AC Milan looked very comfortable with a 2-0 lead against Roma this evening but lost it all in the dying minutes of the game. Only one point to show after an otherwise good display and down below are the player ratings.
Starting XI
Tatarusanu (6): He did well overall this evening and was, frankly, unlucky to concede those goals. On the second one, he made a stunning reflex save but the rebound was converted.
Calabria (6.5): He did very well this evening and cannot be blamed for any of the goals. It’s a big difference with him back, especially in defence (although clearly not set pieces).
Kalulu (7 – MOTM): It was a great header to open the scoring and he was also a lot better defensively tonight, compared to the clash against Salernitana. Deserved a better outcome.
Tomori (6.5): Just like his colleague, he did very well and other circumstances resulted in the goals conceded. A shame, really.
Hernandez (6): A decent display from the left-back in both phases of the game, even if he didn’t always get lucky with the touch in attack.
Bennacer (6.5): He directed the play just like you would expect until he was subbed off (due to the yellow card) and his absence was felt.
Tonali (6): He added yet another assist to his tally (for the first goal) and was a key presence in the midfield for the majority of the game. However, he lost Ibanez on the first goal.
Saelemaekers (6): He’s very nifty with the ball and managed to create chances from very tight spaces. Not a whole lot to show for it in the end, though.
Diaz (6): Just like the Belgian, he had very good intentions and was more successful than usual in opening up spaces etc. However, not a lot came of it.
Leao (6.5): He can do even more, as we all know, but was still a constant danger up front and assisted Pobega’s goal.
Giroud (5.5): Bar a few nice combinations here and there, he wasn’t a good friend with the ball at all and rarely was in the right position.
Substitutes
Pobega (6.5): He was a tad rash perhaps but ultimately scored the second goal and added a physical presence.
Vranckx (5.5): He did several things very well but also committed a really stupid foul, which led to Roma’s equaliser.
De Ketelaere (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Gabbia (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
😂 😂 😂
Dest the right back is better at attacking thanks salad the winger and salad the winger is better at defending than dest the right back
You are right about Dest. We saw that in the world cup.
Unbelievable. Roma played much worse than Monza the other day and yet we gifted them two late goals. Tomori missed his header on the first goal. He’s not been good this season.
Kalulu-Tomori is a good pair but I’m tired of conceding on headers and set-pieces so I want Kjaer, Tiaw or Gabbia play. This shit has to stop.
Also Pioli should just scrap that set-piece defending tactic he learned from America de Cali. It’s not working. What kind of a team is that even?
Unbelievable. Roma played much worse than Monza the other day and yet we gifted them two late goals. Tomori missed his header on the first goal. He’s not been good this season.
Kalulu-Tomori is a good pair but I’m tired of conceding on headers and set-pieces so I want Kjaer, Tiaw or Gabbia play. This **** has to stop.
Also Pioli should just scrap that set-piece defending tactic he learned from America de Cali. It’s crap and it’s not working. What kind of a team is that even?
We literally conceded those 2 goals after Gabbia subbed in. Kjaer is better at aerial but he’s injured. Thiaw would be a better choice aerial and cross wise than Gabbia.
If there’s one thing that I admire from Juve, is their ability to close out games. If we just keep passing backwards for the last 5 minutes or so like them, Roma would probably go home with 0 on target. Instead we gifted them 2 free headers. We have no business losing points after having 2 goals cushion to a team that didn’t even have a shot on target until 85′ minute or so.
Why are they defending as if they’re smurfs on the penalty box on every crosses/set pieces?
Did they even defend in the set pieces??? All I saw was 3-4 free Roma players in the box all doing what they wanted and Milan-players watching them score close-by. Awful, TRULY awful “defending” (if you can even call it that)!
Milan was lacklustre and complacent in defending in the last five mins. They were just expecting a miracle. Tammy saved Roma from conceding last min goal in Roma’s previous games. But all our attackers stay up field when they should have given the defence a boost. #Pioli needs to work on this
bald fraud threw the match. roma were lucky just like we were on a few occasions this season which saved piolis face. Hes pretty decent at starting formations and first 11 but appaling at closing out a match or tweaking systems midgame
Pioli (2 – Flop of the match) – Piss poor in the last 20 minutes, horrible substitutes, and complete lack of tactics. Just bad.
Same as last week.
We dominated for 85 minutes, and then in the last 10, we just stopped playing. We were lucky to escape vs. Salernitana in the last few minutes, but not this time around.
Pioli also got the subs wrong.
Milan doesn’t have the defenders to sit back and absorb pressure. We are good when we push forward.
This one hurts especially vs Roma who are the biggest complainers in football. I swear Mancini and Cristante are better at marking the ref after every whistle than marking their opponent.
Oh well, on to the next one. Hopefully, juve and Napoli draw
I thought the subs didn’t perform but the subbing is also on Pioli, who I don’t usually criticize. The starting XI is fine. It’s just the players coming on are attrocious and messed up the chemistry. With Tonali booked he should have also subbed him, maybe even for Krunic. The CDK in I thought would ha e backfired and it did. It was like playing a man down. I really thought we had the points but such is football
Also I don’t even understand where Gabbia was supposed play and where he was playing. Subs were just so odd
Putting Gabbia on and switching to backline of 5 reminded me about the Pippo Inzaghi times when he substituted all attackers and brought in 3 CBs to defend a one goal lead against some newly promoted crappy team. And obviously conceded and drew. F’ng genius.
So if you paid any attention you would know that Krunic is hurt, and unavailable. Along with 8 other players. All you morons complaining about the subs, there was nobody else able to come on. Brought on what he had in more defensive players and they failed at their tasks.
Horrible set piece defending tactics. Was watching the game with a friend and I told him just throw the ball in the air and watch as Milan defense will crumble.
Pioli knew his team can’t do nothing when it comes to aerial balls since pre season and have done nothing about it.
Then u bring in players who just want to commit unnecessary fouls, thereby putting the team under more pressure. It is so annoying
We are probably bottom 3 teams in defending set pieces in the leauge and that is going on for the whole year. That is just unacebtable for a club that wants to win the league. We have Tottenham in CL and that will be a bad night if we defend corners like this I am seriously worried
No, I think we are the worst.
Definitely
Some of you fans are as stupid as piolí free kicks strategies are on defense or offense. But we really los at the end for 2 reasons. We gave the ball away, plus any team 2nd to the ball will loose games when they Mather. The last 2 sub were bad on everything but that’s not the players foult but the coach.
Always a good move to start commenting with an insult to the readers. 🙂
When you decimate the squad over the last 2 summers, lose 4 starters, you start their backups, but you don’t bring anybody to back them up, this is what you get.
Milan has a nice starting 11, but you take one or 2 starters out, and the quality of the team significantly drops. Bennacer gets subbed off. We don’t have a competent backup to take his spot, and we give up the game.
Milan didn’t lose 2 points because of 2 set pieces. They lost because they gave up control of the game without Bennacer. Set pieces were just the final result of losing control.
Also, where was Leao ? He had both of the defenders on his side on a yellow in the first 20 minutes. Instead of being more aggressive and going for the kill and get one of them red carded, he disappeared until that nice assist on a counter to Pobega.
Now we are 3rd, overtaken by a team that has played without their 4 biggest names for all, or most of the season.
When we criticize Maldini’s work, we get attacked by his fan boys. Same fan boys who I bet now blame Pioli who has to play the same 11 for 95 minutes just to get a result since his boss didn’t provide him with adequate depth
Forza Milan
Couldnt agree more. Our depth is beyond ridiculous. I think managment would have been better off bringing their primavera teams than loaning and buying this summer’s players. At least they would have saved money. After, all those subs tonight, benchwarmers looked lost on the field, as if they didn’t know what to do. Maldini’s blunder never knows what to do, despite all those chances given. Well, hopefully we can hold on top 4 this season. Need some investment for next season if we want to compete. Foward, rw, am a must, plus decent depth. Not seria c quality depth.
If anything this match showed the lack of quality players in the squad. Benny comes off and the whole team collapses in a heartbeat. No one else can recover the ball. Even though Bennacer contributes absolutely nothing in the attacking zone, him missing in the defending part just highlights the crappiness of Milan midfield – and especially the substitutes.
I know this a lot to say but I think that Krunic on the pitch for the last 10minutes MIGHT have saved the 2 points. No one playing had the ability to take away the ball from the opponents. No one. Ridiculous. And all the silly fouls too… Unbelievable nonsense.
So perhaps without 9 players out hurt Milan might have more depth, or did that never cross your mind?
What an overreaction by fans. We were unlucky. The match came down to two incidents. And immediately the “fans” start demanding new players. The answer to every problem – sign new players. What’s the point of supporting a team if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder for new players? The players are the team. You can’t support the team without supporting the players that make up the team. Otherwise you just support some brand name.
Now as to the specifics, we are a young team and made some errors due to that inexperience. Vranckx should not have conceded that foul but as someone else said on here we should’ve been passing backwards by that stage in the game.
We need to learn to close out games. But this is still the same team and manager that closed out games last season to win the league. So relax. This happens in football. It happened to one of our greatest sides in the 2005 Champions League final. Signing some new shiny defender probably wouldn’t make a difference and in fact would probably undermine our existing defensive partnership.
Well said. it’s the same thing on Football Italia.net as you know and Rossoneri Blog which I used to post on – fans losing their shit over every slip up…until we win the title. Then they’ll start all over again.
If you don’t see the problem, then you don’t understand football.
We were not unlucky we conceded two goals from 2 set pieces in a row again… and we are not overreacting this shit is happening for the whole season tell me the last match that we were in control and didn’t just scrape out a lucky victory this season probaly Monza or Juve match. Do I have to remind you Verona match 81 min Tonali goal we struggled the whole match ,Torino don’t have to say anything…, Spezia game 89,90 min goal we were losing that match to that point, Fiorientina honesty we did not deserve to win that match, Cremonese last couple of minutes we tense for no reason what so ever because we can’t control the game ,… Freaking Juventus who suck and I mean really suck have the same amount of points as we do.. So just stop pretending like we did not regres from last season … Do you realise that there are centre backs that have a higher XG per 90 than Messias and managment does not think that is a problem If Giroud gets injured we have no striker and that is not a problem somehow … and not like that was not a problem for 3 transfer windows now …
“What an overreaction by fans. We were unlucky. ”
No we weren’t. We stopped playing. Nothing to do with luck. If you keep giving the ball away and not defending properly for the last 15 minutes, you’re only begging for to be punished. Neither goal was lucky – or unlucky. They were both amateurishly horrible set-pieces defending. It wasn’t even defending. They were only watching Roma score and didn’t even seem to try to prevent them.
Unfortunate result but can’t say I was surprised after we took off Benny knew things would not hold. First I never want to see Tata in goal for us again. He is horrid. He is nothing but a reaction/reflex type goalie. He knows nothing of positioning and tactics. A keeper who does not impose himself in the 18 let alone his own 6 is worthless. Not once did he come out and challenge the ball or a aroma player. Instead he does what he has always done – stays on his line and waits to try and make a reflex save. Garbage. Second, I don’t know what people see in Poegba, other than he’s Italian. Ya he scored a sitter – which likely would have been saved if not for a deflection – but he does nothing. He does not have the touch or vision to play defensive mid and doesn’t have the touch or creativity or speed to play CAM. Then what the hell is he doing on the pitch. Horrible sub. Diaz held up the play and allowed us to keep possession. Poegba didn’t touch one ball excluding the goal. Why not Adli? Pls sell Poegba and his cement boots to Torino if they are foolish enough to pay for him or swap him for Singo ASAP. Aster made a mistake on the foul but can we really be this poor defending set pieces?? Have we not learned yet how to defend them? I agree with another comment – this is what happens when you don’t have adequate depth – one our starters come out – we get exposed. How we don’t get a player like Auoar or a RW this winter is mind boggling. Unfortunately it will be difficult to repeat with the team as currently constructed as we are basically last years team without Kessie and a healthy Ibra. Not good enough after everyone else got better. Either Pioli needs to integrate the players bought in the summer OR we need to make a few signings to have a chance. Otherwise we can kiss #20 goodbye.
the mistake was done by Pioli when he subbed a right winger for a defender and created confusion around the back. Can anyone tell what was the formation we had for last 10 min?Don’t blame the new players, we have no one who can control the play at any stage without Bennacer.
Milan is garbage, how can you be leading a team that had no shots on goal in the first half, and saw little of the ball in the second half, and then come away with a 2 – 2 draw, when Milan were cruising in a game they should have won comfortably.
They’re playing total garbage.
There isn’t money to strengthen the squad, the money went on CDK. If he doesn’t deliver in the second half of the season then you can get used to seeing more prospects at €10-15 million.
What do you mean “IF he doesn’t deliver in the second half”? 😀
He hasn’t shown any signs of improvement in months. Let’s forget about him until June and focus on players who can help the team NOW.
Sometimes the best form of defence is to attack. Removing your attacking players and ball holding player in the closing stages of a game might work against you. I have this belief that if some of the subs weren’t made this game would have remained and ended 2-0
Agree 100%
@ MBM There’s a decent chance that CDK won’t come good until next season as this has happened with most of the players under Pioli. Fortunately we were in this exact same position last season and it turned out ok. Nobody even expected us to win the league last season! If we don’t, but qualify for the CL, then this season and certainly the “project” can still probably be considered a success.
And the long term benefit is a young squad growing year by year. There’s no point having a young squad if we don’t let it grow and provide us with a base for the next decade. That is how you build long term success. Most of the best teams have played together over long periods.
Most of our players are in their prime now or are just coming into it. Therefore we either invest in the areas badly needed or we risk losing the good core we have created. Thats how it goes at every club.
No they are still very young. They say around 28 is the prime age of a footballer.
Most of our players are well under that age. We have seen nothing yet close to their full potential. Leao, Theo and Tonali could be much better in a few years’ time.
I think absence of Ibra is felt. Even at 40 he used to put the ball on net last season he played less but had eight goals if I am not wrong. He was few times at defence like at corners to clear the ball as well. I want to see Lea rebic Ibra in attack. We were 4-0 teams in cl with leao giroud rebic it was good to see. Kjaer in defence is important and all gabbia fans have realized. Ppl saying thiaw he isn’t too good rn if u saw previous games.RW is issue but I think we should play rebic at CAM or RW he can combine well with Calabria probably. Or if he wants to play like second striker he can go cam. Sadly we don’t have any depth. And are not willing to spend. Inter and juve sold most of their good players to earn money to continue as a balance team but we are not and this is putting us in loss
I think that pioli is smart and hopefully he will not use that shit 3 5 2 I hate that tactic just like inter xD but anyway I think guys u are to hard on vranchk the boy made a foul trying to take the ball so it’s the defence job to defend it and in the shadow we must all admit that tomori and kalulu not same like last season sorry but is true …
Apparently, everything is Maldini’s fault according to some braindead cu_ck$ that call themselves Milan fans as if Milan had 4Billion Dollars to spend on players but Maldini chose not to.
Maldini knew exactly what the weakness of this team is, and that is why he wanted Botman over attackers. Back then, these same cuck$ screamed we dont need Botman. Exactly why Maldini wanted Renato because he knew we dont have quality in the midfield. But owner situation F’d it up.
But well, these dumbFcks apparently gonna find a way to blame Maldini for everything and dares to call themselves Milan fans. Get the F out of here and go support ManCity. This blog has become infested by a Bunch of sissies complaining day and night instead of actually trying to understand. Pathetic AF.
I would be very interested to know what either of these dumba$$es think we shouldve done to improve the bench with the money we had. I double dare you none of them has any idea. They are just here to complain instead of supporting the team.
A team that has been in the gutter dont just start winning UCL and league over night. It takes time and patience, you build the squad over multiple seasons before rising to the top. We are going through the building phase. Shove that stick deeper in your a$$es and stop complaining. Use that once cell barely surviving in your brain and know that Maldini is why we are in the top 4. Otherwise we would be crawling back in the 10th position by now.
Now about the Roma game, Pioli did everything in his power. We cant do Anything if the players DONT Play. The last 10 minutes our whole defense just stopped playing, they didnt even mark their men. Both Ibanez and Matic was unmarked. That is unforgivable. Doesnt matter how bad you are in airballs, leaving your mark during defense = goal. Pioli cant do anything if the defenders give up on the game. Pioli knew the defense isnt strong at the last minutes which is why he added an extra body. EVERY coach would do the same thing. It was a bad night and we really need to learn from it and step up our game. Both Tomori and Kalulu needs to learn how to defend aerial balls.. SOON.
Forza Milan.
“The last 10 minutes our whole defense just stopped playing, they didnt even mark their men. ”
Not just the defense but everyone on the pitch. And if I have to watch again how Milan “defended” the last set pieces I’m gonna throw up. F’ng disgrace is the correct description of their actions.
@bb Very True. The whole team was unwatchably awful in the last 10 mins. Roma naturally had gone into all out attack so I personally wouldn’t blame the midfield too much. It’s hard to defend in the midfield when the opponent team plays from the flanks.
But the defense… they just did NOTHING in the last 10 mins. Tomori and Kalulu played like a beast up to 85 min. But the last 10 mins.. they just thought we won and just let it go. Overconfidence maybe? Pioli should straighten it out because it happened twice in a row.
You mentioned building a team and improving year on year.
This is the problem fans have, we failed to build on last seasons success. In fact we have gone backwards.
The owners are the problem
@SJF
I hightly doubt that we failed to build on last season. If we didn’t have 6 of our starters injured throughout the first half of the season, the outcome would be completely different. I wouldn’t say we went backwards… We built one of the best scouting network in the modern football.
We do have players would can potentially become superstars.. CDK, Adli, Vrankxx, Thiaw. In fact.. Thiaw actually won us a game in his first chance.
The true benefit of the scouting team will be visible in about 3/4 years when the new talents from primavera would come to age because we have some insanely exciting talents in the primavera now who are just 14/15.
But yes, owners are the problem indeed. Without money, the only way to grow is through a good scouting network scooping up talents from the youth. That’s exactly what’s happening. We don’t have the purchasing power of the elites so we start creating talents.
Kalulu lost Abraham on Goal 2 and CDK did not mark anyone when Matic ran right at him, so those 2 to blame there and mildly Tomori bc he was on Tammy at the start too. Goal 1 was on Tomori. That said yes players made marking mistakes but this is more a coaching issue. It’s overall the way we mark for set pieces. It’s a bad system and has been bad for 3-4 years or more now.
Milan was lacklustre and complacent in defending in the last five mins. They were just expecting a miracle. Tammy saved Roma from conceding last min goal in Roma’s previous games. But all our attackers stay up field when they should have given the defence a boost. #Pioli needs to work on this