Among the positive notes from AC Milan’s win over Bologna was the performance of midfielder Adrien Rabiot on debut.
Andrea Longoni published his weekly column for Calciomercato.com and – as part of his reflections on the game against Bologna – he praised Rabiot for his role in the victory.
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“A narrow victory, but it could easily have been a long-range one. If only the referee had awarded at least one penalty, if only Gimenez had scored at least one of the easy goals he could have. ‘Ifs’ and ‘buts’ don’t get you anywhere, but analysing the match, AC Milan fans should be satisfied,” he began.
“This is a team that’s giving up little to their opponents: yesterday Bologna had only one shot on target, and it wasn’t even dangerous. Their defence is much better than it was a year ago, but this improvement hasn’t penalised their play: you’re not covering up on one side and leaving yourself exposed on the other.
“Up front, we’re starting to see some interesting plays: Allegri’s men could easily have scored more than one goal. A special mention goes to Modric, who at 40 has once again proven to be an extraordinary champion: he starts the move and finishes it by scoring a crucial goal.
“Rabiot also deserves praise: after a couple of training sessions at Milanello, he looked like a veteran of this team. Running, quantity, quality, physicality: an invaluable player. We immediately saw why the coach wanted him so strongly and how much the Frenchman knows by heart what the coach wants from a player in his position. Extraordinary impact.”
Why Allegri wanted Rabiot
Rabiot made his first start for Milan despite having only done his first full training session a few days prior, and that followed a deadline day move from Marseille during which he had to do a medical while with the French national team. In short, he might have had an excuse for starting slowly.
Instead, Rabiot had an 85% pass completion rate, he touched the ball 52 times, won 11 duels, completed four dribbles and played all 99 minutes including stoppage time. It shows just why Allegri was so keen to sign the all-action midfielder.
Can we compare him with sergey milinkovic savic, kessie, and mc tominay already.
I liked his play – controlled, positive and serie A savvy – paired with Modric who has changed us to a forward passing team in midfield, it looks promising. I think Ricci works far better with Modric than Fofana who at itmes appears clueless. This could develop into one of the best mids in the league…
Yeah our game seemed more organized like once clarence, gennaro, andrea, and mathieu flamini on the field. If only we have world class striker like hojlund or vlahovic, it would be much better right.
hojlund? worldclass? lmao he scored only 1 goal… Kolo Muani also worldclass but not he’s on Tottenham’s bench…
Allegri needs to start a midfield trio of Modric, Ricci and Rabiot.
Starting Fofana or RLC is amateurish.
Allegri always has this fetish for physical players. I don’t see RLC, or Fofana in this case, will be dropped soon
Favor
It may be hard to watch but replacing gimenez and RLC with leao and pulisic or nkunku suddenly can change everything. I feel like if leao had been in that game yesterday he would have had at least two.
leao i nkuku uz pulišiča če bit ubitačni sa potporom modrića rabioa ricchia i salemakersa !!
Rabiot is class, really, and Ricci also must be a starter, I guess everyone agree on that.
Ricci has shown quality from day one. Fofana, on the other hand,, is a warhorse. He needs to play more to improve his passing. Rabiot, showed so much maturity against Bologna. He helped calm the game, while Pulisic, Modrić and Ricci kept pressing for more goals, thus, not putting us under pressure, while we held out the 7 added minutes. It’s the coach’s job to start whoever he wants, based on his tactics for each game. Little by little, the team is blending. I hope Gimenez comes good. Feels like he is the weak link. Above all, they are all coming together like a family. It’s good for their morale.