Player Ratings: AC Milan 1-1 Cremonese – Diaz disaster; centre-backs trip

By Isak Möller -

AC Milan missed a plethora of chances and thus claimed just one point from their game against Cremonese this evening. Several players were subpar and down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri. 

Starting XI

Maignan (6): He couldn’t do anything about the goal and apart from that, he was solid both in his goalkeeping and also his passing.

Calabria (5.5): Not his best display as the feeling was the he could have done more when moving forward with the ball. Strong in 1v1s at the back as usual, though.

Kalulu (4.5): He started the game with a lovely assist for Saelemaekers, but the goal was disallowed. Then, on Cremonese’s goal, it was really poor defending from him especially since he took out his own teammate (Thiaw) in that situation.

Thiaw (5.5): He was probably one of the best if not the best Milan player out there up until the goal. But he arguably made a big mistake on that along with Kalulu, even if the latter was worse.

Ballo-Toure (5.5): Just like Calabria, not a disastrous display but he also didn’t add enough for Milan when going forward.

Vranckx (5): The passing was too poor from him this evening and aside from a few good turns, it was a disappointing evening indeed.

Bennacer (6): It was strange that Pioli took him off at half-time, seeing as the Algerian dictated the play and did so well. Hopefully, he didn’t pick up an injury or something.

Saelemaekers (6.5 – MOTM): He was very bright from the beginning and the disallowed goal was almost perfect (only his shoulder was offside). He created the most chances for Milan this evening and looked great on the ball. He should have had an assist when Diaz somehow missed.

Diaz (4.5): How did he miss? Point-blank range, he just needed to keep the header down. It cost Milan the win and he also missed another good chance shortly after that.

Origi (6): A huge step forward for the former Liverpool man this evening as he not only created a few chances with some quick turns, but also had a couple of efforts that troubled the goalkeeper.

De Ketelaere (5.5): He looked more confident out there tonight as he at least made himself more available and managed to hold onto the ball. But he missed a big 1v1 chance in the first half, although it was a good intervention by the keeper too.

Substitutes

Krunic (6): He came on and did well in replacing Bennacer as he immediately took control of the game. He had a really good effort that was saved well by the keeper in the dying seconds.

Giroud (5): Not enough off the bench from the experienced striker.

Leao (5.5): He did really well to set Diaz up a few minutes after coming on but he then proceeded to fail with all of his crosses.

Tonali (6): He did his job in the minutes he had on the pitch.

Messias (6): Could have been a shout for MOTM (I guess) seeing as he won the free-kick and then converted it, although it took a deflection on the way. He got the goal by the league, though.

Tags AC Milan AC Milan Player Ratings Cremonese

117 Comments

      1. 😀…this is so stressful. The fact that our subs don’t offer anything. We can’t keep on using Leao and Giroud all season. Hope our lack of depth is noted.

  1. I can’t even… Jesus Christ.

    What do we expect with clowns like Diaz playing for Milan? Our squad bar 12-13 players are made up of ABSOLUTE CLOWNS.

    We better sell Mike. That boy deserves to play in the Champions League.

  2. before everyone hates on CDK for missing the chance. I agree it should’ve been a goal, but you can’t blame him entirely for the match lost. He actually seemed like one of the bright spots bar the missed chance. CDK in the later stages was looking good in the ball even with stupid players like Origi and Vrancx. Diaz was totally muscled off the ball. Its best for all parties that he returns to Madrid. Way too inconsistent.

    The amount of chances we give to Brahim with better players like Leao and Giroud should be given to CDK asw.

    1. Exactly, tbh I was satisfied with the performance of cdk today but Pioli was an absolute donut with his subs. Ofc tho everyone will stay hating on cdk like he’s the reason for all of this but that’s obviously because half of these fans don’t know what they’re talking about

    2. Origi wasnt that bad today
      But i wouldnt keep him
      Vranckx made some good passes but is still to green behind his ears
      Cdk looked indeed much better today but is still far from his form at bruges

  3. This game is on pioli. There’s two things. One, the quicker you find out that every remaining game is considered a final the better for everyone involved. Secondly, we have zero depth. What is with the heavy rotation in a game that must be won right away then you can look to take out players. We can’t seem to figure out how to break down teams who defend which is again on pioli. This can be our season up in the air for stupidity. Meanwhile inter gain momentum as they start demolishing teams. These are dark dark days for milan and time is running out. Absolute shame for all involved

    1. If we lose against Inter in CL this season is a disaster and some one has to take responsibility… We are most likely not playing in CL next year this became clear against Roma but Pioli still rotated in this game all our remaining game are like a Final because Pioli put us and this mess but hey lets rotate for fuck sake they are professional athletes they can play 2 games in a row… it scares me how many players we will lose this summer back to eating dirt I guess..

  4. Pioli should be crucified for fielding such 11 at this crucial time of the season. It shows he doesn’t fit in to be a Milan manager. A manager that know what he is doing must field in his best 11 and then sub in average players to close the game off.

    1. Exactly!! Why you saving players for Lazio? The points count the same. Even fielding best 11 against lazio doesn’t guarantee a win but you throw away points beee. Why?!

    2. The players he fielded are aupposed to beat a relegation bound team. You guys are saying complete stupidities.

      When a manager rotates his team and cant win against a b league team, that is on the players, not your coach. The players didn’t execute, the coach keeps saying they lack finishing skills, every analyst says we finish chances, it isn’t coaching, it is a lack of ability. You can’t teach players how to score. Only idiots in this comment section blame rotating our squad. We don’t, we get our players injured. Any top 10 clubs second squad should beat a Serie B team. Our players couldn’t, they were in positions to do it. The coach made the right calls, had a good plan. They failed to execute when it mattered. That lack of depth falls on our OWNERS that CHEAPED OUT THIS SUMMER AND WINTER.

      1. No, it’s on Maldini who depleted the depth on this team so badly that we can’t even beat a B league team when resting starters.
        Also , the rating for Vranckx is harsh. He and Bennacer bossed the midfield in this game. And of course Tonali gets a 6 for doing nothing. “Did his job” ? What exactly is that?

      2. “When a manager rotates his team and cant win against a b league team, that is on the players, not your coach. The players didn’t execute, the coach keeps saying they lack finishing skills, every analyst says we finish chances, it isn’t coaching, it is a lack of ability.”
        It’s the coaches job to get the best out of each player. Has Pioli managed to do that with CDK, Origi etc.? F*** no! Why didn’t he react sooner as everyone knew the starting 11 wasn’t going to score? Why sub Bennacer first when the issues were elsewhere?

        “You can’t teach players how to score.”
        LOL, what a load of BS. You definitely can!!! Scoring is something that can be teached and practised. It won’t happen in a week or a month but that is definitely something that can be teached and practised.

    3. Well, a manager’s job is strategy. From this point, Pioli reached his objectives. We had many chances to score. It is not Pioli’s legs that missed those opportunities.

    4. What frustrates me is that we haven’t been THAT bad in these instances where we’ve played most of our bench players. We dominated the game, and should have been up 2-0 by the time Cremo scored their goal. We just can’t finish, and that’s not a rotation problem, it’s a team problem, as even when we play our best players we have games where we don’t score. The same thing happened at Bologna. We were the better team, and we had even more bench players starting then and Bologna is a much better team than Cremonese. What have here is not a quality issue, but a mentality/tactics issue. THIS is what falls squarely on the coach. Rotation is not the problem, it’s execution by those players.

      1. Yes, but that was predictable. None of the players he had on the pitch are finishers. There are 3 finishers on this team. Ibra, Giroud and Leao. Messias is probably 4th best finisher but he wasn’t out there either. And Leao creates most of the opportunities for others, so With none of those guys out there, it was never going to happen.
        The scary part is that Pioli still hasn’t learned this from the previous 4 games he has tried this and it didn’t work. Start Leao and Giroud, get a lead and then rest them at halftime.

        1. You’re probably right, but even Leao missed wide from 6 yards out. At least put the ball on frame FFS.

  5. 1. The most obvious: We have no bench. Just a bunch of clowns.

    2. We basically can’t hurt a fly on set-pieces, despite the goal tonight.

    3. We have zero long shot takers in the squad. Can barely score a couple of goals from outside of the box, if any. Specially after that Snake left Milan.

    4. We have zero creative players to give defense splitting passes.

    Of course we struggle against 11 behind the ball. When we start with our best 11 we have a chance to win, and even then it’s not gonna be a walk in the park. Otherwise it’s a remote idea to even think about a win.

    God help us cause even Lazio and Juve will defend with numbers now, because they are ahead and they can.

    1. “2. We basically can’t hurt a fly on set-pieces, despite the goal tonight.”

      Depends on the set-piece giver. Bennacer’s corners and freekicks were all headed away by the 2nd or 3rd closest white shirt. No exceptions. But then again, anyone who has paid attention to these things during the last 2 years knew that already. He finds a teammate once a year.

      Once Saelemaekers started to give the corners the ball actually landed on much more dangerous areas and as a icing on the cake, Messias scored from the freekick.

      And this is also one thing I blame Pioli for. He has seen hundreds of incredibly horrible set-pieces from both Tonali & Bennacer yet Pioli insist these two keep taking them. I say, if 100 cornerkicks stop on the second or third opponent each time, it’s time to let someone else take the corners. It’s not rocket science FFS.

    2. “We have zero long shot takers in the squad” Correction:
      We have zero long shot makers in the squad. Plenty of takers. Everyone trying and hitting it 20 rows into the stands. Krunic shooting from 30 yards out like he has any chance.

  6. Kalulu is too one dimensional kind of player to be a CB (at least at the 4 back formation). He doesn’t have that positioning sense with his CB partner. From the start of the season we can see it. This match surely validates it.

  7. Same ol same ol’
    Based on how we have played in 2023 we don’t deserve to be in Europe next season at all, let alone in UCL. We have been one of the worst teams in serie A this calendar year.
    I remember posting our record of 2023 this week and saying we are more likely to finish 7th than in top 4 and few people were saying I’m writing stupid BS. And where is that one guy that was calling few of us that were realistic “the doom and gloom” group.
    18 serie A games in 2023, only 6 wins.
    At the same time Inter is playing their best football a week before the UCL semis.
    Forza Milan, but we need a miracle 🙏

    1. I would add that we have been bad the whole season.
      People forget that we got saved vs the worst team in the league Sampdoria because of a penalty that none of our players called for on the field.
      We got saved in the last seconds vs Empoli (Ballo Toure), vs Spezia(Giroud) vs Fiorentina(own goal by Milinkovic).
      We should be on the same points as Bologna and Fiorentina. And the quality of our squad is on that level.
      This is what happens when you keep losing your best players for free and replacing them with their back ups or players from relegation teams in France and Germany. This is what happens when you go into the season with only 1 striker who is 36 years old.
      For anyone calling for Pioli to be fired, make sure you pack Maldini’s suitcases as well.
      In mo way shape or form Maldini gets to keep his job and Pioli gets fired. He set this team up for failure with his incompetence and amaterusm. But let me stop before his cult members get in their feelings 😤

    2. Inter knows how to keep their momentum and mentality up before that life important match. While us, keep loosing our identity and points.

      1. Inter are very mentally weak squad. They get that from their coach. Last year they literally gifted us the scudetto. They lost the derby in 3 minutes, in which they dominated, and totally crumbled the rest of the season.
        They are not a mentally strong team, but at the moment they are playing very well and we are playing very bad

        1. They have a better bench than ours. Hell most of seria a teams have a better bench. We played with 1 forward the whole season, no real am. With 3 midfielders, and everytime one of them got benched we suffered. No real deputy to theo and leao, dont even wanna go to tata when mike was injured. Sorry a team cannot compete for schudeto with mediocre bench, let alone champions leauge and the cup. Depth problems fall on menagment plain and simple. We can kiss top 4 goodbye now.

          1. “They have a better bench than ours.”

            Let’s be honest, most of their subs are better than our starting players.

      1. I’ll be happy either way.
        I don’t gain or lose anything if Milan finishes top 4 or finishes 7th.
        It’s 2 hours of entertainment.

          1. “You are being sarcastic right? Cause, no true fan would say that..”

            Let’s just say I wouldn’t call myself a fan if I felt like Z over there.

  8. What exactly is Adli’s offence? I’m just curious. CDK, is a total disaster and should stop been a footballer.
    Vracknx is not matured yet, too many loop holes from him.
    Kalulu, very awful and unprofessional of him.
    Diaz performed below par and Benecer
    Balo Toure always fidgeting on the ball, I don’t know why he can’t learn from Theo.

    We saw it coming, and it happened. I’m not surprised.

    1. It’s the hair. Pioli lacks it and Adli has too much. Only logical reason for not giving him a chance while CDK & Origi have gotten waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more they’ve deserved.

  9. The problem is everything; Cheap Stingy owners, poor buys by Maldini and Massara, Pioli’s idiocy, and the useless bench (and some starting) players. We got lucky winning Serie A last season and got lucky with the draws in the Champions League to have gotten to the semis. This season was a golden opportunity to solidify us into a regular title contending team and get us competing in the Champions league by building up the squad, getting a good coach, and securing a stadium but we’ve done none of that and have most likely set ourselves back years with this disastrous season

  10. In my opinion, Pioli’s future is secured for next season and that’s why we’re chasing Champions League at the expense of top four. Pioli wouldn’t rotate otherwise and I refuse to blame the coach when the forwards cannot finish. You could even see his frustration with them. They always overcomplicate matters, all of them. Three of our last four goals came from having bodies in the box and sending in a decent cross. Too many flicks, too many touches, wayward passing, no ability to shoot from distance. I feel bad for Thiaw who was having an amazing game until the goal. He’s one for the future though. It was nice to see CDK showing signs of life tonight as well. A full preseason and three to five starts in a row and he’ll be fine.

    1. Pioli may be secured for next season but Leao isn’t. Not too mention offers that WILL come in for players like Maignan, Theo, and Tomori if we don’t have European football to offer them.

      1. We will loose so many players this summer I don’t even want to think about it… Back to eating dirt I guess…

  11. MOTM to Saelemaekers?! I can’t for the life of me understand what some fans see in him. He can’t shoot, he can’t pass, he can’t defend, he certainly can’t dribble (Napoli goal doesn’t count, because they didn’t take him seriously.)

    He’s the most over-appreciated player in this team because Milan always struggle when he plays. What are his qualities?

    1. He played one of his best matches in a Milan shirt. Too bad he was surounded by a bunch of idiots. Put a ball on a platter in front of an open goal for that clown Diaz.

      I don’t know what match you were watching.

  12. Playing side ways passes and keeping possession without penetration is not good tactic or football. Pioli is leading Milan backwards
    I now join #PIOLIOUT# Champaign
    Definition of stu***dity is trying the same thing all over every time and be expecting different result/outcome…. This is my summary of Pioli and his selection and tactic.

  13. Once again Diaz showing that hes not worth keeping third season with us and once again played like 5 games really well and then his fanboys show saying we sould keep him at any cost but right after he plays well in 2 games he then goes into invisible mode for the next 10 games and his fanboys are nowhere to be seen!And he only plays that much because Pioli is the coach would we have any other coach and after is first loan season he would be gone to Madrid!

  14. Winning the serie a last season, make is think that Milan is progressing but in actual fact we are regressive under Pioli, I wish and pray that he would be sack come end of the season unless Milan will become middle table club.
    I now join #PIOLIOUT# Champaign
    90% of Milan draw and lost has been against defensive team even last season and the great Pioli have not find solution to beat them.

    1. Pioli the clown does it again! Salernitana, Empoli, Cremonese. He fields a team without any of our threats like Leao, Theo, Giroud. He expects the Belgian clown duo to score. When that doesn’t happen, he waits too late to bring in the real threats. Then the panic sets in as the clock runs out. Why not start them and take them off once we are up by 2-3 goals?

  15. I really want to know what these guys do in training, someone should educate me. Cus WTF poor passing, lacking ideas our set pieces has been shit for so long and the coach and players have made no effort to improve.

    I seriously don’t know what’s up with the coaches substitution, this match didn’t need a Giroud, taking out Bennercer and bringin Krunic I didn’t know what the coach wanted to achieve. We need a decent coach who knows what he is doing technically…

    1. When I saw krunic coming in for bennerce u was wow, do we want to defend or what… Pioli is middle table club coach and he should leave the longer he stays Milan will be middle table club as well. No wonder, last season was the first time he won trophy in his career

    2. Yeah… “We need a goal. What to do? What to do??? Oh, I know!!! Let’s bring in Krunic! He will save us all with his magical attacking flair and gifts!”

  16. I’m not too surprised about the result but the question is:
    1. why Mr. Pioli Prioritizing champions league ahead of top 4 when we are the weakest team of all 4 teams left, I just pray miracle happens because with his team selection we’ll not make Europe next season.

    2. Even teams with better squad depth whom are also playing in Europe are fielding their best players why can’t he??

    3. How bad must Adli be for him not to get a look at even as a fringe player??

    Like I said I hope miracle keeps coming our way in the champions league.

    Forza Milan

  17. Back to the banter era, my friends. The worst part is that Inter will knock us out of this season’s CL and next season’s! #pioliTheClown

  18. Very damaging result for our top 4 aspirations!
    How can our reserves be so bad.
    Last summer transfer window continues to haunt us.

    1. Even our starting eleven is bad to be honest.. there’s this careless attitude with the team that makes me dislike Pioli. Once we are 1-0 up the team just goes into a nonchalant mode, even at 0-0 there’s no urgency until 70th minutes and I’m alway bewildered

      1. “Even our starting eleven is bad to be honest..”

        Sure. But let’s be honest. Was it worse than Cremonese’s? No. Even all the cdks, origis, saelemaekersis, diazes etc are better (at least on paper) than the Cremonese players.

        There are NO EXCUSES for not winning matches like these even with the b-squad.

  19. Saelemaekers and Thiaw were impressive. We have to be patient with CDK, again showing his class.

    I think Balo hasn´t got the potential.

    1. His class? You made my day, bro. I haven’t laughed this hard in a while! Giving the ball away almost every time and not scoring sitters. Classy indeed.

      1. You must’ve not watched the cremonese game he was one of the best players yesterday. He created chances and finally RAN to the ball.

        But somehow Pioli subbed him instead of Diaz. I and the TV commentator both didn’t understand at all.

  20. #pioliout Will be there. Just be patient let’s just fv*king wait and see after 2 matches against Internazionale merda in ucl this month

  21. Diaz back to the same old garbage and showing why NOT to buy him.

    Pioli with the same mistakes again. IF you don’t have the players CHANGE the formation.
    I think it’s extremely difficult to make ANY European football next season.
    Pioli needs to go and management MUST explain WTF.

    1. Pioli’s lacking creativity bring the club’ into jeopardy not participating in ucl next season. How come you gamble with young raw players

  22. they got to finish all this chance inside the box they’ve created. and stop sending the ball to the stand from outside of the box. the fans at the stand not someone to pass to. even if they (the fans, spectator at the stand) score a goal it won’t be counted. so players got to stop passing the fans the ball. god, this match is so winnable (like every other match) if only they finish every chance they created.

    1. This. The finishing is atrocious. Everyone jumps on CDK, but Leao, Diaz and others missed chances. Leao from 6 years out and enough time to place the shot fire wide. How is this possible? At least shoot the ball on frame and force the GK to make a save or a defender make a block. Either it goes in or they block it, but shots off target have no chance.

    1. Even if we knock Inter out (not likely) we will get destroyed by City (or even Real). And we are in deep trouble in the fight for top 4. Only 4th place is reachable but Inter and Atalanta are playing much better than us.

  23. It crystallises the extent to which even our best performances this year are unsustainable in the league.

    We look good against sides that don’t play low blocks such as Napoli. When the opposition parks the bus we don’t have the range of passing in the middle of the park to unlock even a weak defence.

    Brahim seems to work in space and may well work as a right winger. A Bennacer, Tonali and Kruinc type of midfield might work in the UCL but it is not a dangerous enough attacking threat for the league when you need to just be able to score and collect points against poor to average teams.

    It would be the height of madness of rely on Brahim and CDK as the AMs for next season.

  24. Kalulu needs a rest. His form hasn’t been good lately. And the CDK experiment needs to stop.

    Man, I’m so glad many of you are (most likely) not in management positions. Holy smokes. Every little draw or bad game, you go beserk and pioliout creeps up. I mean I agree with some points but u gotta support the team and the coach. Look at what he’s doing with a team of 12 players. 🤷‍♂️
    Other team drop points and no one bats an eye. It’s a competitive top 2-7. It is what it is. I still believe we’ll make top 4 and UCL finals.

    1. You’re in for a rude awakening, my friend. I envy your faith in this mediocre coach, and hope you’re right.

      1. Pioli’s mistake is conceptual. If you rotate 2 players you still have your team, you can win and your subs are mproving. If you change 5 players you have no team anymore and you destroy your subs.

      2. Lol Pioli is not mediocre, some of his players are and he’s trying to get the best out of them and show some trust. Whether he’s native on this end is up for debate but he knows the players. I think however that the problem is specifically CDK and playing him in a role that’s crucial for goal development. I think it would a different outcome if he didnt start.

        I’m calm, there are games to play. No need to get panicky, panic doesn’t bring home points. I agree with oversubbing though

    2. “Look at what he’s doing with a team of 12 players. 🤷‍♂️”

      Are you really saying Cremonese has better players than Milan’s yesterday’s starting 11 was? If you are, you are far to delusional to even post something like this here.

      Even all the cdks, origis, saelemaekersis, diazes etc are better (at least on paper) than the Cremonese players.

      There are NO EXCUSES for not winning matches like these even with the b-squad.

      1. I noticed you’re “right” after every loss or draw against a small team. So bask in your glory now and then disappear when we win vs a big team like Napoli. Cheers 😁

        1. “So bask in your glory now”

          Nope. I f*cking hate it when I’m right about these things. Why the f*** would “bask in” it? I live and breathe with Rossoneri and hate not winning these matches.

          Cheers.

  25. Calm down guys. Stay optimistic finish in top 4 serie A and go to final CL . AC Milan only 2 points below rank 4 . I agree pioli must out if AC Milan 0 trophy this season and failed to secure top 4 serie A but it is not fair if just pioli and his staff responsible with this, Maldini & Massara must out too because their disaster buying/sign player this season . We cannot change the owner ( imposible to change Elliot & RedBird ) so only pioli & staff with Maldini & Massara will take responsibility if AC Milan failed to participate in CL next season. Overall we need young prolific striker to benched giroud next season and get rid origi & Rebic , dont buy Brahim next season ( he is worst versus team play defensive) but sign ziyech or orsolini for RW to service new striker

    1. New kids these days. Go to panic mode from the slightest bump in the road. I don’t know how they function.
      There are still games to play and head to head for teams above up meaning there are still potential for leapfrog games. Absolutely no need to panic

  26. Game after game it is becoming obvious that this seasons failure is due to the bench players lacking quality. Drawing and losing to lower tier teams just means Milan has no reliable team depth. Very disappointing season in the league furthermore there is the risk of missing out on Champions League next season.

  27. No, Maldini and Massara should not be replaced after ONE bad transfer window, not should Pioli be fired after winning the scudetto and getting to the last 4 of the UCL years ahead of schedule. Missing out of UCL next season won’t make a difference because of the revenues generated this year. Thiaw, Saelemaekers and Krunic are big pluses and Saelemaekers should get the starting spot at RW. Of course, management cannot screw up the transfer window this summer. Hopefully, they will have learned from their mistakes and target more proven players and less projects. Pioli must also integrate some of the Primavera into the first team squad. Coubois, Traore and El-Hilali are better than the crap that comes off our bench.

    1. Missing CL next season are disaster. Not only leao will refuse renew,we will hard to sign player if we play on europa league.

      1. Leao will renew regardless and we cannot compete for UCL players anyway, we can’t pay EPL wages so it doesn’t make a difference. We’re not in the market for players like Kolo Muani or Kane, we’re in the market for players who aren’t UCL proven.

  28. Maybe its better we failed to qualify for UCL so i can see Pioli out, imagine taking off our best player at Saelemaekers and left the donkey like Origi and Diaz, and both Kalulu and Thiaw for not being able to guard one player despite outnumbered him just outrageous, and people think we could beat M city and Madrid with this shits? hell even Inter would destroyed us mark my words.

  29. Saelemaekers should start as an ACM
    While messias should take on the RW
    Kalulu should never play as a CB,at least we have
    Gabbia,I think he should be given the chance.
    Since coming back from injury kalulu has change in his performace

  30. Pioli loves Diaz and so does Diaz. They are meant to be together forever and ever after they retire period

  31. I watched a video on YouTube on what went wrong with Milan in 2023. And it came down to too many players making silly mistakes that cost us the games. After watching it I got my answers. And if we do not do something about squad depth we will always play 2nd fiddle to Inter. And let’s hope we have a proper strategy going into the semifinal (along the lines of the Hotspurs, Napoli games).

  32. sold out against empoli and cremonese, remember these days will not happen for 5-10 years – thanks to managment

  33. CDK was terrible..my God in heaven!!!..I was so pissed watching him play…. piolo was supposed to hook him off at first half

  34. Pioli’s problems..

    1. Too slow to learn. It took him 3 years to finally realize the only thing good about Krunic is his workrate and defense. I wonder how long will it take for him to realize Brahim is U$ELESS at everything except RW.

    2. Our players are constantly making armature 4th division mistakes… mistakes once in a while is not a problem.. but mistakes happening over and over again. Namely tomori, thiaw, Kalulu, rebic, Giroud, Diaz, Saele…They pass aimlessly into NOWHERE FOR NO REASON WHIMSICALLY! If you even look before you pass.. there is NO WAY YOU MAKE THESE $TUPID PASSES. Our coaching staff is so technically inept that they cant train these players to pass correctly let alone teaching these players to advanced passing or 1-2-1s.

    3. Subs… My god the subs are godawful from Pioli. The team was playing fine in the first half, we had so many chances.. it was evident that the midfield and defense was doing there job perfectly. It was the attacking players that fell short and subs were needed there…! Instead Just when we needed to score.. Pioli takes off the best player on the pitch for… Krunic whose only ability is to break opponents play while Ben/Vrankxx was dominating the field and Salernitana were unable to attack anyway. Makes ZERO sense. Once Ben(46′) and Vrankxx(75′) was off, guess what happened. lol YES.. Salernitana scored. Because neither Tonali nor Krunic has ANY idea how to attack and both excel insanely at AIMLESS backpassing, we didn’t create ANYTHING except that one Leao chance.

    On the bright side CDK had a good game.

    Anyway.. Forza Milan.

    1. “Because neither Tonali nor Krunic has ANY idea how to attack and both excel insanely at AIMLESS backpassing, we didn’t create ANYTHING except that one Leao chance.”

      Indeed. And the Leao chance you mention wasn’t really CREATED. It was one ball thrown into the box. No “creating” needed.

      1. Are you serious?! What is “creating” in your opinion? When Leao has done that same move hundreds of times and created countless goals exactly like that? He absolutely knew where he was sending the ball and who he was targeting.

        If you don’t like a player, fine, but “try” to be fair at the very least.

        1. “Are you serious?! What is “creating” in your opinion? When Leao has done that same move hundreds of times and created countless goals exactly like that? ”

          I guess we’re not talking about the cross that landed on Leao’s feet and he shot it wide.

    2. Yep. While we do need to bring in better players in certain positions (ST, RW, maybe CM), I’m becoming more convinced that Pioli has taken this squad as far as he can take it. Odd to say, given that we’re in the CL semis, but a lot of that can be put down to favorable outcomes in the probability of success (almost the inverse is happening in the league), i.e., matchups, events on the pitch, etc. It’s clear we have a shallow squad, and until that gets addressed we have to err on the side of continuity. That is, we need to be top 4 in the league always. You can’t take the next step if you’re not. While it’s sexy to be in the CL semis and until we’re eliminated there is always the chance we will win it, it can’t come at the cost of not participating the following year if we don’t. Because if we take two steps back at the expense of trying to take a step forward that we’re not ready for, the two steps will become three because perhaps we don’t make it back into the top 4 for another while because we have less funds and players aren’t as attracted to the project due to missing out on the CL in the first instance. I don’t know what decision make progress is in effect here, but if it’s mostly on Pioli for the personnel decisions, over the reservations of management then he needs to go if this fails. If it’s both Pioli and management then some sort of reckoning needs to happen for both. I think this will probably remain unclear. What is clear are your points, which does clearly fall on coaching/training. Players can be taught movement and passing. This happens all the time. Exhibit A is Lazio under Sarri. It’s many of the same players he inherited, but after one season of learning his style of play they’re like a different team. So the club will need to think very hard about making a coaching change this summer even if Pioli manages a top 4 finish in the end, unless he wins the CL outright. The latter scenario is the only one to earn him an unquestionable return to the bench for 23/24, and it is the least likeliest to happen.

  35. The problem is that Pioli won his first title last year. So he feels like he Owes the players that won him the title something.
    Thats why all new players have flopped because if they don’t play like Messi then they will benched for players like Saelemaekers, Messias, Diaz, Rebic.
    They can have 9 bad games and 1 good game but the new players can have 9 good games and 1 bad then pioli would benched them.
    Look at the game CDK played better than Diaz but got subbed off.
    The players we bought are talented but Pioli use them at the same time so everyone of them have becomes little bit selfish so they get more game time. A top coach would start with Leao CDK Giroud and Diaz on the right wing and Krunic and Tonali. Calabria Thiaw Kululu and Theo with Maignan. When we score then you can take off Giroud, Leao, Theo, Krunic because Tonali is suspended against Inter and Diaz.

  36. Salemaker Is the worst tonight. Just kept running everywhere.
    Wants to take free kicks, corners, was just a busy body. No single defensive contributions.
    Just a waste of space.
    Messaiss came in an balanced the right wing.

    1. Of all the horrible takes in this comment section, this has to be the worst one.
      Salad literally delivered it on a silver platter on 3 different opportunities.

      1. Actually it’s been ages since we’ve seen this good corners. Saelemaekers delivered more decent crosses during one match than Benny & Tonali has managed combined all season. That’s how bad Milan’s set-pieces are / have been.

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