AC Milan clinched three huge points and also broke their winning drought in the Derby della Madonnina against Inter on Sunday evening. Matteo Gabbia was the unexpected hero and below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (7): The Frenchman was very solid with his passing throughout the evening and made several good stops to deny Inter. One in particular comes to mind when he got down very low to deny Thuram thanks to fantastic reflexes.
Emerson Royal (6): So much better from him tonight. Yes, Inter did still create chances on the flanks but he put up a good fight, in addition to actually contributing in attack with some nice crosses (one for Leao especially). A bit rash on the goal conceded, but in fairness he got no support from the midfield there.
Gabbia (8 – MOTM): WHAT. A. GOAL. The academy product secured the three points for Milan tonight with an absolutely stunning header. Not to mention that before that, he made several ‘last-ditch’ interventions for Milan at the back, including one when Inter seemed certain to go through on goal and instead, Leao got a 1v1 thanks to his tackle. A slightly inflated rating maybe, but we don’t care on a night like this!
Tomori (7): Very impressive aerial play from him tonight, jumping high on several occasions to beat Inter, and his positioning was also very good throughout the clash. Could have been a bit better with his passing, but overall a very solid display from him and then some.
Hernandez (7): His acceleration was crucial as Milan made their way past the first phase of Inter’s press and on top of that, he did very well defensively. A old-school Theo display with a lot of willingness and dare I say grinta to bring this home.
Pulisic (7.5): It was a great run and a great goal by the American, showing once again just how important he is for this team. He continued to do well in both phases of the game, even if Milan attacked more down the left in the second half.
Fofana (6): A mixed display from him, with some very good moments but also some poor ones. Above all, he took too much time on the ball and ended up being carded for it. It’s fair to say that he grew into the game and that was good, salvaging his rating here.
Reijnders (7.5): We have said it many times and we will say it again, his ability to breeze past opponents and create both space as well as time for himself (and his teammates) is invaluable. And it was a great cross for Gabbia on the winner as well.
Leao (5.5): Unfortunately, in a game as big as this, Milan cannot afford what we saw from the winger tonight. He was more or less invisible in the first half and when he got going in the second, he missed a fantastic 1v1 (more or less) chance to make 2-1 before Gabbia’s goal.
Abraham (6): Just like Leao, the Englishman missed what many would consider to be a sitter and this inevitably hurt his rating here. However, as opposed to the No.10, he worked super hard from start to finish and added a lot of value despite the miss.
Morata (6.5): It must be said that without his work-rate and willingness out there tonight, the formation wouldn’t have worked against a team like Inter. He was also quite good when going forward but could have done better on a few of the counters. Still, as said, very important.
Substitutes
Loftus-Cheek (6): He added strength to the midfield and had some good moments on the ball, helping Milan see out the game as well. Job well done off the bench.
Okafor (5.5): Yikes. While he showed off great movement and combination with his teammates, you simply have to put that last chance away.
Chukwueze (6): Good pass for Okafor on the last counter, in fact he did everything right.
Pavlovic (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
At last we won!!❤️🖤
We’ve suffered enough from INTER
How did OKAFOR miss da ICING ON THE CAKE??!!!❤️🖤
This match has confirmed that Tomori can’t play on the right and that our best CB partnership is Tomori and Gabbia.
Pulisic is our best player. It was a good game to watch. Haven’t enjoyed a Milan game like this in a long time.
Wish Leao was more involved but maybe he will start dominating games as the team gels more.
Fact. To be precise, haven’t enjoyed this kind of derby for too long. From a fast transition by both teams to a derby drama. I even settle for a draw, as the boys shows grit and heart. But winning, well, this is beyond beautiful.
I’d still rather see pavlovic in there
Pavlovic is great physically, not the most intelligent or technical though. He’s got worse passing than the U/12 primavera
Tomori and Pavlovic are both too aggressive and frequently get caught on the counter. Gabbia and Thiaw should partner with one of them, as there is great chemistry among our three best defenders, especially between Tomori and Theo.
Now continuation is MUST !!!@
If we go with this 442, we should make Fofana and Tijani as the mainstays. Looks like they can complement each other very well.
The issue is this strategy requires an intense high press. We can’t have players like Jovic press and create, then finish chances. He doesn’t have the speed and Okafor lacks the arial prowess as well, which renders defending this formation much easier with them when opposition has fresh legs.
Pulisic also had to drift to the middle a lot to create numerical advantages. I am not sure RLC has the aggressive and determined nature to sustain that type of press with the distribution skills in tight areas. We need more squad depth to play this way consistently because it is predicated on a lot of movement, interchange and positional switches from forwards and midfielders to create the overloads needed for it to work.
It also requires your fullbacks to go full steam to support all phases. Theo has no deputy, Calabria lacks the physicality to win one on one duels. Pulisic and Reinjdeers have to cover a lot of ground to insulate Royal, who wasn’t bad, but his speed it a couple steps less than what you need for this to constantly work. 1 or two players don’t play perfectly and it can be an unmitigated disaster. It takes a lot from forwards so the rest of the team will need to contribute to the offense. I am glad it worked tonight, we need another midfielder, IE a Bennacer at his best to cover this formation over an entire season. We need a quicker option than Jovic. A back up for Theo and someone quicker than Calabria or Royal.
We played very well, they put in a lot of work. 3 games like this in a week is not possible without a rotation of equally capable players.
Didn’t Milan abandon the press for much of the game? I saw periods of time where they kept all 11 behind the center of the park to be more organised. I think you will see them be more cautious so as not to expose the back line.
We didn’t press as high as we usually did but we did press, it’s just that our block was lower than usual. When Inter got in our half of the field, you could saw our players applying at lot of pressure to them, also Abraham, Morata and Pulisic sometimes go venture to Inter’s own half (Abraham pressured Somer to make a mistake).
Also our pressing/defense was zonal (but that was already the case with Fonseca) so no player had a designated man to mark.
I’ll copy paste what I wrote as a comment in the other article:
Not only we won, but had our strikers (thanks Leao, Okafor and Abraham for it) been better finishers, we could have sealed the deal and won with a good margin. Great win anyways, thank you all for tonight (especially Gabbia, Reijnders and Pulisic) !!
We’re just 3 points from first place and I don’t think Torino is going to remain there till the end. So technically we’re just 2 points from first place. Not that bad for a start.
Fonseca: My man, I doubted this 4-2-4 (or 4-4-2 ?) thing but it looked way better on the field. I’m glad we finally sat deeper and relied on counters rather than being too high on the pitch. I think Fonseca earned to stay for another day.
Maignan: Did well in the few times he was really tested in the first half.
Emerson: Inter’s goal was mostly his fault (lost his man and was unable to cut Lautaro’s pass), but I thought he improved on the second half and was quite active.
Gabbia: Man of the match ? Class, composed and solid+the goal. Let the man be a starter please, he already proved he deserves it.
Tomori: Calmer and more solid tonight as well.
Theo: Was caught sleeping on some actions, but I think he did well overall. He didn’t allow Dumfries. He should however stop carrying to ball for too long. It could have costed us in the first half.
Pulisic: Warrior. Absolute class. Finally, we’re done with the “Pulisic doesn’t show in big games”. I guess he was tired in the second half, but great game by him.
Fofana: He’s starting to improve. In the second half he won many balls and didn’t allow inter’s midfield too much freedom.
Reijnders: Good game and good freekick. He setup our fast counters which could have resulted in more goals.
Leao: Look if you don’t want to play just say it. Everyone was giving their hearts and souls and Leao looks disinterested. Missing sitters was also the icing on the game. Worst man tonight, should have been subbed out sooner IMO.
Abraham: My man looks like a true rossonero, fought for many balls, pressed relentlessly, quick and good passing. The only bad thing was his finishing in some actions.
Morata: Did well in the passing and buildup of the game, defensively didn’t allow inter’s players too much comfort.
Forza Milan !!
100% agree with this assessment. I would also add that Leao is looking more and more like an overhyped player at this point. I am wondering if cashing in on him while we can is a better strategy at the moment…
All the rates are very high for such a low quality derby!Football is becoming all about served circus for blinds.No real passion,really low quality on this derby,more and more obvious”mistakes” so one side can score.Never seen a derby against inter with so untallented actors.But yeah at least we won.
And I don’t believe there is a good relationship between leao and the coach. Cos he look so disinterested truly. I mean how can you claim to be Milan best player and your shooting skills sucks
He does not have the stamina or the dog in him to press the defence. Which is what the coach wants. He can’t do both because his game is based on quick spurts of acceleration and flair. That’s why he doesn’t like the coach.
Abraham and Morata pressed and tracked back. It was honestly fun to watch.
Yup stamina is his problem, always was.
“He can’t do both because his game is based on quick spurts of acceleration and flair.”
You mean he’s not willing to work on his physics to be a better player. One cannot be a world-class player when you do only 3-4 runs per match and walk around the rest of the 90 mins.
Actually, you can… If you’re Messi. But Leao is not.
He is not claiming to be, he truly is
Based on the matches against Pool & Inter? Sure. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
So far this season, Pulisic has been our best player quite comfortably. Abraham has also displayed better performances than what Leao did. So his title of “Milan’s best player” is being challenged quite well right now.
Since my comment never showed up on this site. Totally agree with you. 442 or 424 defensively is the best formation so far, and just because we won. Reinders found space and was able to deliver some through balls. Abraham and morata did great applying pressure on their defense and disrupting their build up. Reinders was somrthing else tonight. Yeah if we can get 60-70 mil for him at the end of the season we should sell him. Enough of the hope of what he can become. He isn’t disciplined. Barely ran tonight and on the 65th min he was gassed out. Time to cash in and replacing with a GOOD WINGER, not someone from yard sale.
“Reinders was somrthing else tonight. Yeah if we can get 60-70 mil for him at the end of the season we should sell him. Enough of the hope of what he can become. He isn’t disciplined. Barely ran tonight and on the 65th min he was gassed out. Time to cash in and replacing with a GOOD WINGER, not someone from yard sale.”
I think you meant Leao but yeah.
Those times where the team needed him to pull a trick in order to win are over. Yesterday he had no involvment at all, we were almost playing with 10 players. Abraham who is on dry loan showed more heart than Leao ever did.
It’s time for him to change his attitude or leave.
Agree with a lot of that but after Gabbia (of course) and Pulisic, Morata was our best player.
He was our best midfielder and did the one thing that none of our midfielders do, he came and demanded the ball and provided an outlet which allowed us to get out of our half.
I’ve been critical of Reijnders so will be accused of bias (which I am not because I want him and all players to reach their potential at Milan) but he did ok, and was certainly not the headline.
His best plays were his pass to Abraham and his free kick, but other than he got pushed off the ball too often, held up the ball too long (I am not sure which counters he started), and I think still has a lot of work to do but it was definitely an improvement.
I agree about Emerson, and he actually deserves a big shout for his contribution.
We played better than Inter and we deserved the win.
I’m 100 % agree about your comments on Leao.
In a game of that magnitud he was invisible at times.
Something has to be done about it sooner than later. IMO
Ibrah help help.
Forza Milan Forever
Leao needs to learn how to shoot. He should quit music and fashion for now and train like hell to learn how to shoot and pass correctly.
Learning/training how to shoot would mean less time in the studio. Not going to happen.
His passing is just SO BAD!
Good game.
Fonseca 🫡
Great win and it could easily have been bigger so kudos to the boys and the coach for showing up tonight. Hopefully this will be the beginning of us turning our fortunes.
Great performance by Milan.
For most of the game totally nullified inter. Too bad they couldn’t score more goals because they absolutely deserved it.
Gabbia deserves tye MOTM foe the goal, but Fofana, Reijnders and Pulisic were amazing as well.
Harsh rating on Fofana. He had some misplaced passes but defensively in coverage he was brilliant. He and Reijnders totally outplayed Hakan, Barella and Mikhitaryan.
They said Pulisic doesn’t perform in big games. Some said Frattesi is better than Reijnders. When I saw Frattesi being subbed in, I knew Milan was going to win.
The only negatives were so many missed chances.
Don’t look up, but Milan and Inter have the same amount of points, 1 less than Juventus and 2 less than Napoli. Even though those teams were getting nothing but praise from the media, while Milan was dragged thru the mud by media and some fanboys. As I said, a new coach needs time.
A lot of people mad right now, big mad. 🤣
Forza Milan.
Let’s build on this.
Agree on Fofana. He was one the reasons why Inter’s midfield did nothing.
*one of the reasons
“They said Pulisic doesn’t perform in big games”
It was some of the most unfair criticism I’ve read last season.
In 2023/24, None (and I really mean none) of our players put a decent performance in any big game witht he exception of the home game against San Siro. It was a collective collapse, yet it was also Pulisic who was singled out as being “unable to perform in big games”.
Hopefully that was put to rest yesterday.
Frattesi… I remember people on here saying we’re cheap because we didn’t blow 40mil on this loser. Reijnders is 100x the player than this guy.
Huge win. Great performance by almost everyone except Leao. There is no place for his sulking and walking around on the pitch anymore. We need more players like Pulisic and less like Leao. Pulisic has become the leader of this team, coming thru in the big moments.
Give Fonseca credit as well. It took guts to make the changes and they worked well. Abraham and Moraga up top works well.
Maybe all the negative , doom and gloom people on here that were hoping to trash the coach, management and the ownership will shut up for at least a week. You know who you are. We are now tied with Inter in points and only 3 out of 1st place. What CATASTROPHY!
Forza Milan.
🧐
I gave your mom Mom of the Match and a 7.5
What a result, Gabbia since coming back from that loan may be our best performing CB. Puli, 2nd time inside a week creating a goal from nothing. Can they swing this energy to correct some of the problems? This game reminds me of the match Giroud won with that turn and shot.
Reijnders, what a game….He is very important part, but tonight he was great.
Pulisic is really class player, I hope we keep up with good games
Great match. Nice to see Pulisic get goals against big clubs like Liverpool and Inter. Hopefully the haters will stop saying he only scores against minnows. Gabbia man of the match I agree. I would like to see start alongside Tomori.
He wasn’t scoring against big clubs last season, calling facts as they are isn’t hating. He is now. There is also two forwards helping do the legwork RLC, Leao, Giroud and Jovic couldn’t last year. zhe couldn’t carry the team against the best clubs that had mobile midfielders and defenses. Without that tireless high press, Pulisic wouldn’t score, no knock on him, barely anyone could. He isn’t able to carry the forward line on his own constantly. Morata and Abraham did A LOT to help, so it was done by committee. Their presence was crucial as well He is excellent, he still needs space to be created for him to work in. He puts in the effort so kudos to Pulisic. He isn’t a game changer or dominant force that can change a game alone, he is still an incredibly gifted player that will be able to shine with the right pieces with him.
Bro, you are a certified hater. The guy tied for the most goal contributions in Serie A last season and is off to a great start this year. Eat it and get over yourself. No one is saying he is world class or even the best player in the team but you are the one throwing it out there that he isn’t and that equals hate.
LOL..agreed. He also scored BIG goals in champions league while on chelsea.
Please tell me who created space for him on his goal? As you wrote, ” he still needs space to be created for him to work in”????
What a fantastic response! We were messy as a team, especially in the final third, but the energy, attitude, and individual performances were brilliant. Fonseca deserves massive credit for the formation change and the overall preparation for this match.
Everyone played great, especially the defenders, but special praise has to go to:
1. Reijnders whom I am often critical of for not being impactful. Tonight he got forward, created chances for himself and others and ended up with an assist.
2. Pulisic who led by example by being aggressive, getting the first goal, and running himself into the ground. The whole defense unit was outstanding.
3. Maignan for two crucial saves.
4. Gabbia for a an outstanding defensive performance and of course the goal. Fantastic night for our youth product.
Reijnders did better but I am still struggling how he gets so many of the plaudits for tonight’s game.
Morata was our best midfielder.
You can hate reijnders but you can’t change him he is the best midfielder we have without him we can’t pass we can’t accelerate we can’t create he is our engine
I don’t hate him or any of our players, and I am desperate for him to be the midfielder that everyone says he is, but Morata showed exactly what we’ve been missed with our midfield except for the odd game by RLC and Bennacer.
It was Morata who came and demanded the ball, and fought in midfield to win it back.
That’s the sort of fight we need from our actual midfielders!
But it seems 424 or 4231 (with Morata in the hole) might give Reijnders the best chance to succeed.
You keep saying that you don’t hate Reijnders but your comments don’t reflect that. You cannot give him credit for what he did, and your comments often critized him, instead of supporting him. He is not lazy, and he did good job breaking the defence formation of Inter last night several times when he got the balls. And he was chosen officially as MVP last night for a reason, and also becomes one of main starting eleven in the NL national team, regardless if anyone would argue that there is less competitors there. You should stop getting annoyed if any of our players got praised.
On the other note, I agree with our last statement, his style is working more with someone like Morata’s type as false AMC/SS, not when RLC is in that position. But it doesn’t mean we can’t give Reijnders credits he deserves.
Found motivation for the Derby..now they gotta use this approach in every game. This is what we want to see. I was watching and thinking, they’re playing great I don’t even care if we lose in the end or draw, they came to play.
That’s what I want to see from my team.
This
You are a faiweather fan and no friend of Milan. And your mom is a filthy h00ker too. You can call me daddy.
Dad … Is that you?
Why were you letting Mom turn tricks?
Geez man, at least think through the insult before you type all that garbage.
Or better yet say something meaningful.
So are you dating/married to a hooker or did you father a kid with a hooker?
Rent free
Unfortunately, in a game as big as this, Milan cannot afford what we saw from the winger tonight. He was more or less invisible in the first half and when he got going in the second, he missed a fantastic 1v1.
Imagine if Pulisic hadn’t stood up tonight… The so called best player in the team would have failed us again.
Put your thing together Leao and if you cant just leave and allow us pocket the cheque
Why is everyone so critical of Leao Tammy misses too, so is Okafor, in fact both of them is clear cut chances compare to Leao which was saved by the heroic goal keeping
Leao is supposed to be our star and second in line for captain on the field today. The blocked shot on Leao was a fairly easy save. Also Chuk created that chance for Leao.
Leao is becoming more of a liability. His pressing, tracking, off ball movement, and shooting is crap. All the talent in the world means nothing if you don’t show up to play. Look at pulisic, his attitude and work rate is what makes him more valuable and productive.
Leao was pampered by Pioli for too long and thinks he’s owed something by the club. He needs to be reminded that he’s very much expendable. He thinks he’s greater than those who came before him that lived and died for that badge and brought us trophies. He needs to go Saudi or wherever he wants to pursuit his “rap” career.
Tammy ran 10 times more than leao. The guy was a beast tonight. His miss may be excused because he worked so hard. Leao barely ran tonight and was gassed out by 65th min or so.
“Yeah but Leao is an MVP so he doesn’t have to run” 😀 😀 😀
And also: “Without Leao occupying 6 Inter players Tammy wouldn’t have even gotten his chance to score” 😀
haters!!! He is still the best and a match winner on a good day
One good day per month isn’t enough though.
Great victory! Finally!
I do not agree with the rating given to Emerson, 6.5. Inter’s goal was absolutely his fault. He left a huge empty space there, and then failed again when trying to recover. Then, most of his marking was ineffective as it was done for too far away. He completely wasted a good attack with a horrible cross. Emerson remains the biggest liability for Milan. We currently do not have a solution for RB and that’s the side from which most of the goals conceded have happened. At this point, I’d try Jimenez there.
Rafa wasn’t good tonight. I usually defend him but I can’t, tonight. He missed a sitter, wasted another attack by sending the ball to space instead of passing to an open Abraham; his one good partipation was the header that Sommer saved out of Sommer’s own merit.
Superb Pulisic, I love ya, man!
Gabbia, the absolute MOTM. I hope by now Fonseca understands that Gabbia is a starter. I never understood why he seems to be low in the pecking order when since the second half of last season he’s been our most consistently good defender.
Fofana has improved a lot. He is slowly reaching match fitness and I hope he will be an asset for us.
Theo was great tonight.
Abraham was phenomenal; so unlucky that he also missed a sitter! But he bothered Inter’s defense constantly and had great working ethics.
Morata was actually a great offensive midfielder tonight, instead of a striker. Morata is not a prolific striker but he is very important to an offense. And going with 2 strikers was the way to go to stretch Inter’s back 3. We were able to score twice on Inter, and could have scored three more (Rafa, Abraham and Okafor all missed sitters), something that Manchester City wasn’t any close to achieving.
Mike was great. Tomori, very solid. Reijnders, excellent. RLC and Chuk entered the game well. Okafor was poor, terrible finishing in three occasions. Pavlovic, no rating.
And let’s say it, Fonseca this time did great. 4-4-2 seems to be the way to go. I think he deserves to continue, and maybe with more time he will actually turn into a good coach for Milan. I know that I’ve been bashing him non-stop but hey, Inter is a top 5 European team; we lost 6 derbies in a row to them, and tonight we were rather good tactically and beat them.
I don’t understand how people understand the game. Royal deserves a praise. If he didn’t go for that challenge it will be 1v1 between lautaro and Mike. He goes to help Gabbia who is on the ground and yet somehow that is not appreciated. Inter attacked only through the right not because he is weak but the crosses will most likely meet a Theo a few steps behind. He did well. Only player I will fault today is Leao. Every other person did his job, offensively and defensively.
Absolutely.
Gabbia had a great game but he was at fault for the inter goal as much as Emerson, but of course Emerson is the designated scapegoat.
Gabbia lost Lautaro ans than got beat of the dribble by Lautaro. Emerson shouldn’t have left Di Marco but we need to be fair when we placing blame, Gabbia holds half of the blame for the inter goal.
The rest of the game both were great defensively.
It wasn’t purely Emersons fault this time… I also am not a Emerson fan! But let’s see if he can prove me wrong! If you watch the goal again pause it when I think it was chag who long passed it to di Marco… our midfield notably foffana was just jogging back made no effort to fill in!! Tijani was also guilty of this too ..both could of done more to help out! Then Emerson and Gabbia wudnt have had to commit like the did!
So he went for the ball bec he didn’t think Pulisic would be there. I wouldn’t ding him for that either bec 1- it’s a brand new formation, and 2 – he needs time to develop chemistry with the teammates being late arrival of the transfer market. Honestly, that was the only thing went wrong for him while he did everything else right for the whole game. And today he got better helped from Gabbia, whose playing style is anticipation and not pressing. Emerson got hung out to dry in past games bec Tomori was nowhere near to cover his back. Not so much today with Gabbia. To me that is a huge different bec Emerson became more confident in making those overlapping run.
this x 10000000 times
You seem to have missed the HUGE space that Emerson left there, when Inter’s offensive play started. What you point to, is his attempt to recover from the initial blunder, and he failed there, too.
Emerson is most definitely not a good right back.
Do you understand the tactical part of the team being compact. That is the instruction, which is why Inter kept doing the long balls to either side. Royal had a good game. Simple
You guys are always looking for who to blame.
No Lautaro was never 1v1.
Gabbia did get turned but Lautaro still had a lot of work to do and it would’ve been difficult for him to score from that angle.
Emerson needed to stay with his man. When he went forward he also left Tomori playing everyone onside with nobody marking Dimarco.
After the goal Emerson did much better and deserves a shout out.
You watched a different game. First, you praised Leao for the header, but who put a decent cross from the right? Yes, it was Emerson. And after the goal, where he was partially responsible (Gabbia was awful, midfield non-existant and he had to cover that space) he was great defending and pushing forward, also putting a lot of effort and energy, something Calabria does little or nothing. Emerson was good tonight
OK, I didn’t notice that the cross for Rafa’s header was by Emerson, so, good point. But I’d say, even a broken clock is right twice a day. One good cross doesn’t compensate for his failure in Inter’s goal. Yes, he was active (“effort and energy”) but ineffectively. He marks from so far away that DiMarco passed the ball to his companions at will, almost never challenged effectively by Emerson. He wasn’t “great defending.” What exactly were Inter’s almost goals that Emerson prevented? I didn’t see any. I will re-watch this game later and pay attention to that, but during the game I didn’t see effective defending from Emerson.
If Gabbia also failed in Inter’s goal, it was because their attack started too strong due to the huge space left back there by Emerson. Gabbia can’t do it all. Still, Gabbia was excellent, cutting several attacks by Inter, that is, marking his man closely and preventing his man from carrying the ball, unlike Emerson. And Gabbia scored.
So, Gabbia’s performance was some light years ahead of Emerson’s.
Check Inter’s goal again: it is a long pass to Di Marco, who at first touch sent it to Lautaro. Gabbia was late for that pass which can be intercepted. Emerson was well positioned, but after Gabbia’s waist was trashed he went there to help and you already know the rest. As I said, he was partially responsible but not the main responsible in that goal
Lol, I think YOU should check it again. If he is retreating towards goal it’s tough to suddenly change direction fast enough to close the passing lane, nevermind that Gabbia is a good 5 years in front of Lautaro. Gabbia never goes to ground and is still between Lautaro and the goal when Lautaro releases for Dimarco. Royal should have stuck with his man.
Gabbia was still in control even after he got turned.
Martinez was not going to score from that angle.
Emerson leaving his man (without giving Tomori a shout) meant that Dimarco was completely unmarked and onside.
It was a terrible decision but it happened in the moment and overall he did well.
Also, I did not say Emerson was better than Gabbia who was hands dowm MOTM. He was bad in the goal but after that he was great and scored. Do not say stuff I did not say
Where did I say you said that? Sensitive much? I just expressed my view of how comparatively Emerson and Gabbia did. Because you said Gabbia was also responsible for their goal, I experienced the need to defend him but I did NOT put words in your mouth when I expressed my views. I actually even said “good point” to one of the points you made, something that is rare among these parts, so, calm down.
The problem is, the initial pass to DiMarco had Emerson too central and the whole area where DiMarco collected the pass had no Milan player whatsoever (Emerson should have been there). Sure, DiMarco then immediately passed to Lautaro but his ability to precisely do that was also in function of DiMarco being totally unmarked and alone there.
Yup Emerson’s 1st hal was a disaster. But he stepped up his gear on the 2nd half and got so much better. Mark his man well (or should I say better), performed several attacking chances (he’s also involved in that Tammy’d chance).
Serie A is tactically different from EPL. So let’s give him a chance.
OK, I hope you are right. I’m not convinced yet but if he does improve, great.
Me, every time DiMarco got the ball even in second half, I was afraid Inter would score because Emerson was always too far from him. It seemed like zonal marking rather than 1v1 marking and you just can’t give to excellent DiMarco too much space; it’s dangerous.
Re “He completely wasted a good attack with a horrible cross.”.
I think you are talking about Emerson’s cross in an attack that went straight through the box in the second half. Apologies if you mean a different incident.
The cross was actually perfect but none of his team mates were in the best places to take advantage of it.
Particularly Leao who could have easily been at the back post for a tap in if he had kept running.
I completely agree with your point about Morata
He was our best midfielder tonight. I love the leadership he’s shown since he’s arrived.
Abraham has also really surprised me with his work ethic. I do worry that one of him and Morata will struggle to be around past this season but for now it’s great.
I wish you could get over your hatred of Calabria. As Gabbia showed, we need to respect out youth players rather than applying double standards to players just because they don’t come with a big price tag and media hype.
Who would have thought Milan would win the derby with a 4-2-4?
Surprisingly it worked!
I give Fonseca my applause on tonight match
FINALLY!!!!! it’s been so long and after so much suffering this year this was a pleasant surprise. That’s what football does to us and that’s why I LOVE milan!!
Today’s game told me two things. Pulisic is our best player and gabbia still deserves to start. Two great performances. But all in all the team performance(not leao) was great.
The defence had a great game, dare I say even emerson played well especially in the second half. Gabbia was a monster tonight,countless interceptions, read the game so well and got the winning goal. Congratulations to him.
The midfield, reijnders finally played really well and his way of moving himself out of danger and opening up play is so valuable. Guess what? Fofana put in a true number 6 display tonight! He had some bad passes and took too much time on the ball on occasion but 5 duels win out of 6 and non stop running was beautiful.
I don’t even want to be negative today but leao was so lazy and he only wants to play when he’s got space to run. Doesn’t work for the team. On the opposite end though, pulisic. He has won me over, he is so smart on the ball and he works so hard so congrats to him.
For attack, who said they didn’t want Abraham? He has brought a breathe of fresh air to this team. While Morata drops deep and creates plays and works so hard Abraham does the work up top, a shame he couldn’t finish but he shows he came to Milan to win. His energy when he was subbed was admirable.
Fonseca. You did it, you have saved your job for me. You intelligently studied your opponents and countered it because that really was to me one of the best games we’ve played in a very long time and finally the derby curse is over. When was the last time that we kept thuram and Martinez quiet? Where we should have won by 3 goals and outplayed inter? We’re 3points from first and while we started poorly fonseca deserves more time with this team because maybe this will light a fire for them. He got it spot on today so congratulations to fonseca.
Now, do we stick with this formation because it clearly got the best out of this team and made the midfield outplay inters. FORZA MILAN!!
ForzaMilan…. Please dont off the engine yet.. build on this win and carry on the team spirit and soul the team shown tonight.
Continuity is what we need
Holy cow, now I’m must eat my words for the best possible reason. It was a good, solid, quite effective display from our side, and I agree with you, guys, no one deserved more than Gabbia to be the hero of the day, the great scorer of the match-winning goal.
Anyway, now it’s time to build up from this great and unexpected result.
FORZA, MILAN!!!
Good win tonight, glad we won I didn’t expect it. Our best CB is Gabbia and any other person. But there’s just too much space in between our play and so many players just ball watching, nobody seems to be picking any body and we need to work on that. This team is still a work in progress and maybe Leao needs to work harder rather than complain…
Great performance by everyone, Leao attitude is not that bad, it’s exaggerated but he need to do better, however the rating was harsh he did well, he can only be better
Absolutely harsh to give Abraham 0.5 more than Leao who was absolutely ABYSMAL tonight. Abraham worked his a$$ off and he was a threat all night, active and intense. Even off the pitch, he was still active!
Leao, OTOH, was lazy and uninterested, even in the goal celebration when everyone was there to congratulate Gabbia. This guy needs to go, he can have all the talent in the world, but his attitude is atrocious
If anything then it’s Leao that should have a 5. Easy to say now that we won, but Abraham cannot miss chances like that (but I really liked him aside from that I must be clear)
Agreed. We’re usually play with 10 or 10.5 men when Leao is on the pitch. Balotelli had loads of talent too and went nowhere. Get rid of Leao and find me another Pulisic.
Also, we need more Gabbias. More Milan born and bread player who understand the importance of these games and the moment that the team is in.
Also compliments to Morata and Abraham. Two players who nobody wanted on our team and worked their behinds off for the team. If Tammy had taken a little more time and hit the ball a little less hard he would have had a goal in the second half.
What talent??
Doesn’t score goals and has no field vision. Not technical whatsoever.
His talent is his the physical athleticism he’s born with it.
If he’s not in a foot race he does very poorly.
Everyone lifted.
Loved the formation with Tammy and Morata.
At times Morata was deeper as a CAM effectively.
Good flexibility.
This formation will allow us to still make use of Jovic in the future.
Makes sense while we have so few players for midfield
This website is a pain
Fonseca is a genius. He deactivated Leao for Inter before Leao could do it himself LOL. Before in 4213, when Leao went cold, opponent only had to deal with our CF and Pulisic because our AM was nonexistent. And when Pulisic got subbed by Chukwueze then the def only had to worry about our CF. Today Inter had to deal with 2 ST + Pulisic + overlapping run from both wings. This definitely was a game changer because Inter got stretched to a point that Reijnders picked them apart on several occasions. We found our working formation, just need to stick with it and improve. And sell Leao next summer bec today he proved that he didn’t belong. Just look at how emotionally involved Abraham was (even after got subbed out) vs how Leao stood there motionless with his shoulders, hanging after a miss chance, that says it all. Sell his ass and buy Abraham + new LMF + sign Jonathan David for free.
Gabbia proved tonight that Pavlovic and Tomori cant play together because they are both aggressive stoppers. Their style require a sweeper to clean up behind them, someone who plays with intelligence and anticipation rather than speed and strength. Gabbia is the perfect partner bec he has those traits.
The thing with Pavlović is that he is a excellent sprinter with the ball. Time and time again i saw him in Salzburg on the bursting runs down the wing where he took several oponents in stride. Exactly like Theo can do.
Just look at Leao’s rating, easily flop of the match. This is the kind of match a star player show the football world his quality. Unfortunately, Leao is not. It doesn’t even seem he care much. Milan should not hesitate to sell him in January if good offer comes .maybe from Saudi Arabia.
Great performance tonight, thoroughly deserved the win!
Still not sure how this happened, I guess I’ll live in dreamland for a while
Gabbia should be captain!
Pulisic – on his way to legend
TJ- what a show, dazzling
Leao needs a rest or a kick up the a5s or both
I’m sorry for Okafor missing that chance, he’s been good recently
Okafor is a great off the bench player because of his dynamism. Idk if he can be as impactful as a starter. But I am so happy they did not give him to Roma and get rid of Salad instead.
plus, with Tammy expiring contract at 2026 will be helpful in 2025 mercato. the same scenario as Fofana
Gabbia deserves all the love he gets. Heart of a fighter. Should be a future captain.
Lovely victory. FORZA MILAN
I’m happy we finally got the joy of winning the derby Della maldonina.. with a little more composure,we could have scored 4 goals tonight..Leao is always poor with his finishing,so worrying.
Forza Milan
Great comments not showing up again.
Leao ? Bench…
The most encouraging aspect of tonight’s victory the lads looked like they wanted to play hard and play for each other. I saw our players winning the 50/50 balls, putting a little extra leather on the Inter players, and coming back hard in the second half. My only criticism is for Leao. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said. Disappointing. Start Okafor next week.
Okafor was even worse than Rafa. He didn’t do anything right and missed a sitter much worse than the sitter that Rafa missed.
Yes, Rafa is irregular. He has off-games, but still, by season end he is always the top or the second best player in number of goals and assists.
It’s just that he is the favorite scapegoat, so anytime he doesn’t do well, there is this incredible hate feast. By the way, even when he does well, people still hate on him.
Okafor got himself into more advantageous positions in 10 minutes than Leao did all game long.
You are spot on about Leao, he always want to play and help the team, great players do miss, Haaland, Mbappe , they said he was quiet but the truth is, he got no service, at the end of the season he will still have most goal and assist. Everyone is just waiting for him to miss a goal, IMO he put up a decent shift today and he draw up attention from Inter defender allowing Pulicic to thrive, it’s not as if the goal he missed was off target or clear cut chances, Sommer was just brilliant. On the negative he need to control his motion and do more pressing…. Forza Milan
It’s not about the stats. It’s about the lack of effort. Compared to Pulisic he looked as if he was walking around the pitch.
Finally someone who gets it!
“he draw up attention from Inter defender allowing Pulicic to thrive”
Classic. Milan wouldn’t have even managed to attack once if Leao hadn’t drawn 6 Inter players to him every time Milan had the ball, right? 😀 😀 😀
The problem is not if he scores or not. He should have scored at least one time today, but the worst is his attitude, he does not run, does not show for a pass, does not move. He is only lively when he is in 1 vs 1 positions. And dont let me start about his body language….
I couldn’t care less about his body language. I want him to score and assist, and he does that. If he plays with a scowl or a smile, it’s irrelevant.
Season after season Rafa collects the highest or at worst the second highest total of scores and assists for the entire team (highest in two of the last 3 seasons, second only to Giroud by a hair in one of the three; currently only behind Puli but I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of the season he passes Puli again). You know, what really counts towards winning games. The scoreboard counts goals, not body language.
Still, he is by far the most criticized Milan player by the fanbase. People also don’t understand that even when he doesn’t do well, he still attracts double or triple marking, opening space for the other Milan forwards.
Rafa is the kind of player who thrives on 1 v 1 bursts of speed, and/or phenomenal assists (like the one he did with a back pass last time). That is, he really helps the team. No, he isn’t good at defending or tracking back. But see, he isn’t a midfielder or a defender. He is a forward, and he does what forwards need to do: scoring and assisting.
There are others with maybe more lively body language, who don’t help the team as much as Rafa does. So, put down the criticism about body language. This is not a fashion show where body language is what is important. This is football.
If only our defense did their job like Rafa often does his (not always but often), the scores and assists would count for something. If Rafa scores a goal or assists for a goal but then the right back lets in two easy goals for the opponents, we lose 2-1, and that’s NOT Rafa’s fault, like so many people here pretend.
People love Pulisic. I do too. He shows great stamina, great effort, and nice body language. But see, ever since Puli joined, his number of scores + assists has been equal to Rafa’s (one fewer than Rafa, last season). So people get impressed with Puli’s body language which is positive, and they are against Rafa’s which is negative, but the IMPORTANT thing is, Rafa scores and assists as much as Pulisic, and that’s not appreciated when it should be by far the most important stat as far as forwards go.
Look, neither Rafa nor Puli save goals with their hands. That’s because they are not goalkeepers. Should we fault them for not acting like a goalkeeper?
Don’t blame Rafa for not defending or tracking back. He is not a defender. Appreciate him for his goals and assists.
“Still, he is by far the most criticized Milan player by the fanbase. People also don’t understand that even when he doesn’t do well, he still attracts double or triple marking, opening space for the other Milan forwards.”
Watch the Pool match again. It was 1vs1 every time and TAA took the ball from like a candy and kept him quiet (until the extra time chance when the game was already over).
And look at other side, teams, players and whatever to only see that every winger gets “doubled” just like Leao. There’s always backup for the wideback in case the winger gets by them.
But sure, let’s continue with the “Leao occupies 6 opponents every time we get the ball” because that makes him look like “even better than Messi”. 🙂
“Don’t blame Rafa for not defending or tracking back. He is not a defender. Appreciate him for his goals and assists.”
Didn’t see any of those against Pool & Inter.
“Don’t believe your lyin eyes…”Did Mario approve this message?
Spot on……..at the end of the season what matters is goal+assist as a forward and he always delivers
“at the end of the season what matters is goal+assist as a forward and he always delivers”
Always? Really? I think he had 0 goals and 0 assists against Liverpool & Inter. The two most significant matches so far this season – and he was practically MIA in both.
But sure, let’s stick with the “he always delivers” narrative. 🙂
Favorite after Emerson 😉 Rafa was very lookwarm but got two decent shots in, which is something
Not starting RLC was the key to winning today’s game. He and Pobega were the downfall of coach Pioli. RLC was for Fonseca for the first 5 matches. The midfield started working again once RLC was no longer in the starting XI. I feared for a moment that his sub would cost Milan, but the 2nd goal killed the match. Whoever the coach is, they must sell RLC and get a proper midfielder no. 8 or 10.
With Bennacer injured, and if Fofana or Reijnders misses out, then it forces RLC to start. It would be the beginning of doom! Hope Fonseca learns from this mistake, unlike Pioli.
Musah can replace Fofana, hes already better than him defensively, passing and dribbling…Reijnders is not replaceable in the midfield…
Give Fofana a little time. He practically didn’t train with Monaco in the off-season because they kept him out during the long negotiations for his transfer. He joined Milan very late. He wasn’t match-fit. He is already improving. Today was his best game so far with the Milan jersey, and I am quite certain that he will continue to improve. You can’t expect a player who joined so late, off-match form, and joining a new team, a new league, and a new coach, to be excellent from day one.
Fofana is a good player. You’ll see: He will deliver.
Fofana in my opinion, from seeing him in other games before he joined Milan, is a far better player than Musah.
I hope Musah grows and fulfills his potential (I think Pioli mismanaged him a lot, giving him ever-changing roles, thus not allowing him to learn a set of skills specific of one ideal role) but currently Musah is not as good a player as Fofana.
Musah has been with us for a good while. Fofana has just joined. Give Fofana some time, will you?
Musahs potential is not important, its the current performances. Performances against PSG and Dortmund showed that he is a good player last year. His start to the season…if you look at any of the sites…he is one of the top performers for the club so far…
I did not watch League 1 games so I can’t speak to how well Fofana played there. This season he’s been very consistently not good against both good and bad teams…you need to earn your spot and so far he just hasn’t been as good as players who are sitting on the bench…
I just see a timing issue with Fofana, he’s a step late…I see him struggle to carve out a gap to receive the ball in the midfield…I see him make really silly turnovers…those are the things you expect from a young player…a guy with potential…Musah already seems the stronger player…his future potential may be a much much stronger player…but I’m comparing their current abilities.
I can give Fofana time…but my understanding was that a player who comes in should earn the role. Right now, it seems he’s playing despite not earning the role. Especially with the start to the season that musah had…it makes more sense to use him as a sub until he can figure things out…
THIS!
I actually felt more confident in AC milans chances when I found out that RLC was not starting.
I see that the Leao hate fest is strong tonight. Yes, I do acknowledge that he didn’t do well and together with Okafor was one of the two worst Milan players tonight; Emerson the other one who had problems; everybody else did well. Still, the hate fest is exaggerated. Players have bad games. Clearly Rafa’s game was bad tonight, but he is far from being the liability you all think.
The doom and gloom including by me does seem exaggerated now. We lost to Liverpool, one of the best teams in the world. Still, that’s just the first UCL game. There are other 7 teams to play against in the initial phase and even if we don’t do so well and don’t make the top 8, we could still make the next 16 and advance to the play-in.
As for Serie A, I don’t believe that Torino will remain in first place for too long, se we’re only 2 and 1 point(s) behind the real contenders.
Maybe we’ll have some joy, yet.
Leao was poor tonight. He deserves to be criticized for a performance that by the eye test simply was not convincing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that Pulisic ran 50% more distance tonight than Leao. And more than the performance, it was the attitude and the effort that we’re wanting.
People exaggerate when we lose and they exaggerate when we win. Thats how most people are lol.
Objectively, Leao was the worst at the pitch. That is a fact. But as I said in a different comment, issue is the attitude. You see the rest of the team eating the pitch and he was uninterested. Even in the goal celebration, he was nowhere to be seen (Pulisic was also taken off and he was there congratulating Gabbia and helping him to go up and salute the fans). It is his attitude that bothers me because the guy is a real talent, but that is not enough
Even if he played poor that Doesn’t call for some of that heat he’s getting. And I don’t really care about his body language, though I get the criticism on his pressing. The reality is Leao was poor tn. No doubt about it. But people often Look for opportunities to jump on him
I can’t agree less, everyone should give Leao a break, whenever he saves the team, the praises is not as much as when he is not the hero
Absolutely brilliant
Let’s hope we continue on like this 🤞
Milan played better and won. It seems this season will be more interesting and competitive than the last two.
For me, it feels a bit unfair that Abraham and Morata only get 0.5 and 1 better rating than Leao, when both of them worked and worked in the press all night – they were both shattered when they came off and RLC and Chukwueze both did a good job picking up the pressing and forcing Inter to move quicker – Leao meanwhile made some good forward progress at times but both his finishing and pressing were nonexistent tonight – we know he has talent but he can’t complain at being withdrawn tonight and he should be grateful it wasn’t much earlier.
Glad to see your comment about Emerson Royal included the caveat that he lacked help from midfield, although Pulisic did his best. To be fair to Fofana, he had a lot of ground to cover too, but Royal did well considering he was often against two – a lot of Inter’s crosses came from his side, but only after being knocked back to Di Marco to cross from deep, because he always had space.
I really don’t understand what people saw in Emerson tonight. Sure, he was active. Sure, he tried. Sure, it was less disastrous than other games. But still, he was at fault in their goal and guilty of ineffective marking (from too far away from DiMarco) most of the time. Together with Rafa and Okafor, Emerson was one of the 3 players who were below everybody else.
Look, I hope that what someone said that he needs more time because the EPL and Serie A are tactically diverse, is true. Of course I’d love to see him improve and become an asset rather than a liability but for me, so far he’s been a liability.
You keep blaming him for been to far from DiMarco, have you thought about who was to close down Barella who had loads of time to send a cross field pass? Gabbi was at fault as Martinez had passed him, if Emerson had stayed on DiMarco then it would be Martinez vs Mike. Your take on Emerson has been bias
If you want to single out ONE moment, then, sure, he had his moment. But then you should also single out the moment when he was instrumental in conceding Inter’s goal.
Me, I’m talking about the entire game, not just one moment. Almost EVERY time that DiMarco received the ball, Emerson was 3 meters from him, so DiMarco was able to look at his companions, pick the one best positioned, and comfortably pass the ball to that companion, because Emerson was not on top of him forcing him to pass less accurately or miss the play entirely.
Gabbia, unlike Emerson, was putting pressure on Inter’s defense all the time and often robbed the ball from their forwards by anticipating their move and stepping into their space. Emerson didn’t do that at all. That’s why Gabbia was way more effective as a marker than Emerson was.
This is not being biased; it’s just observing the game.
That’s on Fonseca too, by the way. He should say to Emerson: “be more incisive; get closer to your man; put pressure on your man, don’t stay away 3 meters so that your man can pass the ball at will without being rushed or pressured.”
How you like to be clever, brother, is a miracle. Just as you unjustifiably defend Rafa, whom we all love, you unjustifiably attack Emerson. You are going to two extremes. Should we nail Emerson to the cross or give him a chance to grow? He was perfectly fine tonight and I hope he will keep getting better, as we expect from Rafa.
Ibrakadabra, the word you’re looking for is double-standards. Or hypocrisy. It seems people who are the most fanatic at defending certain players are the most aggressive to attack on others. One person defends Calabria to the grave but attacks Reijnders at every chance. Here you can see endless love for Leao but Emerson gets all the hate.
It is how it is. All players are not created equal. And they’re not getting equal treatment from the fans either.
Emerson was consistently bad and only picked up a little in the second half. He still got cooked 3 or 4 times in the second half. People are only saying he was good bcz they’ve been subjected to Calabria for so long.
Emerson is bad. Anyone else saying otherwise has ZERO ball knowledge
Happy for the win, very happy to interrupt the negative series vs Indah. Okafor though, just wtf…
If you’re going to win the big games, the whole team has to be involved. We don’t need moments from Leao, he needs to help the team more defensively, and take his chances when he gets them. While Pulisic kept coming back to cover Dimarco, Leao was always strolling on the other side of the pitch. You can’t keep playing like this when you earn so much. Gabbia was great tonight. Pulisic, for me, was the match of the match. He put the fear in Inter right from the start. If they had scored first, with that crowd behind them, we would have been under so much pressure. Okafor needs to calm down. He should learn from teammates like Pulisic. We could have killed the game if our players were more clinical. The defense and Mike did great. Lastly, credit to the coach for approaching the game differently. However, Leao should have been subbed much earlier. The coach has to improve the way Leao plays. Leao passed too many balls back, putting more pressure on our defenders, when he should have attacked. I hope we can build on from here. It’s going to be different playing other teams. What a night for Milan. Forza!
Yes, Rafa was poor tonight. Yes, it was correct to sub him (unfortunately his sub, Okafor, did even worse). It happens. Today despite a good shot that Sommer saved and a good header that Sommer also saved, Rafa didn’t do anything productive (and he should have buried that shot).
But no, Rafa is not our biggest liability. He is a player who rarely tracks back and rarely helps the defense, but he is ALSO the player who consistently has scored + assisted the most (or the second most) in the entire season, for the last three and a half seasons.
Why do people so insistently criticize our most prolific forward, or second most prolific?
Duh, he is not a defender. He isn’t a goalkeeper either. If you want to criticize him so much for not defending, should you also criticize him for not saving the ball with his hands like a goalkeeper does?
Rafa is a forward and he does what forwards must do: scoring and assisting. Not every goal, obviously. Nobody does it every game. But he does it often enough and more than ALL the others except Giroud in one season, and Puli this season (so far). So, obviously Rafa helps the team. He has scored the winner or assisted for the winner in MULTIPLE games for Milan over the last several years.
Just be content with what he does for the team (which is a lot of goals and assists) and just pardon him for not being a good defender like others are.
The over-the-top criticism of Rafael Leão is incredibly exaggerated, and actually mind-boggling.
I don’t see fans of other teams criticizing so harshly a forward who scores + assists more than every other of their players or every other except one, even when said forward is not good at defending.
did you not see when pulisic got pick pocketed by Di Marco and Leao was mad Pulisic didnt pass the ball early, he just stood still staring at pulisic for 5 seconds while pulisic turned around and chased down di marco, that is inexcusable and shouldnt be tolerated
” even when said forward is not good at defending.”
It’s not about how good one is at defending. It’s 100% about the attitude. If a forward who cannot defend at least TRIES to defend he’s doing more than enough. One who doesn’t even try on the other hand…
Yes at last…keep it up with 2 strikers Mr. Fonseca.
I before think Fonseca will out after 3 matches. But if see Milan played like this, and next match they can keep it up like this, so give Fonseca time then.
Praise The Lord…my fav team, can win again Inter again.
Credit to Fonseca. Not only to the players. He delivered under immense pressure. All odds were against him, the media especially, writing stories just for the sake to run down Milan project.
Sell LEO and Buy LOOKMAN
Oh the sweet dreams 🫠
Even if we got a draw, this is the Milan I expected to play, create many chance, fluid on attacking and defensive phase. Masterclass from the player and great tactic from Mr Fonseca. Reijnders is better without RLC in midfield, he can dictate the tempo and flowing the ball as he like, and didn’t think too much about defence so he can concentrate on breaking opponent midfield.
Can’t believe it but any day we beat Inter is a great day.
A much needed huge win. Congrats to the lads. Inter didn’t look their best but a win is a win and we will take it.
I still don’t think this win should save Fonseca. We should just move on from him. But I’m sure we will stay the course and this buys him another month.
Emerson is just trash. He was at fault for that goal. Cannot believe we let Kalulu go for this guy.
Where is Bartholomeu? God forbid, what happened?
The criticism of Leao is way over blown. His body language when he came off was not great. But Chuk showed it was the right decision to inject a fresh player.
What I loved in the dying moments I loved how Abraham was frantically instructing his team mates from the sidelines like a manager. He inspired Leao to jump up and join him.
Hopefully players like Tammy, Morata & Pulisic being around him can show him the way. Inspire him on what he needs to do to go to another level.
Guys, chill on the Royal hate.
Granted he is still a work in progress but he did well tonight.
Could he have done better on inter’s goal? Yes.
But he tracked back, and was solid against DiMarco, which isn’t easy to do.
I am not sure if Calabria would have done better.
This is just part one of a two part test. Now we need to go on and win the next game against Lecce.
Where is Hakan Calhanonsense ????
Guys , I chickened out and didn’t watch d match. I was following up with live score till 60th then I switched off. I could withstand d tension.I checked d scores around 3:30 am only to see the shock of the year ! I have to watch the full match today. Like I told someone, our players are good if they wanna play. They put in more determination.
One problem we fail to realise is that we always build our tactics and play around Leao and once he is marked off then we run into problem. He is our best player admittedly.but he needs to increase his work rate and concentration. We all need to support him.
I don’t hold Emerson responsible for the goal; Tomori should have stepped out as any switched-on cb would have done. And Leao had another stinker in a big game – usual stuff.
Apart from that, it was a bold move by Fonseca which paid off majorly. We had enough chances to finish them off far earlier and inflict a far more damaging defeat,
This was a reply to Luigi’s Emerson annihilation
Who else cried at Gabbia’s goal? I absolutely did. Shame he didn’t get the MOTM – absolutely deserving of it. not only for the goal but for the numerous critical interventions he did in the box.
I absolutely love Reijnders and he was fantastic today. But MOTM should have been Gabbia’s.
Neighbours heard me scream when Gabbia scored!
The No 1 reason to believe in Milan in 2024.
That goal was something else. Gabbia was a beast last night. Agree 100% MOTM with reinders 2nd. He has done so well since he came back from the loan. Future captain.
Way too generous for fofana and Royale. Morata deserves a higher rating, he was a constant problem for Inter.
I was totally against bringing Abraham but I admit I was wrong. Till now. We will see for all season his contribution. But till now he has a positive impact. He’s involved, has will to contribute. I like his attitude.
Fofana…I don’t like him for now. I hope he will grow with time.
I’m happy for this win with our historical rival but one derby it’s not that important if we loose point in the coming matches with lower opponents. Better lose a derby but win all other games with weaker openents, that’s the key for winning a championship. I hope our players don’t transform in primadonas next game and lose humbleness.
One word: Gabbia.
Is this enough?
Or is he going to be rotated again in favour of Pavolic or Thiaw?
Are the club going to sign a new CB in January?
Next summer?
Is he going to continue suffering from double standards?
He has play at twice the level of new signings to be considered for a rotation.
The club wasted €18 million this summer on Pavlovic because they refused to believe in Gabbia.
He was our best defender last season and his reward for those performances was to be replaced by Thiaw in the first match and Pavlovic.
There’s every chance that that €18 million cost us about points this season by unnecessarily breaking up our CB pairing that had helped us finish SECOND last season (without a midfield).
Nothing surprised me about Gabbia tonight because we’ve seen this from him numerous times before.
If he plays next game and scores an OG or gives away a penalty or loses his man, the performances he has already banked at Milan should buy him forgiveness in the same way that we forgive Thiaw, Tomori and Pavlovic.
But the one thing Gabbia has that none of these players have, that money cannot buy, is that he lives and breaths Milan.
And THAT is why youth players matter.
THAT is why some new signing not only has to be BETTER than our youth players, they have to be WORLD CLASS.
If you’re not world class then you don’t bring enough.
Let us never hear about Milan trying to sign another CB for another 5 years.
So far Pavlovic’X factor (him being left-footed) didn’t help us at all. So far I can say that during the summer I would have prefered we extended to Simic and/or got Hummels for free.
Gabbia definetly did well last season, but this is the first time it resulted in a big win against a team that caused us so much trouble.
I think everyone (the coach included) saw that Gabbia should be starting (and perhaps become captain one day ?).
If Gabbia continues this form, then 100% he should start and have Tomori and Pavlo compete for the other spot.
As to your earlier post, praise for Gabbia does not mean acceptance of Calabria’s shortcomings. Gabbia and Calabria while both homegrown, are completely different players with a gap in quality favoring Gabbia.
While Calabira is a finished product without an ounce of improvement in since the banter era (and questionable during it as well), Gabbia has actually improved and providing in the two metrics you only seem to understand: Goals scored and Critical Interventions.
Calabria is done. Gabbia seems to only be getting better …
I really want to enjoy this moment and not criticise any players who all deserve huge credit for this historic win.
However it is galling reading the never ending praise of Reijnders.
Alongside Fofana he was probably our worst player tonight.
Morata showed what we need from our midfielders. He demanded and fought for the ball.
Our attacks, as per usual, came from mostly bypassing our midfield. Our defence, as per usual, came from the defence stepping up in spite of the midfield.
Reijnders got knocked off the ball numerous times including by the Turkish scum. He held onto the ball too long. He didn’t set up counters.
He had two moments: the pass to Abraham and the free kick. Those are the things that give me hope but he is definitely not out of the woods in my book.
This is not a game where he’s produced a match winning performance. It’s a game where the players around him produced match winning performances which he benefited from.
To put him centre stage for this result is not right. I don’t know what sort of PR he has working for him but he needs to do a lot better.
Mr rlc you can cry but you and your rlc can’t reach one leg of reijnders if we take reijnders out our midfield we can’t even call midfield rlc bennacer are rubbish
I don’t know what game you were watching but I think you just don’t like reijnders at all. Both fofana and reijnders had great gsmes(definitely the best this season). Fofana literally won 5of 6 duels like a true number 6. Yes he had some bad passes but if he’s to cover the defence that much then it’s fine to me. Reijnders finally got to roam around and play his game and he never lost the ball or created space. Our midfield shut down inters midfield who are arguably top 5 In the world at the moment.
The only player to have a really poor game was leao.
You. Are. Hopeless.
You seem to fail to appreciate/see anything that doesn’t end in a goal or an assist as is evident from your criticism of Reijnders.
Reijnders isn’t a finished product, far from it. Things to improve on for sure. But if you can’t tell that he’s the best thing we’ve had in the attacking midfield since Kaka is alarming.
His quick feet, poised control, quick passing, dribbling and most importantly the drives forward is what makes hims special. Did you not see him get the ball in our half and basically drive through the whole Inter defense before offloading the ball?
That’s what he does. Does he get dispossessed? Yes. What player doesn’t? Does he seem better on the ball than RLC who is twice his size and build? 100%
If you praise RLC, how do you not see Reijnders’ value? I DON’T GET IT.
Self leao and buy ebere eze from Crystal palace or Nicole Williams. He has been te problem for milan his lack of willingness and attitude is annoying. How can a 33 years old morata work rate is better than you and Abraham a number 9 track back more than you. I can’t put up with him anymore. Thank God pulicis is turning up, let him. Know that hard work is the only way up. Even vinicius works hard. Who does he think he is. Sell him and use the money to get better players
Sell leao and buy ebere eze from Crystal palace or Nicole Williams. He has been the problem for milan his lack of willingness and attitude is annoying. How can a 33 years old morata work rate is better than you and Abraham a number 9 track back more than you. I can’t put up with him anymore. Thank God pulicis is turning up, let him. Know that hard work is the only way up. Even vinicius works hard. Who does he think he is. Sell him and use the money to get better players
There should be no thoughts of selling Leao. He will snap back and grow up. Let this team grow together. It’s time to stop giving them grief. They can all play or they wouldn’t be at Milan. There is time to get to the top. We’re in the earliest stages.
He really won’t. Inconsistent and uninterested to be a top player.. time to cash in in the summer. Maybe even in January if possible
Who knows ?
So far (especially in 2022-23) we couldn’t punch our way out of a paper bag if he didn’t pull a trick or 2 and people could always say that he at least is double or triple teamed and that’s how we won.
I think (I hope) that yesterday that he saw we would have won with a cone instead of him, and that his days as a superstar might be over soon.
He looked good when he had players of questionable quality around him. Now we had more quality than ever (lacking balance tho) and he drops real quick when it’s time to produce something on a regular basis.
Sure rafa is double covered but so was Henry in his day and he always made something happen.. why? Because he always looked how to improve himself. Rafa been the same since the day he came. It is what it is. Not to mention he sticks out like a sore thumb when everyone is working hard off the ball and he’s just strolling around.
Uh no. We’ve all seen this movie before…on repeat. There were times in the match where Leao DID NOT WANT THE BALL. In a derby! He’d get the ball and then just pass it backwards. Immediately. It’s been 5 years. Sell him for as much as he’ll fetch (60m?) and move on.
Didn’t watch the match but surprised we got 3 point from Inter Merda. I guess Fonseca managed to prolong his job thanks to Pulisic and Gabbia.
But let’s see if this win is just lucky or not with some consistency.
Was it because of the old brand new formation
Such a poor derby!Never seen a derby of this low quality and untalented actors.Football is becoming more and more obvious is just a circus for the blinds,but at least we won.
that is a great formation i think.bcause it cancel inter 5 medfield randles quit welldone.nw we defend massive and attack massivd just need cleanical finish when we reach uponet half.
If we didn’t win this match I certainly would blame both leao and Okafor (I’ll go easy on Abraham ). Missing chances like that was costly and inter could have equalised any moment. But what a win. Thanks Gabbia ♥️🖤
The journalist say that Tomori’s: “positioning was also very good throughout the clash”
What?
Hi’s positioning was awful. We conceded the goal because of his poor positioning. Also there was another big chance missed by Thuram because of his dreadful positioning.
He should not start again for Milan
He’s*
I liked it when more and more people realized how mediocre and overrated Leao is, He think he’s a superstar already like Haaland,Vinicius etc while in fact he’s still far inferior to them, with this attitude and for him not getting younger i doubt that he would reach that level, barcelona please buy him from us some sum of money with Ferran Tores looking good imo.
Tomoris positioning was “very good throughout the clash” ???
He was 2-3 meters further down then the whole back line on the equalizer. If he had held the line Emersons rush would had put Dimarco offside by far. He also gets stressed way to easy on the ball and disrupt play and just passes it back to Maignan or puts teammates in bad situations.
Gabbia saved him lots of times tonight and is currently our best central defender. I would like to see him partner up with Pavlovic and Thiaw in a game just to see how they work together.
One major reason for our bleeding defense is that our supposedly best central defender havent been good since the scudetto season.