AC Milan suffered their second consecutive league defeat this afternoon as Sassuolo came away with all three points at San Siro. Yet again, the Rossoneri paid for their mistakes and this has to change.
Starting XI
Maignan (5.5): He couldn’t really do much about the goals, if we’re being totally honest. He was hung to dry by the defence, but maybe you can question the third goal which went through his legs.
Florenzi (5): He had a few decent crosses but seemed to be the second man in every sequence at the back. Kalulu came on in the second half and did much better. Pioli has some thinking to do about this position.
Kjaer (6): The Dane was the only player that put in a worthy defensive display. We lost count of how many clearances he made and he was unlucky on the own-goal, really.
Romagnoli (4): One of the worst defensive displays we have seen, probably. He opened the scoring (which saves his rating a tad) but then just crumbled doing what he’s supposed to be good at: defending. It was just horrible on both the third goal and the red card.
Hernandez (5.5): He got forward a ton and created chances for Milan, also assisting the first goal. It’s perhaps not fair to say that he struggled in defence but he clearly lost his head towards the end of the game.
Bennacer (5.5): Playing next to Bakayoko in the first half didn’t make things easy for him and there was a clear improvement in the second half. His performance was still far from perfect, though.
Bakayoko (4): His passing was horrendous and it was his gift that led to Sassuolo’s equaliser in the first half. He just looks incredibly careless in the build-up phase and that is very frustrating to see.
Saelemaekers (5): He didn’t have much success on the right flank and when he was moved to the opposite side, it only looked a tad better. Far from the worst on the pitch, but it wasn’t great either.
Diaz (4.5): He was invisible for most of the game. Once again, he failed to make an impact apart from a few runs between the lines. He needs to step up and that’s also why he was taken off early.
Leao (5): He looked to be in a good mood at the start of the game but then faded, as we have seen so many times before. Obviously, how the game developed didn’t help him but still.
Ibrahimovic (5.5): He seemed to be the only danger up front for Milan this afternoon. It wasn’t enough in the end, though, with no organised play for almost the entire second half.
Substitutes
Messias (5): He had a few good runs and was somewhat comfortable on the ball but nothing more. Had one shot that was saved well by the keeper.
Kessie (4.5): He almost deserved a four as well for the two mistakes he made just before Sassuolo’s third goal. It put the game to bed but apart from that, the Ivorian at least helped with the balance but was technically poor today.
Tonali (5.5): Put up a good fight and really tried his best to get Milan back into the game, which wasn’t an easy task.
Pellegri (5.5): He had a lot of energy and the feeling is that he could come in handy in the next couple of games, but no impact unfortunately.
Kalulu (5.5): An improvement to Florenzi but he didn’t have any time to do much more.
READ MORE – AC Milan 1-3 Sassuolo: Wasteful and sloppy Rossoneri suffer damaging first home loss
SAELEMAEKERS AND BAKAYOKO NEED TO GO.
If you look at todays performance, the whole team has to go…
I can give the rest of the guys off because they played hard against Atletico in the week…but Saelemaekers is consistently our worst player…every damn game
If we could sell Krunic, Saelemakers, Castillejo and get Berardi (who f*cks us everytime) and a decent striker. Ibra is becoming mister offside, he’s just too old.
Ibra was a ZERO! F**K HIM! He sold this game for his betting company and needs to be banned for life from football. He is a mercenary and needs his retirement fund!
I agree with most of the comments, our right flank needs to carry goal threats asap. We need a proper scoring RW like yesterday. Our only concrete attacking output comes from the left and when they have an off day, the goals just dry up.
And oh Romagnoli, does he even deserve an extension with such a poor poor showing? I’m miffed this is a Milan defender FFS!
And so the struggle for a top four finish begins.
Bye bye scudetto
you loose 2 games and u say bye ? thats not the MILAN spirit, common lets keep believing
Losing to relegation fodder is why we didn’t win the title last year, and for the same reason we won’t win it this year.
Abysmal. Shameful.
If only the medical team can keep our decent players fit too. Losing Rebic again after all the games Leao’s played is such terrible timing. When is Fik coming back?!! Two absences, two abysmal defensive showing in the league.
Tomori is by far and away our best defender and we look hopeless without him. Kjaer is too slow to do it on his own
Romagnoli was great against athletico and he was pretty decent the first few minutes. I dont know why people so harsh on him, the man lost his footing on the third goal, and the entire midfield was bad, specially Bakayoko. This defeat is on Pioli period, he took Diaz off the field, but he left the walking dead salaemeaker.Started Florenzi instead of Kalulu, bakayoko instead of Tonali. He needs to spot underestimate teams.
I have been saying this for long.
Milan do not have a champion of a Coach.
Milan have a Dumbo Coach in Pioli
Milan will never win with Pioli.
There is a reason why Pioli did not win anything in his carreer inspite of managing teams, like Inter, Milan, Lazio, Florentina.
I hope Maldini will see why we did not like Pioli from the beginning.
Milan will just be a just about team with Pioli.
From the start of the game, it was clear that Milan took Sassuolo lightly. Not much pressure from midfield and it’s like letting the Sassuolo players have the ball. Playing 11 primavera players will end with them running aimlessly on the field like saelemaeker. But we will still see the “spirit”. Which tonight evaporated somewhere.
Before the third goal, I stopped watching Milan. This is the worst game. Even when Milan lost against Porto, I still watched the match until the end. Because of what? Because I still see hope. Tonight’s game was worse. Saelemaker and florenzi looked like they didn’t want to play. We can really be used from the middle of the field. And the saasuolo players can dance freely past 2-3 players without anyone really wanting to take the ball. Sansiro becomes a playground for sassuolo
The team look lost once they were behind. We need a coach with winning mentality to win something. Pioli doesn’t have what it takes to get the lads morals back in game like that. The only person to blame for the 3rd goal is nobody else but Romagnoli. Just horrible defending from him. It’s time for management to look for quality during winter transfer. Another forward, a good attacking midfielder and right midfielder.
This coach is not fit for the current crop of players, if we could get Marcelo Lippi the same team will win the Scudetto. He has a tendency of substituting Diaz and Tonali when they are performing well. This two guys are doing well at the moment. We also need to buy Scamacca and sell Ibra and Giroud. As for Bakayoko, I really don’t know why he is there when we have a good player in Pobega
Repetition of last year, the time when Milan was supposed to reap points against teams that are supposed to be inferior, things start to go bad. Too much mistakes from players that are paid much more than their opponents. One point from nine is not worth of a team that wants to win trophies in the near future.
Kessie is a man who wants 6-10 million per year meanwhile he shouldnt be in B team, he cost Milan so much with stupid mistakes that Milan youth-players don’t make.
First Atletico sent off, then Inter penalty, been poor in all of this season.
Bakayoko not much better.
And we are gonna rely on a mid of bakayoko and Tonali for a whole month in January??? Poor tonali lol. Of this doesn’t show the need for us to sign Kamara or Sanches nothing will. We will get destroyed if we have to rely on starting bakayoko for a month. Bakayoko, Salesmakers Balo Toure etc…are players to put in for last 20min if we are up a goal or two – they are not starters IMO.
Exactly. Baka, Saele, Krunic, Ballo Toure are all sub quality and should be nothing more.
Its interesting to read all the harsh comments. Sure, it was a really bad performance, but all the games leading up to this doesnt mean anything all of a sudden? Those of you that say that Tomori is our best defender, well, I tihink you might be playing FIFA a bit too much. Speed aint everything. I like Tomori, but he lacks positioning and commposure. Kjaer is without a doubt the strongest central defender in this team, if not the league as a whole.
The real problem this game was that there was a nearly total lack of speed and support play from the wings. Its easy to see that Ibra is offisde a lot. Sometimes its no doubt of his own doing, but a lot of times its actually because the build up -and transition play is too slow. There is a 2 sec delay in every pass, and then ofc strikers will be offside a lot.
The real problem is that we lack an intelligent player upfield (CAM) that can create space and chances and dictate the tempo. Diaz is technically sound, but you can see the lack of synergy between him and Ibra, and that is mostly down to Diaz lacking vision. Leao is technical, but needs to understand where to run. Basically, the defense looks horrible because the attack doesnt work.
So what to do? Well, Pioli will no doubt have seen this as well. The team will bounce back. But one must understand that this team is still lacking quality in several departments and, looking at the squad, is really overachieving. Time by time, there will come days like today where it shows.
You just highlighted all my concern, the transition from midfield to attack is nonexistent and that has been our undoing for a very long time now. What the coach has done so far with this calibre of players is a magic. I don’t know if the management don’t see the hole in the team
Sasusolo played wonderfully, and we play like shit
But never worry, shit happens and we will be back and win against liverpool and advance to the knockout stage
Stop taking these teams lightly. Why start Ben-Baka midfield?? Why keep trying Saelemaekers, he’s awful. I’d rather Florenzi RW and Kalulu RB while Calabria is injured. Also Romagnoli sucked but the midfield has to be blamed for most of that awful performance, lost balls, sloppy passes, poor decisions mainly from Baka and Kessie and woe Brahim just doesn’t look the same since the injury. We are paying the price for not getting a real RW. Berardi was always the choice, we all knew it and management missed it because Elliot was too cheap, just like we missed Chiesa last year. Well done Milan. Hopefully this isn’t the beginning of the fall like last year.
Our problem so far is transition of ball from defense to attack we need those CAM and ASAP. What Pioli has done so far with this team is nothing short of magic.
Saelemaekers is a player that should always come form the bench, I don’t know why on earth Pioli will refuse to play Kalulu outrightly as RB whenever Calabria is injured it beats me.
We didn’t need to bring back Bakayoko cus he’s been disastrous so far and he didn’t impress at Napoli either. Kessie should be sold come January 1st.
I don’t know why Gabbia and Maldini are still in the club, loan them out to get game time and experience WTF are they doing on the bench ? And we know thier chances of getting game time is limited. The management need to address dept ASAP
Pioli forgot to coach the team. He was still in jubilant after signing new contract. wrong mistake from Maldini. bad timing