AC Milan needed a miracle, and never got one, as Inter won the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri, with several letting the fans down.
Starting XI
Maignan (6 – MOTM): You could make the argument that he should’ve done more on the goal, but ultimately he was let down by his teammates at the back. Plus, he made several fantastic (really fantastic) saves tonight. So it’s a pass for him.
Calabria (4): From what we have seen in these two games, he’s not captain material. You need someone like Tonali, who gets stuck in ALL THE TIME, to lead the charge and not someone who’s constantly out of position and is weak physically.
Thiaw (6): Along with Maignan, probably the best Milan player tonight, although that doesn’t say much. He did well against both Lautaro and Dzeko, winning some duels and at least keeping them at bay when losing them. The goal came after he was subbed off.
Tomori (4.5): He improved in the second half but his positioning was truly awful in the first half and left a hole in the heart of the defence (just like in the first leg). He’s not the Tomori we fell in love with, sadly.
Hernandez (5): Not great defensively, let’s be honest, and even though he was allowed to have a higher position from the start he added very little to the attack.
Krunic (5): Just a tad better than in the first leg, covering more space defensively and remaining calm on the ball. But he was too reckless (again) and could have been sent off.
Tonali (5.5): He was very bright in the first half and created that fantastic chance for Diaz, but almost completely faded in the second half. Not to say that he was bad, but he wasn’t involved enough sadly.
Messias (3.5): Awful, just awful from him tonight with sloppy passing. Given that Leao was heavily marked, Milan had to play on the right a lot but the Brazilian – even when he created space for himself – was really poor with the final touch.
Diaz (3): Questions should be asked regarding his future at the club. As soon as he got the ball, he stuck his head down and tried to dribble centrally and it always failed. Never passed when he was supposed to, and missed a fantastic chance in the first half with such an embarrassing finish.
Leao (4.5): He wasn’t involved enough tonight, which Milan needed him to be. He had one moment, which came after a clearance really, and nearly scored but looked lazy otherwise and wasn’t synced (potentially slightly injured still).
Giroud (4): Didn’t win enough duels, just like the first leg, and when he did the flicks were always to an Inter man. He was no threat to the Inter defence.
Substitutes
Kalulu (3): Such an embarrassing error from him on the goal, especially since he was marking Lautaro two seconds earlier and then just left him completely free.
Origi (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
Saelemaekers (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
If we sign Diaz permanently, my 25 years as a Milan fan will be over.
Maybe that means I’m not a real fan, but I don’t care.
Please please sign Diaz so that you’re no longer a fan of this club 🙏
This no way you’ve lived through the batner era. We signed Bakaye Traore for f**k sake
Remember when Niang was our Leao? Good days.
Niang was our Leao.
We just then randomly decided to loan him out.
Look at Lukaku since he’s been to and from Chelsea.
Players rarely reach their potential when they move around like bar staff.
What happened to Niang after? Not every player is up to scratch dude. You have to accept that some players are inferior. Not amount of “support” is going to get a given player to be the next Messi if they don’t have the talent.
Kévin Constant is my fav signing of the banter era, me and my brother always joked if you order Ibrahimovic from AliExpress you will get Kévin Constant.
Nothing wrong with having a go at one player – who has been hit and miss, and is going to cost us a fortune to sign outright.
It’s more when people want to replace the owners, the directors, the manager and most of the team that you have to start questioning what the point of it all is…..
Good riddance, go support Inter
Diaz permanently, for 15 million is bargain. In three years he will worth 75 million.
youre a dumbass
Diaz is so useless to me. He keeps doing same foolish thing all over and over again, trying to make a dribble that doesn’t work out. Make a simple pass, don’t dribble just make a simple pass gaddamit
Diaz (3): …”As soon as he got the ball, he stuck his head down and tried to dribble centrally and it always failed. Never passed when he was supposed to.”
Diaz has been playing like this 👆 since his first year with us.
He has NO vision, NO football intelligence and NO way to make the team play better.
If Milan signs him and let him continue to play as number 10, I’d think this Milan is toally lost and no way to move up nor forward.
Rate all of them (1). What a bunch of losers. Milan makes my heart ache 💔
For real
Don’t be too harsh on Diaz. He’s just not ready yet. No player is ready before the 70th minute.
Calabria 4? lol what about we talk about pioli having favourites at AC MILAN so happy he will be sacked blessing in disguise that we don’t get top 4
Let’s face it. He won’t be here next season.
I believe you have a beef on Tomori. He and Thiaw partnered so well, and used his speed to cover some loopholes from the midfielders.
Diaz was bright prior to missed chance and he later fell off.
Pioli, was just technically deficient and his coaching crew are a bunch of same feather.
I’m terrified
My ratings lol 😂
Mike: 5, can’t be beaten near post
Calabria 4 can’t defend Lukaku when Lautaro is your man
Thiaw: 7, can only do so much but did well
Tomori, 6 not bad
Hernandez 5, needed his attacking today but didn’t see it
Tonali 5, not bad but not great either
Krunic, MOTM cool, calm and collected
Diaz, 1 because the scale is between 1 and 10 and can’t find a lower number than 1
Messias, 1 see above
Giroud 4 no service though
Leao 3 didn’t do anything
Kalulu 1, your man was Lautaro, how can u lose him like that
Krunic “cool calm and collected” lol. Could’ve been sent off for the second game in a row. The guy is a red card waiting to happen. Not to mention zero offensive ability.
Great ratings! You’re hired!
😂😂😂😂
“You need someone like Tonali, who gets stuck in ALL THE TIME, to lead the charge and not someone who’s constantly out of position and is weak physically.”
So physically weak cannot/shouldn’t be a captain? LOL. You clearly have never played any team sports if you think captain should be a physical one. Basically you’re saying Luka Modric should have never been a captain either. LOL. Ignorance is a bliss, eh?
Also midfield is our biggest weakness so I am not sure if Tonali is guaranteed a start if we sign a proper midfielder!
I look forward to Sempre Milan still awarding him MOTM when he sits on the bench….
“I look forward to Sempre Milan still awarding him MOTM when he sits on the bench….”
I get it when everyone plays badly that you need to pick one but Tonali is supposed to be the building force in the midfield and if we create nothing he cannot be the MOTM. It’s as simple as that.
created 1 clear chance for messias in the first leg and 1 for diaz in the second leg. not creating anything right?.. he created great goal opportunities, not good ones, great ones, yet nobody remembers i see.
Diaz, Messias are complete embarrassment, we played with one man short and that’s Diaz, doesn’t deserve to be a Milan player
They showed no heart.
The players faded in the second half, you know who never faded? Kessie
Disappointing performance and result.
Still semi final was a great step forward, unfortunately missing out on top 4 is an even bigger step back
KESSIE. If only KESSIE had been here we would have won the treble!!! Maybe even the quintuple!!! ALL TIME RECORD BREAKING. KESSIEEEEEE! KESSIE KESSIE KESSIE!!!! (sarcasm)
Pioli :
-Didn’t know what Pioli saw until he played messias in front of Saele. He didn’t want to play, that was enough from 10 minutes into the second half. And the highlight was when he didn’t want to run after the ball that was fed by Tonali.
– With the height of the Inter players above the average Milan players and surely knowing Tomori’s offensive, Pioli chose to bring on Kalulu instead of Kjaer. – Pioli forced Diaz “again” to play in the middle. Even though we know that Diaz isn’t….. Ahhh never mind
Anyway…
Milan’s journey of 2.5 years is a beautiful dream. Thanks for that. But I think Pioli’s magic is no longer working to force Fortune Goddess to stay in Milan. Pioli’s piggy bank of good luck has shattered.
And to think people want to double down on CDK who can’t displace Diaz from this team as an AM.
Good first half but the talent gulf inevitably
decides the match.
The single dimension for the attack on the left can be and was shut down. With nothing in the AM spot and little on the right we can’t spread Inter sufficiently to bring Leao into the game or put them under sustained pressure to unlock a quality team to create enough chances.
It’s the same in the middle. As the game settles Tonali gets shut out of the match because Krunic is limited to rolling 5m passes and Diaz is a novelty act.
It’s looking pretty ugly now. No CL next season and our budget? We will not be a factor in the top 4 race at this point.
The only win against inter this season remain the one which CdK started. Even in that match, Milan play badly after Diaz came on for him, he can’t hold the ball.
To be clear, I’m not claiming CdK is a better player compared to Diaz, it all depend on the matchup. When we need someone who can hold the ball, Diaz is clearly not the one we can rely on, CdK can hold the ball better than him.
Fair enough
Great decision by Pioli to bring in Kalulu at CB rather than Kjaer… Kalulu is a ball chaser, that’s all he is. He leaves Martinez alone in the box to go chasing after the ball like a ten year old when there are already two Milan defenders there. He is not a CB, but he may be a better solution at RB than the disaster that is Calabria.
Not that it matters that much because Milan was never going to score 2 goals. Pioli has no ideas what to do offensively. Time after time, any time a team sits back and defends Milan has no ideas, they cannot break anyone down. No movement, terrible passing. All they can do is lob the ball into the box 50 times and hope useless Giroud can get his head on it.
I feel bad for Leao, he clearly is not 100%. He didn’t try to take his man on at all. Never tried to run by anybody. looked to pass as soon as he got it. He tried and he did have one good chance but he is clearly still injured.
If Milan don’t make top 4 it is on Maldini. This team is so depleted it’s ridiculous. Inter is bringing Gosens, Correa, Lukaku, Brozovich off the bench. All of whom would probably start for Milan. We are bringing on Origi and Saelemaekers. That’s all you need to know.
Shocked, Kjaer seemed like he’s ready to be introduced as well. Already said from early season matches that I was afraid that Pierre and Fix miracle duo was just a one season wonder. But of course the members here gone wild. Just like when I pointed out the hard truth about how we missed Kessie and his vital role in this Pilot’s Milan.
Kalulu was brought on because he has pace and it was meant to allow us keep a high line.
It didn’t work but it’s worked enough to get us to where we are today which is miles ahead of where we thought we’d be.
No it didn’t get them to where they are. It worked for six games at the end of last season and it’s been a disaster since then. What got them to where they are beating Tottenham and Napoli was having Kjaer at CB or even Thiaw. But not Kalulu.
You have to stop with the miles ahead of where we’d thought they’d be line. THe team has no depth at all and have taken a step backwards this season. They will miss out on the top 4 which will set them back even more. A couple good performances in Champions League doesn’t change that.
It won us the title….
And, yes, winning the title and getting to the semis of the Champions League is miles ahead. Maybe not as far ahead as that time you went unbeaten in FIFA but that wasn’t real….
Lol 😂😂😂
Disappointing from Giroud, Messias, Tomori, Kalulu, Diaz…The play was too conservative, just not aggressive enough for a team that needs to score. Too many lost duels, too many wayward passes, just not enough running off the ball. The compactness we displayed against Napoli was just not there. I hope Milan clear out the deadwood.
Part of me wonders whether this is a good thing.
Does the humbling cause ownership to release the purse strings?
A UCL final may have been seen as vindication for the spendthrift attitude.
All the evidence is there now.
I don’t think this ownership will ever release the purse strings. I think their mindset is similar to FWS (Liverpool owners) and Red Bird Capital even had a stake in FWS.
But unlike Liverpool where you needed to make them champions in order increase their reach and marketing revenue so you could double their value… With Milan it is much safer and simpler and would require less money in the same time span, since the costs for the investment are fixed and fully in your control, which is stadium and not players. Keep Milan in top 5 in Italy, if they become champions cool, if not, its ok. With the new CL format, 8 games is enough for this owners, if we manage more, cool. Their reach and marketing value will increase since it was nonexistent for so long, plus money from the champions league, and you have a break even team on financial level. That is better than how they were when they were worth 1.2b, so it should put them at around 1.5. Then if you could only build a stadium which the club owns, for around 600-700 mil, their value doubles from the time of purchase. Keep them for one or two more years to maximise the revenue of the stadium and show 12 to 24 months positive financial trailing, their value increases even more since they will post two years of profit and voila sale time… Red Bird Capital and Gerry Cardinale get out of Milan by about 1 to 1.5 billion richer once all is said and done. Which is why an investment fund like theirs exist for in the first place.
That is why I don’t expect them to invest a lot, nor do I believe there is a sporting project in place to get us back to the top of Europe, in reality this is just a fiscal sustainability project until the stadium gets built and we get new owners, nothing more nothing less.
Red Bird are just caretakers, that is why Gerry has shown more passion for the stadium than for the team. FFS even the Singer family especially Gordon Singer showed true passion for this team. Being in the stands of important games, visiting the team in training, taking jab at referees that did us harm… and they didn’t even buy the club, they simply got it as collateral from a loan they gave.
Compare that to Cardinale which bought the club on his own accord. This season Gordon Singer which no longer owns the club, was present on more games than Cardinale… It just shows you how much different Cardinales passion for this club is, compared to fans like me you and now even Gordon Singer…
I hope that god damn stadium gets built faster, so we can get an owner that might care for the team, or even petro dollar owner that would try to sportwash their reputation.
That all makes sense, unfortunately.
On reflection, I wonder whether this position by Red Bird is as sustainable as Red Bird would like it to be.
Italian bureaucracy is as corrupt and difficult to navigate as the day is long. The stadium deal is not even close to a sure thing. Every other week some other proposal and location is being discussed.
They’re looking at 10 years to get to the point you have described.
I believe there is pretty clear evidence that Milan’s squad is not top 4 in Italy. I am not so sure it is that clear a path to a significantly profitable sale if they can’t get the stadium deal done (and that can’t be assumed).
For the sake of investing an extra 30m Euros (on a single occasion) is it really worth running the risk of the side falling out of the top 4 race again and for a number of years?
Imagine if Leao was struck down with an injury at the start of this season. We’d barley have finished 10th.
That’s the hopeful take on RBC spending some money, anyway.
10-15 years sounds about right, especially when I take a look again at FSG, they put Liverpool on sale after 13 years. Then backed away from it, since the interest rates went up so a buyer would be hard to find in this market, and are now looking for additional investment, but Liverpool will be sold within 3 years.
Looking at us, in terms of transfer budget the past summer was a fluke due to the prolonged M&A. But from statements they have made, I expect them to provide 50mil per year for transfers, if we are around break even, the rest will come from competition prizes, and sale of players. So I guess, we are looking at yearly (summer and winter combined) transfer budget of between 50mil in bad years, up to around 150-200mil when big sales happen (leao, mike, theo…) So no real investment will be made on the team from Red Birds pockets, they would only put their own money in the stadium.
As for the stadium, I expect them to aim for the best real estate, not the one that can be completed the easiest / fastest, or we would have closed the deal with Sesto by now.
I also think at the moment Maldinis job is on the line, since it looks like his view and Red Birds of how we should proceed forward are vastly different. I don’t expect him to be fired, since that would cost money, but at the moment I am doubtful that next year his contract will be renewed. I think most telling for our future will be if Massara goes to Juventus (they can pay for his release). He is in the loop of things as much as Maldini, and if he doesn’t see a sporting future with us now, but one like I described in the prior comment, than he will definitely take the opportunity presented to him, and with that we will get our answer as to where Red Birds priority are.
Spot On, my friend. I think pushing for the stadium would do Milan good in the long run. Yes we will go through some struggles, but I believe Maldini/Massara/Moncada will do a job good enough to keep the team competitive for UCL if we can have have a successful transfer season this summer.
i think our tactics in first game cost us, we cant deal with the pressure properly, we had to keep it simple but since super coppa we are trying other tactics against inter, we also didnt develop rebic after ok dinamo salzburg games but focused on diaz ,now both are useless,we need good summer,understanding differrence in italian play style than other teams,and we hAve probbably lost top 4 but it was good ucl season good work but we also need to learn the difficult way bcz we were lucky
Let the Diaz fanboys make every excuse possible to defend a player wich has no business to do with us has he is a Real Madrid fan at heart and mind do you think he cares that we lost to our biggest rival hes just think of returning to Real he has said several times that he wants to return to Madrid!
Yeah, maybe, or there is 3 seasons of evidence that he sucks.
Bravo Milan forza Milan !!
Milan dominated match completely.
Unfortunately Theo was close, Diaz missed the sitter and Leao closes by.
Imagine 3 goals…
Now just to compare: Thiaw aged 21, Kalulu 23, Tonali 23, Diaz 23 and Leao 23….
Those are youngsters against higher paid and older experienced players of Inter.
If Milan had investments in Botman Sanchez and Enzo, we would beat inter easily.
👏 once again Milan !
Ratings: all players 7 this game.
Thank you!!!
This has been a fantastic experience for these young players.
This time even a year ago nobody would have said we’d make the semi-finals of the Champions League.
The lack of perspective amongst “fans” here is unbelievable. And all they care about is money, money, money.
I WANT THE OWNERS TO SPEND MONEY. IF THEY DON’T SPEND MONEY I WANT SOME DESPOT TO TAKE OVER WITH THEIR BILLIONS AND TRILLIONS.
Milan have built incredible foundations and have a trophy. We simply must stay the course whatever happens this season.
We still have a chance of qualifying for the Champions League if Juve get points deducted or with Lazio in free fall.
But whatever the outcome – this manager and the vast majority of these players need to form the basis of our team for the next 10 years. That is the only way we will achieve sustained and sustainable success. And have some soul.
Who would tell, that they will reach last best 4 teams in Europe. If they stick together in next 3 years we might will look strong Milan in Serie a and in Europe as well. Than, some players can be sold for even stronger cash injection and bigger investments. Some blind fans who can’t compare something obvious, might have schizophrenia like NoMirakuru for example.
Three of our former players were playing for Inter who are apparently miles ahead of us!
We could’ve had Acerbi playing for us for a decade and saved a fortune on defenders.
Darmian was the captain of our youth team.
And I will never understand how Çalhanoğlu forgot how to take free kicks at Milan! Any other play I can understand but he went from being the most prolific free kick taker in Europe to nothing.
Football is weird which is why all the absolute certainty that some people have is so hilariously misguided.
All players 7 you are delusional beyond fcking saving. It might actually be schizophrenia we’re seeing here
To win a match ,you need to score goals . Thats basic in football. 4 times lost vs same team this season without even score goal . Awful transfer market this season ,buying useless atacker player like CDK that cannot score goal , just depend on counter atack with leao – theo for scoring goal . It is time for change if owner serious, pioli & maldini should resign and give chance to other coach & DS
Ibrahim Diaz run like a headless chicken 🤣
Spot on absolutely, I sincerely agree with u, and Mr Pioli was not seeing it
Milan should completely revamp the team and let go of certain players. Diaz is a limited player and hardly shines in games, yet is a favourite of Pioli notwithstanding being substituted in most games. Another big liability is Messias, who should not be anywhere near the Milan team let alone as a regular, with Krunic falling into this category as well. For any serious club bent on winning trophies, they shouldn’t have the likes of a 36 year Giroud as their main striker. Even in his prime, he was at best average and has never been a prolific striker, so has no business leading the Milan front line at this age. I believe if not for having his favourites Pioli should have given some of the new players like Adil, Vranckx and CDK more opportunities during course of the season to prove themselves than he’s done.
” believe if not for having his favourites Pioli should have given some of the new players like Adil, Vranckx and CDK more opportunities”
Ehh… Do share how Pioli could have given CDK more opportunities? How much more? ~30 matches with nothing to show for. Pioli gave CDK 100x more opportunities than CDK deserved. And that was one of the main issues this season. And the same applies to Origi. Too many opportunities and with zero impact. We lost the UCL spot due to insanely horrible squad selections in “rotation matches” (like Spezia last week).
Wow! Just wow! Wish I could pull out all my comments from preseason up until before the world cup. And I’m not even an expert. It’s not so much as to losing this particular game, it’s the performance, it’s how the team and the season has turned out, it’s the failed project, it’s the look of no bright near future anymore. This is just so sad as a fan.
“It’s not so much as to losing this particular game, it’s the performance, it’s how the team and the season has turned out”
This! Where was the fighting spirit in the 4 lost matches against Inter? Nowhere to be seen. It was like they had lost the games before they even began.
Only Maignan and Thiaw showed up for these games. Krunic and Tonali at least showed some fight but the rest of the team are physically and mentally done and they didn’t have the quality to compensate for that. It’s a disappointing way to go out and not qualifying next would make it worse but it would be a bump in the road, not the end of the world. Fans, management, and media seem to agree that we are three good signings away (striker, right winger, midfielder) from competing for the Scudetto next year and hopefully Adli, CDK, and some Primavera players step up to help out as well.
I don’t know wat Diaz was still doing in the pitch up till dat time he was sub, technically Pioli is not sound, he can’t see dat Diaz was being bully any time on the ball by both the inter defense and midfielders. He rolls on the ground looking for cheap free kick forgetting dis is a semi final match. Milan should let go of dis guy.
The players are not to blame. Full responsibility falls on Pioli. What a poor game preparation and ineffective tactical approach. He should have secured the midfield with a different formation. No attacking player would have been successful with this game plan.
I don’t know why peeps are blaming Maldini. He doesn’t control wages or transfer budgets. He’s warned ownership about the cheap ways many times and even today and here we are. In Jan. He wanted Zaniolo and got zip. Zaniolo went for 15m spread out 3 years. He might of made the difference. Aside from that Pioli sucks. A total mid table manager and has reached his limit. Cheap ass owner will keep him next year and we’ll still be in this position. Has been out coached by knuckleheads all year this year and today was a prime example. Our coached by a another mid table coach in Inzaghi. We need a clear out this summer but that involves Cardinale to spend and highly doubt that fat head idiot will spend more the 35m.
“A total mid table manager” who is 1/4 managers in the whole of Serie A who has actually won a Scudetto and 1/4 (off the top of my head) who has taken a team to the semi-finals of the Champions League???
And one of the other managers is Mourinho whose team probably won’t qualify for the Champions League?
Mate Simone Inzaghi has one 6 titles in 6 years as a coach, he is no mid table coach by any means.
Large of the blame goes to having a poor transfer window in the summer. After winning the scudetto, the team lost some key players like calhaohglu, Romagnoli and Kessie. None of them was replaced. Which magic does the coach want to do with the signing of Vrancks, Cdk, Origi and Pogbega. For Milan to compete with big boys in Europe serious investment have to be made on the squad.
“After winning the scudetto, the team lost some key players like calhaohglu, Romagnoli and Kessie.”
Correction: Milan wouldn’t have won the scudetto if Calhanoglu were still there. Milan won because he left (in time).
We will see what kind of owners we have this summer. Titles or Profit. We made 85M from this CL run. Plus the 50M we set aside/budget for transfers each year is a total of 135M. If they don’t spend every fkn penny of that $$ on improving the squad then we will know Redbird are not serious about winning and only care about buying young and selling off players for profit like Atalanta.
Inter bring STARTING players OFF THEIR BENCH like Lukaku, Correa, Brozovic Gosens and we START BENCH players like: Diaz Messias Calabria Krunic and (at this late stage of his career) Giroud. There u have it. Messias trash. Diaz trash – and we actually want to pay 20M$$ to sign him?? Lol. You need to SPEND to compete with the big boys in CL and we did NOT. So let’s see Redbird what kind of club you aspire us to become. We have an extremely small window of approx 2 (maybe if we are extremely lucky) 3 years before our core star players (Leao, Theo, Mike etc…) are sold or ask to leave for bigger riches in other leagues. We missed the opportunity this past summer. Blame on M&M for missing on some transfers but more importantly on Ownership for not giving them the funds to buy STARTING QUALITY PLAYERS and not just young players with potential who may or may not develop in 2-3 years time. Wake up Gerry. You better fkn spend ALL of that CL $$$ PLUS our pathetic transfer budget – or sell the club. We are AC Milan not Atalanta.
I believe Tomori has peaked. We’re better off selling him and pocket the “Englishman premium” while he still has value. Kalulu has also regressed but given his age and how much we paid, we can afford to let him cook.
Giroud has been terrible at hold-up play, not sure if that was his game to begin with but he posed no threats at all.
All that being said, a better coach could have made it a lot harder for Inter (or even Spezia). Pioli simply doesn’t do a good job at setting up a gameplan and he needs to go ASAP
“Kalulu has also regressed but given his age and how much we paid, we can afford to let him cook. ”
Can we? Every match we concede 1 or 2 goals because of him. Maybe as a RB he’d be fine but not as a CB for sure.
I don’t understand some people. What makes you guys think this year is a success and we should continue on this path? Others saying that all we care about is wanting to spend money.
This season has been a TOTAL FAILURE. Champions league aside, because never would I have thought we’d make it this far but to be in 5th place and lose to teams like spezia is unforgivable.
Why has this season been a failure? Well, when you have just won the scudetto and you lose your captain and your best midfielder and replace them with nobody that’s a failure. When you know your weakest point is the attack and didn’t add a proper right winger or attacker something wrong. No body here is asking to spend 100’s of millions but to simply replace what we lost and improve the starting 11. That clearly wasn’t done. We got worse. Now, tell me a scudetto champion the following year who was out of the top 4 and played so poorly? I can only think of milan this year.
Whether it’s maldinis fault for not bringing in the proper reinforcements but judging by his comments today It sounds like cardinale didn’t allow very much. Come January when we see the big problems we still didn’t sign a single player.
For pioli who couldn’t figure out teams that sit back and counter and always used the same tactics that’s on him and if we don’t make top 4 he should be sacked. We have a decent enough team to make top 4 but not to compete in champions league or for the scudetto.
When you have players like krunic, Diaz, saelemaekers, messias, Calabria starting every game you know something is very wrong. To everyone that always bashes tonali, you can see when he’s on he can definitely be world class but when players around him suck there’s only so much you can do. for example, today’s game he made an incredible play and Diaz missed a sitter.
I’ll always support my team through thick and thin but I’m not a delusional fan who says we’re fine as we are. These players give their all but unfortunately a handful of them aren’t Milan material. Nor do we have any depth. I already can’t stand cardinale as the owner but I will give him this summer to really give the funds to reinforce this team. If he doesn’t, these will be very dark years ahead for milan.
Yes we won the scudetto earlier than anyone thought but that’s no excuse to be as weak as we are today, we should have taken advantage of how early we progressed and reinforced and now of we don’t make top 4 that’s basically suicide. Had Maldini been allowed to go for the players he originally wanted(botman, Renato Sanches, ziyech, zaniolo) I’m confident we’d have had a way better season then what we had this year. It’s truly sad.
Maldini never wanted Renato Sanchez, he’s garbage. Ziyech and Zaniolo are an improvement on what we have but not the solution. They went all in on CDK, Leeds and Leicester drove up the price. Had we not signed him, Maldini would have been mocked for losing a player to teams in the bottom of the EPL.
let’s be real, we are operating as a business and don’t have the ManCity money
last year we definitely over achieved, and this year we had a kind road on UCL.
That being said, if I were to guess our place this year, I would’ve said 3rd or 4th in Serie A … advance from the group Stage in UCL would’ve been a realistic target
now we are gonna miss UCL next season – it’s not only about how much we gained this season, but who we are attractive to (players)
Europe league is not attractive at all, but may give some development time to CDK (if there’s any hope) and Adli
I defiantly on the side that says Pioli’s time is over, but who’s the alternative ?
I realistically don’t see any op manager wanna manage in Europa League with these players
it’s painful, but I don’t think we get back to top till we build our own stadium (which is goning on for the last 200 years!!)
attacking play = yes.
fighting till end = yes.
play for winning to final = NO (since beginning).
why diaz always in starting XI cos he is pioli golden boy (doesnt matter play good or bad always in starting XI)
Wake Up guys UCL party’s over. Just FFFF fovus on league. Maybe next season got better with reinforcement like Daichi Camarda, Arnatauvic, Thuram, new coach, new CB and DM
The presence of Kamada would be important for Milan than keep Diaz. Messias also is not player that Milan need, he can go. Milan may not need to play Kalulu at CB, but use him in RB. Hence, Milan need another CB and let Gabbia go next season.
Tonali is underrated here. Created our best 2 chances in both games (1 for messias, 1 for diaz). Any of those 2 actually score its a whole new game. It’s not the midfields fault we only play with 2 mids v 3 or sometimes v 5 when inters wingbacks push up. This game was lost with our inept management not getting the right players and our inept coach not knowing how to set up the team for the team we’re playing.
Argentine players dominate in that match. Maybe we can buy some player from there. Even di maria still good in juve
You know what we really needed this season?
BOTMAN!
Maldini knew exactly what this team needed while us, the fans, including myself, thought we didn’t need CBs because we had won the scudetto and Tomori Kalulu Gabbia and Kjaer is enough to hold the line.
GUESS WHAT .. THEY AREN’T.
If We had Botman who single handedly is holding NewCastle’s defense to lift them up to UCL qualifications almost.. I doubt we would lose to relegation teams in absence of Leao. There would at least be a draw. We might’ve even made it to UCL final with Botman. Maldini saw what NONE of us did and knew the defense ain’t good enough. THANK God he brought Thiaw. or else we would be fighting for relegation by now.
My point is… I trust Maldini with his decisions and I believe he knows exactly what the team needed. I think for once, we should let him make his own decisions and see what happens. As a legend and a SD, he deserves that chance. First Gazidis held him back, then the sale of the club held him back last summer. Next summer is the first season he will operate with some freedom. Lets see how it goes.
What we aren’t talking enough about is Pioli subs and team selection. How on earth does a League winning coach think Messias, who haven’t played in a while is ahead of Saele who just reached the peak of his form against Napoli in UCL? Then that Kalulu sub…! just doesn’t make sense. Even a blind man could see it was Calabria who was struggling but, Pioli breaks of the CB pain who was actually holding the line just fine. It’s frustrating.. match in match out same mistakes and absolute failure in reading the game.
Which makes me conclude.. There is NO way it was Pioli’s decisionmaking that got us the scudetto. it was Zlatan all along, I was right from the very beginning. No zlatan no party lol His motivation worked. It’s not a pioliout chant by the way.. Pioli sure is a good man manager and it’s no small feat.. but, we have given him more credit than the harsh reality.
At least we didn’t lose to RM/CITY by 7-8 goals. With Pioli and his nightmare subs.. That’s exactly what would have happened.
Forza Milan.
Yeah it turns out that he’ll good at defending. At first we thought he was slow like alessio. But we already have thiaw. Maybe if we sell tomori we could buy him.
“There is NO way it was Pioli’s decisionmaking that got us the scudetto. it was Zlatan all along, I was right from the very beginning. No zlatan no party lol His motivation worked. ”
Seem so. Every evidence points into this direction. One more year? 🙂
Pioli had made the most odd subs all season long… Look t spezia game. You give no minutes to adli all Eason long and then a must win game you sub him on. Pobega actually had a series of fine form and scored in the Champions League and then all of a sudden hadn’t played in months. Bakayoko was frozen out of the team and then plays against a top 5 team in the league. He’s done way too much random rotations this year when he should have focused on his core players and used them
Indeed. He clearly doesn’t learn from his mistakes.
Pioli is on fire, we dare not mention anything else, his fanbase has always reiterated his excellent tactical awareness and also a shout out to MMM, not forgetting redbird (after all, some people here spoke against the Arabs) now you got the Yankees, now that CL is over, let me see our great coach channel his winning magic on the remaining serie A games, Nuff respect to the fans that go to the stadium, they are the only true reps of Milan this year
When i see No.10 Milan is Diaz ( ughhh my eyes ).
Admin please add rating for pioli. For me he is a 2 at least
Ugh……Dybala would have been a nice 10 or RW, Agree , Krunic played on the edge with his physicality, dangerous , but that is what was needed today from the other 9.
This team needs to get back to the training ground and practice pass, pass, pass and more passing. That was the only difference between the two teams last night. We had the fight, we had the pressure but we gave up the ball every time we were in good position. This has happened in every game and some times we can get away with it, but against Inter, it is fatal.
I didn’t see Inter give the ball up cheaply, they realise how dangerous it is to lose out in midfield and attacking positions. Their passing is crisp and accurate and if they lose they press hard and always fight to win loose balls, where as we, back off.
Yes, we didn’t look much like scoring – Theo didn’t turn up and Leao looked short of fitness (which is where most of of our opportunities come from). But Diaz, Giroud, Calabria, Messias even Tonali misplace far too many passes and create their own probelms. Until we get that right, we can’t move forward
Overall i think the ratings are a bit off as we did somewhat better in this leg than the first one but we certainly also made some grevious mistakes in both parts of the field as well.
In the end inter is in the final and well deserved for them to be there, their squad simply is better in depth and quality.
Let the recriminations begin! Inter played the game the needed to play, sat deep and countered when they could. They did not need to win this game. Leao was completely marked out by Dumfries. People are complaining about this and that. But we had chances to get back in the game. Within the first 15 minutes we could have been 1 up and very much in the tie. What happens if little Diaz scores??? I could have made that goal. Different game then. We had another good chance later in the half. Football is so psychological. Anything could have happened then. We faded in the second half? Of course we did. We needed two goals just to tie it up and with every minute that passed it became less likely. Then Inter scores and game over.
Yes, we could improve some positions and the coach could be better (I think this is the biggest problem because *Pioli is 1-0-4 against Inzaghi this season* HELLO), but we just played a CL semi final. What do people want? We could win the final 5-0 against City and people would still find a reason to complain.
THE BIG ISSUE IS NOT FINISHING TOP 4. We’re failing this not because we don’t have Botman or Kessie or whatever, but because we can’t beat teams like Spezia, and we have the quality to do so right now. Fire Pioli, get a young striker that can run and score, get an RW that can assist and not put the ball in the stands, and get a defensive CM to reinforce the middle and we will be fine.
And forget spending another penny on Diaz. Not worth it. I’m done seeing him fall over every time the wind blows.