AC Milan clinched three important points against Monza despite a performance that was far from fantastic. A couple of players stood out while many struggled, and below are the 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 (6.5): He made a great save on Pereira in the first half, showcasing great reflex, and was also good with his feet in those first 45 minutes. Truth be told, he wasn’t tested much in the second half but did what was necessary. Nevertheless, that save in the first half was really good.
Terracciano (5.5): Overall, it was a decent display from the 21-year-old but he did lose the ball in a very exposed situation in the second half, which could have been very costly. He also wasn’t overly convincing on Monza’s disallowed goal, so the rating might be a bit harsh but still justified.
Thiaw (6): Milan struggled overall defensively above all in the first half, but it was more due to the structure than the individuals. The German was calm and composed, had some good passes forward and also won many aerial duels.
Pavlovic (5.5): Just like his colleague, while there was chaos in defence for a bit, individually speaking he wasn’t horrible by any means. Having said that, he didn’t quite show the same skill with the passing or in the duels.
Hernandez (7): The captain, finally, behaved like a captain. He led the team from the back with collected defending and multiple great runs forward. He always seemed to put Monza in trouble, denied by the goalkeeper once (good shot) and sending several promising crosses into the box.
Fofana (6): His positioning was a bit questionable at the start of the first half, but he improved a lot and had okay passing throughout the game. He certainly did a lot of the ‘dirty work’ and thus deserves a pass here.
Reijnders (7 – MOTM): The goal ended up being crucial, of course, but how he combined with his teammates is also a huge part of the rating here. He was almost always available and helped create chances. It was also very nice to see him adding numbers in the box, leading to the goal.
Chukwueze (5.5): Unfortunately, while the Nigerian at least looked comfortable on the ball, he didn’t have much success with it in the 1v1 situations. He also had a couple of opportunities for a shot but didn’t connect properly with the ball. He can do better.
Pulisic (6): It was a relatively quiet first half from the American, but he came to life towards the end with a great cross for Morata on a counter-attack (which led to the goal). In the second half, he perhaps faded a bit but managed to attract some fouls and keep the ball in possession.
Okafor (5): He missed two very good chances in the first half, especially one of them was fantastic, and wasn’t really that involved overall. Slightly better in terms of combining in the second half, but a subpar display for sure.
Morata (5): He had a couple of good opportunities inside the box in the first half, one of which led to the goal, but he missed both of them no matter how you spin it. He gave the ball away too much and had some sloppy moments, but improved a lot for the final 30 minutes with flick-ons, fouls won and so on. That rescued his rating a bit, but we still need to see a lot more striker instincts from him.
Substitutes
Leao (5.5): Incredibly tough to judge, seeing as there weren’t actually that many chances for him to show his skill. However, he got a chance almost immediately after combining with Reijnders and failed to connect properly. Then, after getting through with a bit of luck on another occasion, he hit the effort straight at the keeper.
Loftus-Cheek (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Calabria (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Musah (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
I was more impressed by Daniel Maldini than any of our players.
A win, but overall very sloppy.
Just kept wondering how our trio of Leao, Maldini and Pulisic would look this season. Dangerous long shots is what our team is missing.
Don’t forget reindeers, fofana, or musah, from way down town.
Agree 100%. Maldini had three good score chances and Morata Zero! Another erratic decision to let Maldini go.
“Maldini had three good score chances and Morata Zero”
Morata had at least 3 good chances and he wasted all of them. Giroud would have scored two header goals from those for sure. And the last minute breakaway where Morata was selfish and couldn’t even get a shot was just awful decision-making. They had a 3vs2 attack with Leao and someone else totally free waiting to put the ball into empty net but Morata chose otherwise.
Maldini hasn’t been scoring. Yea he created some situations, without end product and only has one goal so far to his name.
We’re attached to the name, not the player. Understand that.
while he’s still not fit (from injured in last game),
but he’s Maldini so ac jeri fans will not allow that happen by over-glorifying this win vs mighty monza
Fair scoring, although I would rate Theo and Reijnders slightly lower (6.5), and Morata deserves a 4.
Some very good combinations in second halv. 3 important points.. Forza Milan ❤🖤❤🖤
Real shitty performance. Not inspiring confidence to say the least
It wasn’t pretty.
Agree with most of the ratings.
I’d give Mike a 7. That save was top draw and he was good throughout.
The defence went back to him a lot in the build up. He released the players forward at least twice with incisive passes that could have lead to goals.
Yeah I came to say the same, that save was world class. He was at least a 7.
Is it just me or is Morata very annoying. He dives and complains to much. I just don’t mike him. He has too much of a Juventus-aura for my liking…
It’s starting to irk me.
And he needs to score!
Yep. His one header was horrible and he should have scored on the Pulisic cross. Really the only thing he is adding right now is his work rate.
You spoke exactly my mind
He gets fouled that fine he doesn’t that also fine he does really have to lay a complain over any slight issue,so so annoying 😩😩
There was even a time where he was complaining about a freekick not giving in his favor and the way he keep on complaining i was scared because he was already have a yellow card and that could have resulted to a red card which could have changed the game
Morata isn’t a spring chicken. He shouldn’t be playing every game. He doesn’t have the legs for it anymore. Outside of his work rate and dropping deep to collect a pass then pass it right back, he isn’t a threat up front. Sure he draws a defender away and maybe opens up a space for someone else to come in, but we need a 9 with a better scoring touch.
Number 9’s with a scoring touch cost money, money ac milan don’t have
“Money, they have. Spend, they will not.”
-Yoda, 2024
He has always been like that. While in Juve he was my most hated player in Serie A. I’ve never liked him one bit. Except now I’m “forced” to like him.
But I can’t stand that he still needs 10 good chances to score one goal. Just like yesterday. A proper goal scorer would have had a hat-trick from his chances.
Many players had chances yesterday and didnt score. We had 2 penalties against fiorentina that we didnt score on.
Sure. But that doesn’t change the fact that he really needs 10 chances to convert. So does Leao & Okafor too. It’s not good we don’t have goal scorers we could rely on.
He is mentally unstable, what do you expect from him? He ran away from Spain due to that.
Fonsesca keeps getting so lucky, for most of the game monza we’re playing better, it’s like that with so many games but it gets overlooked because we barely win
Stupid page my comment not showing again. Why even waste time writing here anymore. Guys go on rosoneriblog the page is back up and the comments actually work smh.
We are on a hiding to nothing. One of those performances where even the 3 points are not comforting…
My eyes are bleeding.
2 awful teams.
It was so bad I thought the game lasted 4 hours.
The captain finally behaved like a captain?
He got bailed out by the ref on Monza’s goal because he flopped and there was no foul on him.
Also, during halftime in the tunnel, while Morata was talking strategy to 5,6 Milan players, the captain was in the back making out with Daniel Maldini. Then he comes up in front of the line without talking to any of his teammates. Outside of that the captain finally behaved like a captain.
If I was the ref I would have given Morata another yellow for flopping and yapping. Dude puts Draymond Green to shame with his antics. I think he believes that his job is to get fouls not to score goals.
Milan this summer had 4 of the worst finishers in all of football at Milanello. Okafor, Morata, Leao and Daniel Maldini. Terrible shooting and finishing.
Take the 3 points and burn the tape.
It might get ugly on Tuesday at the Bernabéu.
It’s digital nowadays. Can’t get rid of it 🤷♂️
They could use it to learn what not to do
Madrid game may be the beginning of the end.
I’d take 3-0 loss right now but it could quite possibly be 5 or 6
You have a point here…
Please Anceloti, for the love you still have for Milan, can your boys beat this Milan like 6-0, or 6-1, to show this Gerry that what he has put together is pure CRAP.
Don’t forget Abraham. He put his body in goal and forgot the ball.
Lol
Lol what do you mean “might”? It’s definitely getting ugly, we don’t deserve to be in the champions league, let’s drop out while we can
“It might get ugly on Tuesday at the Bernabéu.”
Might?!!! My money is on 5-0 or 6-0.
Well… Carlo might feel sorry for us and demand them to stop at 3 or 4 though.
Unwatchable game. Worst performance of the season in my opinion. Morata was awful from start to finish and plays every minute I guess because he runs a lot. That seems to be all that matters to anyone in todays game. That’s why we have to watch Okafor miss chance after chance while Leao sits the bench. How much you run is all that matters. You can be terrible at everything else.
It Wass also great to watch Morata and Terracing fall to the ground every time anyone comes near them.
This guy loves Theo too much. The defense is always worse when he is in there. His passing is awful and careless. Early in the match he had Pulisic in on goal twice if he could’ve delivered a halfway decent pass. He could not. He also would have been rresponsible for giving up that header for a goal if Maignan didn’t bail him out. But give him a 7 anyways
Theo might be Milan’s worst defender, but when people rate his games, they rate him based on what he does offensively as if he is a winger, not a fullback whose primary dury should be to defend.
Monza 2 biggest scoring opportunities came because of Theo
All this kid does is bash Theo and Leao LOL. Not one critical comment of our terrible coach Fonseca.
Ahhh… God bless…these Redbird Lovers will never change 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Leao put on right on the keeper and one over the goal.
That said his work rate looked much better and he was moving without the ball even in the middle.
Right now ok4 and Leao look little different to me.
Not the same. Okafor’s first chance in the first half has to be a goal. It was perfectly setup for him, nobody near him with the entire goal to shoot at and he rolls it softly to the keeper. His other chances ended up nowhere near the goal. Leao dribbled past half the Monza team while being fouled several times and the keeper came out and closed down the angle. Still maybe could have chipped the keeper, but not the same.
And even if there is little difference between the 2 that’s even more reason to start Leao. First of all he has proven himself as a goal scorer and assist man as well as league MVP. Okafor has not. Okafor has also proven to be the more effective player to come in off the bench in games where Leao has not. Like Jovic, most of Okafor’s best moments have been when he comes off the bench as a sub, and doesn’t have the same impact when he starts games.
Agreed. Just start Leao from now on. He annoys me with his work rate but at least he can make something happen. If he could get his finishing back that would help. Pulisic is really the only consistent finisher at the moment.
It is pretty simple, Leao on the LW, a goalscorer in the middle and you will have Leao create so many chances for him. 10-20 assists per season, easy. If he played with Haaland he would have 30-40 assists. If someone can’t score but can dribble past 2-5 players you set it up so it is useful. But no, let’s be idiots, buy more attackers that aren’t goalscorers and wonder wtf is going on.
Leao blasted the ball into the highest row in the stands where he really should have scored. Just like Okafor. They both wasted excellent chances.
Yes, the difference is that Leao created the chance himself, Okafor can’t do that.
Nothing against Monza but we only won 1-0 we are in trouble.
We played poorly against a team that hasn’t been playing too well under Nesta (btw love Nesta as a player for us, one of my absolute faves 🤩). Abysmal for large parts really. But I guess we’ll take any 3 points at this stage
Oh forgot to mention, that save by Maignan to get down low and save the ball.off the bounce was an incredible save.. one of the best saves I’ve seen this season. I thought that ball was going in. MOTM imo just for preserving the points early
A Milan nothing good.
Fonseca not a right coach for Milan that’s all.
Overall rating for Milan is 4.
Because Maignan saved couple of attempts and Monza managed to miss sitters.
Milan does not have creative play. Also best Ac Milan players doesn’t have any kind of impact.
They doesn’t have impact in creating attack. They can’t score from opportunities and they can’t shoot from distance or like Okafor: he can’t run with ball close to goal and score..
Agree Theo did mess up a few plays in the first half with bad passes. Usually behind where the player was running too.
At least 3 good chances wasted like that
Maignan for me deserves a 7. It wasn’t just one save; they were two. He kept us in the game. If those two saves were scores, we’d have lost. So, for me he deserves as high a rating as Reijnders.
Terracciano, I’ll give him a pass. 6. He was better on the right side than on the left side. He make one mistake that could have hurt us but didn’t, so he still gets a pass. I’d have significantly lowered it, of course, if that mistake had granted to Monza a 1-1 draw. Terracciano at least didn’t frighten me each time someone came to his sector, like Emerson does.
Thiaw earns a 6.5 for me; I thought he was the best defender; calm, no mistakes made.
Pavlovic, 5.5. Nothing really wrong but he just looked shakier than Thiaw and Terracciano.
Theo, 6.5. Did well, was dynamic, defended and attacked.
Fofana, 6. Missed a couple of passes, lost a couple of balls, but then on other occasions he was good and had some nice flicks. Gets a pass.
Reijnders. MOTM. 7. Not only scored, but also played well in other occasions, too. I won’t give him a 7.5 because as is often the case with him, he lost a couple of balls in midfield which led to Monza counters.
Chuk. 5.5. Moved a lot but was less effective than i some of the recent games. Had one occasion but again, couldn’t convert because he is a one-footed player.
Pulisic. 6.5. Worked hard as usual and created some trouble for Monza’s defense. But he wasn’t as brilliant as in other games.
Okafor. 5. Didn’t do much that was productive, had a very weak shot (like in a recent game; his shot doesn’t seem to be very powerful) and missed another good opportunity.
Morata. 5.5. Dropped to the ground too often, trying to get the ref to grant him a foul. This is something he does a lot and is frustrating me. Just play ball, Morata. If you keep going instead of exaggerating little contacts you receive, maybe you’ll do more. I’d have him on a 5 but he did participate in Reijnders’ goal so he gets a 0.5 bump. Another thing that frustrates me is that as a striker, Morata needs to position himself more inside the box.
Leão. 5. Had a good triangulation with Theo but then was unable to shoot well. Had an attempt to do a bicycle kick that failed. Had a HUGE opportunity to score but shot on the goalkeeper. And shot a ball so high that he probably hit a bird that was flying over the stadium. So, both left wingers missed opportunities and failed to have an impact.
Musah, RLC and Calabria, no vote; neither had time to do anything.
————-
Despite somewhat generous ratings individually, collectively I still feel that overall Milan deserved a 5.5. If the Monza forwards actually knew where the goal was and actually shot on target, we’d have lost the game to one of the worst Serie A teams that are in the relegation zone.
This was a low quality game by both teams, and it is frustrating to see how mediocre we’ve been; we are definitely playing like the mid-table team that we currently are.
One last word: those who keep lamenting the fact that we shipped out Daniel Maldini, may be reassured by Daniel’s horrendous finishing today.
I thought Thiaw had a good match. Reijnders is starting to score like we have all called for from last season. Terracciano is an okay defender but going forward he doesn’t offer anything. I’d rather see Calabria than Terracciano. Okafor looked dreadful as a starter I hope he starts on the bench against Madrid. Pulisic offered something both offensively and defensively tonight but nothing that jumped out of the telly at you. I think with Leao restored to his proper position Pulisic would benefit especially if he is play the 10.
Terra sucks equally on the RT flank as he does on the LT. not sure that not playing Calabria off the bench is a worse option. LOL!!!
ACM1899. He sucked is right. He and the centerbacks could not see the open passes to unlock the defense.
Calabria has more decent games to his name than either Terracciano or Emerson.
We didn’t spend 15M€ on transfer and 4,6M€ per year on Calabria. We didn’t lose a foreigner spot because of Calabria. We didn’t spend 4,5M€ on transfer for Calabria.
Calabria has been at the club since Moses parted the Red Sea. Either Terra or Emerson will have contributed as much in the same amount of time.
Calabria, Emerson and Terra are the same player.
Morata playing way to deep. Actually taking up space that Pulisic and Reijinders could use.
At times 8 guys were all standing still; there was no space to move into.
is it nly me but thiaw is slowly becoming better and better
Easily best CB to pick out a pass at Milan. Expect him to start more, think he is earning Fonseca trust
It’s only you. His decision making is too slow.
Thiaw has a good long pass in him. Wasn’t the best passing in this game but I noticed it previously in games. Him, pavlovic and gabbia are great in opposition corner opportunities too.
“I really like that you talk about Morata, I also want to talk about Morata. He had opportunities, if he hadn’t had them I would be worried. But what Morata does for the team, how he played, for me was magnificent.”
Paulo Fonseca
*
Good lord, the man is a joke 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣…
Typical anti-Pulisic bias. He did a lot of dirty work and in the 2nd half was clearly frustrated by guys not having confidence to play balls to him in tight spaces.
Theo is a 7??? Sorry but flashy runs that end in turn overs dont cut it.
I was thinking the something with Pulisic, he was everywhere tonight. If we play Pulisic as a 10 we need runners to break for him to slip a passes too but that did not happen.
Thought Pulisic played really well also, he did a lot tonight, a lot of good play, held possession, there was a reason Pulisic got ovation as he was subbed off.
Agree. He works hard to get open but our players can’t see an open pass. This is 9th grade play. Also, had 3-4 defensive steals towards the end.
ACM1899. He sucked is right. He and the centerbacks could not see the open passes to unlock the defense.
I thought Pulisic was the best field player. Barely missed a pass all night. Tremendous defense in the second half. He seemed to always make the right decision, and work off the ball well, but his teammates just couldn’t combine with him (need someone like Giroud for that). Plus, he had the cross that led to the goal.
Maignan was MOTM for me with a 7. Then Pulisic, Reijnders, Theo were 6.5.
Ugly 3 points. My guess is we’ll have more of these this season…
It’s looking like this is going to be our season lol
Dominant, beautiful display against a very strong team. Right? 😀 😀 😀
I was close to falling asleep. Again there was a lack of stability in the defence. If we were up against a stronger team, there would have been goals against us. They scored against us but fortunately the goal was disallowed. Our players up front dosnt play as a team. There were several opportunities to score instead of passing the ball to a freer player, they choose to shoot themselves. Many unqualified finishes. Really disappointed. Anyways 3 points better then nothing.
Too many passes bac to Mike, lack of agressive marking, blind to so many runners (instead bac pass).
When a ball is won panic means we give back immediately. General lack of cohesion and creativity.
Leah is too good to bench but no question he turns it off too quickly. If he isn’t going to play let’s get a world class center back
Reijnders is turning into a really good signing for us. One of few bright spots of this season so far.
I agree with that.
Yes. Reijnders, Pulisic, Gabbia, Maignan and Fofana are players who play well much more often than not. There aren’t really any others in this team that can say the same; other players, even ones that could be called “good” are often very irregular and inconsistent.
why? because he’s scoring? 🙂 He was getting so much criticism before the goals…
No no no. Not because he scored two goals against 10 man Brugge and a lucky bounce towards him for a header makes him great all of a sudden. He’s still very average. Don’t worry, wait til Real, a proper team. You’ll see his true level.
A win is definitely a win.
Shout out to Reijnders. The goal was lucky but he’s starting to show exactly what we need from him in midfield.
Maybe it’s having Fofana next to him, but he’s starting to make better runs between the lines and his passing is quicker and more varied including spreading the ball out wide.
Having said that, and it’s not a criticism of Reijnders but Fonseca, if you compare our play to Monza’s, ours was so much more complicated.
Whereas Monza hit a number of cross field passes to their wingers, we only managed a few.
The overall play from the side is poor and that is a tactical issue with Fonseca.
The Calabria, Tomori and Leao situations are unacceptable. We started the game with just two of our Scudetto winners/core.
In the few minutes Leao was on he crested multiple chances which he should’ve done better with.
As for Calabria his quick throw set up Musah who put in a cross to Leao.
One of the things that gets missed with Calabria is his quick play that is actually really important to our attacks. He plays great balls down the line to wingers which would work really well for Chuk or Pulisic.
It was hilarious when the commentator said that Milan had struggled for years at RB, and that both Florenzi and Calabria were getting on before he hesitated when he realised Calabria is only 27!
#CalabriaWashedUp27YearOld is really trending well which will set the club up to be able to force him out #ScudettoWinnersOut #S*^tOnMaldinisLegacy
Speaking of Maldini it’s fair to say if he had been a new signing (v a youth player) he’d be still at the club. Even the surname didn’t help him.
#CalabriaOut #Maldinigone #GabbiaBetterNotMakeASingleMistakeOrElseHe’llBeGoneToo
#1Italian
#WhyAreWeCalledACMilan?
#RedDevils?
Did you just recently discover the #?
“He plays great balls down the line to wingers” – Every player on that side plays the ball to the winger. That’s what they are supposed to do. This isn’t a superpower that Calabria has 🙂
Calabria, Terraciano and Emerson are the SAME PLAYER.
It’s a joke that so many people just seem to follow trends.
To the point that even the commentator start saying that Calabria was over the hill until he had to correct himself when he realised how old he is!
Yes every RB is the exact same.
Actually Terraciano and Emerson have the advantage of being signed from other clubs so they’ll be given multiple benefits of the doubt whilst the club holds free youth players to twice the standard.
Nothing to see here.
“Calabria, Terraciano and Emerson are the SAME PLAYER.”
Wow. That comment makes me doubt you haven’t seen any of these guys play.
Bro.. please. Their output is the same. Slot any one of them into that position and the result is the same. Couldn’t even tell who’s playing…
Don’t be dramatic.
Three players in one position and still ZERO confidence in it …
Sure a win is a win and we will take it BUT…..
If this is Fonseca Ball and this management actually thinks playing like this will get us top 4 – they are fkn delusional to say the least.
Terracciano is just a poor player. Reminds me of Musah- they BOTH need to be loaned out to get some experience and learn the game. Oak is much better as a sub than a starter – similar to Salad.
Chuk? LOL. One decent game out of 35 and he’s back to normal. Sell this kid already. 28M for what??? Don’t hear the Redbird Lovers screaming to fire Furlani or Moncada over the Chuk and Musah signings like they did with CDK. Embarrassing.
Pavlovic has talent no doubt, but he needs to learn POSITIONAL defending. He looks lost and just relies on his physical attributes. He should corner Nesta after the game and ask him how it’s done.
Ya Morata already looks tired – 2 goals in 11 games? BUT what do you expect. He was a great signing – AS A BACKUP – and NOT as a starter. But the cheap ass owners wouldn’t spend $$ on a real striker – so they picked up Tammy last day of market instead of investing in a proven striker. Because that’s what clubs who want to win titles do 🤡🤣🤮
And of course we now have alienated Leao and apparently other players (Theo, Tomori, Calabria, etc,..) also don’t like Fonseca. Great – let’s bench them all and thank their resale value – cause you know we are dominating without them anyways 😭
I could see if we were first place and playing lights out – then ya back Fonseca. But for this?? This is the man we are entrusting our project to? This is the man that Zlatan (i mean God) himself in his infinite wisdom picked to lead us? A career sub 500 coach? Brilliant.
Well I guess we shouldn’t be surprised tho. I mean after all, it’s not as if Fonseca was hired for his ability to develop youth, motivate players and build tough defensive teams….ummmmmmm…..oh damn you mean we have none of that????? Hahahahahaha! Fkn GROSS
FIRE THEM ALL
“Fonsecaball” makes little sense. This team is set up for counters, not possession. We don’t have the players with the skillset for the kind of game he’s trying to play. Not sure why he is reinventing the wheel.
It’s not clear how the team is set up but randomly we’ve started to reassert control over midfield for the first time since Krunic left and it seems Fofana and Reijnders are starting to work as a partnership.
It’d be huge if we can get our midfield sorted as we could then focus on strengthening other areas rather than spending the fourth transfer window in a row trying to fix our midfield.
If Morata or Abraham don’t start scoring we need a new striker.
But it’s hard to judge any players under Fonseca.
With a better third midfielder (not named Musah or RLC), this is currently a 433 team built for speed on counters.
From now on he needs to start Leao, Puli, and Chuk. Sub on Okafor at 45 or 60 if Leao isn’t playing well/hustling. Leao and Théo at least have chemistry. Plus hopefully Leao will get better at his end product because Pulisic is the only consistent finisher(hopefully Reijnders keeps scoring). Morata needs to start scoring on occasion too and also getting rid of the ball asap because he’s too slow and loses the ball all the time. They really should try to get a better striker in January.
lol, you guys talk down all players individually. Yes the whole team sucks. But don’t you think it shows there is problem with coach, playing style? Look at Napoli, the whole team was very bad last year and suddenly they changed with almost all the same players still playing there.
I notice for many years that Italy teams particularly struggle with high pressing teams in Europe, why don’t we adopt that style. Fonseca was expected to do that but failed miserably, Only Atlalanta play with high intensity and press, so much so that they smashed Bayer and Arsenal had to play defensively
Turati gets an 8
We definitely must bring D.Maldini back ! He grows so much in all aspects. He can do it in Milan team. All Milan supporters must be united in demand for our stupid management to bring our talent and heritage back.
It is obvious that the summer mercato did not meet the expectations. Morata, Emerson Royal, Abraham, Pavlovic are all below the required standards. Offload some of the current players and engage a decent centre forward. Camarda can make a difference far better than Morata. Some common sense please.
In my rating comment I was too generous in giving to the team, overall, a 5.5. Actually it is more 3.5. We are regressing and getting worse. And I also forget to rate the coach: let’s give him a 2.
Fonseca wants people to run and run and he even mentioned GPS to justify his benching of Leão. Well, guess what, Morata runs like crazy but doesn’t accomplish much. Musah runs like crazy but doesn’t accomplish much. Even Pulisic whom I love (he’s my favorite player) works hard and tries to help the defense running back a lot but while he is offensively very good, as a defender he looks lost and he is beaten very often on 1v1 by the opponents’ forwards.
So I frankly don’t understand what Fonseca is trying to accomplish. He wants Leão to defend but Leão is even trying but is not good at it; he is even less effective than Pulisic in terms of defending. Pulisic gets exhausted will all the tracking back. Morata looks tired too.
So, modern football requires the entire team to press high together and to track back and defend together, very fast and effectively? Well, maybe, but THIS team doesn’t seem able to do that, and we are just getting worse and worse.
So we hired a coach for a project, a system, that we don’t have the players for. This screams of poor planning stemming directly from the lack of a competent Sporting Director and a competent scout.
I’m kind of missing the way we used to play before… without all this emphasis on running and running up the field and back.
Pioli was so criticized… but his teams qualified for the UCL year after year after year, won the Scudetto, got to the semis of the UCL, and placed second twice. THIS Milan of Fonseca? I doubt we’ll even make the top 4. We won’t even be in the Europa League or the Conference spots. We became a mid-table team.
We won this game, against a relegation-level team, by the minimum score, thanks to a goal by a player who has been doing well lately. And the goal was a bit lucky. If not for Maignan, even with that lucky goal, we’d have lost.
It was a putrid performance.
It also seems like with all the punitive benching, the suspensions, and the injuries, even our best players are getting worse by the virtue of missing playing time. I mean, Theo generally passes the ball better than that when he wants to pass (he’s a bit of a ball hog but when he wants to pass he generally does it well) so why was Theo trying to pass to Puli and producing such a week pass that the ball didn’t reach Puli, wasting a very promising attack? He seems off. And how will Rafa improve his finishing if he is playing so few minutes? Rafa although very irregular in his finishing, is capable of stretches of good finishing. But when he is off match readiness, his finishing is even worse. He also seems off.
So what exactly is Fonseca accomplishing? He is ruining this team and alienating players. The team is regressing and getting worse and worse.
Leao is doing as well as Pulisic defensively.
Most of our goals have been conceded down the right including where our RBs have been exposed 2v1. One of or both of Fofana and Pulisic are letting side down defensively.
Well that was a stupid statement if I ever read one
-Leao is doing as well as Pulisic defensively-
Do you not have eyes?
Don’t bother answering…
“Leao is doing as well as Pulisic defensively”
Apparently MH didn’t watch the match. Or any match ever.
Why are you angry always?
Most of our goals are conceded down the right.
Last week Kvaratskhelia cut inside from the left and neither Pulisic nor Fonfana were there to support Emerson.
Adli scored from that side as did most teams.
But hey don’t let stuff that actually happened change your opinions.
“Most of our goals are conceded down the right.”
That’s how bad Emerson is.
And sometimes it’s a ball that went from left to right in which cases, the blame is also on the left side.
And in case of Kvaratskhelia, Fofana failed to double team him.
Kvara goal was due to Fofana not closing him down fast/close enough. Emerson did his job until then and Puli wasn’t even in this equation.
Whether Puli is an effective defender in transition is a question. But the work rate and hustle is definitely there.
“And how will Rafa improve his finishing if he is playing so few minutes?”
I very much disagree with this. What are trainings for then?!
Talking about the weather and what they had for dinner yesterday? Certainly not for improving their weaknesses.
Finishing is mostly about confidence and form which is why players will go through purple patches then struggle.
I’m interested in players getting in the right positions as the goals will then eventually come.
“Finishing is mostly about confidence and form”
And how to build the confidence? On the training ground obviously!
Go look at Pulisic’s defensive stats from the game and then reconsider.
He’s just trying to make a case for Calabria. Pulisic is obviously much better then Leao at tracking back and helping on defense.
Arguably he may even be a better defender than Calabria or Emerson or Terraciano LOL!!!
Lol true!
When we told ppl LAST YEAR that this was poor planning and management ppl thought it was because we’re in the feelings for Maldini being fired. IT WAS NOT. Anyone could have used their common sense to realize what was happening. Anyone who thinks when a club buys enough players for an entire team after a Scudetto and a UCL semi needs to get their heads checked. And they followed up that with firing a coach that guarantees a top 4 spot with one with a worse CV in Serie A???? This, when there were MANY good coaches available. Nah but we’re haters apparently. It’s just simple,.I mean very very simple logic.
Most terrible performance this year. Only Reijnders and Theo can be satisfied after last nights game. So frustrating to bare witness to the ongoing power struggle between Leaõ and Fonseca. Focus and energy should be placed on succes.
Utorak pada rekord od 9 komada Dinamu !!! Bit će ih više u mreži Milana !!
Take the win. Bit scrappy. Second half was better. Should have sealed it with a second.
Conte is really doing well versus Atalanta right now.
This pair can’t work against Madrid on Tuesday. You people are not seeing what I’m seeing. We lack top finisher and a central defense. We need sesko as our top finisher, we need Leao back in the starting eleven, and we also need a good coach not forseca, Forseca is an avarage coach. Who cannot bring out the best from the team. This man has lost to all the elite team Milan come across this season, the only good result we have this season is against inter-Milan. Tuesday we be worst cos facing that huge attacking team is going to be shameful for milan
“we need Leao back in the starting eleven”
All due respect but I had to stop reading after this.
First, the game today was not Fonseca ball. He had to adjust because of how compact Monza was and guess what? We won due to the adjustment. Take the win. The guy is new and making progress slowly. It was a scrappy win but last year it was always hard for us to breakdown compact teams like today. This is progress. Fonseca was not my first choice but he’s what we got and it’s time to let him work.
Someone in this blog actually just said
“I’m kind of missing the way we used to play before… without all this emphasis on running and running up the field and back.
Pioli was so criticized… but his teams qualified for the UCL year after year after year, won the Scudetto, got to the semis of the UCL, and placed second twice. THIS Milan of Fonseca? I doubt we’ll even make the top 4. We won’t even be in the Europa League or the Conference spots. We became a mid-table team.”
Jeez! Criticize Fonseca all you want but please don’t tell me you’re missing the way we used to play cos it was embarrassing to watch. Also, How can you say you doubt we will make top 4 when we’re not even close to midseason yet and we’re only 5 points away from second with a game in hand.
Y’all need to chill for a minute. Let the coach do his job and we can job him at the end of the season.
We can go on and on about coaching and tactics but I’ve come to the conclusion that we have a lot of low IQ players as a team.
That, you can’t fix.
Truth. My problem is if you focus on players not making passes to open players, especially out of the back to progress the ball you’ll understand why they suck. Do you ever see 3 quick passes to break the defense down? No.
Precisely! They over carry the ball and don’t make the simple pass.