AC Milan clinched their second win of the US pre-season tour in as many games after beating Real Madrid by one goal to nil. Samuel Chukwueze was the goalscorer but several did well, 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
Torriani (7): He wasn’t really tested in the first half, apart from a close-range shot which he saved nicely (but it was offside anyway). Calm again with the ball at his feet, which was nice to see, and he made a fantastic stop at the end of the second half to deny Real Madrid a goal.
Calabria (6): Decent first half with some defensive recoveries and good runs forward. This continued in the second half and overall, it was a positive display from the captain. Still, he struggles a bit when the opponent turns on the pace.
Thiaw (6): Strong in the duels and he wasn’t afraid to press high either. He had a header that hit the bar in the second half and while that was unlucky, he was also so close to the goal that one can demand more from him there.
Tomori (6.5): Much better than the Man City game, that’s for sure, with aggressive defending and often good positioning too. His high pressing also resulted in the goal, forcing his opponent into a fatal mistake.
Terracciano (5.5): He struggled a bit in the first half, above all because it was end-to-end stuff initially, but he adapted a bit and had a couple of good defensive actions. Still, he can do a lot better in both phases of the game.
Bennacer (6.5): Calm and collected, almost always available and with good short-range passing. He also should have had an assist with a great free-kick delivery for Thiaw. The long-range passing could have been better, but his importance in the build-up phase is certainly undeniable.
Loftus-Cheek (6): The Englishman had some nice turns on the ball, allowing Milan to transition quickly, but he faded a bit and almost struggled to have an impact when the Rossoneri had the ball. Perhaps a result of being further down the pitch, but his quality is something we want more of.
Chukwueze (7.5 – MOTM): He was gifted Milan’s best chance in the first half but failed to beat Courtois. It was a good save, yes, but the feeling is that he should have scored. However, he certainly got revenge as he gave Milan the lead with a composed strike in the second half. Furthermore, he was very lively and smart throughout the game when he had possession in the final third, setting up teammates on several occasions. He arguably should have had an assist for Pulisic.
Liberali (7): Inspiring display yet again as he often craved possession and made himself available, showcasing brilliant technique. We saw that with the assist for Chukwueze, which was perfect, but he did miss a chance to double the lead with his right foot.
Saelemaekers (6): Compared to the first two friendlies, a lot quieter although it should be said that Milan seemingly preferred to go down the right. He had one shot that was blocked in the first half, but in the second he was at least able to get on the ball more and did well.
Nasti (5.5): If Chukwueze had the best chance of the first half, the young striker had the second-best chance but the left-footed effort was straight at the keeper. Unfortunately, he struggled in possession too as he was too sluggish.
Substitutes
Kalulu (6): He did what was needed in defence and also had a bursting run forward, sending a good cross into the box which Pulisic failed to control.
Jimenez (6): His acceleration came in handy several times and he defended okay too.
Musah (6.5): It was a very good display off the bench from the American, proving once again just how easily he can get past his opponents when he wants to. This time out, as was often the case last season, the technique didn’t let him down either.
Pulisic (6): He missed a fantastic chance to double Milan’s lead and a player of his quality must score that. He also failed to control a good cross into the box earlier on. That being said, he made a great last-ditch block to deny Real a certain goal. Only just a 6, therefore.
Cuenca (5.5): The youngsters did well initially but then had a very sloppy giveaway and had to be bailed out by Torriani.
Jovic (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
Gabbia (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
Pobega (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
Bakoune (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
Camarda (N/A): We didn’t see enough of him to give a rating.
They have a purpose when in possession.
They have an idea when they gets the ball.
They pass the ball, run, anticipate and coordinate good.
Something we lacked under pioli. Hopefully it continues, but not sure when theo leao come back and still on that pioli hangover by keeping the ball, running solo, instead of passing and coordinating
Good observation
Torriani should be our 2nd goalkeeper this season.
So much vision and composure for such a young player is amazing. He is so calm in everything he does, and the fact that he wasn’t tested much this even but still was ready whenever Real Madrid got close to goal? That tells you this guy is ready for more.
I’m highly impressed with Liberali. He is playing like he could perfectly belong to the first team, and he is only 17.
Chuk, MOTM, what a phenomenal display! He will be a big asset this season, no doubt!
Torriani was solid and calm, again.
Calabria, Thiaw and Tomori did well. Terraciano, not so much.
Ismael was good; I didn’t like RLC as much as the rater of this article.
Alexis tried hard but didn’t play as well as in the first two friendlies. Nasti was disappointing.
Yes, Puli should have scored that ball that Chuk served to him on a silver platter. However he did avoid a goal by Madrid.
Jimenez made the left side more lively. Musah did well. Gabbia was subbed in late and made a mistake, not as solid as in other games. Bakoune was shaky too, as well as Cuenca.
Generally, we got worse after several substitutions were made and almost conceded the equalizer, but it’s the pre-season, we do need to bring in a lot of people both to assess them, and to give them some minutes to get into game form.
Real Madrid had very few starters and they were sluggish and rather toothless for most of the game, only improving in the last ten minutes, but more because we got worse. This wasn’t the real Real (pun intended) and was a less valid test than the one provided by ManCity. True, ManCity also didn’t have most of their starters but they were more lively and more energized, as compared to this lethargic Real Madrid C-team.
This is not Madrid C team. More like combination of A-B team. Brahim, Guler, Courtois, Modric, Rudiger, Lucas Vazquez, Ceballos, and Fran Garcia played a lot last season. The amount of first team player played from start is about the same with us. What’s different is the stage of preparation, as this is their first friendly match and we are more prepared than them.
But they don’t have many transfer, they still have the same coach with same tactic. They don’t need to adjust.
Compare to us, we have new coach with new ideas, new style of play, also some players from Primavera.
Give the guys some respect.
Thank you
“Give the guys some respect” = I did, praised many of them. OK, then, Madrid B. But this is not an A-B combination. B, at most.
It’s nice that we won. It’s better to win than to draw or lose. I liked our team. I’m just saying, we were not playing against MBappé, Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Bellingham, etc. But sure, we also didn’t have Rafa, Theo, Mike, Puli from the beginning, etc.
Maybe we shouldn’t pursue Samardzic anymore and give the space to Liberali. And use the budget to get a more pivotal role in DM.
Wake up and stop deceiving yourself. We didn’t play with our major first team keeper.
Milan is improving day by day
Both teams started with about the same first team players. Milan just generally have a squad of more senior team players than the likes of Madrid Barca Man City – teams where they’d give the likes of Liberali 3rd or even 2nd choice roles.
Milan have Ballo Toure as 4th or 6th choice LB . Salad as 3rd choice winger. Jovic will be 3rd after signing Abraham possibly 4th behind Okafor. So Milan can play with it’s C team (where about half the players will be seniors) against Man City’s B team (where half the players will be youngsters) and we may not notice it’s our C team vs their B team because the sides are even age wise.
If Milan are truly looking to develop its young talents then Liberali should have a similar role as to when Gavi started. Torriani should be 2nd choice until Sportiello is back and Jimenez should be given the role prepared for Emerson. It requires courage and belief tho.
Good display from Liberali but the pleasant surprise is Torriani.
Liberali, what a talent. Skill, technique, touch, vision. Should have had a goal and 2 assists.
RLC looked OK in the double pivot.
Musah looked very good off the bench.
Chuck in hot form.
Pulisic made some great runs but his shot and pass were poor.
I still think that Jimenez should be an offensive player and move away from the fullback position.
We saw some RB Kalulu.
Saelemakers worked hard.
Lapo Nava needs to ask for a transfer since a GK younger than him has surpassed him.
Solid display. Fonseca is slowly implementing his philosophy. The team looks much more compact with every game
Liberali, what a talent. Skill, technique, touch, vision. Should have had a goal and 2 assists.
RLC looked OK in the double pivot.
Musah looked very good off the bench.
Chuck in hot form.
Pulisic made some great runs but his shot and pass were poor.
I still think that Jimenez should be an offensive player and move away from the fullback position.
We saw some RB Kalulu.
Saelemakers worked hard.
Lapo Nava needs to ask for a transfer since a GK younger than him has surpassed him.
Solid display. Fonseca is slowly implementing his philosophy. The team looks much more compact with every game
Remember Milan is doomed
Don’t worry, one defeat and the doom gloom brigade will strike again 😅
On serious note though, can’t get carried away as we are against two team with limited preparation than us, where we already on our 4th friendly matches now. Madrid is in 1st match.
But I certainly like what I saw from our players. New clear ideas, flowing movement, build up and lots of composure. The Milan futuro players also looked bright. Fingers crossed, next season might be better than we all think.
I think the situation was no where near as bad as most of the children here cry about
You have to be a teen to have meltdowns this often and cry about how horrible Redbird is when they are the first owner in 2 decades who is actually building the Milan brand back up properly
The fans complain about Redbird mostly because they are afraid of investing in good Italian talent like Calafiori, Scalvini, Boungiorno, Kayode so we can couple Players in the national side. We know that every era Milan have been successful and winning trophies was with good Italian Players that either played or could play for Italian national team with mix of good foreign players. But when we have only foreign players and some bad Italian Players then we lose our DNA for success.
We should have put the money we wanted to put Zirkze on Calafiori instead. They cost the same. We should go for Casadei. We should Buy Kayode that have Serie A Experience and is 19 years old instead of Emerson Flop. We wanted to buy Boungiorno in the winter transfer window but didn’t go after him now. We need to start to invest in those kind of players.
People also complain about every time a new owner that buy a top club invest heavily and make statement signing’s to show their ambition and show the fans they are serious about winning but Cardinale is probably the only one that have not done that. The players great players they buy will always be associated with them like when Berlusconi bought Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard.
It seems that Cardinale talks about winning only by putting effort in Commercial and sponsor and not to build a competitive squad that actually wins titles.
Not so much doomed as in most of these players won’t be around when the season starts.
I honestly believe Chuk is Fonseca’s project. Makes me excited to see what he’ll do with Leao cos I feel Leao has a lot of talent he hasn’t shown yet. It feels good to have a coach that’s tactically good and builds the players confidence.
Liberali looks like our Yamal. That boy is good.
I know it’s preseason but I think I like what I’m seeing from Fonseca so far. I can count how many times we played a long ball in one hand (something that was uncountable with Pioli). The ball movement made me so happy. Looking forward to the season.
“Real Madrid were missing many of their starters”
No they didn’t. They had a fair number of them and this was their B team.
And we were missing players too. Why do people find the need to be so overly negative about everything?
Liberali and Chucky are in hot form. Torriani is also looking great and perhaps could be second choice.
Couple of observations based on our recent friendlies. Bennacer is slowly regaining form and is back to his best. Liberali is a great talent, I hope we hold onto him and slowly integrate him with the first team. Our defence is becoming more compact & resilient. Finally, chukaweze is finally finding his feet at milan. After a slow start last season he is like a new signing and expect big things from him.
I just don’t know where Samardzic will fit in. If Chukwueze plays the way he can play, and is expected to play, he should start on the right, since Pulisic can play in the middle. People will say it’s a lightweight midfield, but against 80% of opponents it will be more than enough with a devastating attack of Morata, Leao, Pulisic and Chukwueze, provided we get Fofana or a high quality DM. RLC is still there and can play AM, and so could Reijnders. Finally, Liberali has shown that he can be a deep option in case of a spate of injuries. In fact, should Fofana arrive, we will have too many CMs. Who leaves? So I think that once Royal and Fofana (or a “proper” DM) arrive, and perhaps another GK, our incoming transfer market can close. The only way I see Samardzic arriving is if one of RLC or Reijnders is sold.
Agreed.
Agree too. There is no point buying him unless someone else is being sold. And I don see the point in selling any of the players competing for this spot in the lineup
The only major thing I am impressed with is how we excellently and relentlessly fight to get the ball back after losing it and how everyone falls back to help the defense. We definitely lacked this during Pioli’s era. As for the victory, don’t get your hopes up, we literally played against a their 3rd team. Under no circumstances should you deceive yourself that we’re now on par with Real Madrid. You might just see Mbappe and vinicius junior in your dream giving you wotowoto while Bellingham and Valverde are waiting to be subbed on to give you finishing 😆 🤣 😂
Wotowoto shows your are a Nigerian ✌🏽
About saying samething 🤩
Forza Milan
@Zilla,😂😂 Definitely Nigerian
Chukwueze does prove sometimes more than one season is needed. And in some cases, a new philosophy. I think Fonseca will be good, though of course let’s wait for the season.
He just needs games.
If Pulisic continues to play on the right then Chuk will struggle. If Pulisic moves centrally then Chuk will get more of a chance.
Forza Milan!
Wow i live how it seems Fonseca has sparked something inside of chuk, could be the “new signing” we need.
Don carlo still with us. He let us win to motivate our players. What a coach.
Good win, but seeing young liberali and tortiqni perform the way that they are performing is even more satisfying for me. Young promising talents. Result wise gotta take them with a grain of salt, since its just a preseason game and most of the big guns aren’t there.
The junior keeper hierarchy is a strange thing.
In 2022/2023, Nava (2004 born) was the number 1 and Torriani (2005 born) the number 2 of the Primavera side.
In 2023/2024, Nava is promoted to the senior team. Bartoccioni (2004 born) starts as the number 1 but that mantle is assumed by Raveyre (2005 born). Torriani is the third choice.
To start 2024/2025, Torriani is keeping for the senior team, as a U23 squad member. Raveyre and Nava are also U23 members (Nava is still senior listed). Bartoccioni has left on a free transfer to play for a Serie C team. Mastrantonio (2004 born) is another 20 yo keeper signed for the U23 side.
Torriani impresses while keeping against City and Real Madrid which will be rewarded by Milan with the signing of another senior keeper to cover Sportiello for a few months.
And the 2008 born Longoni is likely within 12 months of being the second best keeper at Milan.
Ok my head hurts.
What a mess.
Surely they just need to pick one.
That’s happening all over the pitch.
There have been a lot of good signs this preseason and the positive results are good for morale. A good start for Fonsenca but now it’s time to make key decisions.
-Midfield: Double-pivot or midfield three? I’m all for a double-pivot with Pulisic as a trequartista but we need a defensive midfielder (I was hoping for two). This would result in two of Bennacer, Reijnders, and RLC on the bench, and probably spell the end of Pobega, Musah, and Adli. A midfield three would keep more of last season’s midfield around and promote more competition among Pulisic, Salamaekers, Chuk, and Leao. Either way, a decision needs to be made right now.
-Issue 2: Positional uncertainty needs to be sorted. It is unclear which position Okafor, Pobega, Terracciano, Rejnders, Musah, Adli, RLC will play.
-Issue 3: Do we need another full-back? Florenzi’s injury has everyone panicking but we have Calabria and Kalulu on the right, Theo and Jiminez on the left, and Terracciano who can cover either flank. A good full-back would be a bonus but I think our resources should go to midfield.
-Issue 4: Will Liberali stay with the first team? He has the quality but unless the squad is trimmed and a clear midfield setup is established, he is better off with Futuro away from the chaos.
The GK and RB solutions are already in the team. The 3rd striker solution even.
I’m also afraid of these kinds of results in preseason
Agreed
I don’t know how pre season friendlies are arranged, but performance aside, i’m just happy to see Milan play against teams like city, Madrid, Barca, despite they are not full squad.
Compared to our rival who faced relatively lesser known teams.
Does Milan really need a new GK to cover 2 months of injury? Donnarumma was trusted and now look at what he becomes now. Just trust the youth players. Liberali played so well and should be kept for the first team. Milan needs this kind of player with flair.
Well said
I couldn’t sleep so stayed up to see this.
Over all Fonseca has them playing high energy, high pressing with lots of quick passing and rapid counters. Now most of these guys are not going to be in the squad this year, but I like the style and the work rate. Will Leao buy into this?
Liberali is surely the highlight of preseason so far and a huge talent, beautiful pass to set up Chucky.
I hope he stays with the 1st team, he is 17 and looks ready.
Chucky has got a lot of praise but to be honest having watched the game I thought he was aweful!
He got a goal yes but he gave the ball away time after time, many promising attacks broke down with him. For me the HUGE glaring issue is how 1 footed he is, he had a great chance where he was played through on the right of the box, instead of shooting with his right foot, he ran around the ball to get onto his left, cut back (as always) and the chance was gone.
I’m happy to see him play with more confidence and he can contribute, but I can’t ever see him being a top class RW, certainly not over Pulisic.
Musah was absolutely excellent, great skill, speed, attitude. The guy has talent, hopefully he can harness it, he should certainly stay and hopefully improve under Fonseca (playing in midfield under Pioli was a hopeless task).
Bravo!
Whaaaat? Chuk was awful??? He was the MOTM!!!
Sure, he lost the ball a few times and being one-footed is a concern, but after taking a while to gel and suffering from the little playing time due to Puli’s great form, in the end of last season he was already sparkling to life until he got injured at the very end, and now he picked up where he left it, and is playing with flare, energy, and dangerousness.
I mean, to call the MOTM “awful” is really, really weird; sorry.
I agree with what you said about Liberali.
I’m glad Chcuky is playing with more confidence, he is just so hard to watch. Dribbling into trouble, losing the ball, unable to take a shot or cross a ball with his right foot (as a right winger).
I just thought he was poor and will be found out against good defenders.
Now he has that unpredictability which is useful and he will be a valuable option, I have just never seen a player so 1 footed. He really really needs to work on that, but he’s not a kid, so can he improve?
I think he got MOTM for the goal.
Anyway I respect your opinion and lot’s of people appreciated his performance.
I am very excited by Liberalli, this kid could be a superstar!
Hopefully he does not get sold or swapped like so many other talents.
He looks more ready for 1st team than Camarda.
I think it’s easier for a young player to play winger or AM than striker at that sort of age
I agree about Chuku. It’s nice that he’s getting better results so far in the pre-season but I hate how long he takes to do anything. How long he holds the ball for. It’s like the entire game stops whenever he touches it. It’s all about him trying to dribble his man and then always with the eventual cutback to the inside because he can’t use his right foot.
Not “always.” Many of his plays are successful and he can score. He does produce dangerous plays and does set up his companions for more. He was MOTM not just because of his goal, but because of the entire time he played; he produced at least 3 great assists that his companions should have converted. He also had a rather good shot that their goalkeeper saved. Yes, the 1-footed thing and cutting to the left is a concern and I agree that maybe he won’t improve regarding that shortcoming but he has other qualities. He really bothers the opponent’s defense, he dribbles well many times (although other times he loses the ball) and he creates goal-scoring opportunities. Remember, he was given minimum minutes by Pioli (which is kind of understandable because Pulisic was on fire); with more playing time and more guidance from the coach (such as, avoid being a ball hog) I’m quite hopeful that Chuk will be a major asset for us.
It’s not like he didn’t get playing time last season. He played in a lot of games and even started a number of games. He just wasn’t very good. The RW was a big strength for Milan last season after it being the weak spot for a number of seasons. Pulisic has more than earned that spot and to think that he should lose it because he was away playing with his national team while Chuku has a few good games in Pre-Season Friendlies against teams playing their B-side players is kind of ridiculous and doesn’t really sit well with me.
Well we’re seeing more and more the team and their play come together which is great. I’d like to see a couple more game tbh but so far we’ve been playing a different setup in both attack and defence. The way we play out of defense is interesting. The defense becomes wide but we don’t play immediately through the centre to midfield. Instead we pla through midfield via the flanks. That the most risky part of teams find out but it becomes a logic game. If they cover the middle then the flanks are free and vice very. Very interesting. If you guys wanna see check out the training video the club showed everyone. Also the full backs don’t push up immediately which I like.
I’d be curious to see how it plays out when Theo and Leao comes back. It seems we can function without ball hogging on the left flank but early days still. Also when we’re playing out of D, there’s a clear “DM” who’s there for ball retrieval… Bennacer is best for this as he’s press resistant. Also we seem to be more compact in defence though I’d like the space between the pivots and defence to be smaller. But it improved since last game in this regard. Also I’m not sure if the instruction is to have the striker help out on defence but I noticed that trend in all the games. While it does make the transition to attack more random it does put alot of work on the striker. Other observations are the way we lateral pass. We’re opening up spaces with lateral passes instead of passing for passing sake. The triangles and solutions are interesting when it comes to passing out of press and is definitely different from Pioli’s system.
Formation-wise, again I’m seeing 4231 in defence and 433 in attack. Last year we had all these articles come out about being chameleonic because we had new players when really I’d say the way we’ve been playing now is more chamy.
In defence though Benny is fine as one pivot but if like to swap RLC out for a more defensive minded player. However that means RLc or Deers or both sit (have a feeling Deers could be sold late in the window). That’s what I’ve seen so far. It’s coming along. This was a decent RM side so it was good to see the guys play well albeit the first game for RM.
For the ratings, dont really care much about the score unless we get trashed 🤣🤣🤣. But overall we did well. Both individually and as a team. I’m now a big fan of Torriani. He’s tall, very well composed, can save well ane can pass the balm out well. For such a young player we did very well to prep him for these games reminds me of Donnarumma (I know ppl hate him but I rate Donnarumma highly) but with better footwork. I’d say sell Mike but ppl will be upset 🤣🤣😂🤣. Jk guys. But we don’t need another GK, it’s why we have backups. Liberali is slowly growing on me. However the teams we’ve played so far are less physical and more technique based so some concern ofc if he plays teams with more brute force. But he’s doing nice things and he’s being consistent.
Thiaw still isn’t March sharp and you tend to find bigger player take longer to get up to speed but he didn’t make mlit of mistakes. RLC did not impress at all. He kept driving the ball but held on to it for too long. Got easily dispossessed too.
Saelemakers did very well. He made some crucial defending plays and had a spark in attack. He’s also physically bigger than last year so the gym work is really helping him. I really have to wonder how our game would change when Leao comes back because it’s going to stretch our defence if he doesn’t track back like Salad.
Special shout goes to Calabria who seem to divide the fans. But he did very well. Solid and reliable job as usual. I’d like a taller RB or one who’s better in the air but he does the job when needed and it’s always good to have a player that can mark Kvar and MBappe when the time comes. For that alone we should keep him. I’d also like to see Jiminez get more playing time at LB. Chuk was ok. I know ppl are goig crazy over him but imo he’s just ok. I think he needs to be quicker and make better decisions on the ball but it’ll come. Our energy did drop as the game went on esp in the first half. Wasn’t expecting RM to have that much energy in their first preseason gm.
Jeez folks. Chuck has been in training camp a lot longer than Pulisic who just joined days ago. Cut CP a bit of slack for not putting away the goal.