AC Milan claimed three crucial points against Spezia this evening and it was a hard-fought win, to say the least. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Tatarusanu (6): Ultimately ended up making a couple of good saves and it was a very nice finish by Daniel Maldini on the goal. Just a pass, though, as the goalkeeper had a couple of shaky moments.
Kalulu (6): Nearly gifted Spezia a goal with a huge mistake but redeemed himself with a good performance overall. Nothing spectacular, but he worked hard in both phases.
Gabbia (6): Solid at the back and quite good with his passing this evening. He won many of the physical duels but also struggled on a few occasions. But decent.
Tomori (6): Should have done much better with a finish in the first half, but his defensive display was solid. Committed the foul before Tonali’s disallowed goal but that was a harsh call anyway.
Hernandez (7 – MOTM): Very good display from him this evening, bagging the opening goal after a great run into the box. It could have been more from him but sometimes the distribution was lacking.
Krunic (6): Perhaps should have done better on Spezia’s goal as he was the one on Maldini, even if the finish came quickly. Otherwise a solid display with a couple of great passes and balls won back.
Bennacer (6.5): Started the game really well and the pass for Theo was just fantastic. It’s a shame he was a bit too reckless and got himself a yellow card, he would have been useful in the second half.
Messias (6): A good display on the right flank even if he didn’t have a hand in any of the goals. But there were some good intentions and moves, enough to give him a pass.
Diaz (5.5): He had a few really good quick turns, somehow keeping the possession, but his final ball was lacking in every situation today. Which was a shame.
Leao (6): Not his finest display but he had a couple of good runs, especially one which Tomori really should have converted.
Origi (5.5): Tried a lot and was always on the move, but he didn’t have an impact on the game in the end. He has to step up against Cremonese next week as Giroud is suspended.
Substitutes
Tonali (7): A very good display off the bench with an absolute rocket (disallowed for a foul in the build-up by VAR) and a fine assist for the winner.
Rebic (5.5): Not great from the Croatian, it must be said.
De Ketelaere (5.5): Too shy in his playing style and got ‘bullied’ quite a few times.
Giroud (6.5): Scored the all-important winner but was also stupid enough to take off his shirt when he was already on a yellow. The first card was also very unnecessary, and it’s clear the red card affects his rating. The finish was sublime, by the way.
Thiaw (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Some fleas over here have a problem with every Italian player. I hope they did see Tonali today. Came off the bench, played like a metronome, shot a banger(unlucky) and the last pass to Giroud was out of this world. For that matter even Maldini’s goal was sublime. If anyone is over rated in this team is the pairing of Kalulu and Tomori. They instill 0 confidence.
Kalulu was a left beck, has been since the captain has been out. However, tomorrow is shaky af this season.
Stop trying to make everything about nationality. It’s a fact that Italy doesn’t have great players in this generation, and Tonali is no exception. A good second-half doesn’t change that. He’s overrated.
“Stop with nationalities.” “Italians are not great.”
Do you realize how contradictory you are?? You cancel yourself in 2 sentences.
If anyone, you make it all about nationalities.
“Stop trying to make everything about nationality. It’s a fact that Italy doesn’t have great players in this generation, and Tonali is no exception.”
And THAT’s how you burn yourself! LOL.
Tonali is not overrated, CDK is overrated
This is kne team. Stop singling out Italian players for praise. It is arrant nonsense in sports!
Happy for the win, but this team needs to get their sh*t together. You need to put teams away, they won’t win the scudetto with the way they’ve been playing this 3 months.
The real MVP of last year has been Milan best player again this year. Always shows up when you need him. Great goal
He needs to be resigned immediately along with Bennacer.
If for 2+ years we thought that our biggest need is a RW , well now, our biggest need is another central midfielder. Outside of Bennacer and Tonali ,both with great assists today, all Milan has are warm bodies in the midfield. I like Krunic, but his best games are when he plays defensive minded #10.
Also, I love Theo but a hot head cannot be our captain. He can’t keep his composure and escalates things unnecessary to get himself a yellow or worse a red when his team needs him.
He will miss the next game because of it.
Brahim was very lively today but his final pass and decision making was awful.
What can I say .I have said it so many times before ,but Olivier Giroud is class .World class .
This man knows how to create space ,and his awareness is super sharp .I have always rated this man ,only downside was the unnecessary red card .
He must surely get picked to represent France in the World Cup .The goal Olivier was class ..lots more goals to come from him ..
Cremonese its the best team to see how we can handle without Giroud and Theo.
Almost as bad as the Torino game. Played very well until the opening goal. Terrible afterwards. The attack was disjointed with consistent poor decision making from the front 4 (bar Messias in the first half). We’d have easily lost to a half decent team. But at least we have & showed enough grit to snatch all points.
Forza Milan ♥️🖤
P. S Gabbia passes backwards a lot. So infuriating.
Gabbia still lacks confidence. He puts the ball out way too easily and he NEVER gives forward passes – especially long ones. He only passes next to him or to GK.
Silly red card for the hero…
Why does removing shirt have to result in yellow card? No message displayed behind the shirt anyway.
Players are not allowed to take their shirts off while they are on the field, period. It’s not just for goal celebrations.
He’s got to be smarter there. No excuses
You are not answering the question: what is the reason for such rule to exist?
Are you allowed to take off your shirt at work?
Will they let you do it without some kind of penalty?
At the end of the day being a footballer is a job, you are an employee and the corporation aka the league, in this case serie A, policy is to wear your uniform at all times during games, no exceptions
You are still not answering the question. Every policy/rule are there for a REASON. What I want to know is what is that REASON?
It’s a waste of time asking you so I look for it myself, here are the reasons they made that rule:
1. It can incite violent behavior from opposing supporter.
2. It constitute time wasting.
3. It can become platform for political message utilizing undershirt.
“It’s a waste of time asking you so I look for it myself, here are the reasons they made that rule:
1. It can incite violent behavior from opposing supporter.
2. It constitute time wasting.
3. It can become platform for political message utilizing undershirt.”
+ Some people are afraid of nipples. Just ask FB, IG or other social media networks. 🙂
Simple question and simple answer: unsportsmanlike conduct.
Talk about a painful victory… In all, individual performances stood out just as well as individual mistakes. Questions need to be asked why Bennacer’s contact still hasn’t been renewed, such a Gem. Leao needs some rest, Pioli needs to find a solution to it.
Giroud can’t be faulted for taking off his shirt in the heat of the moment, it was a hard fought victory. You could see the look on his face when he realised that he had f****d up.
Tonali was gold, he quickly took ownership of the midfield and carried on from where Bennacer left off.
Nevertheless Milan cannot keep slipping out of focus midway during games. Sometimes it feels as though we forget what we are supposed to be doing on a football pitch. This game should have ended at halftime. Our conversion rate is worrying.
Oh well, it’s on to the next one. Congratulations to Pioli and the team.
VAR is ruining the game.
True. They really have to change the rules. If they can’t see if it’s an offside or not in 10 seconds, then the possible offside is so marginal it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
There is zero reasons to “rewind the tapes” for 5 f*ng minutes to see whether a toe was offside or not!
And also… I believe 50% of goals should be disallowed if we’re starting to look for a minor fouls before the build-up of each goal. Of course there are fouls not whistled happening all the time. No need to start digging them up for each valid goal though. It destroys the game we all love.
Agreed ‘bb’. The ‘spirit of the game’ is being violated by using thousand-frame-per-second cameras to see if someone got touched in the slightest during a build-up play. Whether it goes for or against AC Milan, doesn’t matter. The fans can’t enthusiastically celebrate goals anymore, as they are just waiting for that message in the bottom left, “Checking Goal – …..” Just pathetic!
We were more unlucky than wasteful esp in the first half. Hit the bar quite a few times and their keeper made several incredible saves. Spezia keeps being our bogey team so 3 points are always welcomed.
I watched Daniel Maldini (and Kiwior) all game. Tbh i wanted him to score but only after we had the game in hand. He scored a beauty. And it seems he was playing as CAM (as well as support striker) and did well. He looked comfortable at cam and I hope he keeps growing.
Tomori needs to be benched. Has been aweful this season. Always behind the opponent.
I didn’t watch the match so i can’t comment much about players performances. But hey, three point is three point which is important to keep up with Napoli.
But holy hell i can’t believe we got Fabbri, one of the worst referee in Serie-A again.
I remember back in 2019 when Milan vs Juve, Fabbri didn’t punish Juve with a pinalty after Alex Sandro clearly handsball in pinalty box. He even check VAR a couple of times. Then he awarded Juve a pinalty despite Mussachio didn’t touch Dybala legs. I hope we didn’t get Fabbri again especially for big match.
We need to sell Rebic ASAP and get as much money from him as possible. The guy is a liability.
You just showed you don’t understand what the word liability means. LOL.
This is the only place where players are always blamed for being played out of position, Rebic has played more on the right these days & he has constantly pleaded with the coach about not liking the right side, also, Adli, Bakayoko, Krunic, even Tonali & Bennacer thrive better in a 3-man midfield, Tomori plays as LCB, he’s right footed & doubles on covering for Theo, who’s hardly around at the back under pressure,Nor does Leao track back like Messias does to help the defenders on the wing, whenever CDK is wit the ball, about 3 opponent crowds him & he barely tries to still hold on the ball & pass to his player, trying not to loose possession, players are only rated here, depending on the scores of a game, we played better in this game than the monza game & Diaz played well, if all the balls that hit the goal post had gone in, people wouldn’t be saying all these, apart from Giroud’s classy goal, im sure the writer would hve said he had no rating as he didn’t play “for long”, Thiaw got that, bt didn’t play for long too at sampdoria bt saved 2 goals of the line & got a rating, should assesment only be done through cameo excellence or only when we score well? Common, let’s support the efforts o our players & the entire crew, win or loose, we are Milan
Well said! 🙂
I’m happy with the win but the team give me so much less confidence compared to the last two seasons, it’s crazy. I feel like we can beat Man City and lose to Cremonese with this team. There’s no consistency, there’s nothing that fills me with confidence and we clearly lack quality. It remains to be seen what happens with CDK but so far, not much. We desperately need at least 2 world-class players in midfield, ideally on the wing and maybe even a striker to strengthen our team so that we can consistently compete for the biggest trophies.
I think Leao only has 2 more games in a Milan shirt. Chelsea and Man City are expected to make bids in January. It will be sad to see him go.
If he aint accepting our contract, its best he goes. With the money we get for him we can buy 3 leao’s.
Its just gonna be another lukaku fiasco
Broja and cash for Leao will be a good deal. Players like Leao are not easily replaced.
No but out of the last 17 goals Milan have scored, Leao has made two and I think assisted one or two.
We’re not THAT dependant on him as some people think. If the money we get for Leao buys us a decent LW & RW, we’re good.
Where/how can i send a direct message to Mr Pioli ?
Too generous on the defence they we’re in complete disarray and put themselves under unnecessary pressure time and again. Tomori definitely looks like he’s overthinking it now and low on confidence, nowhere near as dynamic as last year. Krunic was actually one of the better players tonight and was important all over the field. CDK was actually involved in a bit more physicality tonight and is strong. He should realise that he can use his size as a strength. Hope he just takes the ball and tries something, anything, just not run into a dead end. I don’t know why Spezia have this hold on us whereby we can’t demolish them. They’re shit, we should be smashing them to pieces. Leao is undeniably wuslity, world class even…on his day which is about 40% of the time. Would not be against letting him go for big money so long as all money was reinvested into recognised and proven or even semi proven young players. I look at Napoli and tge business tgey conducted in the summer and Milan even though we won the league not being given the necessary funds to build. If ever there was a time to build and pull away it was then. I’m sure we’ll be there at the end but I want to see us command this league.
@ Medhi, it would be sad if Milan don’t invest all the money they can get from the sale of leap, Milan needs quality LW, AM, RW and a CF, if they don’t inveat, Milan will go down real quick
Maldini needs to bring in a quality midfielder in the next window , as we all can see without Isma & Tonali we won’t keep up with Napoli. I thought Vranckx would be the surprise of the season but he hasn’t played enough yet. A very good winger & a solid goalkeeper also have to come in.
Bakayoko, Florenzi, Dest and two of Ibra, Saelemaekers, Messias , Origi should be let go.
Napoli won at Atalanta (with some luck) without Kvicha and Rahmani , because they have quality replacements,that’s the difference .
More players/midfielders needed? LOL. Pioli hasn’t even given the current new ones proper chances to redeem themselves so how adding more people to the queue help? It’s not like Milan would be buying a Pogba who would immediately insert himself into the starting 11 without any hesitation.
Just give minutes to Adli & Vranckx to see if they can be enough. I know Adli hasn’t showed his true self yet. And Vranckx is a big questionmark as I knew nothing of him before joining the team. And still know nothing as he never plays.
Perhaps age is just the number and class is permanent….what a goal by online showed his class today
What a signing Oliver Giroud has been.
Big time player who always shows up in big games and in the clutch . He did it last season. He is doing it again this season.
Too bad he isn’t a few years younger.
Hopefully, he leads Milan to the 2nd star this season
Strange ratings. I feel you only watched half this game and half another…
Gabbia was excellent and made 1 mistake if it even was that (ball went between his legs after a comedy of errors from Theo, Benna, and Fik) and deserves higher, was absolutely excellent in the air and in marking.
Tomori was also excellent tonight and while I thought Gabbia was a little better Tomori should have been rated higher also, he gets points docked for not finishing as a CB and a questionable foul?? Sorry but his job is to shut down the other team, he did that very very well tonight, and that’s what he should be judged on.
Bennacer deserves higher, 7 at least, and besides his 1 mistake listed above he was amazing, he is so active he somehow makes this 2 man mid work. Just imagine if you gave him one more player to work with for extra support.
Tonali has excellent quality and I’m glad he showed it today with what should have been a goal and an excellently weighted assist. Close on his rating but goal and assist should be a little higher.
Rebic, I wanted sold this summer but people all said no he’s excellent… really? He has 2 good games then 5 invisible ones. Now his value will only decrease from here. Should have had a much lower rating. Did literally nothing well tonight.
CDK finally did not actually get bullied like you wrote, for the first time he actually won a good amount of very physical duels. He wasn’t great but don’t just write the same crap he did in previous games if it doesn’t apply here.
Origi, what does he do..? People were so excited to get this bench warmer from Liverpool they actually thought he’d have his “potential unleashed” and be our out and out starter lol. He’s not a bad player but he’s the same he has always been, a bench player who might pop a few goals in here and there, hopefully some big ones.. he’s nothing more than that. Deserved a lower rating.
And finally, Giroud is a legend. Guy is class and I honestly don’t know where we’d be without his crucial goals. We definitely wouldn’t have won the scudetto and we wouldn’t have qualified for the knockouts this year. I don’t care if he took off his shirt, guy deserves an 8 for that moment of class.
“He’s (Origi) not a bad player but ”
But he’s not a good one either. And to think he’s the 2nd(?) highest paid player in the team!
bro u give gabbia lot of praise actually, guy is good and needs some minutes to be with the bests hes still not at that level imo