AC Milan managed to build on their win against Inter as they prevailed over Lecce at San Siro on Friday evening. Theo Hernandez bagged a goal as well as an assist and below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (6.5): The Frenchman didn’t have a whole lot to do this evening, or at least he wasn’t really given any big tests, but he made a couple of decent stops to keep Milan’s clean sheet intact. One very good save in the second half, even if it ended up being offside.
Emerson Royal (5.5): This is a tough one, as you could argue the Brazilian did enough to get a pass. Some good and bad moments in attack, but before the goals were scored Lecce – and above all Rebic – created a lot down the left-hand side and got past him too easily.
Gabbia (6): His positioning was very good throughout the game and he was calm in his actions, which is essential for a centre-back. A couple of nice long balls, but also some passes he could have executed better.
Tomori (6): The Englishman lost a couple of duels but also did well to win many, so it was a decent display overall. He got a big lucky when Lecce hit the post but he helped stopped some other chances too, so enough to get a pass here.
Hernandez (7.5 – MOTM): The assist for Morata was very nice, even if the attacker did most of the work, and the strike to double the lead was fantastic. He had a chance to score a fourth before half-time in a similar position but missed the target that time. In addition to a goal and an assist, he was very solid defensively and continued to threaten Lecce in attack.
Pulisic (6.5): Milan attacked more on the left flank in both halves of the game, but he was in the right place at the right time for the goal. He made some nice runs throughout the game, to be fair, but at the end of the day he wasn’t involved as much this evening.
Fofana (6.5): The passing was better than in the derby, probably because he had more time on the ball, and he helped dictate the tempo of the game well. Also spoke a lot with Maignan and his defensive teammates throughout the game, helping out a lot in that phase as well.
Reijnders (6): Kept the play going with some pace whenever he got on the ball but given just how compact Lecce were, his strengths were not as effective today. Still a good display, though, and hopefully he will find more space against the attacking-minded Leverkusen.
Leao (7): It was hit or miss at the start for the captain of the evening, but then he got going. He first won the free-kick that led to Morata’s goal and then he assisted Theo’s strike with a perfectly weighted pass. He had some good moments in the second half and came close to the goal in the final minutes after a great run. Almost a 6.5 here due to the highs and lows, but he helped with the goals after all.
Morata (7): It was a fantastic header to open the scoring (thanks to the shaved head?) and he then helped win the ball back for Pulisic’s goal. Fonseca subbed him off after 55 minutes but it looked precautionary more than anything. An important leader of the team for sure.
Abraham (5.5): Just like we saw in the derby, he worked hard but this time out, he struggled a bit more with controlling the ball and combining with his teammates. In addition to that, he missed two very good chances just before Pulisic’s goal. He has to be more clinical, and 57% pass success when all other starters had 80% or higher (most 90% or higher) isn’t great.
Substitutes
Loftus-Cheek (6): Came on and used his size to Milan’s benefit, winning duels in the first phase of defence and even helping out when Lecce countered.
Musah (6): Decent ball distribution, aside from a few missed passes, and he helped see out the game with his work rate.
Chukwueze (5.5): It will be very interesting to see more from him this season as we saw glimpses of what he can do with the ball at his feet. However, unlike the other subs, he didn’t really have any impact on the game tonight.
Bartesaghi (N/A): The tackle might have been slightly reckless, but he got the ball and it certainly wasn’t a red card. His studs graced the Lecce’s players boot and the last time we checked, that doesn’t warrant a red card.
Jovic (N/A): A couple of nice flicks from the Serbian, but we didn’t see enough to give him a rating tonight.
Abraham did it struggle, he was only unlucky and need to be more calmer in front of goal
He almost hit the two shots before Pulisic’s goal too cleanly. Nothing wrong with the shot ehat got the post, just rotten luck, then he hit the volley too clean.
It’s the chance against inter last week that worrie me most. He’s got to be clutch
Chukwu Ratings is harsh why 5.5 he played better than Loftus..I think the media is against ChukwuHe was every where on the pitch assisting after the red card…
Media you can do better
Stop. He was not better than Loftus. RLC used his physicality to make a number of tackles and recover the ball as well as a beautiful chip shot from a tough angle that went off the crossbar. Chuku did a lot of dribbling that lead to nothing, as usual.
On another note, Fonseca with a smart move putting the armband on Leao. Never saw him work so much. Maybe the coach knows what he’s doing.
What did Loftus do again except hit a fluke cross that hit the bar?
Chucky was terrible again today and the fact he has the same rating as Abraham is a travesty
His passing is atrocious. He’s not good enough.
To be fair your rating system is a bit flawed because 5 should be mediocre as its in between good and bad performances.
Anywho good win but before we scored it wasn’t really an especially great match. Afterwards better than the majority of the first half but still nothing too special considering that Lecce already had lost the match but overall I would have taken a 3-0 win beforehand and the most important thing is to build upon the last match against inter.
Any system for ratings is relative though, no? It’s the Gazzetta dello Sport model (ish) and we explain in that article linked at the top.
Well it might be but its also simple math. Anyways just a small notion on my behalf.
60% up is a pass. Makes perfect sense.
Leao was superb today, and deserves 7.5, he was everywhere and defensively too
Yeah the overall performance was a bit insipid, but class won the day.
I’ll hope for more fluidity in future, but certainly pleased with the important 3 points, we are out of the hole we dug
Yeah it was lacking a bit but whos to complain when we win 3-0.
Yeah before we scored i was starting to get a bit irritated as we lacked some direction. Seems so at least we have surpassed this initial hurdle which is great but the next 5 matches will decide how far we have improved as most should be wins but I’m fairly optimistic for now and think we will only get better if we can keep the squad intact from injuries.
I would add that Leao was a 7 because he also worked hard and effectively in the defensive phase. It was good to see
The eval of Puli is frustrating. Not because it is inaccurate rather because it is spot on.
Why are we not able to play up both sides on a game effectively?
It was like this last year as well.
What I mean is that we always seems to look left, pass left and work the left. Very little came from the right and both Puli and Chuk were far more central than I’d have expected.
Nice win. Nice _rotation_. Barts was hard done. Surprised VAR didn’t overturn it since it was a straight red.
Forza Milan.
Lecce actually paid more attention to Pulisic than Leao. Lecce gave Leao loads of space and 1V1 opportunities. We were smart to hammer the left flank and it did eventually fall. Pulisic did have a few moments and his movement was good so I am not worried about it. I think the squad had a plan to go through Leao tonight.
Harsh rating for Tammy. He does need to do a little better with his finishing but he brings so much to this team with his energy, pressing and ball movement. He was unlucky not to score there.
Most played well. Emerson needs to do better.
Top of the table despite all the negative haters on here who were claiming the season was a disaster after just 3 games. Seeing less and less of them now. They only want to comment if they can complain. The team is only going to get better as the season goes on. Keep it up boys.
We won but it was an ordinary performance. Hope we keep improving game after game.
Maignan saved a lot and Leao run a lot.
There is more of Royal to improve in defence. And Abraham must start scoring.
Morata was 10.
Leao is definitely not a 7, can barely make it 6.5 for the assist and that is about it. Should never be a captain either.
The guy can’t pass, can’t shoot, can’t defend. He can do music though. Very limited in the football abilities however.
Can’t stand this scoop into nowhere he tries every single game, as it never works out & results in losing the momentum, the possession and potentially smart continuation of the attack. 9 out of 10 passes go to waste, while all shots end up either in the stands or in the goalkeepers gloves via the center.
His attitude is what is dragging the whole team down for years. Enough of this. I want him to be gone and fast.
He only need to go learn how to shot without be doing or trying to slant his posture while shooting.? This is doing him no goal…
Maybe he need to go watch Henry clips back at Arsenal. He’s the only one who does it at his best from that angle.
Spotted the Inter fan / troll.
Can’t pass?
I’m guessing you were looking the other way when he did a perfect assist for Theo on the 2nd goal.
Rafa was great today.
I don’t know what you people expect sometimes.
Great show of confidence by Fonseca to give him the arm band
Haters!!!
That’s exactly the same tackle Sommer made in Abraham in the Derby that wasn’t called for anything. It still baffles me how there can be varying standards in applying the laws in Serie A by the refs.
I often criticized Leao quite harshly but tonight for me he was the player of the match. The captain’s armband seems to have made him ambitious. Theo plays very well too. Pulisic always there, impressive in his opportunism to be where he needs to be almost match by match. For the first time I liked Fofana too. Keep going boys !
Leao was nowhere near the player of the match taoday, even if this performance was way better than the one at the derby. Theo was correctly noted as the MVP, and after him is Morata who opened the game with a great header and created havoc in the Pulisic goal. After Morata and Theo, I would pick Pulisic, then Leao
Another hater!!
Agree
Good results, nice win.
It didn’t look good during the first half before Milan scored the 1st goal. Lecce sat back and Milan looked like they had no idea how to brake them open, but then in 5 minutes the flood gates opened up.
Milan has few good players who are very good in the air in Morata and Abraham, I don’t know why they don’t cross the ball more in open play when a team is sitting back.
Really liked Musah. It looks like he is changing his game slowly, to what Fonseca ask of him to be more of a passer than a ball carrier. Also, he did great at LB after the red card.
Good games by Theo, Leao, Morata and Gabbia, the rest were OK. Tammy didn’t have a good game in front of the goal, but his effort is always on point.
Great to see Ante Rebic back in serie A.
Clean sheet and on to Leverkusen.
I liked Leao today, he gave the better version of himself!
Agreed, but this might be his 1 good game in 4 game. Let’s see what happens midweek.
Hey, a player who according to you has only now had ONE good game in 4 games, has collected 4 seasonal goal participations already (with three having happened before tonight), despite having played one fewer game than his companions (didn’t play the first game), and having sat for three fourths of another game. That’s pretty good for a forward, in terms of goal participations by minutes played, and it’s second best (only behind Puli), among all Milan players.
The hugely praised Lautaro Martinez this season over the same period has had one fourth of Rafa’s goal participations despite playing more minutes for Inter (only 1 assist for Lautaro; 1 goal and 3 assists for Rafa).
Midweek probably we’ll do poorly against Leverkusen, which I believe is currently a better team than Milan (and the game is away, making it even more difficult). I hope not, but I do expect a loss, and will find that a draw away against Leverkusen will be a fabulous result, if it happens. A win would be fantastic but I have little hope that it will happen. But even if Leão doesn’t do well against Leverkusen, it won’t change my good opinion of him.
I do expect, though, that all the Leão haters will come out in force and will harshly criticize him if we don’t beat Leverkusen, despite the fact that since the start of last season and in all competitions, Leverkusen has lost just once (to Atalanta) and hasn’t lost at home at all. So, losing to them at their home would be a rather normal result, but mark my words: haters will say it will be Rafa’s fault and will say he must be sold immediately.
You already have your excuses ready when Leao, the man you ve been embarrassingly glazing here for days, plays poorly midweek.
People criticize Leao’s effort, which 3 out of 4 games is embarrassing and lazy.
Stop embarrassing yourself with these desperate posts.
What first game did Leao miss? He played in the 1st game vs Torino and he was awful. Are you pretending that he didn’t play because of how bad he played?
You also said that he sat 3/4 of the Lazio game. Why did he sat that game? Did you forget or you choose to pretend? Because he was awful in the 2nd game and assisted to Parma’s winning goal.
Stop embarrassing yourself. You ain’t changing anyone’s opinion of Leao. People have their own eyes.
At least Leao ran this match, he was our best player besides his shooting.
Great team work. Morata has suddenly become so important to how Milan plays. He works so hard for the team in spite of not scoring many goals. I commented on Football kush’s page that gradually the team is grasping the coaches Ideas. This coach can take Milan far if the team is ready to work together. Apart from Fofana, the unexpected players like Abraham and. Morata are doing so well.
Although it’s still way too early to pass a judgement and only our second consecutive win but they seem more resilient and matured. More confident on the ball and in possession. Sure there are flaws and holes to patch but it would be unfair to say there’s no progression evident. Some tough games ahead, hoping for positive outcome and build up to this momentum.
I just don’t like this 4-2-4 in defense formation. It might work a trick in Serie A, but we will get burned in the CL like this.
I think quite the opposite. Teams in champions league always tend to attack so with this formation if we can transition quickly then we’ll be a huge threat. It’s all about fofana now staying back and helping that defence. That one little tactic has improved this team so much especially in midfield.
Fonseca was scaring the cr*p out of us there for a while but somehow he’s got this team playing again. I don’t know whether it’s trusting in Gabbia again, the formation change, or throwing team barbecues but whatever it is it’s working. 🙏
It’s all about consistently now, but we have to be more mobile off the ball, first 30 was dire, nobody looking to overlap, nobody running from
Midfield and nobody brave enough to make that killer pass. At times Tammy was looking to dart into space and nobody was looking
I’m happy to follow the derby with another win and with more positives to build on.
1.We seem to be more dangerous from set-pieces.
2. The two-striker system seems to be bringing out the best in Abraham and Morata.
3. Leao and Theo reminded us what they can bring to the table as individuals and as a duo. I understand why Leao gets criticized though I do think it is exaggerated. On the other hand, criticism of Theo is a mystery to me. He can have a bad game every now and then but overall, I’d say he has been consistent since joining Milan. His offensive production is incredible, he runs like hell, plays a lot of games, and has improved defensively over the years (even filling in as center back last season).
Maignan: did well. 6.5 is about right
Tomori and Gabbia, I thought they both did well and were solid; 6.5
Emerson Royal a 5.5 is about right.
Theo, co-MOTM together with Morata; both a 7.5 or even an 8.
Fofana, rather solid with some good defensive actions; did lose a couple too. I guess 6.5 is fine.
Reijnders, not as good as in the Derby. A 6 looks right.
Leão, great first half; worse in second half. More effort. 6.5
Morata, fabulous. co-MOTM with Theo. 7.5 or 8.
Abraham 5.5??? Puli’s goal had a lot of work by Abraham. 6.5, for me.
Puli, what a great player! 7.5.
RLC, Musah and Chuk all 3 get a pass from me; they were pretty decent.
Bartesaghi, that wasn’t a straight red. Yellow yes, but red, no.
Jovic, a nice attempt to pass to Chuk for an easy goal; but it went a bit off.
Mister Fonseca: 7.5. Again, he made our guys play as a team. The joy and the unit are back. Good approach to a tricky game: start the starters, secure the result, then rest them.
I just pray chukwueze leaves AC MILAN to a better top club ,the hatred the media n fans have for chukwueze is immeasurable. Another top club would be better for him.no matter how he performs, they won’t rate him.
Good win but we didn’t play that great at all. Emerson I don’t get at all. Not sure how long Morata can last as a ACM. We shall see. Average display – Fonseca still doesn’t convince me yet. But two wins in a row maybe we can slowly build more confidence. Bayern L on Tuesday will be a big test. Why not sub out Emersonn and give Jimenez a chance?
When are we going to call Chukuweze a bust??? 28M for this guy and he still cannot beat out Pulisic? Chukuweze and Musah – 48M – could have purchased a nice striker for that $$$. Oh well. We should sell the kid. 28M wasted on the bench
Chukwueze still can’t beat out Pulisic!?!?
You mean Milan’s best player, the most in form player in the whole league and the player with most goal contributions since he stepped foot in Italy?
Guys, those who found tonight’s game a bit underwhelming, let’s realize that the performance was lacking a bit because at a certain point our players looked tired. It wasn’t exactly easy to follow up on the huge effort that it took to beat Inter just a few days ago, and needing to avoid overdoing it because we have Leverkusen coming up and shouldn’t get exhausted or injured.
Morata, for example, was not at 100% physical condition, and he pretty much dictated the pace in the Derby so by Morata not being able to be as active, we were less good. Abraham also looked tired. Leão worked very hard and got tired in second half; he played all 90 minutes and again, it was fine to just manage it in the second half, given Leverkusen looming.
Still, we scored 3 goals, we are the most prolific Serie A offense, and we kept a clean sheet. I’d say overall it was very positive.
Ideal scenario.
We sealed the deal soon, got the 3 points, didn’t conceide goals, subbed out key players early and didn’t get injured.
Now onto Leverkusen.
A decent game, and good pressing by the forwards. But, too many balls passing through our middle, and also beating our defense. This formation may not work against Leverkusen. We may need an extra player in the middle. Our players also have to improve their passing in the middle, while our strikers need to finish better.
Pulisic is in such crazy good form right now. 7 games 5 goals, and I think 4 assists.
And he’s not a one trick pony either. He’s highly skilled.