AC Milan failed to clinch their first point(s) in the 2024-25 edition of the Champions League as Bayer Leverkusen prevailed 1-0 tonight. The Rossoneri fought hard, perhaps even a bit unlucky, 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 (7.5 – MOTM): The goalkeeper made a couple of very good traditional saves to deny the home side but above all, he stopped several dangerous crosses from reaching their intended targets. Even if not fully, he got them out of harm’s way. He was also good with his feet.
Emerson Royal (6): Taking the entire game into consideration, he did enough to get a pass here as he was constantly available when going forward and also did okay on the ball. Defensively, he was beaten a few times but also had good moments.
Gabbia (6): Calm and collected for most of the game, with some good interventions, and the goal was an unlucky one to concede for the entire defence.
Tomori (6): Just like his centre-back colleague, he defended well for most of the game and his pace allowed Milan to have slightly higher positions on the left-hand side. He perhaps could have done better on the goal, but it was a great run and an even better pass.
Hernandez (6.5): Helped out Milan quite a lot going forward, using his ‘cut-inside skills’ relatively often to open up space. He defended well for the most part too, even if it wasn’t always easy against such a fast opponent. He also hit the bar with a thumping effort, albeit deflected.
Fofana (7): In my opinion, this was the best game from the Frenchman in the Milan shirt. He truly commanded the play in that second half – when the Rossoneri actually got going – and even created a couple of good chances himself. His defending was very important too and this is exactly what we want to see from him.
Loftus-Cheek (6): While he perhaps wasn’t the most creative player, he added much-needed physicality and had the right movement. He was also quite unlucky not to get a goal after managing to keep his effort down on the half-volley.
Pulisic (6): He was almost always available, like Emerson Royal, and picked up some good positions in the centre-right of the pitch. More incisiveness in attack would have been nice, but he just about gets a pass here.
Reijnders (5.5): This is going to sound very harsh, but only because we know just how well he can do normally. Don’t get me wrong, his movement was more or less spot on throughout the game, but he wasn’t best friends with the ball and that hurt him in the critical moments. The missed chance when he was through, thinking there was still a defender there, was fatal.
Leao (5.5): Again, it might seem harsh given the fact that in the first half, he was our only source of output with some good runs to give us a breather. However, the feeling is that he could have done a lot more in attack in that second half.
Abraham (6): He worked incredibly hard from start to finish and probably should have had a penalty, brought down in the penalty box after a nice run with the ball. It was also nice to see him battle away in the aerial duels, with some success too.
Substitutes
Morata (6): It was more or less what you would expect from him, with hard work and an ability to get on the ball when the crosses came in. Unfortunately, perhaps except for the rebound on Theo’s effort, there were no clear-cut chances for him.
Chukwueze (5): Poor crosses and rash decisions in the first phase of the defence. This was certainly not what we wanted to see from the winger tonight.
What.
The best Fofana game from the moment he comes to Milan. He level up his evolution. Keep going
Please don’t start RLC, he should play when opposition is tired in the second half.
We will not win anything if RLC starts the match
A very foolish coach, why deviate from what works?
RLC shouldn’t be starting any game he is just so absent and our midfield constantly overrun, he is just a waste of mass.
I really need to see a pairing of Gabbia and Pavlovic, the Tomori dude is just over doing, complains alot and is always out of position.
The earlier we cashout on Leao the better for this team…
SO ridiculous the RLC hate. Meanwhile Reijnders ruined so many scoring chances today and not a mention about him. Reijnders was clearly our worst midfielder today but yeah, let’s blame it all on RLC. Same old boring story.
Both RLC and Rejndiers were not good enough. Milan need much better mids.
You don’t know how to defend the performance of your favorite player, so you constantly try to compare him to another player. One day it’s Reijnders, another day Tonali or Fofana or …
Thing is, the pairing of Fofana and Reijnders has worked, as both are excellent midfielders. It’s the coach’s fault to upset that. Loftus has no place in the starting line-up and whenever he starts the team is weaker. It’s not his fault, he is the average player that he is, it’s the coach’s fault for starting him. He could be useful as a sub or in certain, easier games.
Meanwhile, seems to me you need to have a kid and name him Ruben.
Wow, don’t know how to respond touch a brilliant comment.
It’s the pairing of Morata and Abraham that has really worked. And the lineup he put out today would’ve worked if Reijnders could finish easy chances inside the box. But I’m sure that is RLC’s fault as well.
It’s very simple They’ve been here the same amount of time, and who has better production? RLC has played more good games in a Milan jersey than Reijnders has, not even close. Reijnders had his one and only great game against Inter. (Which by the way in that game it was RLC that won the free kick against Dimarco that we won the game on.) That’s literally the only game where he was excellent since he’s been here. The rest is just more games like today. A few nice dribbles, a couple nice passes, and nothing to show for it.
Deserved loss
Honestly, we have to say that Leverkusen is much better than us, both in terms of individuality but also in collective terms. They’re fast, know each other and play fast. Also that referee…
We could have equalized, but also had Frimpong learned how to aim, we could have lost by a big margin.
There are certainly many things we’ve done wrong. I understand we’ve decided to leave the possession to them and focus on defense, but our counters were bad mostly. They mostly consisted on one player running with the ball until he ran out of options. Compare to Leverkusen who play fast one two touches to one another. Defensively we simply didn’t have an answer to their collective play and we let them had their way in the midfield.
Onto the players individually
Maignan: man of the match for Milan. He saved us from a big loss really
Theo: Not his worst game considering he had to deal with Frimpong, but he still has habits of over carrying the ball and didn’t close his lane very effectively.
Gabbia & Tomori: Leverkusen’s dynamic play made them look really bad and they were always a step behind.
Emerson: Might as well have put a cone instead of him. Boniface had a field day with him and offensively all his attempts lacked precision and killed our rare opportunities.
Reijnders: lacked precision, didn’t pass quickly enough when needed and seriously my man really needs to work on his shooting. One year later and he still can’t shoot to save our lives.
Loftus-Cheek: Hadn’t been for that shot towards the end I would have forgotten he played
Fofana: By far our best midfielder tonight (which isn’t saying much really). On the negative, he still bull rushes leaving space behind and over does it with dribbling and sometimes silly shots. On the positive, he was quite active during the second half both offensively and defensively, crossed some good balls and didn’t allow Leverkusen’s players too much freedom. You can also see that he has a good fighting spirit.
Leao: Aside from some good runs in the second half, he was once again unfocused and lacked precision.
Pulisic: Not his best game tonight, and when he got the ball, the opportunities were lacking.
Abraham: Couldn’t make something out of the few opportunities he got and his pressing was ineffective
Morata: His entry did provide dynamic to us and I think he should’ve started, but he lacked precision with many shots.
Chukwueze: Didn’t do much
So far we have 0 points after 2 games, not the first time really. You could argue we had games we were never really gonna win.
Hopefully after the break, we will get softer teams (with the exception of Real Madrid), so it’s up to us not to screw things up.
Leverkusen are further ahead into their project. 3 years in with the same coach, only improving. Milan is 7 games in with a new coach and a new system …
Big ‘plus one’ from me to this – it was a side in their stride vs one getting used a new system. We were competitive with one of Europe’s best teams from last season – no overreaction from me
We looked good against a team that was better and further ahead into their project.
We looked good in the second half. First half was troubling.
Thats tru we didn’t look bad in general.
Re: Pulisic opportunities were lacking. Rafa missed him wide open at the spot in the first half. He set the table for Reijinders in the 2nd. Chuk is a huge drop off.
Too much complaining on the field about the refs. None of the ‘missed’ calls were actually fouls. Shut-up and play.
Player Ratings are pretty spot on… Fofana was immense. We played with “courage” as Fonseca keeps saying and that was the main thing. We were unlucky too but the ref, who should’ve been invisible, was the star of the show 👏
Courage ?? Walking around and passing around our defense and goalie is what you call courage ? Allowing and inviting constant pressure without creating anything the first 65mins is what you call courage ? It’s a shame this is what Milan has become. This coach should be lighting a fire for these players to learn how to pass around and move around rather than holding into the ball for too long and expect counters to win us games. In European modern football, you have to have the whole team moving and passing. That’s why Atalanta and Inter are the only Italian teams that do well against other European teams outside of Italy. Those teams play expansive game but we only play wing play. When was the last time you saw us create from the middle ? This is Pioli all over again. SMH
Yeh “courage” – sounds like you missed the second half…
We lacked clinical finishing in front of the goal, which ultimately led to our loss. Although Leverkusen dominated us in the first half, we applied significant pressure on them in the second half.
The team’s performance is better when Morata plays because of how he covers ground and presses. Fofana had a great game as well.
But the referee won Bayer Leverkusen the game.
FIRST OF ALL THE REF WAS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS.
Let Bayer get away with murder.
Secondly, all the people saying why don’t they play Reijnders at AM, that he’s so much beter than RLC there, now do you see? If you remember Pioli tried him there in the preseason and the first couple games of last season but the dude can’t finish to save his life. That’s why Pioli moved him back. How did he not score today. Wide open 3 yards from goal and he can’t even pull the trigger. Can’t even get his shot off. gets caught under his feet, then has to cut it back. It was infuriating to watch.
Morata is an amazing player. I knew he was good but I’m even more impressed by how complete a player he is and how much effort he brings every game. A great example for the rest of the team to follow.
It was a good response by Milan after conceding but where was this team in the first half?
I think our fullbacks play too central, every time they switched fields on us they were alone in acres of space. That seems to be a continuing problem.
Some good signs in the second half but we can’t wait until we are behind to start playing like that.
What did RLC do that was head & shoulders above Reijnders?
Other than the fact that RLC has scored more goals for Milan in fewer games and had a successful career which includes winning titles, tonight he was poor but he still made himself available for the ball, won free kicks, moved the ball quickly, and had that volley.
Reijnders just did his usual thing – nothing.
But the apologetic rating above shows the level of bias towards this player who since coming to Milan has presided over our non-existent midfield.
To quote flyingturtle: “you’re an idiot”
Insightful response.
Reijnders’s was not good Today I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, but let’s not act like RLC was good either. The article said nonexistent.
I’m sorry, man. I just honestly don’t have much else to tell you unfortunately. I’ll do us both a favor and just skip your comments so we can keep this civi.
Reijnders missed so many opportunities in this game , for himself and for others. Right from the start of the game where Leao put him in and Reijnders first touch hit it right to the keeper. Or the missed chances in front of goal, which has always been his problem and why Pioli moved him back.
Not saying RLC was so much better in this game, but my point is just look at the amount of negative comments RLC gets vs what Reijnders gets on here. It’s not justified. If RLC had missed the amount of chances Reijnders did they would be running him out of town right now. Reijnders can’t finish and if you can’t finish you can’t play up there.
The fact that RLC get the criticism has nothing to do with what Reijnders does or doesn’t do. You’re deflecting.
Both Reijnders and RLC had chances and missed chances. Both drive the ball forward. But Reijnders range of passing and vision is far superior to RLC’s, especially in the final third.
It’s not to say RLC is poor. They just have different characteristics. Should Reijnders have buried his chance in front of goal? ABSOLUTELY. Should RLC have been involved more? ABSOLUTELY.
RLC’s criticism comes from his inconsistencies since last season, especially since we’ve seen what he’s capable of against PSG. But you deflect his criticism onto Reijnders. Not sure why.
It’s got nothing to do with chances!
It’s the fact that Reijnders keeps us stuck in our half because he won’t make himself available or move the ball quickly!
Nobody is deflecting anything. RLC was our best midfielder last season by almost any measurement you want to use.
Reijnders was excellent against Inter, the best game he has for us, I’ll give him credit for that. Can you think of another game where he was great for us? Because I can’t. I can name a number of games off the top of my head where RLC was our best player including a Champions League game against PSG where he was the best player on the pitch.
Yet, you’ll rarely see any criticism of Reijnders on here. Never has someone done so little and gotten away with it.
He’s played more minutes than anyone and has virtually no goals or assists to show for it, and he’s not particularly good defensively either. He’s a good dribbler , can make some good passes, but he cannot finish. SO you like to say RLC is not an AM, well neither is Reijnders.
The biggest issue I have with RLC is his inconsistent displays. The fact that he scored 10 goals last season is impressive, but that’s simply due to his late runs into the box. That’s also how Jovic and Okafor scored as well – does that mean they were impressive? I wouldn’t call them that.
RLC, for his physicality and pace, drives forward well, but he doesn’t create a chance at the end of it. Of all the goals he scored last season, none came as a finish to his own drive, you know what I mean?
Reijnders is far from a finished product, but his calcio verticale is the best on this team, bar none. Like I said earlier, these drives won’t always result in a goal, but more often than not, he will lay the ball on a pass to a player resulting in an opportunity. He’ll do that more than RLC any day of the week.
I’m not sure Fonseca has fully figured out how to use the combination of RLC/Fofana/Reijnders and will probably tinker more with it until it’s better. But on any given match day, I would take my chances with Reijnders behind a striker rather than RLC.
I’ll take unimpressive goals over missed chances and impressive dribbles that lead to nothing everyday of the week. Those unimpressive goals are the same chances that Reijnders could have and should have scored today. If you are impressed by fancy dribbles that lead to nothing I know a RW you’ll love… He’s on our team already.
“RLC was our best midfielder last season by almost any measurement you want to use”.
RLC didn’t even play as a midfielder last year, he played as a 2nd striker right next to Giroud
Morata is amazing.
I can’t believe the impact he’s having on the team where he single handily raises the level of everyone around him.
This is what we needed from our midfielders.
In fairness tonight Fofana stepped up.
Small correction the beginning of last season both riders and RLC playing the 433 flat with no designated am
Please just sell leao. Beat Emerson. And sell chuwkueze to domino so he can be delivering pizzas. Cause this guy’s don’t add. Nothing to the team.
My joy in this game was gabbia. I’m so happy for him and how he is growing in his performance.
He has bleed and suffered for and with this team for years now. I’m happy for him
Milan should be ashamed to play leverkusen the way they did today. Even Lazio won’t play this way.
Yes it was beautiful after leverkusen scored. They play wonderful game. What would have happened if they played that way from the beginning. We’ll never know.
Please we should just sell leao. It hurts to believe in someone so much and yet they put up this kind of show. Every single time. I thought he will grow. But he has grown already. He is a dead weight to this team.
Fonseca needs goal. He brought in chuwkueze. When we have Okafor. I’ll. Prefer keeping pulisic.
You are so dramatic, like a teen girl. No matter how many threads you post this comment on, it’s still dense and lacking any insight.
Leao has contributed as much as Lautaro and Puli since the beginning of last season. Don’t see you huffing and puffing over Pulisic about it. Food for thought.
Go scream in a pillow.
LEAO is such a huge disappointment !!! PLAYS THE ENTIRE GAME STINKING UP THE PLACE ! LAZY LAZY LEAO. YOU GUYS HAVE TO STOP LIVING IN THE PAST! SELL LEAO ! HE HAS PEAKED AND IS NOT A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR THE REST OF THE TEAM. SELL LAZY LAZY LEAO !!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously disappointed with the result, draw would have been the fair outcome, but encouraged by the performance of the team.
I think they started a little scared or reserved, allowing Bayer to dominate the possession, but after the goal Milan was absolutely the better team.
Boniface caused them a lot of problems. The way he played today reminded me of Lukaku during his 1st stint at inter. He was just too big, too strong, too fast.
Besides Maignan, who was great, Fofana looked very good. He gets better with each game. Reijnders had a very good overall game but he was poor with his finishing and final ball on some occasions.
Don’t usually talk about the refereeing, but it was very one sided today.
The schedule didn’t favor Milan, but after the Liverpool and Bayer games they should have very winnable games in UCL and the team looks better ans better with each game.
On to Fiorentina.
What was Reijnders ‘good overall game’?
Was it his over hit pass to Pulisic which made the latter run into the corner or the overhit cross in the next move?
Reijnders has this amazing ability to make his teammates run more.
Your understanding of football doesn’t go much pass whining after mediocre ex Milan Primavera players.
Another great bit of insight?
You could hear Abraham’s scream when Reijnders over hit that cross.
He’s killing his team mates.
Compare his contribution to Morata’s when he dropped into that role against Inter, or even RLC’s in the better games he’s had like against PSG.
Name a single match winning performance he’s given?
T H E D E R B Y ! ! ! P L E A S E R E W A T C H I T F O R C R Y I N G O U T L O U D ! ! !
What are you talking about, our most consistent player last season was Reijnders. He hardly had a bad game. As someone else said you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, you should take the Maldini name off your profile, you’re a disgrace of a “fan”, as I told you before you don’t belong here, go support City.
So you suddenly decided to be all over Reinjders? I have to say, you sure are a very strange person. What happened to defending the players who play for Milan?
Now Reijnders is not Seedorf but he is actually a good midfielder and a starter in Netherland national team. Loftus-Cheek as a player is not here nor there and is not allowed within 10km of England’s training ground.
This is bias rating on Chukweze. He was more involved than Leao that played the overall 90mins.
Although he made some rash decisions but, Atleast it was intended for going forward.
Tomori and Gabbia were decent.
Emerson was a waste of money to be honest.
Leao should be sold now, let him go to a club he can walk causally while other players are working their a:::es.
Chukweze should have come in for Leao and Musah had every reason to come on to replace RLC
I wish we still had Tonali in this team. We need that Gattuso energy in the middle and allow reinjers play the Pirlo role.
Nice joke. As far as I’m concerned, Chukwueze is more suited to do what Messias used to do for a living, certainly not playing football. Awful player.
Are you for real, Chukwueze was poor and should be compared to Emerson “slave” nothing Royal about him, what a waste, Boniface just kept making a mess of him, in fact I had my heart in my mouth each time Bayern Lev attacked down the right, cos it’s a free pass
We were awful defensively and offensively until we concede and we were awful in converting chances when Leverkusen were awful so we were more awful and rightly deserve to lose despite ref were on the other side.
Morata: two easy header put one wide and other straight to keeper’s hand.
Rienjder: confuse at decision making, two missed chances, one simplest of tap in and he decided to wait for defenders to come and hit straight with in reach of keeper.
RLC : hit straight to keeper
Literally was Hustling today to get the ball back. Either you have some preconceived bias or you didn’t watch the match. Pick one?
Sucks we lost but the improvement from the Liverpool game was exceptional. Hope to see more against Real Madrid.
Im done with Royal and Chuk. Hope they improve but I’d prefer to only see them when we have a lead and no youngster to sub in ahead of them.
Mangion reminded me why is is considered world class today.
What I found most encouraging was that we had the same identity today we have had since the derby. We clearly have a way to go to stay on the pitch with Liverpool, Leverkusen and RM, but we have a clear identity and that is more than we had last year.
I would say Leao gets a 6. He lost the ball and worked to get the ball back immediately. He played his role on defense. He needs to improve individually in those areas but he is doing dirty work.
Looking forward to Fiorentina to prove we can win a game we are supposed to after a tough loss like this.
Leao was decent, a 6.5, this guy Isak has something against Leao all the time, he love to rate him low all the time
The team is clearly improving and playing better and that’s the key takeaway here.
I think Milan woke up too late because if we applied this much pressure more throughout the game we could have scored. We gave them too much respect by staying deeper in the first half, weathering the storm and to be honest held up pretty well considering how much of the ball they had.
Second half was much better. Second half of the second half was best, but again a bit unlucky with the finishing. One moment of inattention at the back cost us a goal. But overall the team didn’t mentally collapse going down a goal.
People criticize Reijnders in front of goal, and I admit that his finishing is lacking. But I was more shocked at how Morata missed an open goal.
Fofana looked really good today. RLC was spotty – on again, off again. Emerson survived Rt Flank, although Calabria would not have done much better.
I would like to see Leao involved more and take his players on more. Not sure what Fonseca is working with him on defensively. I don’t think I saw Leao take a single shot on goal today.
I was curious why didn’t make any more subs outside of Chuk and Morata…
Overall, again, I was glad to see the team actually respond mentally after conceding. Much better showing than the first game …
It’s not about the misses but the fact that he once again takes too many touches.
Whereas Morata was involved three times before he missed the open goal including passing it quickly across to Theo.
It’s the speed of thought, play and movement that is lacking in Reijnders. I’m less concerned with his lack of goals but it is amusing how people criticise others who have scored more in fewer games .
RLC Scored more than most players last year because PE basically played him as a second striker. Nobody’s denying how good Rlc is at Finishing as chances when he disconnects the entire play, it comes at a price.
Morata is 32 having played in many Top clubs across Europe learning from players better than him in every way.
Reijnders has played at AZ before his move to Milan learning from no one of note so far. Sprinkle Reijnders for 7 years in Morata’s clubs and watch him run circles around anyone.
And you don’t evensee any flaws in your argument … Scary
Reijnders is a central midfielder and his partnership with Fofana has worked, so it’s the coach’s fault to try and move him up the pitch. Leave the midfield pairing alone. Put Cheek up front if you have to but obviously best case scenario is Cheek on the bench, Fofana-Reijnders in midfield, and Morata-Abraham in attack.
I don’t like to do this but the ref today was AWFUL. There could have been at least one penalty in each half and the amount of fouls leverkusen made where their players stopped knowing its a foul and he waves play on.
I actually think we’re finally playing like a team. Much more compact and creative compared to the first 3 games. Leao needs to figure it out because he was such a weak point today. Reijnders too was poor.
Fofana was immense. We have figured his role out in this team. Had Morata been healthy and started this Game I feel it would have gone different. But way too many missed chances, Need to be clinical infront of goal.
Hate being 0-2 in champions league but we have had a hard start and we just need to beat the bottom teams and we can advance.
After the ref was a disgrace.
Fofana was a huge improvement and it was a shame we didn’t start Morata who is essential if we are to leave our half.
First, Leverkusen played at home. Second, the referee refereed shamefully. Thirdly, in the first half, Milan showed us that they know how to defend, while in the second, they showed us that they know how to play positional attacks, not just counterattacks. Anyone who doesn’t see positives from this match knows nothing about this game 😉
This^^
I agree there are positives as well as further confirmation that Reijnders is our number one problem in midfield with his lack of presence and we need Morata to give us said presence.
Complain all we want about the refs but our players were falling around for no reason thruout the game to the extent that the acting even pissed me off. Yes some calls were questionable but When you act too much you lose credibility. Asking our players to play for set pieces was a terrible game plan ffs. Leao,RLC, Theo, Emerson all did it too much. Pulisic was the only one that wanted to keep playing even when he’s being fouled.
Leverkusen were better but Milan did well and had a lot of chances in the second half. That’s three matches in a row with a lot of positives in terms of performance so credit to Fonseca and the players. There’s still a lot of work to be done, chemistry will come with time, but a long-term plan needs to be put forth (something lacking since last season’s mercato). Is 4-4-2 now the way for the next two-three seasons? Who are the players we’re building the team around? Which areas need reinforcements? A clear plan was the key to our success under the previous management.
Emerson’s speed is a problem, teams are coming after him every match. Rafa is talented, but if he doesn’t get the pass he likes or something doesn’t go his way he just stops and stands complaining and that is getting annoying. Leverkusen have been beating teams 3-0, 4-0, only lost one game since last season started. Scored 144 goals last season til date. I see why they play quick passes and have a fast team. All that being said I think there are signs of improvement and we did scare Leverkusen, definitely should of been 1-1 at least with Morata missing some headers and reindeers sitter he didn’t pull the trigger on until it was too late, Pulisic should get a shot out for playing that pass to reindeer’s so saying he just about gets a pass with a 6 could of been he gets a 6 for a decent shift and teeing up reindeers for a sitter, and he held possession well. The ref sucked also, wouldn’t even give VAR a chance to review fouls that didn’t get called.
Yes, referee was poor. But WHY did Milan need to concede goals in order to be allowed by Fonseca to take the initiative in the match?! They sat deep, invited Leverkusen to take charge before reacting. Naïve and cowardly. Best performance?! Get him out. Only a loser plays like this and blames the referee afterwards.
Well, if we had played offensively from the beginning, who knows what would have happened? Maybe we’d win… but we might also lose 5-0; even when we were playing defensively, Leverkusen put a lot of pressure on our defense.
So, Fonseca was in a difficult position. I’m sure that if he had ordered the team to press more in first half and then we had conceded 3 goals in first half, people would be crucifying him for not taking Leverkusen seriously and not being more defensively prudent.
It seems like Fonseca was going for a draw, playing away, against a very solid opponent; they’ve been a well-oiled machine under one coach and one system; we are not there yet. So, going for a draw at their stadium is not the worst of ideas. When we conceded, then, lost by one, lost by one thousand, it doesn’t matter, so he signaled to the boys that they should attack. Yes, the offensive volume we then produced indicates that maybe we’d have been better off if we were attacking from the beginning… but maybe not, maybe we would have just conceded two more goals. It’s hard to say.
With a less biased ref we could have collected two PKs and Leverkusen could have played with one man down.
Mike and Fofana were our best players. Morata had an immediate impact but damn, he should have buried that header after Theo’s crossbar hit. Theo was our third best player. These four did well.
Neither Rafa nor Puli contributed a lot, tonight. The former seemed to regress after the good performance against Lecce, and the latter is probably exhausted from all the effort he has produced since the beginning of the season.
Reijnders was actually detrimental; he wasted a couple of good opportunities. RLC paradoxically was more decent tonight than Reijnders.
Abraham looked exhausted and got a bit banged up. Not his fault.
Tomori and Gabbia weren’t terrible but nothing great either. Emerson was again atrocious; couldn’t win duels; ineffective in offense. I don’t know what we should do for the RB position. Emerson is clearly not the answer; Calabria is in frank decline. Jimenez can’t defend. Maybe Musah as RB. We shouldn’t have lost Kalulu.
Chuk was equally ineffective. By now I think of him as a bust.
We played better than in the Liverpool game, despite a very poor first half. On this, I blame Fonseca a bit. We were too low block in the first half, too timid and afraid. After we conceded and finally decided to attack, we created problems for Leverkusen. Maybe if we had attacked all 90 minutes we could have tied or even won. But this is easier said than done; Leverkusen had sufficient firepower in first half to really crush us if we had played too offensively; Mike had to work hard.
Overall Leverkusen did merit the win, but maybe, for what we demonstrated after minute 55, it would have been fairer to draw this game.
Still, there is nothing to be ashamed of. We played a good team in their home and we were badly damaged by an incompetent (or biased?) ref.
Isn’t it time to give Calabria and Okafor more space. I mean the argument that Royal isn’t worse or something is starting to sound ridiculous. Calabria canceled out Mbappe and Kvara in the last two seasons. Sure, he is capable of some very bad games, but he is more passionate and tactically aware that that lost soul we wasted money on.
As for Rafa, he is not irreplaceable, not with that attitude. Okafor would’ve added more danger in last third since he doesn’t only stay on the wing.
Reijnders always trying to complicate clear chances is officially becoming a thing and the coaching stuff should spend extra time on that.
Mike, Matteo and Fofana were the best on the field. A quiet game for Tammy and Pulisc, had to luck to play in the first half when we approach the game too defensively. Theo had annoying moments like trying to beat the keeper from our half, but also some decent interventions against a tough customer like Frimpong. Tomori – the usual inadequacy after a strong cross from the flang, got lucky with the offside call. Takes part of the blame for the goal, though. Morata gave us a huge boost, Samu did the opposite.
The overall reaction was quite encouraging, but we should’ve started the second half that way, instead of waiting for their goal. What about those referees, they did all they could to help Bayer. Nothing should surprise us at this point. It’s going to get a whole lot worse in Serie A if we stay close to Inter for a longer period of time. Sadly, the same incidents happen to us in Europe as well.
Not bad, considering we are practically playing with 10 players each time RLC starts. Lets keep healthy as we have nothing exciting on the bench. I miss Saladmaker, never know when he will surprise you, while Cukwatze is a waste.
Ref was a disgrace.
Overall it was positive and Fofana especially was a positive as we now seem to finally have a midfielder. We’re still lacking someone beside him since Reijnders offers nothing and RLC is not good defensively.
Morata is improvement on RLC in the attacking phase and needs to start every game.
We need to find another solution to Reijnders. Musah seems to be the only other option which is utterly bizarre given how many midfielders we’ve been through in the past 2 seasons.
People criticise Emerson but Fonseca leaves our full backs exposed.
He did put in a good cross. Obviously we need to get the captain back.
At least we have another 26 games to turn it around with the new format (sarcasm alert).
SofaScore ratings for Milan players vs Bayer:
Maignan 8.5
Theo 7
Tomori 7
Gabbia 6.9
Emerson 6.8
RLC 7.1
Fofana 7.5
Leao 6.5
Reijnders 7.2
Pulisic 7.2
Abraham 6.7
Morata 6.9
Chukwueze 6.7
These ratings are too generous. Yes, Maignan and Fofana were our two best players so I agree with the ratings for the two of them, but I don’t see why Puli and Reijnders should have collected a 7.2; and 6.7 for Chukwueze, for doing what, exactly? Emerson 6.8? For me, more like a 4.
What about your favorite player who is the lowest rated Milan player in a game AGAIN?
No comment about his rating?
You were triggered the other day when someone said that Leao plays 1 good game out of every 4 games. Let’s check Leao’s last 4 games. Vs Liverpool a$$ cheeks, vs Inter a$$ cheeks, vs Lecce a good game, vs Bayer a$$ cheeks. That’s 1 out of 4, and the only good game happened vs a relegation serie A team.
You should go and tell that person who said that about Leao that he was right and you were wrong. I think it was @Vero Rossonero
I’m perfectly capable of seeing Rafa’s shortcomings. If you look at my very post here in this thread, you will see that I said he didn’t do anything tonight and I also said he was disappointing.
And no, he isn’t my favorite Milan player. That would be Pulisic, whose name and number are on my Milan jersey. I defend Leão because of the unreasonable and exaggerated attacks he suffers. If you start attacking Pulisic, I’ll defend him too.
I won’t blindly defend just any Milan player for the simple fact that he plays for Milan. For example, you won’t see me defending Origi. But Rafa? Absolutely I’ll defend him. He produces about 30 goal participations by season. Origi? Zero, one, or two at most.
Yes, Rafa disappears in many games. But he is also decisive in many others and by season end he consistently becomes the highest or the second highest Milan player for goals and assists. It was the case in all three of the last three seasons, and so far it’s been the case this season too: currently he has 4, only below Pulisic. No player is good every game, not even Messi.
So, no, that person was not right and I was not wrong. Rafa is a very helpful player for Milan due to his numerous goals and assists, and in most games, even when he doesn’t do well, he still creates scoring opportunities. In one of these games you are bashing him for, the Derby, he headed a great ball, saved by miracle by Sommer, had another good shot saved by Sommer, and gave to Reijnders a great pass that should have been an assist if not for Reijnders wasting it. So, often even when Rafa doesn’t do well (which I acknowledged in my comments about the Derby) he still creates scoring opportunities.
Why should I apologize to people whose life online is consumed by bashing a Milan player? I’m a real rossonero, so, I don’t go into these hatred frenzies regarding one of our most prolific forwards. I don’t even go into crusades against someone like Origi, so why should I do it regarding Rafa?
Listen to Kaká; the other day he said that he considers the criticism of Rafa to be excessive. Tell me, who should I rather trust? You? “Vero Rossonero”? Or Kaká?
I’ll stay with Kaká.
Just beaten by a better team. I hate saying that, especially in European ties, where Milan are legendary.
We obviously need time and work and are going in the right direction. I just don’t know how far this team can go with Emerson, RLC, Chucky. We are low on midfield options, defense is certainly Gabbia/Tomori now and we still are lacking a clinical striker.
Feels like we have gone back 3 years in our development
I disagree. We have taken huge strides forward in our development with a new coach and a new system …
Yes we are moving in the right direction, again. Unfortunately we are back at the level we were 3 years ago, losing to Liverpool and Athletico but giving it a good go.
At that time our team was maturing and we only really needed a striker and a AM/RW
Now we are on a similar level, still need a clinical striker in their prime, a RB (despite having had Kalulu on the books), and certainly another midfielder.
The structure of the squad is not right or doesn’t reflect the formations we play
Crazy comments from some crazy people, the second half was more than decent. But we can’t play this style of football during European ties. We need to spread the play instead of trying route 1 all the time. We could’ve gotten more from this fixture no doubt. But the some people are losing their minds here, they think this is FIFA on your playstation. The same people calling for Reijnders and RLC’s heads are the same people that defended Tonali and Bennacer for getting ripped apart by said RLC. Calm down. Need I remind you l, our previous deep laying playmaker in Bennacer has 8 goals and 11 assists in 171 games for us, and Tonali sitting on 7 and 13 in 130 matches. Reijnders is sitting on 4 and 8 in 52 matches despite playing in a role that isn’t is natural role, and RLC sitting on 10 and 2 in 48 games. For guys not used to playing in a double pivot they’ve certainly done their job. If anything if Fofana develops into what we expect him to be it will give them much more freedom to be creative. Let’s not pretend as regista/Mezzala that they are worse what we previously had because those two were massively carried by Franck.
Milan’s mistake was that they did not play an attacking style from minute one. Leverkusen harm you if you stay defensive, that is why they have scored many goals after the 90th minute. They are not the team of the last season. In fact they started to weaken their game in the last stages of the last season. Bad decision from Milan. Should have studied Atalanta vs Leverkusen and this season’s Leipzig vs Leverkusen.
Easier said than done, because when we are too offensive, we concede too many goals. Fonseca was prudent while playing away against a very good team. It could have worked with a tiny bit of luck (we produced some really near misses), and with a competent and unbiased ref – Leverkusen should have played with one man down as there were ample grounds to expel one of their players, and not just one, but two PKs could have been called for us.
Had Fonseca pressed too high in first half, and then had we conceded 3 goals, people here would be saying the opposite, that obviously we needed to defend more.
It’s hard to know what would have worked best. He tried something, it didn’t pay off, by a hair. Maybe if he had tried something else, it would have been even worse. Or not. We just don’t know.
Barring an injury crisis, there’s no one who can convince me that RLC should be at this club little-lone starting. But Moncada went into the season with just 5 midfielders and one is constantly injured.
Fonseca didn’t play for a win from the start. When we had that mentality, we matched them.
Lastly, the ref was abhorrent.
The thing I regret is a bit of a déjà vue. Remember the numerous opportunities we missed in the first two games of the last Champions League, against Newcastle at home and Dortmund away? Had we scored only one of those numerous chances, we’d have survived the “group of death.”
Now we have three of the best teams in Europe in our list, Liverpool, Leverkusen, and Real Madrid. So, we can’t afford missed opportunities which aren’t that numerous when playing against such good teams.
Tonight we could have scored several goals but missed by a hair. I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us like last season.