AC Milan got off to a good start in the 2022/23 season as they managed to beat Udinese by four goals to two this evening. There were a few standouts, especially in the attack, and down below are the player ratings.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): He couldn’t do anything about the two goals that Udinese scored as the defensive actions were to blame for them. Besides that, he didn’t have that much to do other than a few standard saves.
Calabria (6.5): He won the penalty and also assisted Rebic’s first goal with a smart cross. However, his rating is heavily affected by the many misplaced passes that really highlighted his weaknesses tonight.
Kalulu (7): He wasn’t responsible for any of the goals and he made a tremendous recovery challenge in the first half dispute Udinese being two against one. He was solid throughout as well and didn’t really put a foot wrong.
Tomori (6.5): It was a decent display from him this evening as he was often bold and intercepted the ball high up the pitch. His positioning was slightly affected by that, though, hence the rating.
Hernandez (7): He was calm and composed from 11 meters, opening his tally for the season with a nice finish. Above all, he did really well at the back as he hardly got any help from Leao this evening.
Bennacer (6.5): Not his best display in the Milan shirt but certainly not among the worst either. It was a very average one, to tell the truth, but he did make a few nice passes towards the end of the game. (edit: upon reflection, his rating has been bumped up).
Krunic (6): He was in charge of the physical battles in the middle and it was a classic Krunic performance. Nothing spectacular but not really bad either, making it hard to not give him a pass given his role.
Messias (5.5): He’s a player we should demand more from. The defending on Udinese’s second goal was just appalling and he struggled slightly in the attacking phase, which is why he fell just short of a pass.
Diaz (7.5): It was the perfect start to the season for him with a goal and an assist. In addition to that, he actually did really well when in possession and often created chances for Milan (helped set up the first goal). Redemption.
Leao (6): A very average performance, most of us were probably expecting him to get on the scoresheet as well (or at least bag an assist) but it didn’t happen.
Rebic (8 – MOTM): A lot of responsibility was on his shoulders tonight as Giroud couldn’t make it from start. He responded in style with two well-taken goals and he was also heavily involved in the Rossoneri’s dangerous chances.
Substitutes
De Ketelaere (6.5): The little we saw was very promising and it’s clear that he will be a great source of creativity for Milan this season, no doubt about it. Almost got a goal but the referee had already blown the whistle.
Giroud (6): An alright performance off the bench, perhaps could have done better on a few occasions but he also made himself available a lot.
Saelemaekers (6): If it hadn’t been for a few nice actions, he could’ve been given a lower rating as he had the perfect opportunity to square it to Origi, but decided to shoot off target instead.
Origi (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Pobega (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Last season at the start of the season Diaz played well for 5 or 6 games and then he go missing until the end of the season so one game does not is going to be different this season but this time i can rest at ease because we have Adli and CDK in the team!
It happened because there was Rebic as CF. Diaz cannot play without someone cleaning up space for him.
It happened because he got Covid. The exact same happened to Bennacer when he got Covid 2 seasons ago.
Brahim is a good player and will do well for us. Only problem for him is that CDK is better so he cannot afford to play a bad game because he will lose his spot and find it hard to get it back.
Krunic was OK today but didn’t look at ease, we know he isn’t suited for double pivot. Pobega worryingly looked all at sea during his cameo.
If bennacer-tonali 1st choice aren’t fit I worry for any game we play. As much as I want a RW upgrade I think a proper rotation option in CDM is probably more pressing.
Tomori was a bit shaky today but he has a track record for us so I’ll give him a pass. Hopefully just needs some match sharpness.
The old Rebic returned! Welcome back my friend you have been missed.
It looked like pobega was running in slowmotion! He is not faaaaaaaaast, reminds me alot of chiellini.
Ante Rebic was a menace. I still think he needs to play more as a striker than a winger. His work of the ball and pressing are great.
CDK looked so smooth
Brahim was great today. He plays better when he gets rid of the ball quicker , so he doesn’t get bumped and end on the ground.
Leao. Another proof why you don’t give him the big money. A no show.
I liked Origi movement, too bad saelemakers and Bennacer are not able to send a good pass.
Pobega, I’m sorry to say but Milan desperately need another DM. Pobega isn’t it. He is to stiff, to slow to play in that position.
Besides the 2 times they fell asleep on 2 crosses, it was a good start of the season.
I can’t believe this ratings for bennacer lol, for me he should get 7 to 7.5 ratings lol
Exactly.
I support this
That’s for sure
agree.
Are you guys kidding? Bennacer was excellent today.
bennacer ruled the midfield
To make Diaz play at 7+ you need to use Rebic as a CF.
It worked at the beginning of the previous season, and it worked tonight.
You cannot leave small short Diaz alone without a strong muscular partner.
You’re right. Midget Giroud is too small and light to partner Diaz.
Giroud is good but he is a 100% finisher. His movements are about looking for opportunities to score. Literally, Giroud cannot hold the ball and pass it at the right moment.
Whilst Rebic is more about putting pressure on opponent defenders. He brings chaos to their defensive line.
Ibra was a good stronghold with neat passes, but later he stopped running and focused more on attacks.
Diaz MOTM he was amazing , rebić and benaccer too !
CDK, Rebic, Kalulu, Maignan, Bennacer, just great this evening.
Pobega is making Krunic look like prime Kroos
LMAO
We need another midfielder, and he needs to be good.
We are awesome!
“Leao (6): A very average performance”
He did nothing on the pitch and even that 6 is VERY generous. Totally invisible today. Good luck getting that 7M€/y with those performances.
Indeed. Very poor Leao tonight.
Pobega also is too slow.
Yep. Pobega was awful. The two(?)-week injury clearly didn’t do him any favors. Long way to reach his last season level so hopefully Tonali is back next week.
He will get it somewhere – likely not from us – but some big club will gladly pay him that.
One bad performance doesnt reduce his status.
Stop hating him
“One bad performance doesnt reduce his status. ”
Just like 2 good months don’t make him the Ballon d’Or winner either.
One bad performance? He didn’t actually shine in the pre-season either. But we’ll see if he can still find the April/May-level. I’m not worried as we are not depending solely on him.
Bennacer was excellent controlled the mid. Krunic was as expected – high work rate but some missed passes that almost lead to goals. He’s not a defensive mid. It’s Poegbas first game in a Milan shirt so he gets a pass – looked nervous – but he did look really slow tracking back. Def need another mid. Diaz was solid let’s see if he keeps it up this time. I see the Leao bashing has started again LOL. People here still don’t realize Rebic is given that much space because Leao draws 2 defenders to him every time. But ppl will see what they want to see unfortunately. Rebic love that guy always works hard. Calabria on the Right made more offensive plays than Messias – and that is saying something. Need improvement there. CDK you can tell understands the game and will be excellent for us once he gets acclimated to the league and team. Hope we can add a few more players before end of market. This game showed we need a bit more. All in all for first game of the season we performed well.
I think this game shows that the team may be gelling better as a forward unit, and I’ve always liked Rebic as a striker because he’s fantastic for pressing, but the defence is really going to struggle without Tonali and Kessie in the midfield to protect them. Tonali is going to be vital for this team now Franck has left unless Bakayoko or an incoming DM can step up.
– My opinion is that Bennacer deserves more than 6,5….He was good both defensive and building up (great ball to Saelemaekers.
– To be honest I didn’t like Krunic. When Tonali is missing and Krunic plays we struggle to build up from the defence.
– Although the the score was already 4-2 and Udinese was slightly open, CDK showed quality..Great pace,great passing (especially that pass to Giroud),plays with his head high and seems confident.
– Origi plays a little BUT I really liked his constant move without the ball…exactly what is missing from Milan’s attack…If he is healthy, it would be a great signing.
– What I didn’t like was an issue we had last year too. Unable to kill the game while we can. After 2-1 we should’ve pushed more Udinese….
Bennacer deserves more than what has been given him.He was our best player today.He won a lot of balls.
I couldn’t see the last minutes of the game so I don’t know if Saele redeemed himself but.. He frustrates the hell out of me. Pass the ball man, I know that we were two goals up but Still. I don’t know where he gets the confidence to even try those shots.
I know his work rate is good but we wont be able to off load him when his decision making is so poor.
Tomori 6,5 with those two huge misses in the first half? His timing was really off.
And Leao a 6? No way. He did nothing. A 5 for me.
Benaceer had average performance??
Sometimes I wonder if this dude even watch the match…….after Rebic then it is benaceer, dude was all over every where and was the point of our reference in the midfeild, krunic can only defend but does nothing with the ball at his feet……it is really funny that Adli had to sit on the bench and not play at all but a Madrid dreamer with number is playing….I pray that Adli momentum doesn’t get squashed.
Brahim Diaz was involved in all 4 goals. We all criticize him but today he was the best on the field along with Rebic. You gotta give credit where credit ids due .
Great 1st game by Brahim. Hopefully he continues like that
Everyone is all over the fact that Bennacer (as usual) is underrated! He won great tackles, his passing and dribbling were excellent. Why do people not rate him as deserved!!?!?!?!? Bennacer is FANTASTIC!
Rebic was awesome and I knew he would be. He just needs to be on the field. Whether it’s the lone forward or it’s RW (instead of Messias or Saelemakers who are both woefully inconsistent), Pioli just NEEDS to make sure Rebic is on the field. His pressing is so relentless, his physicality is tremendous — he knocks opponents down every match. He’s a beast. his passing in tight spaces with nice little through balls is excellent — we JUST NEED REBIC ON THE FIELD!
put Rebic at the 10, played there at Eintracht. Giroud up front, put some serious muscle on the pitch. As to Diaz, he looks improved, tonight he played one touch passes until the defense committed then he went for goal, last year he immediately tried to dribble past the defender,too predictable,and was intercepted,Pioli worked his magic. Leao predictable, but I did notice he is more proactive trying to win the ball back. Pioli worked his magic. Believe we have the fastest CBs in Serie A.
Kalulu deserved a better rating.
Leao was disappointing… he didn’t run as much as he should’ve — didn’t move off the ball offensively and defensively he didn’t help a couple of times that he should’ve.
Krunic, who I love and is usually underrated IMO, unfortunately today, he wasn’t so great.
Bennacer was fantastic and underrated as usual.
Theo was awesome — his defending has improved SO MUCH. He now wins tackles, he wins aerial balls, his is in the right position. It’s beautiful.
But for me, besides of course Rebic who was great, I’m the most happy about Diaz. He looked strong, confident and had a point to prove. I hope to see much more of THIS Dias this year!!!
Everyone says that Krunic is underrated, which means that he is not…
Junior only good at pre season . Using him and lord saladmaker as RW are disaster. Pioli better start train CDK play as RW or moving brahim to RW & CDK play as AMF, use junior or lord saladmaker as sub or rotation due to we dont have enough budget. We still need strong DMF that have same quality like gattuso ( pobega & krunic not that strong in defensive ) and need taller CB for aerial threat like ndicka ( we losing botman that are good on aerial & zone marking)
we need a mid and cb but the budget so i think if keep gabbia and play kjaer and tomori or kalulu and kjaer it would be better
I just want to say Pobega needs to apply himself. I thought he was behind match fitness during pre-season and his showing hasn’t convinced me otherwise. He is either massively off the pace due to a poor pre-season or this is the gap in quality between him and Kessie.
I liked how Krunic played, he also looked quite sharp. Hope he does well this season and I think he will.
Btw we can see the clear gap now that Kessie left. Waiting for the haters to realize how much our mid will miss him.
He was injured for a couple of weeks and that shows.
First game confirms three things. We don’t need (and never needed) a new starting CB, we need a physical defensive mid, and we really need a proper RW. Messias and Saladmaker are just not going to cut it.
Put CDK on RW
we cannot have that
Bennacer has the biggest culta following of all Milan players. The guy could not even be in the stadium and some people will say he was the best on the field. He was absolutely average, nothing special. Out of the 2 DM’s Krunic had better game, defensively and in build up play. That great swing pass to Theo led to the 3rd goal .
And no , no one double teamed Leao. As per usual he doesn’t show up in most games
You’re blind af if you think Bennacer is average and nothing special. Check your eyes to the doctor asap.
100% agree.
Too many misplaced passes and didn’t really impose himself physically. I think Krunic was better than him today.
Coco please stop doing drugs
You speaking from experience?
yea coco, I really don’t know what you’re watching.
Yes, I do agree with you that “hockey assist” that Krunic had passing out to Theo was excellent; but absolutely nobody in their right mind could say that Krunic had a better game than Bennacer. NFW.
Krunic had several misplaced passes and Bennacer won a few HUGE fantastic tackles defensively. He was a stud today.
As for RW, I’ve been saying this for 2 years now, Rebic should play RW. He is great no matter what position you put him in. Today he was great as forward when neither Origi nor Giroud were 100 percent fit; but he is definitely comfortable playing on the right side as RW. Messias and Saele have unfortunately shown us all over and over and over again that they’re at best inconsistent and they’re not worthy of being a starting RW for a big club like Milan. Rebic played RW on the Croatian national team during their run to the World Cup Finals… Rebic and Perisic switched sides mid-match every match to confuse opponents in their 4-2-3-1… He has played RW very successfully for the national team and he can do it for us too. PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PIOLI find ways to keep Rebic on the field for us! He’s a beast. He presses so physically, his passing in tight spaces for nice thru balls is excellent, he can score big goals. He helped create the big winning goal vs Lazio last year; he scored and assisted vs Liverpool; he had the huge goal vs Juventus last year jumping super high… he’s a star!
agree with what you say, as to Lazio last year I remember that he had lost the ball, but immediately stopped the counter attack by muscleing the ball ball and assisting a goal. My question to you is why not try him at the 10, He has a strong leg/shot from distance as well, good with both feet, would prevent Leao from being marked by two, and can see the open man. Personally think he would be a “beast” as you say at the 10
Leao (salamankers) – Adli (CDK) – Rebic (Messias) behind Origi(giroud)….this should be our attacking force.
Diaz is not a Milan player, not involved, I don’t care whether he performed good or bad, there is no need and benefits of training a player for another club while leaving the one fully owned on the bench.
That attack should be Milan attack, I am tired of RW invisibility, time to put rebic there
Please who saw pobega tracking back? Dude can’t cope with the speed of this team and that udinese player turned him inside out, to take that shot….
CDK is a gem. We are so lucky to have him. Im so impressed by how he moves, touch, and pass the ball, everything is quality. Someone who plays like a real #10. Pure elegance.
Not a bad start in my opinion. Some players are still trying to ramp up, Little lapse in concentration here and there, with some lost balls we could have done better to limit.
Messias was totally absent-minded for Udinese’s second. If I were to make a verdict on just this one game, then I’d say “Nothing has changed in RW”, still less productive as last season.
Leao probably had an off-day, we’re all aware of what he is capable of. Tonali’s handle at the middle was missed too. Good to see Diaz have a great game, hopefully he can improve on it; but I absolutely wouldn’t waste minutes if we can chip in the alternative whenever he looses form or is ineffective in a game. A positive outing for the league debutants, looking forward to see them play more minutes….
…Great to see new names here. It felt like we were all alone last season. The comments section already looks like fun,…lol. Welcome to the new season guys, let’s “Challenge Everything”!!! Forza Milan!!!💪🏽🥇🏆
if it was Kessie instead of Bennacer you woukd’ve given him a 7 rofl
stop with the bias