AC Milan clinched three vital points away at Lazio after Noah Okafor scored a latter winner. It thus ended up being a dramatic game, fueled by three (!) red cards for the home side, 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 (6): A couple of decent interventions tonight and his distribution was also good. Certainly nice for him to keep a clean sheet for once.
Florenzi (5): He had no success this evening with obvious struggles at the back and a surprisingly poor touch in possession. For a Romanista, we would have expected to see more grinta from him tonight.
Kjaer (5): Started the game with two really good passes but then fell off completely, not only mishitting the passes but also defending very poorly on multiple occasions. Milan were lucky not to concede, in fact, when Kjaer lost Vecino in the box (a corner he also caused).
Gabbia (5.5): The Italian did do some things right, it should be noted, but he lost too many duels tonight and was also carded in the end. He wasn’t very convincing in possession either, always too predictable with his passing.
Hernandez (6): Truth be told, he didn’t have the best of games on either end of the pitch but his trademark run was behind Milan’s winner tonight. So he gets a pass here.
Bennacer (5): The Algerian needs more time to regain match fitness but above all confidence. He’s severely lacking the latter, with many easy mistakes and a lack of awareness. This is something that used to be his strength, so it is a bit worrying.
Adli (5): Nonchalant in the build-up phase, always wanting to dribble, and it could have cost Milan dearly tonight. He was slightly better in the attacking phase, with a few good vertical passes, but this was by no means a good performance.
Pulisic (6): If it hadn’t been for his smartness, or perhaps shithousery is the proper word here, Milan probably wouldn’t have won tonight. Other than the steal from Pellegrini, though, the American struggled to impose himself so nothing more than a pass here.
Loftus-Cheek (5): Another very anonymous performance from the Englishman. He deserved a little credit for at least showing himself between the lines, but he didn’t do anything good with the ball.
Leao (5.5): He can do much more and he knows it. He was involved in the goal, with a decent cut-back cross, but he really struggled to be incisive tonight apart from that.
Giroud (5.5): The Frenchman was way too slow tonight, often in the wrong position as well, and he just didn’t seem in tune with his teammates. Fair play for getting on the rebound that eventually led to the goal (so it was important), but it was not good enough from him.
Substitutes
Calabria (5.5): He came on due to Florenzi’s yellow card and that sub was more or less a zero-sum game. Only slightly better, with a lack of impact.
Reijnders (6): The midfielder played a lovely through-ball for Leao’s goal that was disallowed for a very narrow offside. Given how the others performed, he probably should have started.
Okafor (7 – MOTM): He entered the pitch with the right energy and got his reward, doing well to find space in the box and eventually finding the back of the net as well.
Tomori (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Thiaw (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
The manager
Pioli (5): Even with one man up, Milan struggled to create clear-cut chances and several times this game, the shape was extremely strange. And when the Rossoneri did have a ‘normal’ shape, closer to their actual formation, they played through Lazio quite easily. Obvious subs too, so not much credit can be given there.
Pulisic MOTM for me!
He got 2 of them and eventually destroyed their entire team psychology
I agree Pulisic showed grit and did not back down. I was hoping to see Pulisic in a situation like tonight and he showed he’ll fight for the shirt and be smart about it.
totally agree, anx how does Bennacer get the same rating?!!! He was sheite!
Pulisic took a beating and won in the end.
Theo made a great run at the goal.
Nice goal Okafor. He’s coming on.
It was not a good performance by any means but at this stage of the season 3 points is all that matters
Pulisic gets two players sent off and only merits a pass? Plus his would-be assist to RLC and some other decent chances and great defensive work? I thought he was MOTM in a scrappy game.
Spot on.
Pulisic yes.
But never mentioned: pitch was disaster tonight for play. Milan players couldn’t play any better in those conditions
Generally underwhelming performance. The team just didn’t really seem interested in the first half. Saw a lot of the 5-0-5 or “SOS” formation, as Ted called it. Pioli even went for a 4-0-6 when he threw on Okafor. Brilliant. Thanks Pellegrini, for getting yourself sent off. We might not have won the game without that.
And then there was the brilliant subbing of both CBs. I think this was the nail in the coffin for Lazio TBH, as Pioli bamboozled them and made them even angrier by that mockery, which lead to two further red cards. FORZA PIOLI /s
Gold. Pioli the bamboozler
Ah so that was Pioli’s plan, nice!
🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s not Pioli after all, it’s us who can understand the brilliance 😂😂😂😂
We are not worthy
I think he put them in to be able to have fresh legs at the back to be able to lift the back line higher and increase the pressure. I think it’ss a smart move actually. Not the obvious one to make, not one I would have thought of but I understand the idea behind it.
Swallowed my comment.
Ugly across the board. Not sure why. Plenty of rest. Everyone available. But no energy or anything worth mention. Lazio lost their mind and we took advantage. Ugly win but one we needed.
Everyone deserves a 5 except OK4 – came and rescued us.
Martin Bernard – if you read this, this is why you start Thiaw over Kjaer every day of the week. The Great Dane was useless like a bag of you know what…
Kjaer is old so give him some brake lol, he served us great in the past. Thiaw is nothing special btw. In fact Gabbia has performed better and deserve to be Tomori partner right now.
I think Thiaw is lacking some match sharpness as he came on and made a mistake immediately before composing himself. Once he’s fully fit, he’ll be fine. His pace is better than Kjaer. Before Mike took out the Lazio player, Kjaer made a Yepes glory tackle and missed horribly. Kjaer is fine when we sit deep. Not great when there’s space and pacey players around..six of one…but in the long run Thiaw should be relied upon
I love how the commentators on Paramount+ are bringing up the 5-0-5 formation.
This was a game that’s become familiar for us. Struggle most of the game and depend on individual performances to win.
We have a good team on paper but it doesn’t show on the field.
Awful game with very eventful last 30 minutes because of the stupidity by the Lazio players and the ref.
MOTM is without doubt Pulisic. Without him not giving up on the play and playing until the whistle, Milan isn’t coming back home with 3 points. Lazio dominated for 60 minutes. The red card changed everything.
New signing to the rescue again. Glad that Jovic is back next game too because without the bench Milan might be down there with Napoli and Lazio on the table.
If Reijnders is healthy and rested, he shouldn’t be sitting on the bench for anyone, especially not for Bennacer who 2nd game in a row was bad. Reijnders is Milan’s best midfielder.
The goal happened again because of a solo run, this time Theo.
Rest of the starters were poor.
Man down Lazio had more scoring opportunities.
Still don’t know why the own goal was taken away.
Also, if Senior advisor Zlatan has to come in the locker room during half time to shake things up, does this team really has a coach?
Shithousery at it’s finest with Pulisic, he learned how to be Italian
Ugly win (I’ll take it!), choppy game. Too many mistakes. We generally didn’t play well.
Here is my take:
Maignan – lucky not to concede. Would have conceded if the Lazio forwards had better aim as he was off position and made no effort to stop Lazio’s great early opportunity; thankfully for him the ball was just wide. Lazio wasted another great opportunity when he was already beaten. 5.5
Florenzi – not as good as he had been (probably physically feeling the string of games; Florenzi is good but injure-prone). 5.5 (Calabria 6; it was an improvement over Florenzi but not more than that)
Kjaer – missed too many passes, got smoked a couple of times. 5 (Thiaw no vote but didn’t screw up)
Gabbia – Not as brilliant as in the last few games but gets a pass; good positioning as usual. 6 (Tomori, no vote; nice to see him back)
Theo – Could have done more but also gets a pass as he did participate in the goal. 6
Adli – Very good in first half, a bit less in second half but rather decent overall. 6.5
Bennacer – Still a bit off. 5.5 (Reijnders, much better; Milan improved once he came in. 7)
Loftus-Cheek – Moved a lot. I thought he also got a pass. 6
Pulisic – our best player in first half. Tried very hard. Deserved a goal if not for Provedel being so good. 7
Leao – After two great games, a lot quieter tonight. His goal before the VAR era would have stood. Microscopic off-side. For that, I give him a pass. 6
Giroud – One of his worst performances. Not even his signature header worked tonight. Wasted promising attacks. 5 (Okafor – Won the game for us. 7.5)
Lazio had a great first half but got tired in second half and maybe pulled back a little due to their encounter with Bayern that is coming up. Then they had a meltdown with 3 red cards; actually two other players could have been sent out also: Hysaj for a nasty elbow, and Romagnoli who had a yellow and later engaged in two tactical fouls that both should have been a second yellow. Apparently one of the reds was for a racial slur, in the best Nazi tradition of Lazio.
Luigi, Aldi was very good. He was terrible with poor passing and just losing the ball. It was hard to rate the frontline for the first half as both Aldi and Bennacer were poor. I don’t know what RLC was doing. Not shithouse play by Pulisic, it’s called playing to the whistle and the Lazio player had ever chance to kick the ball out.
Jim, totally agree with everything. Watching the replay, Pulisic doesn’t even see the Lazio player go down because Pulisic is already turning to hunt down the ball. He has no idea Lazio is trying to stop the play, because if they were, they clearly would just kick it out of bounds…which they didn’t.
Once Adli got any pressure, he almost lost or lost the ball in very dangerous positions because he’s last man before the defence.
Everyone was terrible according to this guy.
RLC I thought was good today. Bullying the midfield and had some nice dribbles as well as a really good volley that forced a great save from the Lazio keeper.
Pulisic was all over the pitch doing everything, always making himself available and creating space. I guess playing until the whistle and not stopping every time a player flops to the ground is shithousery???
Grumpy ratings.
No. I feel it was pretty accurate. We were pretty awful today but took advantage of favorable situations to get the points. Midfield was flat. Leao & Oli were ineffective. Puli wasn’t active offensively but was an effective disruptor Vs Lazio players.
Glad OK4 came to the rescue. But mainly because the space was there for him since Leao and Giroud were marked.
The ratings are perfect. This performance was ugly and horrible to watch.
A truly awful game!
The saviours being Okafor and the Ref, they insisted on us winning the game and giving a few chuckles
It’s impossible to analyze such a sh1t show!
Top – Okafor, we need to be getting more out of him, he’s too good to waste
Flop – Pioli – Your in charge of this. Also the double sub of center halves was reckless and foolish.
Ok now remove Theo and Leao (they want to sell them) from this team and see what you have left. This team lives on the back of those two players and you all know it. Even when they don’t play best they still do that one move that gives us the points. This team is nothing without them.
💯
Except that Giroud leads the team in goals and assists. And the fact that Pulisic,RLC and Jovic all have more goals than Leao.
Add to that, they never said anything about wanting to sell Leao or Theo and literally everything you just said is untrue.
So of course IKWYDLS agrees with such a statement. Just a couple of people who can’t get over that the ownership got rid of Maldini so they keep rooting for the team to fail. Keep it up.
You literally have dozen of articles here, about selling Teo and Leao on this page. Okafor scored the goal today to, but who created it ? Who creates our goals like 99% of the time ? But you cant see something if you don’t want to see it. In psychology they call that cognitive dissonance. So it makes no point to further explain something to you that is obvious.
No. There are tons of articles about teams that would like to buy Leao and Theo, of course because they are great players, but nowhere in any of those articles does it say the owners or management wants to sell them. Know the difference, it’s big.
Nobody is saying Theo and Leao aren’t great players but many other players have made big contributions , especially when Leao went months without a goal.
If the point of your original post was that if you take away Milan’s two best players that they would be a lot worse that’s not a very insightful point. You could say that about most teams.
Those are rumors not facts, how old are you? wtf is this
“Okafor scored the goal today to, but who created it ?”
Oh you mean Theo? Because he’s the one who was created it.
Yes, definitely our top two players.
who told you they want to sell them? Did you go to their houses and ask or you think yourself as a prophet who predicts the future?
He went to their homes and afterward he stopped your house with Mira but your hid under your bed.
It’s amazing how inconsistent we are from match to match. For me, tonight is one of the worst games of the season. I have the impression that we didn’t even play the first half! A lot of mistakes and nonchalance in the game. I don’t know how many balls we’ve lost in midfield (Adli) !? Despite the 120 million euros invested this summer, we get 4 goals from Monza and play an equal match against Lazio with 9 players!! Incredibly. The goal is to be in the top 4 in the league. I doubt we can ask for anything more than that this season.
Not threatening Lazio till they got a red card, infact they threatened milan, drawing 4 yellow cards while playing with a man sent off.
Reijnders and musah alongside Adli in a 3 man midfield would have made Lazio sweat.
Bennacer is a thousand miles away from his old form and that ghost midfielder Ghostus cheek doesn’t create chances with the ball, just walks around hoping to score.
Reijnders-Adli-Musah midfield trident can pass, hold the ball and create chances with good movement, not a central attacking midfielder ghosting around while hoping to score.
Lack the of creativity from the unbalanced midfield affects the performance of Leao & Pulisic, likewise inability to retain possession break play exposes the defence.
I would like to see Reijnders-Adli-Musah
Spot on. That should be the starting mid. Loftus has done nothing as an AM despite the goals. In fact he clogs the attack. Milan needs a creative player there and not just someone who runs in the box. And even that he does it bad in 90% of his games, like today. Adli should be there and Musa behind him with his energy at the back. Musa has potential in a defensive mid position. Finaly Benny is just not the same after so many injuries, he is still a top player but he is not fit most of the time. If we really want to cash in on someone in the summer, i think it should be him.
I’m with you on the midfield.
I hope Bennacer can find his form soon, we need him
Regarding RLC – we have Giroud to be the big man in the box who can’t contribute to build up, why do we need another? It’s the midfield needs more.
I fully agree that would improve both attack and defense
Ghostus Cheek hahaha 😂
I’m stealing that
Bad referee but especially bad pitch too.
Can’t expect a good performance with bad referee and pitch. But three point is a three point.
It’s unfortunate that Leao goal got dissalowed (turns out it was an offiside).
For me Florenzi, adli, bennacer and loftus was the big disapointments today as they kept frustrating me,
And Kjaer?
Kjaer contributed more than Thiaw this season.
I agree Thiaw is faster, stronger and younger with more potential but he has bitc character.
How many times he literally played against us? Clumsy fouls, red cards…
Tomori Gabbia duo seems more reliable and mature than Thiaw this season.
Then let’s see how Kalulu comes back from injury.
As you can see, it is possible to explain disagreement without insulting each other.
Thiaw does indeed make some clumsy fouls, i do nevertheless have faith in him and his time will come but considering kjærs experience and positional understanding of the game i absolutely think he is years ahead of thiaw. In the end though everyone can contribute to this team young and older ones but we shouldnt forget either that kjær is the freaking captain of the danish international team and has been so for a long time whereas thiaw only has played a few friendly matches for the german international team.
There’s a big generational gap between the two when it comes to experience. Thiaw is still raw but in another 3-4 years he’ll be solid through and through. He’s just lacking experience and confidence.
sure but milan cant wait 3-4 years as we overalll need results now and they has come when kjær has played as i already said further down below but yeah sure his time is ticking out but i would have no issues keeping him as a bit part player for a year or two while slowly integrating a player like thiaw.
Thiaw/Gabbia & Tomori are the foundation of our defense moving forward. Gabbia could use a rest but he provides the competition that both Thiaw and Tomori sorely needed to play better.
I agree that Thiaw/Gabbia, Tomori/Kalulu are solid foundation.
Right now Gabbia is making it super difficult to bench him tbh.
I guess board will sell Tomori anyway, so Thiaw, Gabbia, Kalulu are remaining… But Thiaw’s character is getting worse on the pitch, this is concerning.
Never sure why CBs need a rest since they do the least running of outfield players.
I retired to CB!
We should ideally play the same CBs the whole season.
But in modern football where fitness seemingly has improved managers regularly sub CBs (and Pioli this game subbed both).
I reckon Gabbia will be gone if he even thinks about making a mistake.
As a general youth players have to play ten times better than players we sign.
And even if they outplay existing players the club will do what it can to bury them under multiple signings.
I have no qualms with you, Mira, like I said.
Not as much as the others i mentioned but i might have missed an instance or two as ive whent outside a couple of times and smoked half a cigarette.
Hahaha just half? LOL!!! This game called for at least half a pack.
I think this game perfectly demonstrated of what the great Dane can no longer physically do. Sure psychologically and mentally Kjaer is ahead of the German, but out on the field, you have to start the German every time over the Dane.
Well we will just have to disagree here as regardless of him getting older i definitely think he has more to offer at present but i will agree though that if he stays beyond this season it probably will be for the best to bet our money on a younger player but you cant really disregard that ac milan rarely loses with him at at the backline. Statistics pretty much proves that amd regradless of speed he has never been dependant on that in how he plays.
“you have to start the German every time over the Dane.”
When Thiaw can be relied on. And it doesn’t look that’s going to happen anytime soon.
Not sure what you see in Thiaw other than his size. He’s had more bad games than good at Milan and when he’s bad he will ruin the entire match for you, like Monza and Inter and Juventus. I’ll trust Kjaer even on one leg over Thiaw. I think Tomori and Gabbia should be our starting pair.
And even yesterday he made 2 almost catastrophic mistakes in 2 second time-period and was lucky that the Lazio player slipped before he could take advantage of Thiaw’s errors.
Ugly game but much needed 3 points. 3 more points to cl race. We were to slow on build up, ( we have had many of those) keeping possession but without any real threat. Ref lost it, at leadt this time in our benefit. Keep reading 505 formation. Well, according to pioli’s post game interview, “instructed ben to play more on the right and cheek more on the left so we can gain numerical advantage”. Im not a coach or anything but wth. One of the reasons why we are slow on build up, and lack creating scoring chances. Anyways, ill take ugly 3 points every game now until the end of the season. May e we get an upgrade in the coaching department.
Wish I saw your comment earlier, it would have saved me from typing up largely the exact same thing.
Luigi, Aldi was very good? He was terrible with poor passing and just losing the ball. It was hard to rate the frontline for the first half as both Aldi and Bennacer were poor. I don’t know what RLC was doing. Not shithouse play by Pulisic, it’s called playing to the whistle and the Lazio player had every chance to kick the ball out.
100%. Sure, Adli & Benny were poor but who wasn’t really? Pulisic & Okafor (although Okafor’s passing was awful but I’ll still forgive him). Benny is a ghost of himself and has no business in being in the starting 11. For now.
Happy with the win but very frustrating to watch the slow and horizontal “build up” from the back line, particularly in the first half. There was no movement off the ball and the constant passing back killed any possible momentum they could have generated. I have to put that responsibility on Pioli who seemed content with what was transpiring based on the body language. Unfortunately this isn’t the first game where the pace of play was slow and I think this is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner than later. I suspect the only way that happens is with a change at the manager position.
Easily and I think everyone can agree here when I say MOTM is the ref. He was our best midfielder. Blocked two clear passes to Anderson who was on goal on the right wing. Then was responsible for dismissing 3 players in the middle of the park. 10/10 😁
All jokes aside what a farce. That red on Pellegrini is one of those things the ref has to rescind just from a fair play standpoint..not sure if that’s an unpopular opinion or not. But it was obvious two things occurred there. Puli didn’t know and Pellegrini was trying to call off the play and had to take a harsh action upon realizing Puli was taking off. Granted he could have put out the ball too but the overall punishment lacks understanding of the play itself and that falls on the ref.
Interesting ratings. Gabbia didn’t really do anything wrong and was there to mop things up as usual like when Mike wanted to hand out another pen. Pioli was overly cautious and that’s why he took him off. But his performance was very good. Bennacer is clearly not fully fit and it showed this game. Yet still he was the only mid interested in providing some cover for the defence. Surprisingly I liked Leao’s effort, you can see he’s really trying to take the game by the scruff so credit there. Good goal by Okafor. Hope him and Jovic can stay as backups.
“Loftus-Cheek (5): Another very anonymous performance from the Englishman.”
Guess we’ll have to wait a few more games 😉.
I can see that you are upset that Milan won again. And that it was the new signings that won it for them.
No problem with the red at all. You play until the whistle. Period. You can’t just grab a player and throw him to the ground because you think they should’ve stopped play. Get real.
Keep hatin buddy
How does your response actually have anything to do with the original comment???
The comprehension skills around these parts is really terrible. Maybe you all need to practice reading skills.
Absolutely! Dude has to rant about me everytime he gets an opportunity when so many other people share the same views as me on this site but says nothing to them. And many times has nothing to do with what I’ve posted. He’s always so attention seeking and desperate. I laugh at it all the time at his obsession. I don’t know if it’s because I always ignore him (and he knows that too but yet still replies to my comments) or if it’s because I’ve been proven right most of the season that it irks him or if its because I reply to everyone else except him LMAO. It’s so attention seeking, obsessive, childish and I frankly don’t have time for it. Look at how he calls me out on someone else’s comment lol 😂🤣🤣💀 💀 💀 bro what??? I had nothing to do with the original post, just simply agreed. Lol it’s hilarious 😂😂😂. Dude probably caught a fit. If he had something to say, say it to OP. Smh 🤦♂️. All of that just to get me to talk to him?? lol 😂. Bro just stop
I don’t engage with people that twists other people’s words..it’s as simple as that.
I swear it’s like dealing with an ex gf that can’t take a hint. It’s like I don’t care what u have to say bro haha
(You’ll see him rant about this too “oh if u don’t care why post a response blah blah blah”. bro take a hint)
I did notice K was looking for you in the comments to rage at you and all you did was 100 Rossi take on Theo and Leao being our best players. That’s not even a hot take its actually obvious for anyone who has support Milan longer than just this season. Perhaps, he is new to Milan and supports some of the summer signees.
“No problem with the red at all. You play until the whistle. Period. You can’t just grab a player and throw him to the ground because you think they should’ve stopped play. Get real.”
This. 100%. Play until you hear the whistle. And even longer at times.
Your illogical rant about the referee is comical. Lazio played horribly and then were the ones that lost their minds.
What was the issue with the red? Second yellow = red – ref didn’t blow the whistle and Pellegrini didn’t put the ball into touch – schoolboy error. Also the ref did well not to get sucked in with the penalty claims – not a penalty – Lazio were lucky to have 8 men in the pitch at the end – team of whingers and play actors – I think the ref did well –
No Leao next round VS Empoli… should be interesting. Who is on the left? OK4? Puli?
No comment on how our first goal was NOT offsides?
I really miss having Bennacer playing as pure holding mid fielder. Pioli keeps playing him as a box to box but Bennacer is simply not fit enough for that role.
While Bennacer wasn’t at his best, he wasn’t as bad as some have said. He still needs more time to get to his best.
The only good thing to take away is the 3 points. Quite an awful display but we’ll take it.
We spent most of the first half passing at the back but didn’t do it when we were leading with minutes to go. Why the 4 forwards were still staying high up during the last few minutes is confusing to me. They could had come back to help in midfield to outnumber Lazio players.
I’m still not convince with okafor despite his winning goal. He kept losing the ball in good positions. Not sure what’s his best position, seems like second striker which Milan is not using unless chasing a game.
I will take the win and Okafor scoring it at the end was sweet. Just seeing Lazio completely lose their minds… sweet justice. Even though it wasn’t a perfect game. Grinta for sure.
just as calabria said, football is strange, we play better against atalanta but ended draw, we played worse against lazio and we win
Well with 3 red cards it was harder not to win lol. Jokes aside Atlanta had a mid week match with Inter as well so they prob didnt gave it all becaouse of that game as well.
Considering 2 red card at 90+ minutes its great you say 3 red cards like we play against 3 red card most of the time LOL
For atalanta, what a weird logic to hold on against milan for inter. Doesnt it better to go all out against milan LOL. ok despite that weird logic, milan only have 3 days to prepare against atalanta because of UEL So milan not giving their all either
Pulisic forced a good save and was the first man to the spot to put Okafor’s shot away if the keeper got a stronger hand to the ball and it didn’t go in on its own.
He also had 3 key passes, 4/6 dribbles completed, 9/13 ground duels, and drew 2 Red Cards. Hardly “just a pass”.
Adli was absolutely awful. Every part of his game is slow. From his lack of literal pace, to his speed of thought. So many touches with his head down and getting caught in possession even when there are easy passes available.
I really don’t get what role the midfield is supposed to play.
Wow.
So much misery and moaning after a win.
A win against Lazio away.
If fans take such things for granted no wonder we’re not challenging for the title!
It was a solid-enough win against a good Lazio side. We deserved at least two goals. The offside goal was a joke.
The offside rule was invented to stop goal hanging not this!
Maignan was shaky but the clean sheet will do him good.
Gabbia I thought was his usual excellent self. The rating is harsh.
I was concerned when Pioli brought on Tomori and Thiaw. It seems inevitable Gabbia will be dropped and frozen out at the earliest opportunity. We simply can’t be having youth players playing ahead of players that someone thought we should go out and spend money on.
Speaking of which Florenzi did ok but when the captain came on he showed his class. Lovely through ball with his left foot to Pulisic. Another example of how he offers nothing in attack!
Kjaer was great.
Theo went on some runs but didn’t really have an end product.
At the start I was thinking Adli was the new Tonali until he played like the old Adli!
Bennacer, is another favourite presumably because he dribbles a lot, but I always felt he was the weakest out of the midfield with Kessie and Tonali. He does risk getting caught on the ball a lot.
The front four did well. Pulisic was the pick and probably man of the match.
Okafor did well when he came on.
Not a lot to complain about except for nobody scoring from the half way line. It’s simply not good enough that none of our players can’t score from the half way line.
And it’s Pioli’s fault. He should be sacked.
(Spot the sarcastic parts of the post)
Kjaer was great? LOL!!! in which game? 🙂
Some great blocks and did you see that tackle on the Lazio chance???
He also had a better diagonal pass than Adli!
I’m really not sure what people are expecting….
No matter what Kjaer does these days he’ll still be bashed here. He has taken Krunic’s role of being the scapegoat.
He did well enough. Just one awkward clearance that lead to the corner kick but other than that, he did OK. Thiaw was on the pitch for a few minutes and made more mistakes than Kjaer. How about that?
Yeah, people here think that this is the farmers league, and we’re playing against the wind. Great result in a very tough away match. One of the toughest on our calendar.
“Theo went on some runs but didn’t really have an end product.”
Yet the goal came from his “some runs”.
A match to forget, even with the red cards Lazio showed grit. We were too poor on the pitch today. RLC continues to put in an anonymous display as per Pioli instructions, even when he marks his man, it’s almost alway is a foul. I hope the new coach is been spoken to
With fans like you who needs inter fans….
Win away at Olympico. Clean sheet. Could gain on Juve this weekend. I have no complains.
We played some of our best footballs this season, without winning. I’m thinking Napoli away, Newcastle at home, Atlanta last week. And we’ve had so many good matches ruined by silly red cards (I can’t even begin to list them).
So this one? I’ll take it, and move on.
Well said!
The only positive from this game which we all overlook is that we might want to consider replacing Pioli with Sarri (his teams play beautifully, combine that with an attacking play and we should be a threat). Our midfield was ugly to watch, the Lazio high press kept us pinned in our own half for most of the game. One serious weakness in our game is how isolated Pulisic can be on the right side. He almost has zero combination, or support when in possession and has to make things happen by himself or cut inside to create a move. There is no chemistry between him and the RB or the midfield. He is too isolated to be any real threat and once he gets man marked he gets nullified. Maybe something for the coach to work on. Happy for the 3points, but not a memorable performance
Agree totally with Pulisic getting isolated on the RW. He has good chemistry with Calabria and Musah for obvious reasons but I have noticed him and Bennacer are not on the same page. Funny you bring up Sarri, if he goes to Milan I wonder if he’ll know Pulisic is on the team unlike he knew Chelsea were signing him at Chelsea.
PioLOL, even with 7 lazio players not counting GK, we’re still struggling. We definitely need Striker and he’s literally prolific forward.
Inter fans hate Milan less than some of you fyi
It sure looks like that. 😀
LOL. Even without the red cards we were dominating. It’s not like Lazio were sitting on our goal. So besting out Lazio in Rome and everybody gets a score of 5. I guess that means that on an average day we are real madrid.
I thought it was a good performance overall, in a very difficult environment with a strong team implementing a well organized press.
On the First Red Card, After Pellegrini pulls Pulisic down.
Pulisic stands up and waves his Hand or Finger, Or waves for the team to move up?
Was pulisic saying to the ref “Dont give Pellegrini a yellow”
hmm prolly motioning for the team to come forward
the stands were completley empty.
was this a Covid match?
noone is going to Serie A games. Anthony on the podcast is right, this is not 1080p video they are giving us.
Pulisic was superb, like Brahim Diaz on his better days. Not only turning Pelligrini inside out but broke the midfield line so many times with turning his man, constantly tracking back and working hard and generally was the only one operating in small spaces.
Pulisic is the best player in our team and has been for some time – Gives 100% for the shirt every game – MotM today by a long chalk
This was a WTF match but got us 3 points. No further comment.
1. Midfield, midfield, midfield! They are incompatible as individuals and as a result unbalanced as a unit. This has been the issue all season. Is anyone surprised? It’s just poor team building as Sacchi said.
2. I’m happy for Okafor. We’ve been getting a lot help from him and Jovic compared to what we had last season. He is a very good second striker but we play a system where he needs to be a lone striker or a left winger in order to start. Again, bad planning.
3. I still sense heavy bias in ratings. Reijnders’s great through ball to Leao gets him a 6, but Calabria’s great through ball to Reijnders doesn’t get mentioned and he gets a 5.5. Pulisic was fighting all game, drawing fouls and red cards, and sent in a great cross for RLC but just a 6 for him.
The man with a glass foot today displayed a different aspect (Ruggedness) of his game. Pulisic
Forza Milan….weldon Puli nd Okafor