AC Milan clinched all three points after a two-minute turnaround against Genoa, getting a little help from the substitutes. Below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (9 – MOTM): Talk about making a difference! That save (yes, you know which one I mean) was incredible and the replays showed it was just centimetres from going in. Then he managed to save the rebound. Before that, he had also made a fantastic save on a low shot from Norton-Cuffy. He could do nothing about the goal conceded, but he’s a huge part of why Milan won tonight.
Tomori (6): Overall, it was solid defending from the Englishman with no mistakes to note, and some decent passes forward. He had one great ball over the top for Pulisic which, unluckily, hit the winger’s back.
Gabbia (6.5): He did everything right on the goal conceded, picking up his man, so all blame must fall on his colleague (which we will get to). In any case, he battled a lot for the entire game and had several good interventions/clearances as a result. Exactly what you want from the central defender in a back-three.
Pavlovic (5.5): He was more involved than the other centre-backs in build-up, but perhaps that was just because Milan chose to play on the left-hand side more. Unfortunately, all the positives were overshadowed by the defending on Genoa’s goal. He left Vitinha completely alone and tried to pick up Gabbia’s man instead. Rating is slightly rescued by some good clearances at the end.
Jimenez (6): The youngster wasn’t super involved, admittedly, but he did well when he got on the ball tonight. He certainly used his speed one more than one occasion and also had a very good cross at the start of the game. Defensively, as a wing-back, he did well.
Fofana (N/A): He had a pretty decent start to the game, often finding some space to operate, but we obviously didn’t see enough to give him a rating. He was taken off after 28 minutes following a discomfort of some sort, but it didn’t look too serious.
Reijnders (6): The Dutchman could have done slightly better in the decisive moments, that much is true, but he did play the ball for Leao just before the winner. At least we cannot fault his ability to find space tonight, causing havoc for the Genoa defence with his runs (as we so often see).
Hernandez (5.5): It might sound like a harsh rating, seeing as there was hard work from him tonight, but you can’t help but think that he could have done better. He was very sloppy in defence at times, with Maignan having to bail him out once, and he squandered some good opportunities (especially one) in attack.
Loftus-Cheek (6): He started the game as a right-winger of sorts and actually had some very nice plays, involved in Milan’s first big chance of the game. He wasn’t as effective when he had to drop down, but it’s also not his natural position so praise must be given. It was a good pass to start the move for the second goal, for example.
Jovic (5.5): Although we saw a couple of nice one-twos, as well as hold-up play, he struggled in the battle with the centre-backs for most of the game. As a result, he wasn’t really efficient for Milan and it showed when he was taken off.
Pulisic (5.5): The No.11 was so lively at the start of the game, especially when he played on the left, with more confidence on the ball (or so it seemed anyway). However, while he did well to bring the ball into his stride, he simply had to convert that big chance. If you don’t square it there, you have to score. He nearly scored an own-goal as well (even if that would have been unlucky).
Substitutes
Leao (6.5): It was a rather bizarre game from the winger because on the one hand, he struggled to make a difference in open play for most of his time on the pitch. Then, he was heavily involved in Milan’s two-minute turnaround with the equaliser and the cross for the own-goal. We have to demand more from him still, but we cannot ignore his importance tonight.
Gimenez (6): The goal against Venezia has seemingly boosted his confidence, because it was a nice run and cut-back on the equaliser. Some decent moments after that but nothing major.
Joao Felix (6.5): He entered the pitch with a lot of energy, starting with a great ball over the top for Gimenez which led to the first goal. Then, his run into the box forced Frendrup to get a foot on the ball, resulting in the own-goal. Yes, a couple of chances missed after that, but that’s after he created them himself.
Musah (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Walker (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Pulisic and Theo’s ratings here are a bit harsh. deserved a pass here
6.5 for João? Complete rubbish. He had two opportunities to score and out flaired himself. If you are going to down grade Pulisic for his miss you must dock João in a similar fashion. You also neglected to mention how Pulisic set up Reijnders who skied multiple chances into the stands.
Pulisic was all over the pitch working his a55 off – and sure missed when he should have scored or assisted to Tijj – but still… What did Felix did to deserve a better grade? Felix should should had at least a shot from his two drives/attempts but failed miserably.
Agree on Puli, but Theo looked bad. Too much diving again.
this was a bad game from Milan, the moment fofana left the pitch, the levels fell even further. The moment anyone in midfield got the ball Genoa had three players surrounding the player who has the ball. The guys had no solution on hoe to evade the press from start to finish. The solution was obvious, they needed to play long balls and no one in midfield wanted to play a long ball. The moment a long ball was played successfully to Santiago a goal came through. The second goal came more easily because Genoa lost their control over the midfield and after that they stopped pressing. These games become easier when you score early and immediately kill the game with a second and third goal.
Conceciao should leave Milan Asap
It’s not so much of a coach problem all the time, the players are still lacking basics and a coach can’t control that.
Agreed. Individual player errors can’t be attributed to the coaches instructions. Pavlovic made his mistakes and cost us the goal conceded.
Conceicao has had us on 11 goals scored and 2 conceded since switching to this new formation 5 games ago. I don’t see how he’s to blame.
Milan fans just want to see a shiny new toy Coaching next season, but you do realize that a new coach will have just as many teething problems as current year, right?
If Conceicao has gotten the current team’s players to buy in, then keep him for the start of next season and see how he does with a full pre-season and players that he wants to bring in without the restrictions we had during the Winter Mercato.
Please don’t make excuses for this disaster of a coach. The team looked awful , outplayed again by a bottom table team. Completely overwhelmed in the first half, which is the norm since Conceicao took over. Completely unable to deal with Genoa’s pressure, making them look like Liverpool. And no clue as to how to make adjustments. He gets outcoached against literally everyone we play.
If not for some amazing saves by Maignan we could easily have been down 2 0r 3 by halftime.
And then of course after we fall behind he throws in all attacking players and we get another lucky comeback from a horrible performance. This team under Conceicao are terrible if they try to play any other way than all-out attack desperation mode. That is no way to play and completely unsustainable. Counting the days until he is gone.
Agree. His sub choices are terrible. His solution is always but in more attacking players and hope to get lucky. Just look at the first sub when Fofana came off. There was a natural replacement and he didn’t use it.
Nah, it’s a coach problem. He has Bondo on the bench and never played the man and still playing wt musah…yah he needs to go
Bondo is injured. And he played Musah on RWV this match.
He should have put Musah in for Fofana. It’s more his natural position than going on for Puli.
With all due respect, RLC doesn’t have what milan needs from a CM (playing beside reijnders) a 343 system. can’t pass (triangles), can’t dribble can’t break opposition’s play or against Genoa just unintelligent runs, back passes and leaving a big gap in the middle.
Honestly, milan needs a vidal/niangollan type of ‘destroyer-baller’ in midfield and a complete CM who is a brilliant passer like ‘Jorginho in the Sarri ball Napoli’.
Imagine hoping to win Europa next season and failing to control the game against genoa.
I think you’ve overrated Reijnders here. I feel like he was pretty poor in the final third. Too many times he wasted momentum with a shot that was way too far off target.
And Leao deserves at least a 7.0. He caused both goals as a sub.
A few thoughts
1. In rain like this the prettiness is gone so no one looks good.
2. What was the deal with the corner kicks? Kick it into the box and hope someone slips in the mud.
3. Just pay Maignon. I don’t get it.
4. In a crappy weather game like this it seemed that a physical force like RLC could dominate. I didn’t really see that.
5. I have heard Freundup mentioned as a target for Milan. I’d be down for that
6. When Laeo is on the bench all I want is 0-0 and tired legs when he enters. Fofana’s injury took that away.
7. Good for Felix. I thought he played well…Finally.
8. Can we please sign a stud CB before we start talking about signing another yet another striker,
9. Losing Fofana hurt our creativity through the middle of the pitch
The corners. Yes. Just put it in a dangerous spot and let someone bundle it in.
Here got best in the world may 2025
Mike
Jimrnez Bissek Tomori Walker
Rlc Felix Rejnders
Leao Pulisic Chukwueze
Who’s this mofo?
Hi all
AC Milan is currently 9th on the table
its year zero again
A win is a win. However most of these player ratings are way off the mark. The team fought hard and stuck together even though the quality was severely lacking.
In my opinion, Pulisic was extremely poor (and is vastly overrated), as was the team for 80 of the 90 minutes. Granted the rain effected the overall quality of the match.
If other clubs offer 60 M for Pulisic or Reijnders they should be sold without hesitation. Tonali is world class by comparison even after a year suspension. Those two combined dont have the grinta or footballing IQ of his left nut.
When Leao and Theo are at their best paired with a competent midfield, we win the league and are in the CL semi final. When Pulisic and Reijnders are at their best, well… Europa league spot, at best.
If you want receipts- look at the table.
Good night.
Pulisic is overrated?? Haha. Silly comment.
Pulisic vastly overrated? Are you aware that of the 600 Serie A players, Puli is the #1 in goal-scoring opportunities created? Lookman is second, Rafael Leão is third.
So Puli objectively speaking creates by himself more goal-scoring opportunities than ANY other Serie A player… and that’s the player you call overrated.
He takes corner kick so is Lukmon, on overall Leao is way better and has the highest assist in serie A overall
Do goals from corner kicks count less than goals from open play?
“If other clubs offer 60 M for Pulisic or Reijnders they should be sold without hesitation. Tonali is world class by comparison even after a year suspension. ”
How to say one doesn’t understand football one bit without saying one doesn’t understand football one bit.
Found the troll
It was a nice comeback. we looked mostly solid in defence until that error on their goal.
It was interesting to see Pulisic on the left at the start.
Rjeinders is so important for this team.
Conceicao made a few mistakes with the subs I thought.
Pavlovic was on a yellow and should have been subbed at half time. His 2nd half included the mistake on the goal and he almost got another yellow.
2nd half changes were a bit too late.
We were lucky to get the response as quick as we did when Gimenez & Felix came on.
Felix surprised me today. As did Gimenez.
Chuk must have really got on the coaches bad side in training.
Maybe he will get a chance in the first Bologna game with Leao suspended and Sottil injured.
It is a shame Bondo was injured and couldn’t take his chance to sub for Fofana.
Ugly win.
The league is done for us. Good to see some wins on the board. I think we should play the B team next match v Bologna. That way we will be fresher for the coppa game, they need to win.
For Milan, 3 back is only bandage fix. It plugs certain holes in the team currently and makes up for shortcomings of individuals.
This team has been built on a foundation of 4-2-3-1 for a long time, it would only take a coach who works with that system and a whole lot of work in the summer market to truly play 3-back.
Compared to the 4-2-3-1, only a few “obvious” tweaks need to be made to get the team back on form again. Our LB is the explosive type, balance it out with a solid RB (we had that in Kalulu). Bring in a typical number ‘6’ to play as register, Fofana gets freed to play box-to-box ‘8’ and Reijnders as a 10 (who can even be allowed to roam).
Finally, they are our best attacking threat and I’ve never been in support of selling, but we’ve been waiting a long time for Theo and Leao to get back to the levels we’ve known them for. Let me reiterate, we’ve been waiting A LOOONNGG TIME… I’ll leave it at that.
Felix made a big difference with intelligent play, and then killing off the match ftw.
Felix wasn’t the one who killed off the match ftw. Rafael Leão was. First, he delivered a great ball to Pulisic who failed to score. Then Rafa scored himself. Then he produced the play that resulted in their own-goal.
Yes, FOR A CHANGE João Félix did well today. It’s pretty much the first time he played well since his first Milan game against Roma. But that wasn’t by very far as good as what Rafa did, and it’s not for nothing that Rafa, not Félix, got the official MOTM award and trophy.
Usually when Félix is in, it’s like Milan is playing with 10 men.
You are spot on bro
Felix was terrible dude, his usual terrible self. The usual dribble to nowhere when he’s got a better option for the pass. Laughing and joking around in the post-game team huddle when everyone else is serious because they know we barely won this match and are in 9th place. He should join Flamengo and enjoy his time on the Copacabana.
This team is terrible. They can’t move the ball quickly and are not skilled enough to play one touch ball. Can they ever switch play? Let’s compare the play of Bologna when ACM play them.
One of the most selfish and low football IQ sets of players Milan has ever had.
They keep the ball and try to dribble when they should pass it to an open teammate or sending a pass to a covered teammate when they should keep the ball and run with it.
Individual bad decisions time after time all season long.
Outside of Maignan the rest of them were awful. They created only 1 chance that Pulisic missed because he was selfish. Then they scored 2 lucky goals.
If they play like this vs Bologna in the final, they’ll get embarrassed.
For me, thank God it is a win match last night.
Yes we not playing good, and maybe Conceicao made some wrong decisions. But it is still a win for us.
Besides, winning streak will raise the teams morale, and that is good for against Bologna in final.
I know where is our position, but at least if we can keep winning until this season finish, that will be a great foundation for us to next season.
Team finally can find the rhythm with Conceicao. And the most important, I think don’t change the coach. We will start from the bottom again, when we did that for next season.
Pulisic had every right to shoot, reinjders would of missed anyways
Pulisic has buried so many chances. Yes he should have scored but the keeper made a good reflex save. Cut him some slack.
It’s not like Tammy, Leao, Theo, Reijnders, Musah etc haven’t missed similar sitters, now is it? It was a brilliant save but still… Maybe he should have passed the ball to Tijj but then again… If it were anyone else in this squad, would they have passed? Nope. Every single player in the current Milan squad would have tried to score themselves. Every single one.
I thought Tiji looked offside anyways.
Still singing songs about that average Chelsea bench warmer pulisic !!!! Who’s the fool who writes these articles
On Pulisic’s chance, the keeper was good (and lucky) as he slid in with his right leg, and that blocked the far post and also would have blocked the square pass to Tijji. Puli was right to shoot, he just needed to hit it near post or lift it over the keeper. Not an easy finish, but not so hard, and we’ve seen him bury those many times.
He’ll get the next one. I’d still back him as our best finisher in the box, but today Leao actually finished well (somewhat lucky on the deflection actually).
100% agree. I don’t think he could just squared it so simply and Tiji may have even been offside.
This team lacks creativity and vision. Football IQ is questionable with many as well. We have Pulisic acting as an advanced playmaker in midfield ffs. This constant overdribbling when they should play a simple pass is painful to watch but that’s what you get when you have a midfield of runners and carriers.
Without “easily replaceable” Mike between the post we’d be in for another disaster.
The result was a huge let off here, for sure. Maignan was immense, but the rest of the team is still stuck with the same problems – somehow we’re getting results but the left side just seemed non-existent defensively and there were hardly any patterns to our play throughout – kept ending up in defensive muddles unable to get around the press.
I get that we are experimenting a bit now, hence Pulisic on the left and RLC or Reijnders on the right but we ended up blocking Jimenez finding any space.
We also seem to have an obsession with putting every cross low and onto the penalty spot, which must be a coached thing; Leao in particular has been doing it all season. It’s a reason Reijnders’ goal tally is up but feels very predictable.
The left side (Leao and Theo) also make Pavlovic’s job much harder. I feel like he gets consistently rated low unfairly because he has to cover for gaffe in the left.
Most Milan players are not worthy of playing in this club, it’s very clear that they lack quality and intelligence,most times they don’t know what they need to do with the ball, always going for poor decisions, Milan needs people who understands football with fresh ideas & are ready to bring quality zealous players.. Forza Milan
Team was poor. Yes we won but we overplay on an individual level. There’s no team movement or system of play (poor coaching)….hence we rely on individuals as per usual. Players are bad, coaching is bad but I think the coaching level is worse than the player level. How does Felix get a 6.5 is beyond me when he dribbles and loses the ball so often. At the end of the game we’re trying to dribble into a crowd in Genoa’s box instead of keeping it and passing around??? Come on! Can’t wait for the season to be over. We are truly a 9th placed team, it shows every game. Dont know why people are surprised anymore
Yes, we always rely on individual brilliance and when I see rain on the pitch I know it’s going to be a long night.
Once again, these ratings are a complete joke. Maybe the most obvious is Puli getting the lowest grade? He was creating the most chances. Leao was garbage and barely rescued by the goal. Him and Theo were right back to their old ways, flopping and begging for fouls. The midfield looked awful most of the game, even Fofana early on. Too many bad giveaways in own half. Lucky to not concede much earlier in the game. The sub choices were very perplexing too. When Fofana goes out, why not bring in Musah at that point? He was the only natural replacement on the bench who could have helped stabilize the midfield. Instead you wait to bring him on for Puli at the very end and you replaced Fofana with Leao which moved Puli to the other side and threw off the whole rhythm of the offense for half the game? Overall, Mike is MoTM. Theo probably lowest. Very sloppy from most and lucky again to come away with a win.
“why not bring in Musah at that point?”
You haven’t seen Musah play, now have you? There was a reason why he was subbed off after 20 minutes last time he started a match.
There are footballers and then there are trash such as Emerson Royal & Musah. Trash shouldn’t be thrown on the pitch.