AC Milan secured their fourth consecutive win this evening as they beat Atalanta by two goals to nil. Junior Messias managed to get on target again and down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): It was a very calm evening for the Frenchman as Atalanta had zero shots on target, which is remarkable. We got to see a little of the goalkeeper’s passing, though.
Kalulu (7 – MOTM): He stayed close to his opponent and was always at the right place at the right time for Milan, not only stopping the attackers but also picking up loose balls. He was very good against Hojlund.
Thiaw (7): He was also asked with stopping Hojlund and he did that very well. In addition, he won many aerial duels and his role in the three-man backline is really coming along nicely.
Tomori (6.5): A good display from the Englishman but he wasn’t put under as much pressure as his colleagues, hence the slightly lower rating.
Messias (6.5): Once again, he got on the scoresheet with a lovely dink in the dying minutes of the game. It was a decent display besides that as well, although he did miss a big chance a few minutes before his goal.
Krunic (6.5): He was crucial many times in the defensive phase and remained calm when in possession. As we have become used to, he doesn’t complicate things but that in itself is a skill.
Tonali (6.5): A sweeper this evening with many good contributions both in defence and in attack. There’s not much more to say than that, but he did well.
Hernandez (7): It was a lovely strike from him to give Milan the lead, even if it will go down as an own-goal. He was also solid in defence and created some chances when going forward as well.
Diaz (6): Another mixed performance from him with some very good actions and also some poor ones. He always does well to get into position but the final touch is lacking, bar one occasion when he set Giroud up with a lovely backheel flick.
Giroud (6): He was really good in the first half in the hold-up play, pulling off the flicks and eventually assisting the opening goal. However, he missed too many chances in the second half and the game as a whole.
Leao (6.5): He’s starting to find his rhythm in the new role and while it’s clear he can be the one to guide Milan, there’s still some work to do. He missed a big chance in the second half and sometimes lost out, but he was still very good.
Substitutes
Ibrahimovic (6): It was really nice to see him back on the pitch after such a long time and he had a couple of good moments.
De Ketelaere (6): He had one classic lack-of-confidence moment but otherwise did well with his passing and positioning.
Rebic (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Saelemaekers (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
The whole game atmosphere changed when Ibra came on … certified legend !
No MOTM?
Pierre Kalulu
For me Thiaw.
Diaz got the same rating as CdK? Man, Diaz would have easily got 2 assists if it’s not for that couple of big misses. Also his passing accuracy rate was 96% today (27 / 28). That alone can tell his importance towards the system.
Yeah that’s why Pioli keeps using him because he’s Milan best AM right now. He keeps producing important chances but Giroud and Leao wasted all of the chance.
I can see Diaz became more dangerous if he have very sharp striker in front of him.
Pioli, if smart enough, can use Diaz as false 9. His physical is easily can bring penalties as well
Diaz is a terrible player. 90% of the time being poor doesn’t justify the one or two good or even great moments he might have once in a while. We already have Leao for that.
He was the worst player on the field today….because everybody played good football. Bcos he loses too many ball positions…. mostly in the first half.
I’m not sure which of the game you did see 😒😕
You don’t see the game isn’t it?
Someone didn’t watched the match
Yeah it’s crazy. Diaz should at least be a 7. Meanwhile Rafael “pay him anything he wants” Leao can’t hit the broad side of barn. Takes an extra touch when he shouldn’t, doesn’t take an extra touch when he should. We’ll be lucky to get 60-70m for him this summer.
Leao and Giroud needs to stop wasting chances. If both finish their job, Milan could win 5-0.
But this is still a very convincing win with the team played really well.
I give my salute for Krunic and Messias. Some fans keeps mocking them but both players keeps playing really well.
Nice to see Ibra back in the field too.
Krunic is a hero we don’t deserve. Too bad he’ll miss the game vs. Fiorentina. His partnership with Tonali is constantly improving game by game.
Agreed and yeah it’s very unfortunate with the yellow card.
Leao also can’t play for Fiorentina.
Who does this player ratings.This is our best game in this Change of System. Diaz is so important to this system. Can’t you see it clearly.How does CdK gets same rating as him. Great team display.
Actually, that’s exactly why the ratings are a bit more modest. It was a great team display, but no huge standouts.
Diaz got 6? What a joke.
Sending him back to madrid next season is going to be the best mercato of Maldini.
While diaz was running like a headless chicken and lost the ball immediately after he received the ball, CDK on the other hand was just lost in his head.
I can’t believe he was just jogging slowly when his teammates are on a counter attack, no sense of urgency, no sense of confidence whatsoever from CDK.
That was unacceptable
I literally lost count of how many balls Diaz lost, and yes I was counting.
God bless you 🙏….. too many loses
Were you counting the balls lost by Leao? How about his point blank misses?
Your point? He was talking about Diaz, I answered about Diaz. Because Leao was worse or just as bad we’re supposed to not talk about about Diaz? lol
The team were great, everybody played well except Diaz and Leao (even though he made yet another assist).
The point of the entire article is ratings. Therefore, I’m implying that Diaz’s rating should have been better. He should have had two assists. The fact the receiving players couldn’t finish is not his fault. Thus if Leao got a 6.5 for one assist despite missing two good chances and just dribbling into double coverage all game then Diaz deserves at least the 6. That’s my point.
I like it that we seem to be recovering what gave us the Scudetto last season: solid defense, and the offense although less good than the defense, manages to get different guys to step up and score one or two goals that see us through, producing narrow victories but they still count for the same 3 points. We got 4 consecutive wins, and 4 consecutive clean sheets. That’s encouraging after that horrible January, to say the least. Also, MIke being back multiplies our possessions given that he serves the ball back to the team better than Tata; not to forget that the defense is a lot calmer knowing that Mike is there. We’re still missing too many sitters but things are definitely improving again, injured players are recovering, and the fight for the top four now looks very feasible again (we won’t be catching Napoli, obviously; so what’s important now is to remain in the top four). Today the team was organized, pressing high, energized, and completely dominated a good Atalanta team; would have won by a larger score if not for the missed opportunities. Against Tottenham we can’t afford to miss so many so I hope this improves in another week.
I would give Pioli 10.
Even Massara told today he thinks formation change is not something that made difference at Milan after disaster start of 2023, Pioli change strategy and formation and that helped a lot.
Note to Massara: Milan does not have sufficient quality squad for player rotation every 3 or 4 days games. So If Pioli didn’t change formation we still would have disastrous results. Milan can change to previous formation after players catch the breathe and play game every seven days.
Too bad that Krunic and Rafa won’t play against Fiorentina. That was the more negative part of today’s satisfying game. Seeing Ibra and Mike back was great.
Very good game by the whole team.
I’ve never been a big fan of the 3-man defense, but I’m glad it’s working. Gives Theo a lot more freedom going forward.
Atalanta did absolutely nothing in today’s game. Our pressing game was awesome.
Krunic, Messias, and Thiaw were the best in this game for me.
I’m still mad at Pioli for not taking out Krunic after we went up 2-0. I’m also mad at krunic for a silly tackle that makes him unavailable for Fiorentina Hopefully, Bennacer is back.
Negative was the finishing and passing. Our passing is horrendous.
A lot of people disagree, but I believe that still our biggest need is a proper attacking midfielder that can pass the ball. Brahim isn’t that, CDK isn’t that, Krunic isn’t that. You put a technical n10 of the mold of Luis Alberto in that hole, someone that can make the pass on time, in stride, and this would be a much better team.
Our midfielders are just runners, including Bennacer, who has great ball control but can’t pass forward.
Yep. 1-2 creative midfielders are needed. Someone with skills to break defenses.
Agreed. There were a few occasions where I was like OMG a good through ball here or ball over the top there and we will be in on goal, and the pass never came. Kaka and Pirlo are extreme examples, but we need a player like them who has the vision to make (or at least attempt) that kind of pass. A player with half their skill would be a massive improvement over what we have now. Brahim should a couple of flashes today, the backheel to Giroud was great, but they are always random flashes with him. Not enough.
Tomori was put under less pressure?
Lol.. you’re joking, right?
For the entirety of the first half, Atalanta were attacking from their right side.
Tomori was far more under pressure than Kalulu. FAR more.
I think Tomori was MOTM.. hands down
Thiaw for me was MOTM. Completely schakled his man the entire game. And was able to take the necessary card when needed to..very smart.
The other stand out is Maignan. It’s such a night and day with him in goal.. everyone’s more confident that he would come to get the ball when needed to. He’s still rusty as shown by a few of his kicks but clearly he controls his area like a general and organizes the defence, something you can’t get with Trasharusanu. He also well positioned to receive passes from his mid like Tonali which also makes them comfortable in playing back to goal.
Otherwise it was an interesting tactic that they doubled on Krunic. I guess they knew Tonali wasn’t going to bring the ball up so they targeted him but Krunic had a very intelligent game, underrated performance. Was able to break the double team and the press or play the ball out to the correct player. Teams might be catching on to Tonali’s poor progressive passing.
Good performance and nice clean sheet 😀
Mike is amazing with his feet. He is so confident on the ball and his passing range with both feet is amazing. Specialy if you watched last CL round where you could see Alison and Courtois disaster class and Donaruma who might be even worst than Tata with his feet. He is such a big factor in our game.
Maignan (6) is actually a N/A. I only saw 1 team on the field and that was the strangest thing been a Champions league derby. Atalanta looked like they didn’t care at all. Not even a half the chance.
“Maignan (6) is actually a N/A.”
He gave more passes to teammates than Tata all season. Did you see his passing? Spot on almost every time (one goalkick went wide but that’s it).
Maignan give composure to the back 5 and that’s nice, but its clear as day he isn’t back to his best, yet. He has no save to make, so can’t comment too much on that, but his passing game is below par today y. He tried to do his previous progressive passes but it’s not connecting well this match. Hopefully he will improve.
Brahim isn’t the best, he lost a lot of possession, but atm he is far better than CDK. He tried a lot of things, and almost have some assists tonight, and he press opponent. Maybe he won’t stay with us beyond this season but at this moment, he is our player and give his all on the pitch. He deserve our support.
Forza Milan
The boys are back
1: Everyone was saying a few weeks ago we’re a shiddy mid tier team. Now we beat Tottenham and Atalanta all of a sudden everyone supports the team again.
2: Noone has taken time to acknowledge how our right wingers have come out of 2023 on top. Both Saelemaekers and Messias have been more than decent. Messias his main problem was defending, Saelemaekers his problem was attacking. Impressive defending workrate from Messias yesterday.
No one? Well you certainly didn’t read mine. Ever since I saw Messias in that right wing back position (for his first time vs. Spurs), I said he looked good, surely better than on the usual right wing post. Saelemaekers (who started as RB back then) also looked more decent.
And I also said it’d be a worrying thing to our captain if we keep using this formation. Can’t imagine our captain is the 3rd on pecking order. Moreover I think Florenzi will be great in that post as well. That leaves us to Dest, who’ll be such a 3-4 mil waste.
How can you say that Leao was good? apart of the assist for Messias, he was absolutely sh*t. Probably, his worse performance in this shirt.
The boy wants out. trade him for Diaz from Liverpool with extra money that can be spent on right wing
I agree. Time to sell Leao to a rich and foolish club to buy before his value tanks. The last several weeks he has done nearly nothing even though the team is flying.
He actually spent more time and energy on waving his arms and complaining to his teammates than playing! He’s disrupting the team spirit with his childish whinges.
Agreed. Sell to highest bidder in the summer. Promote Chaka Traore to LW and use the money on a good striker and CDM, the spine of the team and where we can see we’re really missing something. Then use the “normal” transfer budget on a RW and replacement CAM for Diaz (the Greek dude?).
Our entire defense was fantastic. Simple as that. Krunic a had a great match as well, he’s such an underrated versatile player. I also think this was CDK’s first decent performance which gives me hope we didn’t waste $30M. Maybe it was the Ibrahimovic effect?
On the negative side… What’s going on with Leao? Did he forget how to shoot? Even his runs are not that devastating anymore.
He wants more money. It shows he’s not interested in staying.
I was expecting higher ratings considering this was one of our best performances of the season and against a good team. I don’t understand the Diaz rating. He was one of our best players and on another day would have had an assist or two. Krunic and Tonali had their best game in a while which was great to see. Defensively, it was a dominant performance and another clean sheet. There should be at least one 8 in there.
Kalulu-Thiaw-Tomori. Wow! Could turn up to be one of those historic partnerships.
Mike in goal makes a huge difference. Sometimes even coming out on the same line as defenders to make a passing option.
Diaz is always losing balls. He has become an easy target for bullying actually.
CDK, sigh sigh sigh. Probably Pioli should consider starting both Salae and Messias ? At least with those two you are guaranteed workrate.
Or probably tweak things a bit with a 3-man MF, especially when Bennacer recovers.
And sell Leao already will you. A 36-37 year old Giroud is working harder and covering more ground than him.