn’t been, this season.
If you can’t see it, sorry, but it means you don’t really understand the game.
Classic honeymoon time after a win, usually against poor oppositions. Enjoy the short term reward, you seem to have the brain of a crackhead.
Camarda did well—he didn’t look like a liability when he got on the pitch. He showed a good touch, good movement, and a good attempt on goal. Milan still needs to keep a 3-0 score before playing him, but that is on the team.
He’s definitely not a liability I would take him over Jovic at this point. He tracks back, can pass really well, he’s versatile. He WILL be a star player for us, and it’s blatantly clear that he is on another level from the other Futuro players from what I’ve seen, he isn’t playing in an easy league to score like La Liga so people should have patience and the fans and the staff are treating him well. We don’t want him to turn into English players like Rashford, and not like Pellegri who incidentally looked a lot better than what he did the last time we saw him in a Milan shirt.
Great game but I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda upset when Pulisic didn’t set up his teammate for an easy second. It’s always nice to kill games early before taking risks. I know he wants to score and it’s great to have that hunger but the team should come first. It’s like Theo wanting to take a penalty just because it was his birthday. If Empoli had equapised and maybe even won we’d be blaming the coach for poor tactics and not be talking about our easy chance to have killed off the game. Still a nice win.
Oh lastly, what’s this experiment with musah on the wing? I liked when he was used as a wingback but this winger thing just doesn’t resonate with me. 🙂
He’s like Serginho, a in-between player. Not an attacking winger, not a good defensive fullback. But Serginho mastered that and did it brilliantly.
He definitely should have passed it but it’s not even close to the same thing as Theo taking the PK. Pulisic just didn’t look up and decided he was going to take the shot. Wrong decision but definitely not the same as what Theo or Tammy did.
Plus, Pulisic won the ball off the defender with only Morata in the picture. He slowed the play down and no one was there for a pass and only after he decided to shoot Leao and Reijnders arrive. If he had scored no one would be saying anything.
Yep. He decided to take the shot on, which I’ve seen both Leao and Reijnders do when they had better options. No big deal. He buries that shot 80% of the time. Yes if he looked up at the last second he would have had a better option but it wasn’t a bad shot.
It was a balant selfishness. I would have taken him out right away.
Haha take out your best player because he made a mistake and took a decent shot. Good one!
It was not a simple mistake, but a soul crushing selfishness and individual opportunism which should be straight out punished (Of course not with a straight sub off as that would cause a scandal, it was as a hyperbole).
And he is not a best player at the moment, by far margin. He is burned and badly needs a lot of rest. Can you not see the body language of his?
“Soul crushing selfishness and individual opportunism” Lol
This isn’t American football or basketball my friend
for once the whole team plays good but this is against a weak side
This weak side was 3 points behind us mind you. And had the 5th best defense in the league. Tell us you know nothing without talking.
Empoli are not that weak. Solid mid-table team with good defense.
The lads met expectations, which is nice.
It feels like it has been a month since I actually enjoyed an AC Milan game. Granted Empoli is a sitting duck, but lately we have mastered the art of making threats out of sittings ducks. Tonight, we showed the difference in quality.
I feel like everyone deserves around 6 or 7 with Reijnders deserving around 7.5 or 8.
Maignan: There wasn’t any threat for him so there is nothing to comment about him.
Gabbia: Hands down our best CB and stopped any attempts from Empoli.
Thiaw: Good performance as well, didn’t lose duels and didn’t give Empoli’s forwards opportunities.
Theo: While this was overall a nice game, he is still far far away from what he was few years ago. Not a good sign.
Emerson: Was more involved in the attack and overall a good game for him.
Fofana: Not very involved in the offensive phase, but considering the score, we could say that did a good job.
Reijnders: MOTM (duh!). His finishing touch has improved by a lot and he was again involved in the attack and build-up as he should. While the last few games were average, he is overall having a great season.
Pulisic: Good effort by him. You could feel however that he is a bit frustrated that he isn’t scoring. Also the attacking midfielder role is not suiting him.
Leao: Didn’t have as much of shining role, but it was overall a good game by him.
Musah: Defensively, he help Emerson quite well and allowed him more freedom. Offensively however, his touch is horrendous and missed what could have been goals or key passes. He clearly doesn’t belong in the wings.
Morata: Was there to score but was also there to tackle near our corner.
Chukwueze: Aside from that cross to Abraham, nothing to justify whatever we paid from him.
Fonseca: Finally he managed to motivate the players and put a strategy to easily win against a mediocre team (what an achievment). I still don’t understand why he persists on putting Pulisic as an AM and Musah as a RW, but it did work this time. I did like his pressing pattern and how we managed to setup counters for our forwards.
We’re however not our of the waters yet. I said that he has 3 games to close the gap with the fourth place, now he has won 1 game, so it remains to see what we will do during the next 2 games. We’ve won 2 games in a row (Slovan Bratislava and tonight) but this season we never won more than 2 games in a row, so it remains to be seen what will happen next.
But for now, take the 3 points and celebrate the win.
Musah left it for Pulisic, Empoli defender was just closer… he didn’t try to hit
Firstly Bravo to all for a very good performance!
Leao worked hard and was dangerous, I like this version.
Tiji was super, great goals!
Fofana, just shows why we screamed for a DM for so long (now we just need a back up)
Our Cb’s were composed and did well.
Now, I have no idea what system that was?
Emerson sent half the game in midfield!
Looked like 3412 with Pulisic at 10.
Christian was not at his best today, he is looking tired and a little frustrated, he made several bad decisions.
Theo, where is he? because this is not the player we know?
Overall, I was delighted to see us finally play with determination, we know we have the skill. We needed a win like this. Unfortunately we need more workers and less artists to do this consistently.
Theo, Rafa, Tiji, Pulisic is the kind of creative firepower most teams dream of, they need solid workers beside them, they need some rest and hopefully we can get them all on form together!
We also need rid of Emerson, if that means playing Musah or Jimenez ok..
We need to sign a midfielder in January before these guys get burned out, sell RLC to fund that move.
Perhaps next summer we can purchase a real goal scorer.
Keep moving forward guys, both with the football and with the completion of the squad
3-0 and people find a reason to complain. I feel like we played an all around great game. Clean sheet, no injuries and Morata got a much needed goal for his confidence. A huge pat on the back for our boys!!🔴⚫️
I haven’t seen any complaints? What do you refer to?
It seems fans are rightly happy to see the team perform to a good level, which has not been the case most games
Empoli was very poor today…Milan was good but we can’t conclude based on these results. Match against Atalanta will say wet we stand.
Gabbia and Reji played well but still we are missing Holding MF, hopefully Benna return will fix this issue. RB is needed, today Royal was OK mainly because we had Musah.
Emerson is doing better… and I’m pretty impressed by him. I doubt him as a player. He’s still defensively suspect, but his attacking contributions can’t be understated. I think he was worth the transfer
Rejinders though… wow an electric performance from him and overall a good performance from the team.
I do hope Theo does get back to his old performances. We need that again too.
Emerson was worth the transfer? What are you smoking?
He had Musah to baby sit him tonight.
If we can give him away for free, take that chance
ONLY if we get Kalulu back
Emerson is a walking potato sack.. we need to field a “defensive” winger to cover his uselessness. What’s the point of that?
Might as well have a offensive winger and a defensive rb. Balance? Madness? Calabria?
In the 5-4-1 formation in defense Musa does the job. It is limiting to play like Juventus though
meh.. if he is so good at def, might as well play him in rb and send royal back to brazil
In the Juve game we had no RW. If we fielded Chuk we would’ve been a bigger threat.
There wasn’t a single player that didn’t get at least a pass, for me. Everybody played well or at least well enough. This was arguably the best collective display we had all season. Sure, Empoli are not Inter or Real but we actually played better, collectively, than in the Real and Inter games. This is the Milan we want to see; if only we had some consistency and always played like this, we’d be a lot higher on the table.
Maignan gets a pass as a spectator of the game, which is to say how dominant the defense was today, unlike almost every other game this season; the clean sheet was also more the work of the defense than Mike’s work. He could have conceded in that crossbar hit but also had a great stop with his head although it was an offside. I grant him a 6 as one issue canceled the other and he didn’t have any other opportunity to do some work, given that his defense finally shielded him from the opponents’ offensive efforts.
Emerson Royal, wow, finally a very good game from him; 7. Whoa, I can’t believe I’m giving this guy a 7, but yes, today he did deserve it! It did feel like we actually had a Right Back playing!
Thiaw and Gabbia, both are indeed a 7 or arguably even a 7.5 as they had virtually no mistakes and completely controlled the opponents’ offense. Best CB pairing like I said this morning in an earlier comment. I hope that Fonseca stops trying to reinvent the wheel and gives these two more stable and more constant starts because there’s no doubt that the defense looks a lot better when these two are playing.
Theo, gets a pass, not bad, not brilliant but good enough. 6. I do miss the brilliant Theo of old; he’s not been that player, this season, but he did nothing wrong today that would prevent him from earning a pass.
Fofana, great as usual, both defensively and offensively with some great passes. I really like this player. 7.5
Reijnders, MOTM, 8. Brilliant, just brilliant and not only because he scored a brace; yes, scoring two goals would already give him the MOTM mention but he was very much excellent the entire game, too! He’s having his best season of his entire career. I just hope other clubs don’t try to purchase him with some sort of offer that can’t be declined; he’s attracting a lot of attention with his excellent play for club and country.
Musah, as usual great work rate and beyond that he had a great game too, except for one missed opportunity in offense; but that’s OK given all else that he did, helping a lot with stabilizing the midfield and assisting the defense. 7
Morata, nice to see him scoring again although otherwise he wasn’t very visible, so, 6.5
Puli, uncharacteristically he does get a pass but not more than that from me, because he was a bit of a ball hog with some questionable decisions; could have had a couple of assists but tried to score himself and failed. Still, he upset Empoli’s defense quite often, so he does deserve a pass. 6
Rafa, good movement, good awareness, good effort; didn’t really beat his double-marking but was important in other ways; good game, showing a desire to contribute including off the ball, like in one of Reijnders’ goals; tracking back, recovering balls, a very complete game from Rafa. 7
Chuk was a bit of a mixed bag but gets a pass too with some good movement and a cross that should have been an assist. 6
RLC, Camarda, and Pavlovic, nothing good, nothing bad, not enough time, but neither had any big failure (arguably maybe RLC did as he wasted one of the offensive plays that he started himself but couldn’t finish well, but certainly it wasn’t horrible) so they all get a pass at 6. Camarda tried a bicycle kick that if successful would have been epic. Pavlovic had no mistakes.
Abraham arguably would be the only one not to get a pass due to the failed attempt at scoring which is becoming a bit of the usual for him with his inability to bury it from 1 yard away that has happened some three times this season already, but I’m still inclined to give him a pass as he also helped in defense a bit, and did show some good effort. 6
Mister Fonseca, good lineup, good formation, and he subbed out the yellow-carded players appropriately, preserving them for Atalanta. No complaints, deserves even a 7 if we were to just watch this game without knowing of anything else that he did or didn’t do this season. So, fine today, mister, but we just wish you’ll stop experimenting and trying to reinvent the wheel, and will realize that you need to stick with a winning formula like today’s, such as, having Musah, Gabbia, and Thiaw as starters.
——
We’ve seen Milan being apathetic, and showing no will, no drive, no urgency, or else, being silly in pressing too high when we are ahead instead of playing with more intelligence to secure a result. Well, today none of these failures were apparent, with the team really showing a lot of toughness and resolve, and a willingness to play ball and to play like a team. Well done, Milan! Keep it up; we need consistency!
I did doubt Emerson a lot when he first arrived, but looking at it I think his time at Tottenham really messed with him mentally. Apparently he does have the skills to be an asset.
We do still need to see more consistency too. Luckily the gap isn’t impossible with teams above us.
Still don’t think he’s that good. Odds are he will blow it again next game and everyone will say he sucks again.
Harsh on Musah, I felt without him making any line breaks or being very risky, he was key to moving possession with his movement ensuring gaps in the midfield and contributed defensively both in the press and working back.
I see many people complaining about the setup. But if you look ut us we’re using 2000’s Juventus tactics, Morata/Abraham play like Trezeguet, albeit Trezeguet scored a sh*t ton of goals, Leao is the Del Piero, Theo does double duty like Nedved on the left even though if we had Nedved at LB he would be better, Davids in Fofana, we just don’t have a Zambrotta, Tacchinardi, Thuram or a Camoranesi but I can see what the coach is doing. Don’t knock him Paulo is working with what he has. Which isn’t the best but they are players not moulded by Italian football, YET.
We do have a Tijji and a Puli though
And what we need is Gattuso/Tacchinardi
great performance.
That fog made it challenging to track who was moving where in the formation.
Great to see Emerson have a better game. Musah was decent. Fonseca is using him to get more defensive strength and because it lets the formation keep changing to suit offence and defence phases.
Reijnders was everywhere and his finishing is so much better than last season.
Morata finish was also significant and perfect for the situation. He impressed me in this game.
I would like to have seen the subs start 10 mins earlier.
Am hoping that he can stick with Gabbia & Thaiw as a CB pairing for run of games.
The copa italia will likely have a lot of rotation though.
I don’t really care about Coppa Italia. That would be a time to get guys like Camarda, Zeroli, Liberali and Jimenez playing for the first team.
you should care though…..it’s winner will straight go to Europa league despite finishing 8th or 7th at the points table (in case)
It’s kind of sad if we get to try for an otherwise meaningless cup because otherwise we can’t even qualify for the Europa League.
I mean, A trophy is a trophy.
Like, we haven’t won any silverware since the scudetto, so a trophy after two seasons would be nice.
(Y’know, 2 years is way better than a decade)
Pulisic is more effective on the wing. Keep him there with morata and leao up front.
TJ is better in the middle, in tighter spaces, than Puli. He should be the CAM.
Fofana and musah should be a double pivot as defensive midfielders, with Musah providing cover on the right for Emerson Royal, playing more defensively than he did today.
Today’s back line should be given another game.
I have no doubt that Fonseca, having achieved temporary equilibrium, will do something completely different.
Fofana should be awarded at least a 7.5
Agreed. He was perhaps the main reason we dominated so much.
Agreed. He was perhaps the main reason we dominated so much.
Baresi’s dream meant this as a reply to you
Good work fnsc
Reijnders making up for all those misses his first season, hope he continues.
This is the type of performance we expect from the boys against a lesser side. There was never a question who is the dominant side, and Empoli were never in the match. Bravo! Well done.
Apart from power Reijnders who was his usual amazing self, I thought Fofana deserved more credit from the scores – he really seems to be a very annoying player to play against, always present to bully the guy with the ball, and frequently getting the upper hand. Loved every minute of it
Second clean sheet in a row in the league is the highlight. Everyone played well today without exception. I hope Fonseca has a clever plan for Atalanta like he did with Inter and Madrid…
I like that Leao is soaking up the difficult moments better and not getting as embarrassed as before. He used to resemble Balotelli after being dispossessed, for example. He seems more mature recently and understands it’s ok to not be perfect.
These are the teams we’re supposed to be beating convincingly. Good result, clean sheet. But let’s not blow this out of proportion. Sadly, Milan is at a point where we aren’t even sure we can get a result against the likes of Parma, Torino, Cagliari… We need to string together a series of convincing performances.
Having said that, I liked the lineup today. Musah brings more balance to the Milan midfield, but there were times when Empoli bypassed it altogether with 2-3 passes. a 4-2-3-1 that changed to more of a 442/433 with Musah dropping back and helping in defense.
Fonseca would be wise to stick to this formula. Worked well against Madrid, worked well tonight too. CB’s keep getting rotated though. They looked pretty good today but also it was against Empoli – not much of a test.
I think 2 things are getting people excited
1. Fonseca is learning from his successes
Fonseca is using what worked against Madrid again, so he’s starting to slow down on the Ferris wheel of game plans and using what works to get a game with offensive fluidity and defensive solidity.
2. We’ve struggled against lower level teams, so doing what’s expected against a lowered level team is a positive
1. Did he ? He always does something good and then reverts back to what failed. I don’t see this as the same system as vs Madrid. Vs Madrid in the offensive phase, Pulisic occupied the right wing while Musah drifted centrally. Yesterday Pulisic was an attackind midfielder, and Musah occupied the right flank either offensively and defensively and I don’t like that.
2. We’ve won similarly against Lecce and Venezia then we went back to struggling against sitting ducks.
So overall I’m happy with the performance, but we’re not out of the waters yet.
Good points, it’s just that
1. it’s a lot closer to Real than Cagliari.
and
2. I didn’t say it was the last time, it was just a posu=itive
But I get what your saying, because it was exactly the Real game and you thought that I was being overly optimistic, because Fonseca ditches what works plenty. And I agree, he does, so maybe I should curb my enthusiasm a bit.
positive and wasn’t, mb for the mistakes there
We played 5 at the back in defense, so like a 5-3-2. And Empoli did not bypass it, not even once. Try watching the game before you comment
They did. At least 4-5 times.
Maybe you’re the one who needs to pay more attention to the game than whatever you been doing while watching.
They bypassed our midfield with a few passes on MULTIPLE occasions. Maybe you’re the one who needs to rewatch the game, pal 🙂
You’re telling me we’re seeing improvements when players are played in their roles and in formation that suits their characteristics? Shocking.
Would be a very Fonseca move to revert to a 2 man pivot against Atalanta LOL!!!
Complete performance. Doesn’t really leave anything to be desired.
Morata-Good goal
Gabbia&Thiaw – Solid
Reijnders- Brilliant
Royal- NO goofs
Musah-did his job
Puli-got and assist but wasn’t at his best
Fofana-Our best Summer signing