Despite being one man up for a good 20 minutes in the second half, AC Milan failed to break down Torino and eventually lost after extra time. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Tatarusanu (6): He made a very good save in the first half in a 1v1 situation and was generally comfortable claiming the ball. He couldn’t do anything about the goal, so he gets a pass.
Kalulu (5): While decent for the most part, he lost his man on the goal after seemingly not understanding the danger. He was tired, of course, but he certainly could have done more there.
Gabbia (5): He won many aerial duels, sure, but there were so many situations in which his passing was not up to par. He needs to trust himself more than to always opt for the easy way out.
Tomori (5.5): Slightly better than his partners this evening as he ended up being the one who often brought the ball forward and at least tried to start something.
Saelemaekers (5.5): He tried to create chances for Milan and was successful at times in breaking down the first barrier. Not more than that, though.
Vranckx (4.5): The rating might seem a bit harsh, but it’s solely because he did almost everything but make use of his qualities. His dribbling is what has excited us before but tonight he almost never tried.
Tonali (6 – MOTM): Throughout the game, from start to finish that is, he was the one consistent performer and it was a decent display from him.
Pobega (4.5): While he did do a good job in pressing, he was simply not the right man for that more advanced midfield role given his technique.
Dest (5): His display on the left-hand side was painful, to be honest, but he improved a little when he moved to the right.
Diaz (5.5): He had some good intentions here and there, just like Saelemaekers, which led to a few half-chances.
De Ketelaere (5): He was unlucky not to score tonight as he hit the post with a wonderful header. However, tonight there was yet another chance in which he could have shot with his right, but opted to tuck inside and ended up getting nothing. That needs to stop.
Substitutes
Leao (5.5): He had a couple of good moments but one can only wonder why he drifted inside so much. Milan needed him on the wing to stretch the game but that just wasn’t the case for the most part.
Messias (5.5): He came on and actually made a difference instantly. He made sure Torino got the red card and opened up space for the Rossoneri. However, he also had a couple of poor efforts and crosses.
Giroud (4.5): He tried to complicate it too many times. Sometimes, the highlights-friendly flick isn’t always the best choice.
Hernandez (5.5): What you would expect from a left-back, but he had a few chances he perhaps could have done better with.
Bennacer (5): He was arguably too slow with his passing and that was exactly what Milan didn’t need, to be honest.
Calabria (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
That’s a harsh grade on Dest. I thought he was pretty good even playing out of position on the left, especially battling with Singo. He was good too when he got back to his right side.
I thought Dest and Tonali were our best players tonight.
The worst were Vranckx and especially Giroud.
Congrats to Torino they fought even with a man down and deservingly are going through. Juice coaches ugly football, but they are very compact defensively .
We need a playmaker , someone in the middle that can create and make the timely passes.
Agreed, Dest and Tonali tried hard. CDK wasn’t bad. Giroud was horrible; always trying to be too fancy and achieving nothing. 50 minutes with a man advantage and we couldn’t be clinical enough to score. We’re in trouble.
Totally agree, except i would throw cdk too in the worst category. It is what it is. Gotta make the best with what we have i guess. Too broke to make changes in the transfer window i guess.
I thought CDK looked a lot more comfortable out there today, until he got tired then it fell off very fast. He definitely doesn’t have 120 minutes in his legs.
Jesus that was embarrassing.
I’m not going to blame Pioli. We had 34 shots with 8 on target. This is on players and their attempt to half-ass their way to a win with horrible finishing and barely playing like they cared.
MOst of those shots were from 20 yards out and ended up about 20 rows into the seats. Of the on target shots almost all were straight at the keeper. I’m struggling to think of 1great save the keeper made this game.
Well, these are low salary players. You can’t expect show from them.
Tatarusanu – can play only in Milan. Not even in Lyon.
Dest long time ago deleted from Barcelona. Too expensive salary for player who barely play from bench.
Kalulu, Theo, Tomori, Bennacer, Tonali, Leao – all young players but with potential. You can see how World Cup manager handled Theo and Leao.
Giroud- is a veteran. Not for the first team but as a backup striker. Even in his best years, he was on the bench.
Messias, Saelemakers – who ?
De Keteleare – youngster.
Origi, Rebic, Maignan – always injured.
Krunic – I don’t know how we get that guy…
So we don’t have world class player in our only big potential players [some of them].
Potential is not equal to excellence. Some potentials never reach top class.
Once upon a time Pato was world class potential but never reach stars.
Why are you talking as if we just played against Bayern?
We just got knocked out by Torino, who recently lost their best player (Belotti).
This is same Torino where our own very own Pobega who shone in the midfield while on loan with them, the same Pobega who cannot earn a starting spot in our team right now.
This loss is completely unjustifiable by any ramification whatsoever, trying to justify it by hiding under “worldclass” players or their salary is very very lame, and as a fan you should expect more rather than looking for excuses.
Torino had no worldclass player, they were a man down, and their salary wage bill is considerably lower than ours.
Well said. There really ain’t no excuses to the defeat. Other than Torino being the far better team. TEAM. Not just random 11 blokes on the pitch doing whatever they feel like doing instead of collaborating with each other.
Of course Tonali gets man MOTM.LOL It’s comical.
I didn’t expect to win this match when I saw the starting lineups but after the red card and Milan put their starters in, I figured they should win. The really worrying part is that watching the game you would not be able to tell that Milan was playing 11 vs 10. Aside from the lack of any quality depth on this team, they have no identity, no gameplan on offense other than just whipping balls into the box and trying to shoot from 20 yards out. And you think a team who’s strategy seems to be crossing the ball in would be better at it. You’d think they would have some players that could deliver a decent cross. Nope. We need Ibra back in a hurry. Giroud was awful today and has looked tired and old since returning from the World Cup.
This was a perfect game for Lazetic to play.
Lazetic who actually has the fighting mentality and confidence, unlike CDK, who looks all around soft, mentally, and physically.
Nothing is more infuriating watching football when players can’t use their weak foot. The worst at it are Giroud ,Theo, Messias but now they are joined by CDK. How many times this year he was in position to pass or shoot with his right and instead of shooting he decides to switch to his left.
How do you train every day for 20+ years, in Giroud case for 30+ years, and you are still unable to use your weak foot.
Interesting all of them are naturally left footed.
Not bad from CDK, yet also poor, and frustratingly so! He is incredibly left-footed. I also got the feeling that he became more passive with the starters subbed on.
Unlucky
Dest was the only player with clear ideas. And he played two positions. Made a beautiful run that would probably have been a goal of Messias wasn’t a total moron. Very bad rating that makes wonder if you watched the full 90…
34 shots and only 8 on target is unacceptable.
Nothing of the long shots? So many attempts by Leao while Dest showed arguably a reason to sign him. Messias was awful in working with him and that’s I think the coffee off the problem.
We looked like individual players who tried doing what they can. We weren’t communicating well, we would trust each other enough, bar just a few moments between players we know work well together.
At this point I’ll rather see dest adapted to the right wing position, or I’ll even say adli or vranckx on the right. I’m tired of seeing saladmaker and messias play in this team. At least dest a does good thing with the ball and doesn’t pass it straight to the opponents and make them start a fast-break.
i hope they don’t trash CDK too early, we can learn from Paqueta, he exploded at Lyon after they trash him
Well, honestly pauqeta showed a sign of what he would become here and there. Overall disappointing time here, but you could see his great technique and vision. He lacks speed but makes up with with technique and good passing. We have yet to see that frim cdk.
A shame but, despite what Pioli said about the cup, it’s not our main focus and we did rest players.
The players who were given a chance didn’t take it but this shouldn’t rule them out in future.
It is up to Pioli to get more out of these players especially CDK.
Let’s see what happens against Lecce.
I share your vew here Maldinis Heir, its a shame because obviously it would be nice wining it but the fact that the last time we won coppa italia was in 03 and the previous one in 77 if i remember correctly should clarify how high this cup ranks for us,
Maldini was just being polite in regard of the tournaments value as i see it.
I’ll take a few positives from this match. several players who doesn’t play much got some extra minutes which overall should help us in the long run, CDK got a full match and truth be told he was once again unlucky not scoring.
Anyways no reason to completely give up as some of the other commenters in these threads seem to have done as the season isn’t even half ´through yet.
It should’ve been their focus. It’s probably the only chance they had at a trophy this season. Also, while they did rest players, they had all of their starters back in and were up a man after 70 mins and they still lost. Unacceptable. They don’t play as a team offensively, they have no real plan. Just different guys taking turns trying to do something.
The points we are behind napoli can fairly easily be caught up on, if i remember correctly then napoli is gonna meet juventus this weekend so potentially we will be down to 4-5 points already after this weekend or 3 ahead of juventus.
We havent even played half the serie a season so the scudetto fight is still more than open.
disapointing result nevertheless but not a huge issue being out of the coppa and it might even be beneficial considering our injury worries.
The BIG Problem is there are only few players who can F dribble thru opponent. We need to make someone movement not just passing. We are not even doing Tiki Taka passing style very much
So: coppa italia – out; scudetto – it’s for napoli to lose, which they won’t; champions league – tottenham will make mincemeat out of us next month; supercoppa – 50:50 since inter are as poor as milan.
If milan persist with their tok tok, tik tik, pik pik, pok pok style of play, we will get nowhere …. and with players like messias, saelemakers, giroud, ibra, dest, vranck – we will not impress at all.
Maldini/Massara must get a strong central attacker who can bang in the goals – an Osimhen to mention an example. Otherwise we should better go to sleep …
I once said this team doesn’t have a game plan or pattern of play, people criticized me. The issue is, if there’s a game plan even if your father is president of Milan, you will have to follow the game plan but what we have is individual moment of brilliance, no real teamwork and Tonali and Bennecer fighting to win all balls. Players ain’t making those one-two passes when necessary. It’s painful to watch
Aleluja been preaching this for some time now!! We are amazing at hard and fancy thing beating players (theo, leao,….) volley shoots and battling in the middlefield just flashy moves, that is unsustainable. But this team is atrocious at bassic footballing things like simple passes basic positioning in defence like controling the space not just running at attackers and trying to get the ball there are countless of moments in a game where our defence commits 2-3 player on a 50/50 ball and we don’t get the ball and they brake us down because we just opened huge amount of space for them for no reason at all. We suck and I mean suck dick at seat pices defence and attack, there is just no rehersed combination plays, none… And this is on Pioli last year I could say this is a new team they are still working on those things but come on we are even getting worst at all those things … Mark my words if this shit contionues we will struggle for top 4.
@ Dave…Game plan ? What if the opponent found out your game plan and neutralised all your move, what happens ?
We all just come to criticise the team once they carry a foot wrong.. Am not saying we don’t have issues right now.. The main problem is that the new players are not coming to par with the old players.
We have had scrappy wins for so long I cannot even count… I’m not just saying “game plan” because we lost today, I’m saying game plan because we are lacking it. We cannot manage games, even from a winning position we are still struggling (the Roma game for instance was not managed) we had no need looking for more goals at 80th minute just mover the ball round and kill the game(not our players to do this) the coach is to blame cus the players play to his instructions.
Our gamelan has been very simple… Magical Leao!
Have you ever seen a match where Leao was in his element and we lost?
We have been winning on individual performances of a few players like Leao, Theo, Tonali, just to name a few, we have never really played like a real team.
People with little understanding of football will quickly say, sell Leao, but it is only when we can play as a team, then we can survive the exit of Leao.
Some of us have been saying this since, but some got carried away because we won the league, these signs have always been there, when we were talking it was like we didn’t appreciate the success, but they fail to realise that the reward for success is more work, but the question is, how can you give more when you have nothing more?
Too harsh of ratings for Gabbia, Dest, and Giroud. Gabbia won most everything at him but gets docked because he’s not pirlo? What? Dest finally looks good and confident in a game and he gets knocked in the ratings?? Giroud tried too many flicks? What game did you watch? And messias made an impact? Lol. He was noticeable for a few moments then jist showed poor quality. This team won the scudetto on heart alone but that’s too hard to repeat 2 years running, now we’re seeing the wheels fall off and I honestly think we’ll struggle to stay in top 4.
Dest: his display on the left side was painful. You dare criticize the player but not the man who put him on that side. What is Pioli’s rating for that move?
This was a shambolic performance from AC Milan ..could not even win against ten men !
I am fed up with the critic’s of Olivier Giroud…
Always blame him ..Giroud is a top class player ,but you need the service to him ..why so many shots from long range ,,,Ac Milan were rushing to much .keletre is not a centre forward and never will be ,Giroud is but needs the correct service to him .Rafael leao again was not that good ,nor were the whole team ,but I am not a defeatist,and we will come good again soon .
We are trying to much ,and not relaxed on the ball…we have to be more patient with our build up play,then the goals will come again ,and Giroud will then be the hero and not the villain .
We have some very good players and yes a good management team …let’s get behind the team ..
Let’s see what the next three games will be .3 wins and opinions will change ..We are not out of the scuddeto..this cup defeat may even be a blessing .
Yeah. Giroud isn’t a magician who conjures chances out of nowhere. He needs service – and that is severely lacking.
Totally agree with your assessment of giroud. HE HAS BEEN LACKIMG SERVICE ALL SEASON LONG. For the love of god, he plays most of the game with his back in front of goal instead facing it when he gets service. The only am that we have to provide that service is diaz and he is average. Cdk is lost in that position currently. Its been our problem since the beginning. If nothing comes out from lw, leao and theo, we struggle to create. Thats how Chelsea and other teams shut us down. Its very predictable really.
Calabria and Bennacer were the only ones who did well. Messias wasn’t that bad either. And the rest? Below par. Nowhere near good enough. They all can do better.
Too bad Dest couldn’t hit an open net from 2 meters away and Vranckx seems to be a poor man’s Krunic – and not even good one. Not going even start with CDK and Pobega…
It’s so bloody evident that Milan needs more creativity on the pitch. Every attack/pass is so damn predictable and they lack the defense-breaking passes. There’s enough pace to run past the defenders (Theo, Leao, Messias etc.) but no one to make those passes. Except Adli. Who stays on the bench because he’s slow and can’t defend. But honestly, how does CDK differ from that? Slow and bad at defending. He just lack the creativity that Adli has.
Since Milan won’t be buying/loaning anyone our only hope is that Zlatan has an immediate impact, Rebic finds his best form and stays fit and Krunic gets well too. Things are really bad when this trident is pretty much our only hope for saving this season. Ah, let’s not forget about Kjaer. Anyone miss him? In contrary to some people here, Milan’s defense looks like Swiss cheese without Kjaer and leaks like hell. He’s the one most missed here.
*In contrary to some people’s opinions here…”
Expecting Ibra, Kjaer and Rebic to make milan a top team is just pie in the sky.
Much as i like milan, it seems that maldini/massara/pioli are possibly not the 3 gurus we made them to be last year!!!!! Also hate to admit but last year radu gave us a very big helping hand to win the scudetto …..
“Expecting Ibra, Kjaer and Rebic to make milan a top team is just pie in the sky.”
Well… We ain’t getting any help from the market and do you think CDK, Origi & rest will transform into something else? Hardly. At least the three I mentioned have performed extremely well when they were fit. The rest haven’t shown any signs of being good enough for the Serie A.
More Tonali fellation.