AC Milan left it late but eventually managed to clinch all three points away at Cremonese. Win aside, however, there are some things to complain about and below are the player ratings.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): Cremonese had some good chances but often sent their efforts wide, so it was really only one dangerous chance that he had to intervene on and that header was pretty much straight at him. Still, a decent display.
Tomori (6): Good performance overall with solid defending and some contributions in the build-up. It looks like he was worse than his colleagues based on these ratings but that’s really only because of the goal contributions, which I shall get to.
De Winter (6.5): There were maybe a few concerns when Djuric came on but he handled the Bosnian well too. The flick-on for Pavlovic on the opening goal was great and he also headed the ball to Fullkrug in the build-up to the second.
Pavlovic (7): Such a crucial goal scored, although it looked like he almost didn’t know it was happening. The description right place at the right time still works, though, so it’s only justified to give him a rating here for breaking the ice.
Saelemaekers (5.5): He was heavily involved in the first half, and perhaps should have had one or two free-kicks not given, but he threw himself to the ground way too much. It was right to take him off and still, he was super angry on the bench.
Fofana (8 – MOTM): Surely his best performance of the season? He should have had two assists, first for Leao and then Pulisic, and a super stop by Audero denied him what would have been a nice goal. On top of that, he did well in the other phases of the game, not just in those moments.
Modric (7): Dictated the tempo of the game wonderfully and had some fantastic balls over the top, without forgetting his crosses, including the one that led to the opener. Once again, we also saw runs into the box from him to open up space for others.
Rabiot (6): Perhaps the yellow card risk haunted him a little, because he wasn’t as involved in the duels, but he was still solid in both phases of the game. One good cross that Leao perhaps should have done more with.
Bartesaghi (6): The game was rather open, which allowed him to come forward a lot, and he did so well. It helped open up space for others, above all, but one complaint could be that his crossing wasn’t always as accurate as usual.
Pulisic (5): What can I say? The big chances missed are becoming a real problem. What made him so successful at the start of the season, i.e. his efficiency, is what’s haunting him now. While Audero did well in the 1v1, the American had time to do much better, maybe even to round him or finish earlier. On top of that, his passes on the edge of the box were imprecise.
Leao (5): Lively, perhaps his most lively game in a long while, but he wasted two very good chances. The Fofana pass especially simply had to be converted by the No.10, and the goal at the end doesn’t really move the needle for me in terms of the overall assessment (an open net and a goal that didn’t change the outcome). Would a 5.5 have been more fair?
Substitutes
Ricci (5.5): I don’t think he necessarily added anything special to the game, apart from making sure Fofana won’t be suspended in the derby.
Fullkrug (6): He had a pretty good heading opportunity that looked perfect for him towards the end, but he missed the target. The flick-on for the second goal was nice, though, and rescues his rating a little here.
Nkunku (6.5): Very unselfish to give Leao the open net rather than shooting himself, following a good first touch and run.
Athekame (N/A): I didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Estupinan (N/A): I didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
The manager
Allegri (6): The decision to start Fofana over Jashari was certainly the right one, and while the early sub for the Frenchman felt strange, it was probably due to the yellow card risk. Plus, if the players had taken their chances, this game would have been decided already in the first half.
Holy shit, hard to watch. others are doing good, except attack
Alegri can’t be a long term fix for this team, the team is just scrambling and looking for individual brilliance to scale through.
I cannot understand why this team is setup heavily defensive to play these bottom team, and this setup causes us so much trouble, these bottom teams end up playing like prime Barcelona against us, and it’s so freaking annoying.
The team setup is so bad that we cannot win second balls, we cannot transit when we win balls deep in our box, it’s a poor setup overall, the midfield is almost totally collapsed once we start defending.
We are just lucky the teams behind us slgsce been poor so far, top four isn’t sure at this stage.
Yeah another twitter fanboy who doesnt watch games
Literally 3 big chances missed in the first half alone and you are here moaning about style of play
as if style of play will make some of these players magically score those chances
I know you lack critical thinking but I ask you what was the joy to watch in this team’s display… The two big chances squandered by our strikers in the first half was due to Fofana’s brilliance, aside that, what else was the team effort?
. Don’t just show your stupidity in trying to reply, understand what a good team setup should look like, at the end of this game there are many negetives and questions to ask than there are positives.
At one point the commentator said “it has been difficult to know who is fighting for relegation and who is challanging for the title”.
With this squad we shouldn’t even be in the top 4. Allegri has this team over performing.
Really? Which serie A teams not named Inter have better squads than Milan? This isn’t the EPL.
So Pioli was a genius too for taking us to 2nd the season before last? Because technically Allegri has a better squad than Pioli did his final season, minus perhaps Giroud.
Allegri has a better midfield, but Pioli had the better forwards and overall more attacking options (Giroud, Jović, Okafor and Chukwueze).
Defense was equally bad for both of them.
Also in 2023/24, all of Napoli, Lazio and Roma were terrible beyond repair. Only Juventus fought a bit for a while. Like even Bologna got a UCL spot.
Pioli’s attack might have been slightly better overall, but it was certainly healthier. Leao, Pulisic and Fullkrug have been playing witj injuries all season, Gimenez has been out from the beginning, and Nkunku is having issues adapting. Things might have been a little better if they’d all been 100% healthy. But a big issue is the style. This what is holding us back right now. Allgri refuses to use our attacking players as they’re best suited. Leao and Pulisic belong on the wings. We should be playing with a 4-3-3, at least against bottom half teams or at home. It’s just a strange situation. Allegri has gotten us to 2nd, but it’s obvious this team just struggles unnecessarily.
Name the teams with better midfielder than Modric & Rabiot. Inter sure, Napoli yes, and then…? Better gk? No one. Attackers such as Leao & Pulisic? Only Inter & Napoli.
The squad is definitely TOP4-worthy.
I dont need any joy in watching our PLAY
WINNING IS ALL THAT MATTERS
Pep has rotten all your brains with this tiki taka crap
Man OK, but I fell asleep while watching that’s bad. Somehow we look like a team without ideas and identity. I agree with winning part but want to also enjoy a bit
LOL, there is so much grey area between Pep and Allegri, why is that the only choice? And yet Pep also wins. Like, that’s why he’s coaching Man City, the wealthiest club on the planet, not Allegri. He’s also won at Bayern. Three top clubs, three top competitions, all won by Pep with his tiki taka crap, which he doesn’t even really use anymore anyway. Allegri hasn’t even had a job outside Italy. Speaking of Bayern Munich, they are rolling with Vincent Kompany, basically a novice manager that had jobs at Burnley and Anderlecht before getting hired at the third most titled CL side, they didn’t hire Allegri. Why didn’t PSG hire Allegri, instead of Luis Enrique? How about mighty “winning is all that matters” Madrid? Liverpool replaced Klopp with a guy from the Dutch league, not “serial winner” Allegri. There are many more examples like this. Thanks for bringing us back to the CL Allegri, but this is also where we were with Pioli. How do we take the next step?
“At one point the commentator said “it has been difficult to know who is fighting for relegation and who is challenging for the title”.”
This stung a bit when I heard it.
OK. More than a bit.
Milan really should have scored 4-5 goals but at least the match ended on a high note and we got the victory.
In regard of Pavlovic’s goal, sure he sees it late but he turns the upper torso and his arm so it doesn’t hit it but instead his chest so for me that actually looked pretty deliberate from my point of view but I’ve only seen the replay once right after we scored.
He should be using 343 formation for the lest team, I think he should build himself on 3 formation, because he has the player who can play those formation 352, 343, and 433
He should be using 343 formation for the lest team, I think he should build himself on 3 formation, because he has the player who can play those formation 352, 343, and 433 and Rafael is too lazy for my liking, is he going to see first team in Portugal?
Its always up for debate which formation is best suited for this team and that is fair enough but when that is said we could easily have scored 3-4 goals while playing with the 3-5-2 formation as it was more down to lack of lethality in front of goal than a formation question that we didn’t score before the change.
A last minute houdini that nearly caught us with our pants down again. And when can we expect a goal from Fofolana whilst we are at it…he gets himself into such nice positions with the final touch always missing. Another game to forget, let’s hope Allegri can work on our mistakes leading up to the derby.
His shot that was saved was actually not one I would blame him for as the save was top notch but Pulisic and Leao on the other hand certainly had some inexcusable misses throughout the match.
I think Leao and Pulisic are injured most of the season.
Even with that they done good.
Milan need much more better game play and created chances. They need more better individual played game by Nkunku and tomorrow Gimenez. More creative play in the middle and flanks.
Honestly this season Milan managed to concede less goals. And we can remember how in last 5 years that was big problem.
If you watched this game you should now know why Allegri doesnt change formation much because a winger formation wont magically make Leao and Pulisic score those chances, in most of the games with dropped points you’ll find similar moments
Pulisic still hasnt scored in 2026
So your saying we need a striker who can finish, got it
Pretty comical and low quality game but a win is a win.
MOTM should be De Winter, who not only was the best of the 3 CBs but he was literally responsible for both goals Milan score. How is Pavlovic rated higher just because De Winter header hit his nose and bounced in the net?
Also, Estupiñán deserves a rating because his introduction changed the game. He made imminent impact by passing back the ball to Modric so he can cross it on the Pavlovic goal.
Bartesaghi might makes some good runs forward but his defending inside the box is Theo level bad. He was lucky Cremonese player didn’t score in the 1st half after he came from behind Bartesaghi who was ball watching.
Modric, Rabiot and Fofana deserve better forwards than Leao, Pulisic and Fulkrug. Trash from Leao and Pulisic. 4 clear cut goal scoring chances that were harder to be missed than scored. 1 of them missed an open netter. Im surprised he didn’t miss the one that Nkunku put it on a platter.
Saelemaekers was terrible. He should consider himself lucky not to get a yellow, because he deserved at least 2 for diving.
Very good game by Fofana, even though he made some mistakes. He has to play, especially now that RLC is out. He provides that extra player when Milan attacks.
Modric never stops running even at 40.
Lets see what they can do vs Inter next week.
Take the 3 points, celebrate the win and burn the tape.
Today we were lucky that our opponent was Cremonese that its players are incapable of aiming the ball correctly, otherwise the result might have been very different. Yes we missed many chances as well, but so did they. The fact that we needed a corner so Pavlović can score says everything about our attack. At least we got the set piece part right.
I hope Allegri has different ideas in mind for the derby ortherwise we might look at a repeat of september 2023… Well at least we’re not getting closer to the fifth place and let’s hope juventus doesn’t win tonight in Olimpico. Also Rabiot, Fofana or Athekame won’t be suspended (and let’s hope no injuries in the meantime).
Maignan: thankfully for him, he wasn’t very challenged, as Cremonese’s forwards are incapable of aiming at the goal.
Pavlović: He did score the critical goal, so that alone gives him a good grade but he make a huge mistake that could have been costly.
De Winter: He starts to look more and more like our best defender, which quite frankly, doesn’t say a whole lot.
Tomori: not a bad game from him.
Bartesaghi: his progression has stalled and he shows again that he is sh!t when dealing with crosses and corners. I hope he isn’t too badly injured though.
Saelemakers: Aside from that nice dribbling sequence (with poor finishing though) he was awful. He was righfully subbed out.
Athekame: N/A
Fofana: started the game poorly, but then he got sharper and should have gotten 2 assists. He shouldn’t have been subbed, although thankfully he will be available next game.
Modrić: Not his best game, lost quite the number of balls, but once again saves us at the end.
Rabiot: Also not his best game, I’ll give him excuse that he is afraid of a yellow.
Ricci: N/A. A N/A which sums most of his game quite frankly.
Pulišić: today he was awful, and not just because of the miss (again!). I don’t know if it’s his injury, the rumors about Sweeney, or something else, but he’s been bad for quite some time now… I hope he can bounce back soon or else…
Leão: he looks a bit fitter now, and he managed to make the last minute less stressfull to watch, but he also was quite awful.
Füllkrug: he is starting to prove his doubters right. What exactly is his added value ?
Nkunku: nice assist, but aside from that N/A
Needing 90 minutes to score against the weakest team in the league is unconvincing.
You mean like when Inter won away against Verona in the 91rst minute on a Verona own goal or what ?
Boy, Cremonese is so weak that it can’t be compared with anyone other in Serie A. Just see its recent results before rushing to give a blind response for the sake of responding.
You do realize that Verona is lower ranked than Cremonese and pretty much has been so all season so how about you take note of your own blind response.
You do realize that whatabout responses are quite silly.
How is that the case when Cremonese has been ahead of Verona all season ? the same standards doesn’t count for Inter or what ?
Since their last win in 7th december, Cremonese had 9 losses and 4 draws, conceding 21 goals and scoring only 2.
Since 7th december, Verona had 1 win, 9 losses and 3 draws., conceding 27 goals and scoring 9 goals.
Cremonese is currently 17th with 24 points and Verona is dead last with 15 points.
So I think Verona is pretty comparable here to Cremonese, and probably worse.
Yeah, I thought Verona was 15th or something like that.
When we played them, Verona had played 9 games, of which 5 draws, including vs Juventus, so when we played them they were far better than the Cremonese Milan played today.
In any case, my point is that one can expect a team fighting for the top spots to need less than 90 mins to score vs this Cremonese. Verona is irrelevent as far as my point is concerned.
We can move on and wait for the derby; given the fact that Chivu might be forced to use a 3-4-2-1 formation, it might become even more interesting.
Inter 1 Bodo Glimt 2.
I remember a strong Inter in seasons past that played awful all game under Inzaghi but would out a result nonetheless. With better depth on the bench. Do you?
Inzaghi’s Inter heavily underperformed in Italy; with the best squad in 4 seasons he won only 1 Scudetto. Hence he is not a good example for you to follow.
@InterFan
That’s my point. You don’t always have to perform convincingly to get the result, no matter the opposition …
It was still a great team, was it not?
losing 5-2 to Bodo/Glimt should make you renounce the club membership
do you realise how crap that team is? they arent even top of Norway league
What kind of fake fan are you? How can “club membership” be “renounced” because of some bad results?
While I’m delighted with Inter’s two losses to Bodo/Glimt, you’re being unfair to them. Of the last six domestic seasons, they finished first 4 times and second twice. Also, in the Champions League they beat the powerhouses Atletico Madrid and Manchester City and drew away with Dortmund. They have a young and hungry squad with some good players. They aren’t as bad as you are saying.
None of those teams you mention can be classify as power houses, in Spain the power house if Real Madrid, Barcelona, in Germany its Bayern Munich, in England it can’t be Man city, Probably Liverpool, Man utd
What? You’re misinformed about the EPL. Manchester City won 6 of the last 8 EPL championships. They are currently 2nd behind Arsenal (Liverpool are 5th). To pretend that Manchester City are not a powerhouse is laughable. As for Manchester United, the last time they won the EPL was in 2012-13. Obviously you don’t follow the EPL.
Borussia Dortmund are the second best Bundesliga team after Bayern Munich, and they are particularly tough at home.
While Real and Barcelona are indeed the two best Spanish teams, Atletico Madrid are the third best and they always do well in the Champions League.
Fofana motm? Really? Besides his two passes his first touch was horrible. Also he lost a few unnecessary balls.
Who was MOTM for you then?
Not an easy one, hard to tell as noone was outstanding.
If raf and puli had squared their chances, this would have been a high scoring win and nobody would critize Allegri. Allegri is not at fault for having his front 2 miss so much. So it’s not a system problem if the 2 attackers are put in position but can’t finish
Who notices when Allegri switches to 3 players up front then the goals came in, Leo played his preferred left wing, then Fullkrug played central striker then Pulišić to the right, 4-3-3 is the best formation
I love how people think that Allegri switching to 3 up front had anything to do with Milan scoring goals.
The Pavlovic goal was a lucky goal from a corner action, while the 2nd goal happened because Cremonese pushed all their players forward trying to score since they were already down and had nothing to lose anymore. Outside of 1 situation when Leao made an inside run that ended up with a weak shot straight at the GK, he did nothing else while playing on his preferred left.
The only other chance Milan had once they played with 3 up front was Fulkrug missing a header from a Modric set piece.
Milan didn’t look any better once they switch to 3 players up front. They were poor with 2 and 3 up front.
This.
exactly.
Agree 100%, that should be the shape going forward or a 3-4-3 anywhere where Leao and Pulisic are playing their natural wing positions.
No one suspended for the Derby. It’s a friggin MIRACLE!
Good ratings by Isak, today. I disagree a bit only regarding Leão; I know I will be accused of being a fanboy but I will extensively justify my rating, below.
The game
Well, this time we did create quite a lot offensively, so the eternal complaint that Allegri needs to use a 4-3-3 against the small teams, can’t really apply as much because the issue was not a lack of offensive power (as evidenced by the stats showing a huge xG of 3.51 for Milan). The issue was the incredible misses our players had. Three by Leão, one by Pulisic (although arguably it’s the keeper’s merit too), one by Rabiot, one by Saelemaekers, one by Fofana (but not his fault; this time it was clearly, not arguably, the keeper’s merit), and one by Füllkrug, Still, at the end we scored two goals, so mission accomplished. So of 10 clear opportunities, we missed 8 and scored 2. The misses are not the coach’s fault. The defense did look shaky at times, and we were lucky that Cremonese are a team that also struggle to score, and their forwards were incredibly inaccurate, mostly shooting off-target. A good silver lining to a mixed-bag performance by the Rossoneri was the fact that no players in risk of missing the Derby for accumulation of yellow cards got one; the low point was Bartesaghi’s injury; let’s hope it’s not serious because even though Davide hasn’t had the best of games lately, he is still way better than Estupiñan so if he misses the Derby due to injury, it’s a problem.
The Players
Maignan – Had only one intervention which he handled well, given that Cremonese hardly finished on-target. No problems with the feet. He hardly had a chance to shine and incrrease his rating, so the basic rating of 6 is fair for him.
Tomori – Like Isak said, he was the less good of the three defenders but still did quite OK. Lost a couple of dangerous balls but had a better second half. I agree that despite the lost balls, overall he was better than the basic rating so 6.5 is fair.
De Winter – I liked his performance quite a lot. This kid is now fully justifying his signing, after some early disastrous games in the early season, but then he’s had by now a long series of good games. He interrupted several attacks by Cremonese and then produced the assist to the essential goal by Pavlovic. 7.
Pavlovic – Yes, the goal was more like De Winter’s header heating Pavlovic’s head but yes, it wouldn’t have been a goal if not for Pav’s head, and it unblocked the game. He got the MOTM official award but there, I don’t agree. He did very well, though. 7.5 (would have been a 7 but he did head in the opening goal, by luck or not, so he gets half a point more for that).
Bartesaghi – Mixed bag. He lost his man in an occasion that Cremonese almost converted; luckily the shot went a bit wide with Maignan beat. He had some decent support for the offense which rescues him a little, but nothing spectacular. I am not entirely happy with his performance and I think it’s fair to deduct half a point from the basic rating, because that opportunity he granted to Cremonese could have been a disaster, so, 5.5.
Saelemaekers – It’s been a constant that Alexis tries hard (nobody questions his work ethics) but lacks the end product, including, he did create to himself a great opportunity but finished wide right. At this point I think that Athekame has been a better player and should start. I think Allegri was right with removing Alexis from the game. At least he didn’t get a yellow. 5.5
Modric – Again a very good game. Important in setting up the unblocking goal with a hockey assist. Other good passes and some good support for the defense. After a couple of games in which Modric wasn’t brilliant, today he clearly was. 7.5
Fofana – His best game for Milan the whole season. Clearly the MOTM with two formidable passes that weren’t assists just because his companions badly missed, one very good shot on target that was only not a score because of a great save by the opposing goalkeeper, and other good actions both defensively and offensively. Incomprehensible that the official MOTM went to Pavlovic instead of Fofana. 8.
Rabiot – Clearly subdued because of the risk of a yellow. Missed a header. Did have some good actions offensively that his companions didn’t capitalize on. I think he probably deserves a tiny bit more than the basic 6 but regardless of the reason (like I said, probably the fear of another yellow kept him quiet), I’ll go with just a 6.
Pulisic – I feel very sorry for the guy. Still another miss of a clear opportunity (however the keeper did well there, too). Not only Puli missed but Rafa was wide open to his right and not offside; just a little flick to Rafa would have clearly resulted in a goal (what Nkunku did, Puli did not). Still Puli tried to score, probably trying to get the monkey off his back, but missed. Puli was our best finisher in previous seasons and in the first half of this season but then he seems to have caught the Gimenez virus and is missing a lot. I can’t give him a sufficiency because of that. He was also not very productive otherwise. 5.
Leão – OK, this is the hardest player to rate, today. I will still be generous (and will certainly be accused of being a fanboy) because if we look at the stats, Rafa had the best ones in all parameters. Most shots on target. Most shots. Most successful passes in the final third. Most opportunities created. And he was clearly, finally, his usual self physically, with the first game in the season in which he went all 90 minutes and was very active, running a lot. And then he scored which was not really his merit (the goal was constructed by Nkunku who was selfless) but still, he was there at the right time, making sure he remained onside and running efficiently to the scoring position. So those are all very good points, and being blind to them will likely be done by the usual Leão haters but are not fair because these positive stats are undeniable. Now, what’s the bad part? Three incredible misses. He had an obligation to have scored earlier. Also went to the back line and instead of crossing, his last touch was too long and he lost the ball to the back line. So these four missed actions hurt and lowers his score. He could have had a great score if he had converted earlier a couple of the three golden opportunities he had, or had crossed that ball for an assist. But is it really fair to give him a score below sufficiency, when he did score once and had the best offensive stats all game? I don’t think so. Therefore I will rate him a bit above sufficiency for the good movement and the late goal even if the game seemed to be already decided. 6.5. Kill me for it if you want, but I stand behind it. Leão, after Fofana, was after all the second most active player and the most prolific forward, and the stats show it. Not rewarding that, despite of the misses, for a player that not only produced those stats but actually did score, would be unfair. I am encouraged by his apparent full recovery physically, and hope that in the Derby he will do well.
The subs
Ricci – Decent display, some good offensive support. 6.
Nkunku – Great assist to Leão. Selfless. Also, was energized, otherwise. 6.5
Füllkrug – Bad miss on a header, but then, also got a hockey assist. Overall not great but better than in the last two times he played. 6.
Athekame – Not a lot of time to do anything. s/v
Estupiñan – Same. s/v
Coaching
Mister Allegri – Still not using a 4-3-3 against a small team. A bit questionable, the removal of Fofana, clearly our best player (however, the fact that Fofana was one yellow from a suspension may have played a role, although he didn’t do the same for Rabiot, therefore I kind of doubt that this was the reason for yanking out Fofana). Correctly yanked out Saelemaekers. Two other subs did have a hand in one of the goals so that’s good. While the defense was a bit shaky and his team missed 8 opportunities, that can’t be the coach’s fault, and while we always complain that Allegri’s team is not offensive enough, today that wasn’t the problem, so I will give the coach a bit more than the basic rating. 6.5
Holy the literature too long to read.
Allegri is ok. We did got shoot on target, so it depends on individuals to convert.
The final third need to improve, especially in the box
Too long to read? Today the youngsters have low attention span and can’t handle a few paragraphs of text. Regrettable.
If Ricci had scored a goal today Isak would have given him a 10 and MOTM. Leao scores (yet again), confirming the 3pts…and gets a 5! No surprises there though.
It’s not that the youngsters can’t handle few paragraphs – why would anyone read the book you wrote? It’s your opinion and no one really cares about it but you, that’s the simplest way to put it. We have an article about ratings so we don’t need another one – if you want your book to be good published, you should try to work with SempreMilan instead of complaining about youngsters but it seems like SempreMilan already have someone else so you might be out of luck.
LOL, I have no intention of taking over SempreMilan. It’s simply that this thread is called player ratings, and like others here, I do my own; why not? Are you berating me for posting ratings… in a thread literally called player ratings? Who says that the official rater is the only one allowed to rate? Most the opposite, the official rater actually encourages that posting members post their ratings too, and even asks questions (like he did today) about whether or not his ratings are fair.
As for nobody caring for my ratings, you’re out of luck in stating that, because numerous times, others have posted that they appreciate my ratings. Still, I’m not looking for approval. Even if nobody cared (which is patently untrue), I’d still post what I think, as this is my right. I’m not seeking approval, I’m just seeking debate, which is what fan forums are for.
You can try to censor me but you won’t succeed. You can’t shut me up. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Have a nice day.
I’m not berating you for anything – you’re the one berating youngsters for not reading the book you wrote and that’s what my post was about. No need for that, that’s all.
I don’t disagree, but you write ESSAYS when a couple of words will do. 🙂
LOL, essays have their charm, for depth of analysis.
And like I said, the ONE time I said upfront that I would be brief, and was, posters complained that I was too brief.
Some people like a style (being brief); others like a different style (writing essays).
Instead of being so concerned about a poster’s style, I think it would be more productive to discuss the topic itself.
Not that YOU, ACM1899, doesn’t discuss appropriately the topic. I think you are clearly one of our best posters, and I respect your opinion quite a lot. But some people like to complain of fellow posters here, and that’s the bulk of what they say, contributing little to the actual topic. I don’t care for that.
When someone says TLDR without actually contributing to the discussion, that’s just weak.
Isak is becoming a joke, and he just wanted some argument here in the comments section, Yl in his mind he wanted to give a 5.5 which to me goes against the rule of the rating they follow, he did missed some chances, of which he was just unlucky not to score especially the first one, but at the end he was more lively and above all he still score, that’s all that matters
If Pulisic misses the same ones Leao missed you would criticize him like crazy. You DO criticize Puli over his misses but not Leao. You just make excuses and call it unlucky lol. But Pulisic isn’t “unlucky” right?
I love Pulisic. He is my favorite player. However he hasn’t scored in 2026, and hasn’t assisted in 2026.
It is justified to rate Leão higher because he objectively did better. Like I said, he had the top in all four offensive stats, today, and did score, although he also missed, which I did consider in my rating. Without the misses, Rafa would have had a score of 8. So I did lower it because of the three misses, like half a point for each miss.
Puli not only missed but didn’t produce anything and didn’t have any of the top offensive stats. So, also half a point deducted for his miss, and another half point deducted for being unproductive. 5 is fair. Did you see his face on the bench after he was subbed out? Pulisic himself knows that he is not doing well. Ignoring that would be dishonest.
I’ve rated Pulisic high numerous times, especially in the first half of the season, but clearly he hasn’t been deserving a high score, lately. I did say I feel sorry for him. That’s NOT hating him.
I am NOT anti-Pulisic. His name and number are on my 2026 Milan jersey, not Leão’s. I consider Pulisic to be world-class and I don’t say the same for Leão. However, it is undeniable that Pulisic is having a tough time and hasn’t been doing well in 2026, and you need to be blind to not see it.
Just adding to this: how can you rate the same, two players from the same department (the offense) who played the exact same position (the two upfront guys in a 3-5-2) when one collects all four highest offensive stats and even scores, and the other doesn’t? Do you really pretend that it would be fair to rate Rafa and Puli the same when one scored a goal, had the most shots, the most shots on target, the most opportunities created and the most successful passes in the final third among all Milan players today, while the other didn’t score and didn’t have any of these top stats???
I was replying to Olumighty. Not you. I would have given Leao a 6 and Puli a 5 today because Leao was more of a threat. Leao missed more chances but he also got himself into better positions. My problem is that Olumighty criticizes Pulisic on missed chances/sitters but defends Leao on missed chances/sitters. He will call Leao unlucky but will trash Pulisic for the same type of misses.
I am trying to decide if Puli is playing selfish ball lately or if he is just so in his head that he doesn’t look around at all (both are bad options). I love Puli but he absolutely should have squared that chance for a wide open Leao. There are times when he takes these shots then almost seems surprised that he had options for a teammate. He just seems like his head isn’t there lately.
I think it’s in his head. He’s never been a selfish player. I don’t think he knew Leao was there. Ever since he squandered those 2 opportunities against Fiorentina(I think) he’s been off the mark. He just needs a goal to get his confidence back.
Ah OK, sorry, I actually didn’t notice that you were referring to Olumighty. It’s still fair to comment like I did, because Olumighty was responding directly to my post and agreeing with me on rating Rafa higher than Puli.
What most average observers miss is all of the space Pulisic creates with his movement. Saw multiple runs and through balls in the channels to Rabiot, Rafa, and Fofana that were created by Pulisic dragging defenders out of position with his runs. Something that Giminez was also underrated for as well.
It’s fine that you commented. I just wanted you to know I was replying to Olumighty. Like I said I’d give Leao a 6 today and Pulisic a 5.
Ryan, I also admitted Leao misses, i will tell you why I called the obvious misses unlucky, goalkeeper was clearly beaten the ball just refused to go one, the other one called empty net was touched by the goalkeeper before getting to Leao which in turn changed the dynamic of the ball, making him unbalanced.
On Pulisic miss, he had 2 options, square it to Leao who is in a better position to score or beat the goalkeeper, But he took a shot which was saved.
It’s one thing to miss another is to keep trying that’s the difference today between Leao Mr Decisive and now Mr Consolidation and Pulisic even Tomori was surprised about the miss
Pulisic offered nothing offensively today but one thing baffles me, how he run the length and breadth of the stadium with nothing to show for it.
On the statistics
Leao completed 14 attacking passes, only Modric made more passes than Leao 16 in total, 6 shot on target 1goal that’s the highest by any attacker, hence he deserve a 7
9 times out of 10, the goalkeeper will be clearly beat if the ball is not on target…
Olumighty, I’m not talking about today’s game. Leao was better than Pulisic today. I’m talking about every other game. Leao can have a bad game and be non existent but you still defend him but if in the same game Pulisic is much more involved you will find a way to talk negatively about him. That’s my point.
Excellent review aa always. I was positively surprised by Fofana performance, great game. I would just add a half of a point to Allegri because he didn’t get a red card this game 🤣
Cremonese 0 Milan 2. The absolutely only thing that matters to me. Great job getting this one across the line!
What an utterly garbage performance again.
The sooner Allegri is gone the sooner we can start to build a team again, that is of course if our dirty cheap b^stard ownership dont keep selling anyone decent.
Unwatchable drivel is what were are exposed to. I watched the Barca game and Yamal scored 3 goals, I forgot what a real good team looks like.
Lets be honest we were minutes away from another terrible result today.
Spot on.
A great thing does not defend 1 goal up. They destroy their opponents pride. This Milan tries to hold 1 goal games (that’s if they manage to score 1 goal). It’s embarrassing
We were also a few centimeters away from scoring 8 goals on top of the two we did score. If you want us to be honest, you need to also realize that the misses were by a hair and the offense did create a lot. Did you see the xG? 3.51 which is huge. Sure, Cremonese is a weak team, but they beat us in the first game of the season. Today we were dominant and the big problem was inaccurate finishing but in the end two of the finishings did become accurate and we won 2-0. I don’t really think that today it was unwatchable drivel. That’s what the honest opinion is.
Sure, we are not great this season if compared to Inter, but we are still better than all other 18 teams.
Comparing our players to Yamal is unfair. Yamal is a generational wonder, one of the top 3 players in the world. He is the exception rather than the rule. If your parameter is Yamal, you won’t be satisfied with anybody, short of Messi and Haaland.
Well, on Yamal one can raise the question why other leagues produce such talent and Serie A not. So his point is not unfair.
It’s not the LEAGUE that produces a rare generational gem like Yamal. It’s because Yamal himself is that talented. He would have done wonderfully in any league. The issue of why he plays for the Spanish league and not for the Italian league, is simple: the Spanish league is much wealthier and can afford him.
The English, Spanish and French leagues are producing a lot of top players, Serie A not so much. It is not simply because of talent.
It’s not that they are PRODUCING these top players. They simply can afford to sign them. Look at Haaland. He was produced in Norway. Look at Estêvão. He was produced in Brazil. So, yes, they play for the EPL, but they weren’t produced there; the EPL simply has more money than other leagues, so they can poach these top, world class players. Sure, Yamal was produced in Spain, but if he had been produced elsewhere, he’d still be hired by one of the wealthy clubs in the world, in the EPL, La Liga, or Bundesliga. Italian clubs simply can’t afford this type of player, and that has a lot more to do with revenue disparity than with the work of the academies.
Adding to it: think of that gorgeous so-called MSN attack that Barcelona once had. Messi, Neymar Jr., and Luis Soárez. They were respectively produced in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
So it’s not that the league is producing world-class players. It’s that the league is rich and can afford to sign world-class players, regardless of where they’re produced.
“We were also a few centimeters away from scoring 8 goals on top of the two we did score. ”
We were also just a few minutes away from drawing with CREMONESE. That would have meant 2 points from 4 matches against Parma & Cremonese.
Saved by a very lucky goal.
We had 3.51 of xG which is huge and the biggest all season
xGs don’t mean sh1t when you fail to convert. All the chances came out of Fofana’s brilliant defense-splitting passes while the rest of the match was just Milan waiting for the match to reach 80 minutes in 0-0. They had no urgency, they had no desire. They were just waiting for the clock to run as Allegri wants them to.
Agree with you 💯, everytime I see why Maldini left Milan cause of this cheap management with no ambition, selling 1 quality player to buy 4 quantity players, no ambition for winning trophies, the only ambition is top 4
You’re expecting champagne football from a team built on with a beer budget and quality? LOL!!! Can you turn beer into champagne? Pretty sure even Jesus couldn’t do that.
What would Jesus do? 😉
Everybody keep saying if we converted the 2 opportunities then we would be thanking Allegri. Lmao, the problem with that statement is that if one of those chances went in, then the second chance would not have happened because Allegri would have instructed them to defend the 1 – 0 score rather than trying to score again.
Allegri is a very terrible coach and nothing will change that. We play so horribly and try to find individual brilliance to keep saving us. I need him gone.
Allegri is not perfect but Milan has earned 57 points so far and that’s not negligible. Compare that to last season when we were conceding goals all over the place and ended in 8th place.
Allegri was not hired to win the Scudetto. He was hired to float a sinking ship and to make the Champions League again, and he is doing that. Not only we are conceding less, scoring more, and earning more points, but he also finished the disciplinary problems we were having, and restored a sense of team, of big family.
This is a recovery year, not the year for trophies. Allegri is helping Milan recover from a disastrous season. You need to be a bit more grateful for what he has accomplished, and this, when given a very short roster, and when several essential players had long stretches of injuries.
I should be grateful for the pathetic way we’re playing ?? That’s very funny. I can never accept mediocrity for my team. All yall come up with is excuses upon excuses. Short roster? Check all the teams we have drawn against or lost against and tell me if they’re supposed to have a chance against our players.
Like I told you when you were trying hard to get rid of De Winter earlier in the season, our players are not bad, they only need a good coach that’s tactically smart and can get the best out of them. Under Allegri, no single player has improved. Under Fonseca, Liberali, Pulisic, Okafor, Fofana, Thiaw, Gabbia, ALL improved but we can’t say the same about Allegri. He was brought in to coach a big team like Milan and lead us to glory not to “steady a ship”. Low team mentality. Smh
I was wrong about De Winter and I have acknowledge my mistake in other threads and posts. I’m not afraid of acknowledging mistakes, and I regularly do that when it’s the case. Making a very specific mistake doesn’t invalidate what I was saying more globally.
I’m not thrilled with Allegri Ball. It is not pleasant to watch. But it does earn points. It’s simply a question of comparing the previous season with this season. We have earned way more points, conceded way fewer goals, and scored way more goals. We have a +23 goal differential and despite our point difference to Inter, we are still in second place (that’s much better than 8th, last season). In all historical seasons in which we achieved this total of points by this point of the season, we won the Scudetto. This season we won’t be winning the Scudetto but this has a lot more to do with Inter doing EVEN better, than to how we are doing. Allegri can fix our horrible previous season, but he can’t unfix Inter. He is not responsible in any way for Inter’s excellent Serie A form. In the one game we played against them, we beat them. We can’t force them to drop points to the other teams.
Low team mentality? Are we in the relegation zone? No, actually we are second, and firmly within the Champions League spots. That’s not being a small team, so the results that got us there are not the result of a small team mentality. They are simply a strategy that aims at stopping the leaking of a high number of goals like we had last season, and being pragmatic in earning points that will hopefully return us to the Champions League.
What else could we be doing? There is no way we’ll catch Inter. They have a much deeper roster, and their management signed very good players.
Look at the true striker position. We barely have one player who is a true striker, Füllkrug. But Füllkrug has scored one goal in one and a half EPL season (a stat more akin to Origi) and has scored one goal for us. He is older, injury-prone, and a shadow of his former self in the Bundesliga. What do Inter have for this position? Lautaro, Thuram, Esposito, and Bonny, Do you see the difference? If we had these players, we would probably be first in Serie A. Allegri can’t perform miracles when he doesn’t have the personnel, and for most of the season, our top players have been limited by injury.
So, Fonseca made all these players improve? Great, too bad we finished 8th and didn’t even make the Conference League. Being content with THAT is a small team mentality.
I frankly prefer to be second and make the Champions League, than 8th and out of Europe.
Fonseca was never allowed to finish the season so us finishing 8th is not on him. He was fired for rightly calling out the lazy players on our team and yall got the worst coach in conceicao and now Allegri.
Small team mentality is the approach we employ tactically not position related if you never understood what I wrote.
When will we ever be able to be so unstoppable like inter?
We always talk about inter being so outstanding and there’s nothing anyone could’ve done, that’s just defeatist and annoying…
We could go on a run too, napoli did it, juventus did it for years, why not us?
Why do we always have to settle so weak mentality players like leao can play comfortably without the pressure of winning trophies?
Yes, I perfectly understood what you wrote. I was just countering that employing tactics that have us second, with 57 points, and inside the Champions League game is not having tactics that are small team ones. The true small team tactics usually land teams in the relegation zone, not second-placed. And we’re only second because of Inter’s exceptional form. In all other historical Serie A seasons, with this total of points 12 games before the end, we’d have been first. Remember, Allegri is the head coach who won the biggest number of Scudetti in Serie A’s history. He is a proven winner.
Fonseca was a disaster. His percentage of earned points wouldn’t get us better than 8th if he had stayed for the entire season. Sure, he tried to discipline players who were misbehaving, but he was also part of the problem that created the misbehaving in the first place (in part; I’m not denying that the players also acted unprofessionally), because he had a tendency to publicly throw his own players under the bus in press conferences (something Allegri NEVER does), and for this, he lost the players’ trust and respect. So, part of the disciplinary problems were also that the players were not happy and did not respect their coach.
Allegri instead is beloved by the players and has had almost no disciplinary problems. The one disciplinary problem he faced, that is, Jimenez being late to training three times, he resolved immediately, by kicking Jimenez out of his team. That sent a message to others: “if you are not serious and professional, you are out of my team for good.” No wonder nobody else misbehaved.
Allegri convinced Maignan to stay, and brought in Rabiot which for 10 million was one of the best signings we’ve ever had in history. The only reason Rabiot ended up with us after his fistfight in his previous club, was his desire to reunite with Allegri, instead of going elsewhere. Rabiot is a world-class player and a starter for one of the best national teams in the world, and most teams and leagues would be happy to have him. He came to us because of Allegri.
Mediocrity being second in the standings with one of the best defenses in the league compared to being 8th last season? That mediocrity?
The word you should use is Meritocracy. Milan is second based on Merit whether it appeals to you visually or not.
I completely agree with this take.
Allegri style is boring. Why he can’t play a 4-3-3 against the weaker teams is beyond me. Does he think Milan’s D is that bad?
Yep, Milan’s D is not stellar. Look again at last season’s defensive stats (Swiss cheese full of holes). Still, under Allegri it produced a number of clean sheets, and decreased significantly the number of goals conceded.
LOL @ Swiss cheese full of holes
You could always go back and rewatch Milan playing “attacking” football under the Portuguese reign last season. That 8th position sire looked sexy, didn’t it?
Leao n Pulisic both are not in their natural position… We need to find a lethal striker so we can play Leao n Pulisic back to their position supporting a striker…
Leao – World Class Striker – Pulisic
Rabiot – Modric – Jashari?
Bartesaghi – Pavlovic – Gabbia – Saelemaker?
“lethal strikers” don’t win championships in Serie A, the way the do in Spain and England. Look at the top scorers in Spain vs. Italy. Especially lately. There’s a massive difference. Some years, the top Spanish scorer has twice as many goals as the Italian. And the last great Italian goal scorer was Totti. Not even Ronaldo did that great, and he scored what, 50 once in Spain?
You can’t beat Italian teams with one striker. You have to grind them down. A typical goal, in Serie A, comes from a melee in the box, where someone gets lucky and pokes the ball into the net.
Allegri is playing Leao and Pulisic up front because they create those melees. They’re both great at powering into the box. Once they’re in, anything can happen, they don’t need a lethal finish.
Ah… back to Puli bashing I see. I thought he did well actually. Very lively helping create opportunities. And the miss was a great keeper stop. I actually thought Leao looked a lot more lively as well, but his misses were just awful. Puli a 6, Leao 5.5.
So the guy who actually scored is being penalized for his misses, more than the guy who didn’t score?
We need to be more objective. Rafa had all four offensive stats as the top for all Milan players considered, and scored. One can argue the merit was Nkunku’s, but Rafa still followed the play, kept onside, and finished on target into the net.
Objectively, Rafa did better than Puli this game, in all parameters (stats, scoring) so what justifies you giving him a lower score than Puli’s. It’s your right to do it, and I’ll respect that but I would like a clearer explanation, if you’re willing to provide it.
Leao was definitely better than Pulisic today. That’s an objective take from a huge Pulisic fan. They both were horrible with their finishing and Leaos miss was worse than Pulisics. The keeper made a great save on Pulisic(although with his quality he needs to bury that) but the bigger problem is he should have laid it off and didn’t see Leao. But Leao was a lot more dangerous and did much more than Pulisic today. I’d also argue the merit on that goal should go more to Fulkrug with his flick on(very nicely done). Nkunku and Leao were 2 on 1 with the keeper starting almost at mid field because of Fulkrug.
“So the guy who actually scored is being penalized for his misses, more than the guy who didn’t score?”
LOL! Yeah, Leao showed AMAZING skills and nerves to score from THAT chance. I’m 10000% sure Pulisic would have absolutely missed that chance. 😀
Even Alessandro Matri would have scored from that chance so giving credit for putting the ball into the empty net there is totally negligible.
Interesting. Of the 3 main Italian sports newspapers, 2 granted Rafa a 6 and 1 granted him a 6.5. All 3 granted a 5 to Pulisic. So one had exactly my ratings for both and the other two, pretty close. Glad that I’m not alone in my assessment which coincides (or almost) with those of experienced professional sports journalists.
Sure, I said that the goal was constructed by Nkunku (one should also include Fullkrugs’ hockey assist). Still, Rafa followed the play running along, stayed onside, and tapped it in. We’ve all seen players missing even easy goals like this one, for example, by stepping offsides. Damn, players have even missed entirely open net goals from two meters, like one missed by Abraham last season (and to be fair, Rafa has also missed a similar one). Gimenez has also missed easy tap ins by not performing a good first touch. Although easy, it’s not automatic and misses happen even to good players.
People sometimes say that Pulisic’s goals are lucky because he was just in the right place at the right time. I sustain that it is not luck but rather, football intelligence. Being in position to score even when the goal is constructed by a companion and is easy, has at least some merit.
Also, some people including the official rater said Rafa’s goals didn’t matter because the game was already won. Football has plenty of occasions in which a game seems won but the opponents equalize at the last second, one painful example being a recent Derby in which Inter equalized 1-1 in the dying moments. Not just powerful Inter; we’ve suffered late goals from other and weaker teams. This goal by Rafa/Nkunku/Fullkrug put the game to rest for good. Had he missed (for example by stepping offsides) and had Cremonese scored a lucky late equalizer (I know they struggle to score and have poor aim, but sometimes a lucky deflection sends a ball into the net), people would be crucifying Rafa. Well, he scored, so he should be recognized for it; it’s only fair.
I find this funny since even the commentator said after Leao’s goal this: “Frankly, I’m not sure he even deserved to score that goal after playing such a horrible, horrible match”.
Oh well… Once an MVP, always an MVP.🤷♂️
What the TV commentator said is irrelevant given that there are plenty of commentators who are anti-Milan. I don’t know what TV channel you watched. In the Italian-language channel I watched, nobody said anything remotely close to that. Horrible, horrible match? Do you agree? If you do, did you actually watch the game? How do you explain that Rafa got the top stats in all four of these fundamentals: shots, shots on target, opportunities created, and successful passes in the last third? Even for overall passes, he was second only to Modric. Rafa by all parameters had a good game; did miss a couple of sitters but ended up scoring (yes, also a sitter but that one wasn’t missed, and like I said with concrete examples, even those easy sitters have produced misses regularly in the history of a season).
I mean, how does the player who as a forward, had the best offensive stats among all other players considered from both teams, is said to have had a horrible, horrible match? That is biased and goes against the clear evidence.
I’ve had no problem rating Rafa poorly when it’s warranted. Sorry, but yesterday Rafa did have a good game, which is a consensus among sensible posters here, and most professional journalists, even in venues dominated by anti-Milan journalists who are Juventini and Interisti, like the Juve-Inter-infested Gazzetta dello Sport. If THOSE guys still granted to Rafa a 6.5, the fact that some anti-Milan TV commentator said he had a “horrible, horrible match” is the outlier, and irrelevant for being in the minority of the professionals’ opinion.
I’m used to Rafa haters. They will ALWAYS find that the goals he scores, weren’t deserved. Think of the misses Rafa had yesterday. Had he not missed and scored, the haters would still sat that it was too easy and lucky. So, then, he doesn’t miss a sitter and scores… still, immediately people mock him saying that it was too easy.
The truth is, Rafa haters will NEVER be satisfied with what he does. It’s akin to conspiracy theorists who will never accept a proven reality that utterly contradicts their delusional beliefs.
I GUARANTEE that if Milan is ever in a situation in which we are behind Inter 0-2 in a Derby that is the final of the Champions League, then Rafa goes and scores a hat trick, personally constructing all three goals by dribbling and outrunning half of the opponents’ team, thus singlehandedly winning the game for us 3-2 and the title, the haters will still call him lazy and will say that all three goals were easy and undeserved ones. That is 100% guaranteed. That’s how much these people hate Rafa.
I’m not saying that my scenario above is likely to actually happen. I’m just saying that if in the unlikely possibility that it were to happen, the haters still wouldn’t give Rafa any credit, and if you are honest, you know that what I’m saying is true.
“Want the Show? Go to the Circus 🎪”
M.Allegri (C)
Puli makes runs that get missed and as such the ball doesn’t come his way. For Leao it’s obvious- play it wide into space and let him run onto it. I woukd think Modric woukd find puli more often.
Milan 3.5 xg and scores two goals over the 90 and SM wants us to believe Milan were hardly in the game
Only on SM you’ll see a victory treated like a loss. What a bunch of sad ppl
it says alot about what Allegri thinks of fullkrug and nkunku with both leao and puli in such poor form yet they still start. They both need more rest, they don’t have any burst. It would seemogicly to play nkunku and fullkrug or at least fullkrug from the start. If this match was a few months the ago both leao and pulisic get on the score sheet. Still a huge team win, derby still means something other than pride!
That was tried several times (Füllkrug and Nkunku having more minutes and/or starting) and it rarely paid off. There is a reason why Puli’s + Rafa’s goal contributions (goals + assists) are WAY higher than Nkunku’s + Füllkrugs goal contributions.
Objectively, even when in poor physical form, Puli and Rafa are more talented players than the current version of Füllkrug and Nkunku, who both had great seasons in the past for the Bundesliga but haven’t been good for a long time – a much longer time than Rafa’s and Puli’s current struggles.
Nobody doubts that Puli and Leão need more rest. Allegri knows it, and speaks about it in press conferences. The problem is, he doesn’t have a lot of alternatives, with Gimenez out and Nkunku and Füllkrug being unproductive in most games they participated of.
That’s why there was an effort to sign Mateta. Unfortunately his knee condition was worse than what Crystal Pallace were advertising, and his signing didn’t happen.
Without the proper personnel, Allegri was forced to play Rafa and Puli more often, despite their poor physical form. It’s as simple as that. I blame the managers who trimmed down the roster too much, rather than Allegri (who, remember, wanted Vlahovic but the managers didn’t want to spend the money on his high salary).
We probably would have been in better form if we had kept Jovic and Abraham, in order to provide more options for rotation and for rest of essential players. That’s hardly Allegri’s fault, as he was clearly over-ruled by the managers.
Yea I agree with you. I’m saying it really is damning for Fullkrug and Nkunku that they haven’t started as much as they should, given Leao and Puli’s obvious injuries (and lack of form as a result). If we had decent back ups, I would assume they would have started today for at least one of those guys. I think Gimenez coming back will really help b/c the attack honestly hasn’t looked as good as it did when he started with either Leao or Puli.
Yes, Gimenez is a player who puzzles me a little. I still believe in him and think that he will end up proving that he can be very useful, unless Tare who clearly doesn’t like him (to the point of publicly throwing him under the bus), manages to get rid of him before he is able to prove himself.
For me, Gimenez’s worst shortcomings – poor first touch, poor ability to turn and shoot, poor accuracy when shooting – are likely to be in GREAT part the result of his chronic ankle injury that finally was properly treated. He had to go outside of the Milan doctors to have it addressed (he saw a top Dutch surgeon). Ankle issues, precisely, result exactly in these same three shortcomings.
Gimenez was extremely prolific for Feyenoord. Sure, they play in a less prestigious league, but it was difficult to think that a player who is still young and performed very well for club and country, suddenly forgot how to score goals. I think it’s more likely due to his chronic injury that was poorly diagnosed by Milan’s doctors.
Still, even while playing injured, Gimenez created more space for his upfront companion, than, for example, Nkunku can do.
I am very hopeful that when Gimenez fully recovers, he will prove that he is indeed a good striker.
Luigi you perfectly explained the problem with Gimenez , poor first touch, poor ability to turn and shoot and poor accuracy and I will add poor dribbling and poor positioning. You described him perfectly, yet you still believe in him? He’s poor in all of the areas that make a striker successful.
Savio, he wasn’t poor on these fundamentals for Feyenoord, and wasn’t poor for Mexico. I think that in great part, his shortcomings have to do with the chronic ankle injury, which has finally been fully addressed, so I’m hopeful that these shortcomings will go away once he fully rehabs and recovers 100% from his injury,
Well let’s hope he finds his way back. I’m not willing to take a bet on that though.
It was clear Cremonese was going to park the bus. And that is exactly what they did. But we did eventually break through. The issue with this team is lack of depth.
Pulisic is in such poor form it’s shocking.
Let Fullkrug and Nkunku start that much is clear.
Still three huge points. The scudetto is next to impossible, but this is one step closer to sealing our CL status.
My concern is depth and poor individual form of players like Leao and Pulisic.
Cremonese attacked plenty. 47%possession. The only reason they stayed in the game until 90’s minute is because our forwards don’t remember how to score, even sitters.
Hardly worse than their forwards, who kept shooting off-target over and over.
No they didn’t. Get off your rocker, gramps. Cremonese didn’t have any real chances.
To be fair to ACM1899, yes, Cremonese did have good chances, including one by a hair when Bartesaghi lost his man who shot a couple of centimeters wide with Maignan beaten, and another similar one. They achieved an xG of 0.99 which is a fair one, and means that they objectively achieved scoring chances.
I watched a Barcelona match a few weeks ago, they of course, looked stunning, 70%+ possession, and my goodness, some breath-taking passing and slick interplay. Totally entertaining. I was like wow, what some beautiful football. They completely dominated and looked spectacular. They lost 1-0 and their fans booed them off the pitch. Milan got what they came for. 3pts.
Exactly. Points earned are more important than style and beauty of play, especially in a season in which we absolutely cannot afford to finish out of the Champions League spots. That would spell disaster, with our main players guaranteed to leave – no talented player wants to stay with a team that is not playing the Champions League for two years in a row). This would result in Banter Years 2.0 because our cheap owners wouldn’t replace the departing players with similar quality.
There is a reason why Allegri keeps saying that the objective is to make the Champions League. It’s because this is indeed, at this point, the most important objective; it’s a survival-related objective.
Most coaches take a while to produce results when they join a new team. Allegri on the other hand hit the ground running, and other than the very first game of the Serie A season, he immediately produced an improvement in number of points earned and number of goals conceded.
Like I’ve been saying – this is a recovery season, out of last year’s disastrous season.
Inter also got a new coach; went from second to first, with the coach being awarded a large roster with several top players. So Inter’s coach with ideal conditions, went up by one position.
Our new coach went from 8th to 2nd, while being awarded a short and shallow roster, which then got further decimated by injury. Allegri, with far from ideal conditions, went up by six positions.
What Allegri has accomplished in this short time and with this short and shallow roster, is nothing short of remarkable.
People either don’t remember well the truly bad seasons we’ve had, or are very ungrateful.
Get rid of Pulisic and Leao. Do not renew Fulkrug. Sign Sorloth and Guirrasy. I am afraid that until the club buys better forwards an more goals then this tedious s@@t is all we are going to get. These last few performances have been embarrassing and some of the results mask the obvious truth. Inter fans must be laughing their heads off.
After having lost their 7th tournament in a row, and after having lost 1-3 and 1-2 to Bodo/Glimt, I doubt that Inter fans are laughing their heads off.
Things that are still obvious:
1. People arguing over ratings which are completely subjective and meaningless.
2. Milan is infinitely more dangerous with a front 3.
3. DeWinter is currently the best CB we have. We need better CB’s.
4. Bartesaghi still doesn’t have any awareness of defenders behind him. Game in, game out, same mistakes.
5. Nobody is buying Salad’s dives and they are becoming embarrassing.
6. Luigi’s reviews are getting LONGER AND L O N G E R . . .
1. Ratings are fun and stimulate debate which is what a fan forum is for. They are not meaningless in this context, because they foster analysis of each player’s performance. They also are demonstrative of biases that are worth discussing.
2. Agreed. But we hardly have the personnel for consistently playing with a front 3, because we have only 5 attackers, one of whom is recovering from surgery, two of whom have been below their ideal physical condition, and two of whom are the very opposite of being prolific goal contributors.
3. Agreed.
4. Agreed.
5. Agreed.
6. Yes, they are. I’m verbose. So what? People are not forced to read me. If they want, they can ignore my posts. But see, the funny thing is that one of these past games, I said “this time and uncharacteristically, I will be brief.” I posted a brief ratings post. I was immediately berated for not providing sufficient explanation for my ratings, and being too short in my assessments, with one-liners. One can’t ever please both the Greeks and the Trojans.
In most cases I don’t read your long posts, but I appreciate them nonetheless (I mostly read responses to my own comments). You are one of a small number of posters here who uses arguments and well-thought opinions. Then of course if someone does not like to read long posts, they can move on and read something else.
Fair enough. Agreed. Thanks.
Out of curiosity, would you mind sharing what you do for a living?
Yes, I would mind. I do not believe in disclosing in detail a lot of personal information in an anonymous Internet forum.
Besides, sometimes when people disclose these things, even if they are true, they get doubted as liars or pretenders. What I do for a living and the credentials I had to earn to do it, are somewhat impressive and in my experience with the Internet, which is several decades long, invariably, when I was silly enough to disclose it, people didn’t want to believe it, and started attacking me as a poseur.
I will just say this: my professional activities do include writing up (and publishing) long texts, which partly explains my verbosity.
There is something that concerns me. The TV focused on Pulisic’s face on the bench, right after he was subbed out. He had his eyes closed and looked devastated. Sure, we can’t know for sure what he was thinking, and maybe he was just frustrated because he’s been missing goal-scoring opportunities and it seems like he is a player who is over-critical of his own self, due to his high standards.
But what I was afraid of, is that Puli might, instead, be thinking “what the hell am I doing here in this club? I want out. I want to win trophies. I should indeed think twice before renewing my contract with Milan,”
My thoughts exactly!
I think it’s the first one. He’s overly critical of himself and he’s in bad form at the moment and really wants to get out of it. Posters should be patient and remember what he’s done for the team over the last 2.5 years. He will get it back soon.
TBH, I was thinking that he looks like he has decided to give his agent a call and ask for something new… We’ll see in the summer what happens but I’m 100% sure he doesn’t appreciate being the 1st one (attacking player) to be subbed every match no matter how he or his teammates perform.
No professional player worth his weight in salt is happy to be subbed out. One needs to also understand that according to Allegri himself, Milan’s medical staff had said that Pulisic only had 15 to 20 minutes in his legs. Sometimes, these substitutions are done to preserve a player’s physical condition while he heals and recovers his form.
I do not see Allegri as having an anti-Puli bias. He is appreciative of Pulisic and has said so multiple times. I remember a recent game in which Allegri said in his pre-game press conference something to the effect of “Leão although not at 100%, is currently in better physical shape than Pulisic who according to our doctors is still not able to give us much more than 20 minutes so I will take it into consideration during the game.” Pulisic is the utmost professional and he is a fighter who wants to help the team, so even if it’s a medical recommendation, he will never be happy when he is subbed out.
Competitive athletes are notorious for not taking medical advice kindly. If a doctor says to such a person “you need to rest” the person is likely to think “yeah, right; no way!” and try to jump immediately back into the fray. In the American NFL, there was a famous case of a player who hid a broken vertebra from his coach and kept playing, despite the risk for his own spine.
So, yes, Puli who is a huge fighter with huge work ethics, is probably not happy, and I fear that at one point he may choose to leave Milan. But I hope not. I hope he will fully recover, resume scoring goals, and resume getting long minutes in games, then will be happy again, and will remain with us.
Puli used to be our isolated best player, no doubt. Now it’s arguable that this is more shared, as he is now one of 3 best players, including Modric and Rabiot. I think that overall, Puli is a better player than Rafa whom I deem now as our fourth best player. However it is undeniable that Puli is having a difficult time in 2026, his toughest stretch with Milan’s jersey since he joined. Let’s hope it doesn’t last so that he doesn’t give his agent a call.
Interesting piece of information for the consideration of Leão haters:
Over the last six Serie A seasons, there are only 2 players who scored more than 10 goals in each of those 6 seasons. One is Lautaro Martinez. The other one is Rafael Leão.
Shhhh…not so loud, some people in here don’t like facts. They prefer the hysteria from the echo chamber!
Please add Mr. Decisive to the name Rafael Leao….lol
OMG! Wesley scores a cracking goal v Juve…Roma 1-Juve 0 so far. excellent strike.
OMG x2!! An even better strike from Conceicao!!! Whoa….2 excellent goals in this match!
Roma 1 Juve 1. Hope it ends this way.
sigh…Roma score again. Terrible Juve defending.
Roma?? Wow Malen with a well-taken striker’s goal. Roma 3 Juve 1.
No matter the formation the coach plays, if our forward players don’t score, it doesn’t really make much difference. I’d prefer Leao on the left wing, where he can create chances for the others, but, our attacker’s ain’t good enough. Who in his right mind would bench Nkunku or Fullkrug, for Leao/Pulisic partnership? None of them is good enough. We need a good finisher as our No.9. Also, aside Mike, the back 3, Modric and Rabiot, other players have performed well consistently – Saelemaekers, Fofana, Ricci, Jashari, Leao, Pulisic. We can blame Allegri, all we want, but, it’s up to the players to up their games. We can’t have good games all the time, but, the performances upfront force the coach to keep making changes, and switch tactics every now and then.
Roma 3 Juve 3 in the 93rd min. Milan not the only team playing to the final whistle for pts.
I watched it. It was a great game. This result allowed us to open 6 points over Roma, and 9 points over the 5th-placed team (Como); also, our second biggest rivals, Juve, got further away from the Champions League spots and are currently only in the Conference League spot. Good stuff.
Another interesting stat for the folks here who were deeply unsatisfied by today’s performance by AC Milan: the xG of 3.51 was the highest achieved by Milan during the entire season. We really did not lack in offensive volume today. Yes, we lacked in accuracy but then, did finally score twice. I’d say it wasn’t that bad like some people here are saying.
Luigi you are really going to annoy the echo chamber with your facts. They prefer their own tin foil hats to guide them.
I think now is the time to switch formation 343 in mind
A few thoughts.
1. I have been making excuses for Pulisic all year. Injuries, poor service, etc. A good player cannot miss that pass to Laeo.
2. Three in the back, two up top really only works if your wing backs are threats to score. That really isn’t happening.
3. Is Koni our best defender? I think he hasn’t reached his ceiling yet either.
4. It will be very interesting to see who starts the next game…because a lot of the guys who were difference makers in the first half of the year (Pulisic, Saelemaekers, Rabiot, Barthesaghi…and yes I still think Modric) are not playing as well. Can Milan afford to rotate for the derby?
5. Laeo still is not as fast as he was in years past, but today is the best he has run all year.
6. Cremonese is one of the ugliest teams in world football. From their coach, to their players, to their style of play…so ugly.
7. Is it just me or did no one have composure today? Seemed like we would win the ball, and turn it over almost immediately.
8. Hey SempreMilan staff…remember when you wrote an article about Milan’s remarkable ability to score on the first shot of the game, and ever since then Milan can’t make easy shots anymore? Maybe someone needs to do the reverse…do an expose on the terrible shooting of Milan.
9. Eff Inter! Forza
Agreed with everything, good post
Has anybody seen Leao or Pulisic actually beat a keeper, one on one? I mean ever? I don’t think they can do it. I think if they had 10 chances, they’d miss all 10.
I mean I get it: most Serie A teams won’t leave your strikers alone with the keeper. So that’s not the scenario you plan for, when you put together a lineup. Most of your goals are going to come from a melee in the box, and Pulisic is pretty good at poking the ball into the net, while Leao is good at powering into the box and setting those up.
But still, it would be nice to see one of them actually beat a keeper. At least once.
They’ve both done it multiple times. Just recently Rafa beat the keeper 1 v 1 by flipping the ball over the Como keeper (assist by Jashari) and scoring, a golazo.
I have no idea what you’re talking about, saying that Rafa and Puli never beat a goalkeeper 1 v 1. Obviously you haven’t watched all Milan games otherwise you’d have seen it happen.
I thought Leao with a 5 is incredibly harsh esp given that his work paid off with the goal at the end. Yes a couple of those chances were terrible misses /sitters. But by and large he was the main source of offense for a large part of the match. And he’s the striker. The wingers weren’t all that great and we had almost no movement in midfield. Puli, who normally picks up the slack on these occasions, went missing in a way I rarely see from him. So Leao ended up having no support really. Anyways instead of Cremonese taking 4 points between the two ties at least we got even. 3 points it is. Still within Inter’s radar so not too bad. We could have squandered it like Roma but at least we’re second place and closer to securing UCL next year
Exactly. Rafa got a 6.5 from me but let’s not look at me; I’m just a poster in a fan forum; let’s look at professional sports journalists: the 3 main Italian sports newspapers granted to Rafa 6.5, 6, and 6. A 5 is indeed harsh.
A 5 is more than harsh, a 7 is ideal, he was the focal point of that attack, his work rate was obvious in the stats and his movement as a striker was top notch even when not 100%: an esque of Haaland, Lewandoski movement, only need to work a bit more on the finishing
While I appreciate that you love Rafael Leão who is a very important player for us and one of our best, and who has been sacrificing himself for the team when playing with a chronic lingering inflammation that is painful and limits his bursts of speed (it’s funny that people call “lazy” a player who is willing to sacrifice his physical condition for the good of the team), I think that now you are exaggerating a little. I didn’t rate Rafa a 7 because of three misses that encouraged me to deduct a bit of points in my score of 6.5 for him. A huge miss in a play that absolutely should have been a score, does result in a lower rating, which is fair. Rafa did have a good game, but not a perfect game, due to those misses. As he scored, he recovered a bit in my ratings. He basically had 4 easy opportunities to score. He missed 3 and converted 1. So he still had a balance of minus 2 in the topic of missed/scored opportunities. That does warrant a deduction in rating points. I still gave him a good score for the good parts (a score, and top stats in four attacking fundamentals) and had not missed, his score would have been significantly higher. But with the misses, a 7 would have been too high for him. A 5, though, is indeed absurd.
I also think that comparing Rafa to Haaland and Lewandowski is a bit of an exaggeration. Unfortunately Rafa is not at their level. If he were, he wouldn’t be playing for us; he would have been snatched by clubs that are much wealthier than AC Milan. Rafa is a great and talented player but does have his shortcomings. In a sense I’m actually kind of glad that Rafa is not near-perfect because otherwise he wouldn’t be playing for us. It’s because he is very good but does have some warts, that we can afford to have him and to benefit from his contributions.
I am not comparing Rafa to Haaland or Lewandoski, I am only comparing his movement as a striker, note the word movement, I don’t think they are both better than Rafa, they are strikers and Rafa is not, there is no basis for comparison, everyone is great at there respective position, it doesn’t make them better, it’s a matter of what you want, if they as a striker don’t get service they don’t score
Isak always scores down certain players and is overly generous to others (his favorites). He is very consistent though.