AC Milan came away with zero points from their game against Napoli and thus lost second place in the standings. There were quite a few poor performance 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): He made a good save on Giovane and also had some good collections. The goal can definitely not be blamed on him, at least not in my opinion.
Tomori (6): Sure, it wasn’t the most glamorous display from him, but the fact is that Napoli really didn’t create a whole lot on their left flank despite having Spinazzola. The Englishman did what was needed, even showing his pace when tracking back a few times, and the goal was not his fault.
De Winter (6): You could definitely argue that the clearance should have been better, but if you look at that situation, he did what most defenders would do. He was also very good otherwise in the duels, completely shutting down Giovane, so that saves his rating here.
Pavlovic (5.5): It’s great that he caused trouble for Napoli when joining the attack, but today he missed two good chances (first a failed shot, then a header) and it turned out to be costly. He also wasn’t 100% in his 1v1 defensive duels.
Saelemaekers (6): This is a rather tough one, but my view is that whenever he got the ball in a good position in the final third, the pass wasn’t good enough (cough Nkunku). In the build-up, he consistently found good positions as well to open up space, while the calmness on the ball also helped.
Fofana (5.5): One good run and pass in the first half, but this was one of those games where he could have used his abilities a whole lot more. Napoli left a lot of space especially in the first half and he didn’t exploit that enough. Furthermore, there were some poor moments in defence,
Modric (6): The rating is mostly because of his outstanding movement and ability to constantly make himself available. Passing-wise, though, he could have made better decisions especially in the final minutes. With so many strong players in the box, playing all corners short like that is questionable.
Rabiot (6): While he perhaps didn’t shine on the ball today – although I thought he had some nice moments – Milan would have struggled without his physicality in the midfield battle. Still, this is just a pass as he could have done better.
Bartesaghi (5): It’s not the first time he has made a man-marking mistake at the back post. It was really quite poor this time out too, as he only had Politano to look for. He was decent otherwise, but that was fatal once again. I was initially going for a 5.5, but since he’s a repeat offender now and still hasn’t learned, it’s time to bring out the stick and not the carrot.
Fullkrug (4.5): Mostly invisible to tell the truth, and when we did see him it was mostly for negative reasons. Losing battles, arriving too late on a pass, failing to find the right spaces. The list goes on. There was one nice flick in the first half, but that was about it.
Nkunku (5): Not good enough, at the end of the day. There were some semi-positive moments with good initiatives down the left-hand side, but when he got close to goal, it seemed as he was allergic to shooting. Or at least on that big occasion. Better than Fullkrug as he was involved, but not good.
Substitutes
Gimenez (5.5): Barely noticed him for the first ten minutes of his cameo, and while it got somewhat better with some attempts to make something happen, it wasn’t really anything to brag about.
Athekame (5.5): Maybe he added something in terms of energy, but the actual output wasn’t great as he struggled to get his crosses through. Was mostly important because he could stop counterattacks with his pace, but that’s surely not why Allegri brought him on.
Pulisic (6): Entered with a willingness to create and did make some things happen there at the end, even if there wasn’t much end-product.
Leao (6): Similarly to Pulisic, at least he tried to just rely on his strengths (attacking on the flank) to make something happen. We can’t fault him for that when that’s all we have been asking for.
Loftus-Cheek (N/A): I didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
The manager
Allegri (5): The decisions to start both Nkunku and Fullkrug can be questioned, but I think the biggest error was that he didn’t act quickly enough in the second half. Napoli took more and more control of the game, the subs should have come earlier and perhaps been of a different nature too.
ALLEGRI IS A STONE HEAD. RESET THE MILAN PLAYERS. REPLACE CARDINALE AND REPLACE ALL THE MANAGEMENT. ALLEGRI, IT’S BETTER TO JUST ACCEPT BEING THE COACH OF THE ITALIAN NATIONAL TEAM. THIS YEAR, MILAN FAILED TO ENTER THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ZONE AND WIN THE ITALIAN LEAGUE. IT’S USELESS TO HAVE COACHES OF ALLEGRI’S OR CONTE’S CLASS, IF THE OWNERS ARE STILL CARDINALE, FURLANI, AND THEY. SELL MILAN TO A SAUDI ARABIAN BUSINESSMAN AND RESET ITS STAR PLAYERS LIKE LEAO, PULISIC, AND ALL THEM
“Replace Cardinale”??? Who exactly would do that??? There isn’t anybody above Cardinale to issue an order to “replace” him. He is the freaking owner!
A Saudi Arabian businessman? Who is saying to you that Cardinale is willing to sell? Much the opposite; he refinanced the loan in order to stay for the duration. Sure, it’s not that I’m happy with the owner, but to say “replace Cardinale” is extremely naïve.
“This year, Milan failed to enter the Champions League Zone” – Milan has been the entire season (except for the very first round) in the Champions League Zone. We are still in third place; there are four spots.
Sure, I am now afraid that we will further drop and then won’t qualify for the Champions League, but it hasn’t happened yet, so, again, you appear quite misguided in what you are saying.
“Reset all [of] them” – So you don’t see anybody in this team who is talented and deserves to stay? Not even Rabiot? Not even Modric? So, what do you want? To sell everybody and buy a new slate of players?
I have rarely seen a post as strange as yours.
I would recommend only engaging the users who are worth having a discussion with, Luigi. Someone who is blasting all caps is probably not that.
agree with ACM1899. Even if i disagree with some of you, I like our intelligent, sensible discussions. All caps, sell everyone, reset all bla bla bla.. adds nothing to the conversation.
leao-giminez-pulisic would do so so well
Like last year ?
Pulisic was very productive at Milan in his first two years under three managers. Since Allegri took over, Pulisic’s productivity has gone off the cliff.
One can blame Pulisic, but Allegri, playing with a front two, has not helped the situation. How can a productive winger like Pulisic thrive in a front two formation, especially with Leao as a striker when he is is also a winger.
Leao and Puli play better in a front three with Giminez. That’s why we were playing better before he got injured.
La partita
Low intensity first half for both teams. They both looked low energy. One occasion for each, both wasted. In second half, Conte was clearly more ambitious while Allegri before Napoli’s goal, seemed to be content with drawing. That’s a mistake because it encourages the opponents to attack more; they did, and scored. Not even after going behind 0-1 our guys looked to have a lot of urgency, and the subs didn’t add much. We had only one shot on target and low xG. Conte outchoached Allegri in second half. Overall, Milan were very disappointing and lost the second place; and now we are only 6 points ahead of 5th place Juve with 7 more games to go; the Scudetto is already lost, but now there is also a risk of falling behind and not making the Champions League. Terrible, just terrible. All these months of work are threatened with being thrown into the garbage can, with Napoli, Como and Juve surging.
I calciatori
Maignan – One very good save, but then, got a near post goal, something familiar. Was classy with his feet. Gets a pass. 6.
Pavlovic – Tried hard as usual. One of the few who did relatively well. Prevented a goal by Napoli. Wasted a couple of chances. Still, by default as nobody else did well, Milan’s MOTM. 6.5
De Winter – Was having a solid game but then failed in part in their goal with a partial clearance, although Davide was more of a culprit. 5.5
Tomori – Decent, solid game. Gets a pass. 6.
Bartesaghi – Ineffective in offense, and failed to stop their goal. 5
Saelemaekers – I didn’t see him doing much that was helpful. 5.5
Fofana – Placed Nkunku in front of the goal but the Frenchman wasted it. Lost a couple of balls. Overall gets a pass. 6.
Modric – Bad first half, with lost balls and missed passes. Better in the second half, trying to help the offense. Not a great game but gets a pass. 6.
Rabiot – Also looked tired, likely from international duty. Not at his best, but almost scored. Gets a pass. 6.
Nkunku – Did move a bit but wasted the one opportunity that could have changed the game. 5.5
Füllkrug – As usual, quite useless. 5.
I subentrati
Athekame – Not as dynamic as in other occasions when he was subbed in. Unable to be incisive, this time. 5.5
Gimenez – Had one half-decent header but too high; did nothing else. 5.5
RLC – Coming back from injury, not effective. 5.5
Pulisic – Limited minutes, didn’t add much. 5.5
Leão – Limited minutes, tried hard, seems a bit better physically but also couldn’t add much. 5.5
Il DT
Mister Allegri – Seems to have prepared well the first half as his team was able to keep the hosts in the back burner. However, not ambitious in second half, when his counterpart Conte did seem more ambitious. Milan seemed to be content with the draw and Allegri seemed unable or unwilling to act to change things around, and that cost us all 3 points as it gave too much space to the opponents, who then, scored. One of Allegri’s most forgetful performances; and all the good work he did earlier in the season to make the defense more solid and restore the hope for the Champions League qualification, may very well amount to nothing at season end. 4.
———–
PS – Posters here have complained that the duo Leão-Pulisic has been ineffective, up front. I’ve been saying, it’s not like there are a lot of better options. Today the coach went with Nkunku and Füllkrug, who were just as ineffective.
Far more reasonable ratings. As usual.
Thanks.
Pavlovic was milans best. Stop harrassing him
Hm. I thought I have seen Saelemaekers doing a lot of valuable defence things in the first half. So imho a bit harsh.
A useless game play overall, Alegri has the players standing like statues and when it’s time to move, they forget how to move. Alegri has sacrificed all attacking output to make thses players defend in the most horrible manner.
If I’d dare to say, maybe we give modric some rest and see what jashari can create form the deep lying midfield position modric currently occupies and with same players Modric plays with. The eulogies is becoming annoying for basic stuffs, fofana is criticized and he was the only only one who made those defensive splitting passes. The rating has got to reflect the game played.
BTW tomori should be sold that dude lacks awareness.
Jashari hasn’t proven he deserves to start ahead of Modric, let alone in a game like that. Aside from one game where he did relatively good, he’s been all over the place. We have to finish the job before giving more minutes to players who have underperformed.
I don’t think Jashari has stared with a strong midfield support ever, its easy to look at today game and say Füllkrug was useless but if you look at the team setup, you’d discover the setup wasn’t meant to be fruitful, aside the setup, how many crosses did the big man have to feed on? Just one.
So Jashari has been judge with the worse pairing and game positioning. It’s not a good yardstick.
Sure, but Füllkrug has been useless in all games, except for the very first three when he was subbed in late and did well. Ever since, he’s been consistently useless. He should be sent back after the end of his loan. There is no justification whatsoever to keep him and exercise the right to buy, regardless of the fact that his buying price is low (as it should be; he is a has-been). We would have done much better if we had kept Jovic and/or Abraham instead of terminating Jovic, not rescuing Abraham, and then getting Füllkrug on loan, who is a player who is currently worse than both Jovic and Abraham.
Absolutely correct. signing Fulkrug was a mistake.
Jovic – yes. Abraham – absolutely not.
Redeeming somebody with 3 goals in 28 games for 6 million salary is a road to yet another Origi disaster. It is very easy to see; I’m surprised his name still popping up.
Disagree with ‘qqq’.
I think Abraham would have been really good in Allegri’s system. As would Jovic. For the money spent on Nkunku and Fullkrug, we could have kept Abraham and Jovic and had much better players for this system.
Scared tactics vs a team playing without strikers topped off by another embarrassing near post goal allowed by the goalkeeper.
Napoli weren’t much better either but at least they showed initiative and desire to win unlike Milan.
Pavlovic saved a clear goal and got beat only once by Giovane but somehow he is the lowest rated CB getting penalized for missing a chance from corner.
Modric should have been rested because he looked tired and was bad in this game.
Offensively Milan did nothing before and after the subs.
We saw Leao on the wing and that dude cant outrun or beat in 1v1 an inebriated fan from the stands let alone a winger like Politano. Pulisic was no better.
“Milan plays badly, but Allegri is a guarantee of finishing in the top 4 in the end, just as he’s almost a guarantee of playing badly”
“but Allegri is a guarantee of finishing in the top 4 in the end”
But is he really? I wouldn’t bet my money on it anymore. Not after yesterday.
We won almost every big game in the first part of the season, it was only logical it won’t happen again in the spring. The real issue is we didn’t fix our performances against “smaller” clubs.
Pavlovic MOM and maybe Barte, Fulekrug or Nkunku as flop. Not a bad performance from the defence, too bad we couldn’t keep the clean sheet, but luck has obviously ran out at this point and we can’t complain when our opponents score with few chances, it’s literally what we’ve been doing all season.
What will be interesting are the next two games- Udinese and Verona. Does Allegri stick with the 3-5-2 or does he go 4-3-3. I understand the 3-5-2 against Inter and maybe Napoli (but not today with their depleted squad) or does he let this team play more offensive football? ACM won many games by a nose- a good bounce here or great save there, but they need to take control of their own destiny.
Allegri will always play not to lose instead of lets go out dominate and win football. He was the right guy to steady the ship but has proven time and time again he is stuck in his ways, has no creativeness and will not adapt until it’s forced and way to late. I thank him for his service but let’s bring in a manager who can adapt to the game as it is now and not 2 decades ago
This is a season of regrets for Milan, as the opportunity to do more was there. Points thrown away against bottom-table teams.
The only regrets are those of the management’s low ambitions. Summer mercato clearly summarized what the plan was all along – Top4. This team was never good enough for anything else. And the fact that we were 2nd for this long showed 2 things:
1. How poor the league is
2. How much he has over performed with Milan.
So again this summer the mercato will show us where the ambitions (or lack thereof) lie.
Let’s not forget we were 8th last season. Going from 8th to 1st is extremely rare. Liverpool WAS 1st, spent 200M and now is in danger of not playing in the CL next season. The mount spent in summer isn’t necessarily a reflection of where a club will end up. Had we not signed Rabiot, we might not even be in the top 4 right now. We didn’t need to spend 50M to sign him. The objective for this season was to recover the Champions League. The fact that we were so close to Inter for so long is what says how poor this league is, with practically every team using the same 3-5-2 except for Como and Lazio. Meanwhile Inter and their novice coach were capable of the title despite Napoli keeping Conte and strengthening.
Allegri will get us into the CL abd likely keep us there, but we need a young manager with the courage to play for the win and the ability to elevate young talent, like Fabregas. So this summer won’t say much beyond top 4 again next season. It’s the summer of 2027 that will say everything, when Allegri’s contract is up, unless they extend and then we’ll know that top 4 is once again the goal.
Going 7 unbeaten in derbies leaves me few regrets.
Bartesaghi’s error was fatal and the defining moment in the game…4
Indeed. If not we would have had that awesome draw we were going for and one more point! Definitely still in the title race. /s
If Laeo and Pulisic are roasted when things do not work up front NNkunku and Fulkrug need the same if not worse. When Pulisic or Laeo play bad they generally miss shots. NNkunku and Fullkrug combined for one shot, and even that shot wasn’t on target. Terrible display
I am starting to believe that it is not Pulisic and Laeo who cannot play together…but Laeo and Modric. because Laeo cannot play in a front two, and Modric can not play as a cdm in front of a back 4…he just is not strong enough. So if Modric plays in his preferred position Laeo plays out of position, and if Laeo plays in his preferred position Modric plays out of position.
What? 😂😂😂 If he wanted to play Fofana on DM and tell him to cover left side he could. This is nonsense, not understanding anything…
This is the most intelligent comment I’ve read in here today, and this has been my position for a long time.
4-3-3 is the way to go, and this also means no Modric in the midfield which I’m 100% ok with.
Modric hasn’t been exceptional fir us, let’s face it, he’s old and we have to move on.
Allegri stop playing 352, it doesn’t create many chances, it is a defensive formation, Allegri is a stubborn coach and a coward, you have the players to play attacking football, play 433 to create more chances on goal, Ac Milan is not playing in the Champions League this season, they are out of the league cups, they are in third place, and they are still struggling playing once every week
Milan’s offense this season is a lot worse off than the last. The strikers haven’t really improved. The defense and midfield has, but at the cost of offensive output.
I would point towards one Mike Maignan…He has saved 10 expected goals. Based on game context when they occurred, the difference in points all else remaining the same is +14.
Last season he was at -3.5 and based on the games, it led to -6 points.
Not a perfect science but if Mike was playing like last year the team could conceivably be in a lower position than this time last year…
Everything is interconnected. Last year the defense and midfield in front of Mike was a joke. Might as well been a sliding door. So a lot more was going through Mike.
having a bad defense would have the inverse impact on that metric with more opportunities to get stops on high percentage chances…Its purely based on after a shot is taken on target, how likely it is to be a goal. Its not perfect, but given the number of games with one goal differences, those saves have a lot of value…
Interesting. I thought Mike was terrible last year. We also had Theo and then Emerson/Walker/Calabria (who was the best of the right backs) who were terrible. Mike is back to being Mike and the two wingbacks are better than what they had last year.
Yesterday, we still had people who blame it on Gattuso. lol how about today? They called it “outrageous”??? thinking this now. it is Out-Laugable! lmao
I thought the offense looked much better with Pulisic and Leao on the pitch. What happens when you play for a tie…
Agree with you on Pavlo – he ran down Giovani and blocked a shot, preventing a breakaway. I have no idea why the writer above gave him a 5.5.
I am a big Leao supporter but he was absolutely useless today – he must be injured. he was pushed off the ball in one instance and 3 times had his crosses blocked. I can’t think of one productive thing he did in the game.
Bartesaghi and de Winter both deserve criticism on the goal. de Winter may have been worried about heading it into the net and kept it in play. bartesaghi didn’t cover on the post…
I thought Nkunku has some good moments; if he’d buried that left-footed rocket, different game / story. if he’s gotten it on net…
Rabiot had a stinker.
Modric is not Good at Free Kicks or Corners, In fact hes bad at them.
Ive been saying all Season after every game.
MODRIC has always been bad at corners and free kicks, even at Madrid.
The fact that he came into this Team and bossed everyone off Free kicks
I agree with you. Two of his corners didn’t even reach the near post tonight. Last year Pulisic had three assists and one direct goal (olimpico) off of corners from the left and Theo had a couple of assists from the right.
I know Pulisic is playing as a striker but he has to be taking those corner kicks. Did Allegri not watch any of last years film?
Be Winter??? lalallalla.. assisting for opponent’s goal. lmao
Mr Unknown (RWB) has Zero defense. Who asked him to join this club lmao
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
How boring
Bartesaghi seemed to have a clear instruction to slot in as CB when Milan had the ball. Allowing Pavlovic free reign to go forward as an extra attacker. So he was clearly sacrificing his offensive output for the team.
Badly lost his player at the far post for the goal. It was a great strike by Politano though.
We really seem limited going forward. None of our forwards have any form or confidence.
The duo strikers i think it’s not failed. The way allegri play its not fully support the strikers. Too much ball on the midfielders. Even mbappe would not score 20 goals / season with that style. I added, i watch the game last night, given 6 rating for leao + pulisic its too much. Leao Crossing even too far away. Allegri must change formation/ change the way he play the game.
This game plan was always going to be 100% Corto Muso. I had thought it would end up in a tie. And really the difference was that Napoli took advantage of their chance and Milan hadn’t.
The problem with Max’s plan is that Fulkrug and Nkunku are hands down THE WORST pairing up front, because whereas Nkunku is pretty quick and can move the ball in possession, his partner has the acceleration of a semi carrying a space shuttle. Fulkrig was never going to be at the end of anything Nkunku could do.
So playing 70mns with those two on the field had an offensive output of a frozen yogurt. I felt like this game could have been productive had Max switched to a 343 sooner bringing Leao/Santi/Puli on a LOT sooner, maybe around 55-60 mns. Especially seeing as Nkunku and Fulkrug picked up in the second half where they left off in the first.
For me, the best player was Pavlo today. He was everywhere. I’d say the flop was Fulkrug. As for the goal conceded, Koni should have headed it out for a corner not knowing who was behind him and Barte should have closed down Politano, but again was anaware of who’s behind him. This isn’t his first time either making this mistake. So while he should be allowed to make mistakes, he probably shouldn’t be making the same mistake every time… And of course, Mike and his near post, right? 🙂
Allegri got us out of coppa Italia, his supporters said the genius lost intentionally to focus on the league,
He lost the Italian super cup and the same supporters said the genius did it intentionally again.
He literally had no other competition and is still slowly taking us down the league table. Lmao. If Allegri is the coach of this team next season, I am taking a break for a year. I can’t continue to watch this eye-sore we are calling a game plan/ tactics. Allegri is so damn terrible at coaching that all our players have regressed under him. His luck have finally run out as I have been predicting Smh
Thank you. What is worse than losing is reading construction workers and college students and their “predictions”. You aren’t a football professional or a fortune teller, so…
Well he’s not wrong
We just not have luck tonight. Im happy how we play. Great work coach.
must be inter merda or fvcklani buzzer, stfu.. Milan lose & thanks?!
Look, I get he’s a legend but Modric was bad today. 5 at best.
😂😂 he was the best out of Milan midfielders?
The coach makes his choices from what he sees all week,for us hind site is 20-20
This Milan of Allegri is unwatchable. This 3-5-3 is absolute boring stuff. I bet no one can watch Milan games if he’s not Milan fan. In a long term this is very bad for growing of this club , for revenues. Maybe we will finish 3th or 4th and will play in CL next season but Allegri and his system will be a disaster next season. The most boring team a see in my life… unwatchable
It’ll be a very bad look for the club on a global scale next season when we’re playing 8 at the back against Brugge & PSV and still likely losing by 3 or 4. Thats why Allegri has to go.
Yes, it’s much better to finish 8th and not play CL. 😂😂😂 Much better look
Nkunku + Jimenez + Fullkrug —- add all three together and the result is a big fat ZERO. Throw sleepy leao in the pot and a dispirited pulisic and you will easily understand why milan is such a disaster these days.
HOW THE HELL IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ALL THE CLEVER IDIOTS RUNNING MILAN CANNOT SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT MILAN NEED A COUPLE OF GOOD STRIKERS???? AND WHY LET RICCI AND JASHARI ROT ON THE BENCH????
I GIVE UP. FORZA ASCOLI, VICENZA, PISA AND VENEZIA.
Why would Saelemaeker get 6. What did he do from the beginning of the season. Absolutely nothing.
This guy no more than 5 the whole season. Please do not promote non Italian players at the expense of Italian players that could have received a chance to play and progress.
In my opinion, there a few starters that cannot give more than 5 the whole seasons and these should be replaces by guys from the academy that can give out the same rating and yet cost Milan nothing.
Saelemaeker ==> 5
Fofana ==>5
Tomori ==> 5
Estopenian ==> 4
Please save the Italian football and the Italian players in the academies and remember their replacements are not showing much better.
no Gabbia no party, that’s why a Defender must’ve intelligent not just quick, Tomori & Winter average af.
Nkuku & Fullkrug is flop, just admit it.
I haven’t seen anyone bring up the topic of Saelemaekers and Barte digressing tremendously during the second half of the season, and now we have a talk about how 3-5-2 is the wrong formation and bla-bla. Alexis’ offensive input and his willingness to track down and provide backup for Tomori is basically gone, except for a few decent moments here and there. Barte has become mistake-prone ever since he felt comfortable Pervis has nothing on him in regards to the starting spot. I’m getting a little worried we’re witnessing the De Sciglio scenario. You can’t really go far with 3-5-2 if your wingbacks are performing like that. Athekame is the only breath of fresh air, but question arises – is he capable of playing as a starting RB in 4-3-3, having more defensive duties instead of pushing forward. He is apparently a very attacking minded fullback which comes in handy when he usually comes on in the second half, but the role has different requirements.
Also, one more question – was Allegri at fault for Nkunku failing two golden opportunities, potentially three if we count the mix-up in the second half that actually resulted in a Napoli counter? Do you think he coaches him to fail simple shooting drills and ignore obvious passes? Why didn’t he perform better under Maresca (some people’s preferred choice for manager)? Let’s face it, Furlani threw another 40 mil. down the drain. Our transfer strategy, especially when it comes to attacking players, is simply baffling and it perfectly shows it games against low block teams or Lazio and Napoli who are coached by experienced coaches.
Barte is fine but he isn’t a wing-back, simple as that. He’s a centre back or, at a push, a full back. The only reason Allegri is “giving youth a chance” with him is because he gets to make the lineup even more defensive.
He is a defensive left back with a top notch cross.
And yet he is a liability defensively.
and yet you forget he is only 20 and needs to play and make mistakes and learn from them. Just hopefully not keep making the same mistake over and over.
Top notch cross? LOL! He made a new record for most crosses from a Milan player during a match and I don’t think even one of those 20 balls found a teammate. It’s all about quality – not quantity. 🤦♂️
Igli Tare signed Nkunku. He said publicly when Leao got injured that we need more players like him and that without we lack speed. And Nkunku was signed. People that keep writing how Furlani signed someone are lacking intelligence. You can easily check what I said.
Enough with this BS, we all know who ultimately decides everything, concerning the budget. It’s the short dude with Napoleon complex. What do you think promoting him last summer actually meant? Tare brought Allegri, Allegri wanted Vlahovic, then we went for Boniface and that Sporting dude. Nkunku was panic buy to supposedly calm the fans which is the ultimate Furlani move (remember Santi in the last days of January). I am in to “Tare camp” or whatever, it’s simple logic. He was brought to take care of the outgoing transfers most of all. Even if he had any part in Nkunku’s move, make no mistake – he was forced to chose him within the pathetic moneyball parameters Moncada and Furlani have based our whole transfer “philisophy” on.
I agree. Tare is just a frontman. He decides nothing. While Furlani is here there will be more Nkunku’s and less of actual 9’s that we need.
“Also, one more question – was Allegri at fault for Nkunku failing two golden opportunities, potentially three if we count the mix-up in the second half that actually resulted in a Napoli counter?”
He is at fault for starting Nkunku in the first place.
💯
I agree with mostly except, if Allegri starts him over other options and he misses to golden chances than yes the manager has some part in the blame.
Allegri got 0 support from the management and sporting director. If the manager asks for players you get them, not Temu versions and pretend that is it. Conte got every single player he asked for that was realistic financially. That is the difference. Without injuries Napoli would have won again. Milan couldn’t get a proper striker in August buy had to wait for a freebie in January. Furlani, Tare, Ibrahimovic and Moncada are jokes. That is Milan’s problem.
Allegri asked for Luka Modric, Adrien Rabiot, Koni De Winter, Christopher Nkunku, Samuele Ricci, Ardon Jashari, Moises Kean…I don’t understand what the context your refering to. They switched over half the team incredibly fast.
Allegri didn’t ask for Nkunku nor Ricci.
For Nkunku he specifically said during the summer that he has no idea how to use him.
The one he specifically asked for was Rabiot and also asked for an actual striker.
“Pavlovic (5.5): It’s great that he caused trouble for Napoli when joining the attack, but today he missed two good chances (first a failed shot, then a header) and it turned out to be costly. He also wasn’t 100% in his 1v1 defensive duels.”
Eh… How about a “game saving” block on the breakaway on the 1st half? That alone is worth one extra point.
It’s good to know that we can still attack when we are a goal down, but, we don’t have to wait till we are. I heard Allegri would mostly likely go with Fullkrug and Nkunku, and I wondered what he wanted to achieve with that combination. I would have preferred Nkunku and Pulisic, with Leao as sub. Allegri’s selection is still a headache for him, as well as a mindset for a draw. We would have beaten them silly if we had come out attacking. It was a depleted Napoli team that we played last night. Anyway, second place is still up for grabs.
Unpopular opinion: People are blaming De Winter and/or Bartesaghi for the goal, but I think Maignan is just as culpable. Rewatch the sequence. He was able to get set at the far post on time. I think he should have been able to block the shot.
There were LOTS of mistakes by many players in that scene. If only one had made a mistakes Napoli wouldn’t have scored as they were minor ones but when you add all the mistakes together you get a 1-0 loss.
*made a mistake…
Nkuku plays scared and has little intensity. For a top salary, this is a joke. Santi is way better.
I don’t understand whats the point of playing with 5 in midfield. Bartesaghi and Saelesmaekers provide nothing in attack nor in defense, no goals, no assists, not a better defense, NOTHING!
We should play 4-2-3-1, we have good midfielders, and Jashari is a sin to be kept in bench, and Ricci as well. Let’s give Leao and Pulisic their role where they ROCK and stop with the nonsense 3-5-2, we don’t have players for that formation, Allegri should had stopped with that since January when it was clear we weren’t getting better players…