AC Milan failed to extend their winning run as they lost 2-1 against Fiorentina at Artemio Franchi earlier this evening. There were quite a few disappointing displays and down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Maignan (7 – MOTM): He made plenty of saves this evening and was also crucial in the build-up play, as Fiorentina’s press was intense. One of his saves was simply stunning as he dragged his leg, allowing Tomori to clear the ball off the line.
Kalulu (6): The only man in the three-man backline that managed a pass this evening. He tried his best in opening up some space by going forward and was decent in the defensive phase.
Thiaw (5): It will sound harsh, but he made a huge mistake in the first half that Fiorentina really should have capitalised on. Then, in the second half, he was fooled by Jovic on the second goal.
Tomori (5): The fact that he cleared a ball off the lime this evening saves his rating, but that foul which led to the penalty was incredibly stupid. A schoolboy error from him, and he also struggled to do well overall.
Messias (5): After two consecutive games with a goal, it came to an end. He was quite poor, frankly, and should have done better on especially one occasion when he failed to square a clear header to give Giroud an open net.
Tonali (5): He was often present, but the reality is that he struggled to win his duels and this really hurt Milan in the build-up phase. He must do more.
Bennacer (5.5): The Algerian is another player that certainly underperformed tonight. He was the man that needed to unlock the situation amid Fiorentina’s high press, but he couldn’t quite do it.
Hernandez (6): He made several good runs forward (especially one when Rebic didn’t pass) and eventually got Milan’s goal with a great strike, after previously missing a similar chance. His defending, however, hurt his rating a little as he clearly lost that battle.
De Ketelaere (6): He did what he could out there tonight, showing off with a couple of good flicks and runs. He set up Messias for the aforementioned header after a great run with the ball, concluding with a lovely cross. He wasn’t the problem tonight.
Giroud (5.5): He had a couple of good efforts that were saved by the goalkeeper but he could have done better in the hold-up play this evening.
Rebic (5): He didn’t impress this evening. Although he did get into some good positions at times, he failed to make the right decisions.
Substitutes
Origi (4.5): Just very poor from him. Zero impact off the bench when Milan needed a boost up front.
Ibrahimovic (6): He won many duels and was successful in the hold-up play.
Bakayoko (5.5): He committed too many fouls (even if the referee seemed to hold a grudge) but honestly wasn’t disastrous. It’s just strange that he got the chance.
Saelemaekers (6): We didn’t see that much of him but he ended up getting the assist.
Adli (N/A): Not enough playing time for a rating, but he got the hockey assist for the goal.
In summer I suggested we should sell Tomori as we could get a big fee for him from PL clubs, used to rebuild the side. That suggestion was widely ridiculed on this forum.
Don’t wanna be overly reactive to one performance, he’s a good CB just doesn’t have a much higher ceiling imho. He’s not got the potential to ever be world class. I reckon we could have got 60-70mn for him, now maybe we’d be lucky to get 40mn. Still, with that money we could find another Thiaw and still have some spare change for a RW or DM.
In any case, not a great night for us apart from Theo’s goal. Hopefully saving our best for spurs in midweek, I’ll probably be at that match.
Forza Milan
Were there even any teams interested on Tomori last season?
No we made it clear we weren’t interested to sell. Implying it would take some crazy world record fee.
It’s very different when you’re prepared to come to the table to negotiate. The way PL clubs throw around cash, they’d for sure have been interested in an England International defender. Who wasn’t so error prone during our scudetto run.
Until we get a rich owner or massive stadium income, we need to generate transfer funds somehow, and rely on scouting to spend that money wisely. I appreciate that’s a lot to ask but it’s the reality we face.
No one was interested in Tomori.
Sempre Milan reports every transfer rumor about Milan player or players Milan is interested in.
I have never read one article saying that a club is interested in Tomori since the day he signed for Milan.
He is only rated by our fans and in Italy. The rest see him for what he is. Undersized CB who can play only in a high press defense. Whenever Milan plays vs a team on same level or better and are getting pinned back Tomori gets exposed. His positioning is awful
Dude, Milan can’t sell players so easily. When you sell, 1 player you have minus in the squad. Yes defence suck this year. Do you know why? Because we “sell” our many years best defender Romagnoli and midfielder Kessie for free. Do you realise the pattern? You got less quality players and result suffer.
So in this season we also “lost” all players that we buy or bring for free, because there si no impact from them.
So transfermarket is more of gambling than proper football job. Sometimes you buy first class but many time you bring someone who can’t fit in Milan squad. If you write about selling in terms of money – than everything is easy – yes you will get the money. But than forget about results.
It will be interesting to see Milan finish below forth position this year, just to see how owner would handle that situation.
people think you can just sell a good player and replace with ease. Ajax and monaco sold off teams that could beat anyone and made ucl semifinals.Monaco nearly got relegated the season after and ajax didnt even make knockouts
@ milanello
Ajax and Monaco are feeder clubs.
They buy young players on a cheap they develop them and then they sell them for a lot of money. With the money then they buy a new group of talented players who sometimes pen out sometimes they don’t.
You can’t compare thoe 2 clubs with Milan .
Plus unlike Milan those 2 teams sell their players for profit, we lose our players for free
He’s been the worst Milan player this season. He cost us A LOT of points. We only somehow got back on track when he got injured. Now he’s doing his thing again.
Were there any discussion about it?
WTF happened with Tomori?
Where he’s brilliant pace and determination from last season?
I’m surprised CDK got a 6. He played just as bad as Rebic and Origi.
Next season Milan needs better backup and a good striker.
Cdk finally showed the vision he had last season with good passing behind lines and you wanna call him as bad as rebic origi or even theo.
Lmao
What visions???
Two decent passes in 70mins simply aren’t good enough. Far from it.
And I also concluded that he doesn’t have good upper-body strength. He runs around with his little t-rex arms style and doesn’t/can’t control the space shoulder to shoulder. It doesn’t bode well in a league like Serie A (or the PL for that matter). He may better suited for La Liga or the Bundesliga.
Kone has been balling the last few games. I watched the prior Fiorentina game and man he’s like a Leao but on the right hand side. Yes Tomori is fast but there Re faster players. His problem was his positioning. And Thiaw failed to close in on Tomori mistake
Honestly sell origi the second the transfer window opens. Absolutely useless.
Why when we play fiorentina they play like their man city or something? But that’s with every team, for some reason teams play at their highest level maybe cause they think milan are weak, which they are.
We can’t even rotate players in this squad without dropping points. We miss leao so badly when he doesn’t play and although CDK did fine it shows how much we miss Diaz too which in that he isn’t anything special.
Tomori, what has happened to you? Last year he looked like a top 5 defender and this year cremonese wouldn’t even take him.
I don’t know why when bennacer plays tonali is instructed to play a lot higher. We get caught out so much because of it. He played much better when alongside krunic because he kept it tighter in the middle and was rarely caught out. Start doing that again.
Rebic is sadly just a late sub. He too should be sold in the summer. It’s time to move on. CDK was ok but he seriously needs to learn to work hard when off the ball. He barely moves. I can’t believe how origi was so loved at Liverpool, he seems like a serie b player. When he wants to play he surely can but when is that?
This team isn’t what it was last year and it needs some big changes next year. I hope we don’t grenade in the Champions League. Only faith Im hanging onto this year cause the way we’re playing, we won’t be top 4.
Who want to buy?
Thats one 100% correct analysis. Totally agree, especially the midfield observation. Our weakest point in the field by far. Constantly overrun. Yes krunic worked his sucks off as dm, especially off the ball. Thats what pioli should do or done from the beginning of the season, even if that means that either ben or tonali gotta sit. Krunic as dm is the best replacement in our disposal of kessie.
Our biggest issue is in the midfield. We used to dominate teams in that department and now that’s our worse department on the team.
And it’s understandable when over the last 3 years we lost our 3 best midfielders for free , bonaventura, Hakan, Kessie
If we still had Bonaventura he would he our best midfielder even at age 33.
Bennacer and Tonali are so bad at passing and shooting that we have Theo and Rebic taking setpieces.
We need not one but 2 midfielder signings this summer.
And I remember when people were saying that they were OK that their idol Maldini chose not to sign Enzo Fernandez for measly 10 mil + bonuses because Bennacer and Tonali were better than him. 😂😂😂
Tomori is by far our most expensive CB and he is also by far the worst. He always overcommits and then makes a stupid foul.
In the 1st half Jack sent him to get him some lunch and in the 2nd Ikone torched him.
Ikone a RW, cost Fiorentina 14 mil. Maldini was too busy signing and wasting money on useless Florenzi and Messias for the same amount.
Deserved loss.
If we are being completely honest, you take Leao out of the equation, and you go player for player, Fiorentina has better squad than Milan.
Grazie paolo
@Poli.. back to lies again are we? LMFAO
Since you emerged from your cave after a Milan defeat… Allow me.. the Milan4lyf.. To send you back to your cave. LOL
“Bennacer and Tonali are so bad at passing and shooting that we have Theo and Rebic taking setpieces.”
Bennacer Pass accuracy is 89% and Tonali is deployed as a Pure CDM, his primary job.. is to break opponents plays which he does well. But he is 22 y/o. He will improve.
“And I remember when people were saying that they were OK that their idol Maldini chose not to sign Enzo Fernandez for measly 10 mil + bonuses because Bennacer and Tonali were better than him. 😂😂😂”
Of course we are okay. Why would we sign a player in a spot where we have too many players in? In a team where the entire budget never exceeded 50 mil over a whole season, you need to offload players before you buy. Its not Fifa Manager. But it takes more than a braincell to figure out so probably that;s beyond you to grasp lol
“Tomori is by far our most expensive CB and he is also by far the worst. He always overcommits and then makes a stupid foul.”
Worse? He had a major part to play in the season we won Serie A. Just because a player is going through a bad patch and the coach has no idea how to rotate and build a players confidence.. he is a bad player now? lol Your Are just a clueless Maldini hater dude. You Hate Maldini more than you love Milan.
“Ikone a RW, cost Fiorentina 14 mil. Maldini was too busy signing and wasting money on useless Florenzi and Messias for the same amount.”
Florenzi was 3 mil and Messias was 5 Mil. I can count on you to do the math at least.,. right? RIGHT? But goddamn math requires two braincells so you probably will fail to successfully do it.. so.. Allow me…LMAO.. it’s 8 mil. lol
“If we are being completely honest, you take Leao out of the equation, and you go player for player, Fiorentina has better squad than Milan.”
False, in every way. Fiorentina squad is literally useless. But the overconfidence of Milan defense cost us the game. Tomori needs to be benched to give him a reality check. Milan just need Pioli to get an assistant coach who is technically good, Like Pep had Arteta.
BTW… Your beloved boyfriend Ikone has 3 assists and 2 goals in 16 matches.. Messias has 4 goals and 2 assists in 14 matches. 5 Mil paid.. returned a LOT Better than 14mil. LMFAO
Stop lying.. And go back to your cave. Thank you for growing the courage to finally crawl out your cave and spewing lies… LMFAO
BTW.. I know you don’t like stat apps because it exposes your lies.. And I LOOOOOOVE those apps, it’s really fun sending liars back to their caves LOL
See ya. ANd
FORZA MILAN.
Burn baby burn.
@Maldini4Lyf.
You know how you can tell that some people don’t watch or understand football, when they come in with %. Majority of Bennacer passes go backwards or laterally , he is awful at passing forward.
What opponents passes is Tonali breaking up this year without Kessie being there to hold his hand.
And again why were they both taken off setpieces.
We have too many players in the midfield.? Really who. Who is better than Enzo. Vranckx, Pobega, krunic. Enzo is worth by himself more than double than all of them put together and we could have had him for 10 mil.
And you are right that this is not a fifa manager, and you need to sell before you buy. Imagine if your boyfrien Maldini could actually sell players instead of losing them on a free transfer.
Tomori was made to look good last year by Kessie in front of him and Maignan behind him. How does he look this year without both of them especially Kessie.
When it comes to Messias and Florenzi, you are forgetting that your guy Maldini sighed them initially on paid loans. Messias was 2.5 mil and Florenzi was almost the same. Do the math if you have the capacity.
And maybe you should try to use your brain and think how much more productive Ikone would be if he plays on the opposite side of leao instead of Messias
At least we know your knowledge of football comes from Stat apps now, but at least you should give us the right numbers next time.
Forza Milan.
@Poli..
“You know how you can tell that some people don’t watch or understand football, when they come in with %. Majority of Bennacer passes go backwards or laterally , he is awful at passing forward.”
Good logic mate. people who dont care about football or watch it are the ones who look for stat. Nice one there lol I was expecting at least a little better reasoning, but disappointment followed everytime. LOL
“We have too many players in the midfield.? Really who. Who is better than Enzo. Vranckx, Pobega, krunic. Enzo is worth by himself more than double than all of them put together and we could have had him for 10 mil.”
Enzo is decent. But lets put the names.. Bennacer.. Tonali.. Pobega.. Krunic.. Vrankxx.. Bakeyoko. We have 6 CDMs and your choice is to add another one? For what? Milan needed to offload at least 2 of them before thinking about spending on signing a new one. We wouldn’t even have signed Vrankxx.. but Moncada liked him and it was a dry loan.
“And you are right that this is not a fifa manager, and you need to sell before you buy. Imagine if your boyfrien Maldini could actually sell players instead of losing them on a free transfer.”
You CANNOT Sell a player who doesn’t want to be sold. Hard concept to grasp it seems. But hard to expect anything better from a reasonless Maldini hater.
“Tomori was made to look good last year by Kessie in front of him and Maignan behind him. How does he look this year without both of them especially Kessie.”
Of course a defense wont fare well without the support of Midfield and GK. It’s common knowledge.. though it might come as a shock to people with TOO MUCH fabricated Football knowledge like you. No surprise there. LMFAO
our midfield is riddled with injuries.. Pioli won’t use Vrankxx.. and Calabria is in the worst form on his career. But yes.. lets say Tomori is the worst player in Milan to spew Maldini hatred. Dude.. You are Pathetic.
“And maybe you should try to use your brain and think how much more productive Ikone would be if he plays on the opposite side of leao instead of Messias”
BUT BUT BUT.. you just said Fiorentina squad is better than Milan’s without Leao. Shouldn’t Ikone be doing EVEN better with the support of 10 OTHER BETTER PLAYERS Than Milan players? LMFAO But somehow.. your boyfriend Ikone.. can’t surpass a 5 mil signing. LOL SADGE.
“When it comes to Messias and Florenzi, you are forgetting that your guy Maldini sighed them initially on paid loans. Messias was 2.5 mil and Florenzi was almost the same. Do the math if you have the capacity.”
Oh sure. Lets add them. 2.5 mil for messias. and 1 Mil for Florenzy. Come on.. DO IT. DO. THE. MATH. NOW. lol
“At least we know your knowledge of football comes from Stat apps now, but at least you should give us the right numbers next time.”
Of course it does. It should for ANYONE who actually loves football instead of spreading pointless hatred. The fact that you have no idea about the uses of stats mean says a lot about YOU than me. LMFAO
I know your sorry excuses to hate Maldini.. But you didn’t have to express your awful hatred for stats just because they point out your lies.. You shouldn’t prove yourself to be this pathetic mate. lol Hate Maldini all you want.. but do it for the right reasons. But Lying to garner more hatred to a legend would get you wrecked. PERIOD.
Only Maldini fanboys believe that you can’t sell players that supposedly don’t want to leave.
Unless you have lived under a rock over the last 18 months those players that Maldini was not competent to sell because supposedly didn’t want to leave , LEFT MILAN. But instead of Milan getting a ton of much needed money for them we got nothing. That’s why our midfield and majority of the attack is so bad. That’s why we don’t have money to spend in the market.
Look at Roma and Zaniolo situation . They still sold the player for profit. Because they have a competent director.
Enzo is decent? Ha ha ha. Chelsea spent 121 mil for him instead of coming to sign Bennacer for maybe 30 mil.
player for player means that individually Fiorentina has better players overall than Milan. Milan plays often as a collective better than Fiorentina, not today, thanks to the coach you have hatred towards. A coach that won Milan a title in spite of his director working against him with his incompetence.
And Milan will be much better when they don’t have an incompetent amateur making decisions.
@Poli.. There you got one thing wrong. I am not a Maldini fanboy at all. I fully know and acknowledge Maldini’s shortcoming as a director. I just put random haters to their place who thinks it’s okay to lie to spread hatred. If you hated Maldini for not able to sell Donna Hakan and Kessie? I would have respect for you. But you try to get people to hate randomly by making up completely random lies. No bueno amigo. Be ready to be wrecked over and over again.
“Only Maldini fanboys believe that you can’t sell players that supposedly don’t want to leave.
Unless you have lived under a rock over the last 18 months those players that Maldini was not competent to sell because supposedly didn’t want to leave , LEFT MILAN. But instead of Milan getting a ton of much needed money for them we got nothing. That’s why our midfield and majority of the attack is so bad. That’s why we don’t have money to spend in the market.
Look at Roma and Zaniolo situation . They still sold the player for profit. Because they have a competent director.”
UNLESS you haters live under a rock.. here is a news. MESSI.. Lionel Messi.. the best player on EARTH.. left for free. Let that sink in first.
Donnarumma catfished the management for two years. Hakan did the same for a whole year. Kessie… well he made his wish clear before and there was Mutual respect between the player and the club for all his efforts. Players as greedy as Hakan and Donna.,.. who just want Money… will do ANYTHING to get it. Other clubs deal with $hitbags like those by outright benching them for a whole season. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the luxury so we had to play them. They kept raising their demands everytime we agreed. They took the opportunity of our weakness as they knew we would be hostage to their claims since we didn;t have anyone to replace them if they were benched. So, Maldini did what he thought was best for the club. NO OTHER Sporting director would be able to do better with those $hitbags when you DON’T HAVE ANY LEVERAGE.
“Enzo is decent? Ha ha ha. Chelsea spent 121 mil for him instead of coming to sign Bennacer for maybe 30 mil.”
Why don’t we see what Chelsea wins this season! Just because some EPL club buys a player for 121 mil.. doesn’t mean he is worth THAT much. Enzo is good… but 121? No WAY. lol Just so you know.. your boyfriend enzo fernandez’s last 5 chelsea games.. 2 draw and 3 losses lol ….121 Mil BTW. Casemiro 33.. is FAR FAR better than him in EVERY POSSIBLE ASPECT. Just because Messi/Emi martinez won the WC for Agrentina.. doesn’t mean Enzo is worth 121 mil. He is okay.. But NOT 121mil GOOD. EVERY big club in EPL has CDMs better than Enzo ON THEIR BENCH. But hey.. cant expect that much sense from a hater can we?
“player for player means that individually Fiorentina has better players overall than Milan.”
Are you saying Ikone is better than Messias? LMFAO You have been proven wrong.. yet here you are lying again LOL Fiorentina has better GK than Maignan? Better CB than Kalulu Thiaw? Better LB than Theo? Better CDM than Bennacer?.. Geez… Your delusion is far worse than I thought. LMFAO
“Milan plays often as a collective better than Fiorentina, not today, thanks to the coach you have hatred towards. A coach that won Milan a title in spite of his director working against him with his incompetence.”
OH NO. You didn’t just lie about me to MYSELF did ya? lol I hate Pioli? When? lol Pioli has his shortcomings.. But there is no way a Milan fan would ever disrespect or hate Pioli after what Papa has done for the club. No matter what he does he will always be respected and I will NEVER lie about OUR Coach.. UNLIKE you lol DID YOU JUST TRY TO LIE TO ME ABOUT MYSELF? LLMFAO
“And Milan will be much better when they don’t have an incompetent amateur making decisions.”
Like Milan was in the 8 years before Maldini? LOL Remember? Li younghong? Gattuso? MONTELLA? HOLY $HIT.. Delusion is strong in this one. LMFAO
You might wanna stop humiliating yourself further.. mate. Stop commenting lol Or at least.. say something that actually is what it is. LOL Good lord.
@Ha ha ha
Context is very important Maldini4Lyf
We all know why Messi left Barcelona. Barcelona and Messi agreed on a new contract but La Liga wouldn’t let Barca register it because of their finance situation. It’s not the same as Maldini losing 4 of our players for free because he couldn’t resign him or sell them.
And you know why those players had leverage over Maldini. Because they played him for a fool. If he was catfished by those players as you say, doesn’t that make him incompetent.
Because as lebron said : not 1 , not 2 not 3 , but 4 players catfished our beloved Paolo.
Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me, what about 4 times or maybe 5 with Leao.
The man can’t even learn from his own mistakes.
If he does his job on time and set a deadline on the contract negotiations, just like Roma did with Zaniolo, the players wouldn’t have the leverage. The club would have the leverage.
But as per usual he draggs every contract negotiations until the last day and the players leave. Timing is very important.
Same is currently happening with leao, but let me guess, leao is the gready one and he is disloyal and wants only money.
It’s a job, players play for money and success on the field. Only fans believe in loyalty. If Maldini banks on players loyalty he is definitely not fit for the job.
Finally you made some sense without lies. lol
Context matters when it’s about Messi but Context goes out the window when it comes to Donna and Hakan and Kessie.. no? Raiola wanted Donna to leave 3 years before he left. We needed donna so we kept extending contract. Then Raiola asked for a signing fee more than Donnarumma’s contract value. No matter who it was, no club will tolerate that disrespect. That’s why Manu let Pogba leave for free as well. Raiola pulled that stunt with every club. Now Hakan.. a snake who left to a direct rival for 500k. no negotiations needed. Then Kessie.. Of course his negotiations could’ve been handled better by Maldini and could’ve offered just as much as 7 mil but the club didn’t believe he was worth the salary. But was it a reason for letting him leave for free? I don’t think so. We could’ve renewed and sold him for a better free. That’s where Maldini’s shortcomings as a director comes into light. Dude is bad at negotiating.
“And you know why those players had leverage over Maldini. Because they played him for a fool. If he was catfished by those players as you say, doesn’t that make him incompetent.”
No.. because we didn’t have ANY Money to buy any player to take their place or even compete for the place. We had NO ONE to replace Donna till Mike came along. Same goes with Hakan. Diaz is NOTHING compared to Hakan and the snake knew it.
“Because as lebron said : not 1 , not 2 not 3 , but 4 players catfished our beloved Paolo.”
According to yourself.. Context matters right? Lol When a player thinks they can keep the club hostage because the club didn’t have the money to buy a competition for their spot.. you don’t get to have leverage in the negotiation. It needs some reasoning to understand BTW lol
“The man can’t even learn from his own mistakes.”
He did. Look at the renewals this season.
“If he does his job on time and set a deadline on the contract negotiations, just like Roma did with Zaniolo, the players wouldn’t have the leverage. The club would have the leverage.”
Pathetic argument. If you don’t have anyone to field when you bench a player, there is NO leverage. Roma would have no leverage if Zaniolo didn’t want to leave and Roma didn’t have ANYONE to replace him on the field.
“But as per usual he draggs every contract negotiations until the last day and the players leave. Timing is very important.”
That he does. Maldini’s biggest weakness as a director is his negotiation skills. It’s just not good enough. He should improve that skill or leave negotiations to someone who is an expert in it.
“Same is currently happening with leao, but let me guess, leao is the gready one and he is disloyal and wants only money.”
If Leao leaves for free, Maldini should definitely step down from his job as a SD. There is no excuses.
“It’s a job, players play for money and success on the field. Only fans believe in loyalty. If Maldini banks on players loyalty he is definitely not fit for the job.”
I think it’s his inexperience as a Sporting director. He trusted his players too much and thought these mofos are actually honorable like those in Maldini’s generation. But little did he know these are all de_generate A_holes. when it comes to money lol I hope he got the wake up call and now learned to negotiate. Leao’s fate will tell if Maldini actually learned his lesson or not.
Not to jump in between here, but ben is good thats why he is on high demand. When you say he doesnt pass forward maybe its because no1 available. And thats the difference between diaz and cdk. Tonali on the other hand, doesnt cover as much or nothe best dm in there. Kind of lazy play. Maybe coaches order or not. Young yes, will improve? Who the hell knows, hope it does. But atm we have a problem. Ben and tonali are similar player in my opinion.
Milan midfield is absolutely our biggest issue this year. We can’t string 2 passes together nor are we able to break up passing lanes. We are getting dominated in the midfield. Especially whenm Bennacer and Tonali play together. That’s why they rarely played together over the last 2 seasons.
Midfielders that can pass and create are a must this summer.
And its totally false that we didn’t sign a midfielder in the summer because we didn’t need one.
Maldini chose to chase Renato Sanches, a midfielder, instead of signing E. Fernandez. Then after Renato rejected him and Enzo was bought by Rui Costa’s Benfica, Maldini was trying to sign Onyedika from Midtiyland and Onana from Bordeaux, just to then settle for Vranckx on the last day of the mercato.
Midfielder was and still is a major need. Maldini screwed up by not listening to Moncada who by all reports had traveled to Argentina and talked to Enzo, who said yes to signing with Milan, but Maldini decided not to listen to his chief scout.
@20&8
Of course We needed Enzo in the midfield. you think Moncada talked to Enzo and sealed a deal without Maldni’s consent/knowledge? Everyone wanted Enzo. But look out our Midfield. Look at how many players we had. To buy enzo, we had to offload both Pobega and Bakeyoko. Maldini tried his best to offload Bakeyoko to sign Enzo but we couldn’t. That’s why we didn’t sign Enzo. It never was about Money nor our unwillingness mate.
And of course we chased Renato at first. Why would you chase Enzo, an unknown, unproven player to replace someone like Kessie who was the heart of our Midfield? Would you bet on him then? NO. NO ONE WOULD. Now that Enzo exploded, you haters are saying it was Maldni who didn’t sign Enzo. How would Maldini know that Enzo would explode in the world cup?
“Maldini was trying to sign Onyedika from Midtiyland and Onana from Bordeaux, just to then settle for Vranckx on the last day of the mercato.”
Of course he did. These players weren’t a necessity nor they were considered as Kessie replacement. They were meant to be bench warmers to be given a chance to grow and prove themselves on a dry loan deal.
What are you talking about?
We didn’t have to offload anyone to sign Enzo. The money needed to sign Enzo, Maldini was offering for Renato Sanches. He already had the money and he was trying to sign a midfielder. That was at the begining of the mercato.
And if needed Pobega was easy to offload because Torini strongly wanted to keep him. Bakayoko was another bad deal by Maldini. 2 year loan at 2.5 mil a season to not play him.
How would Maldini know that Enzo would explode? Very easy. LISTEN TO YOUR SCOUT, whose job is to evaluate and project what a player could become. Moncada is an expert in his profession , Maldini is learning on the job. Listen to people more competent than you.
Both Onyedinka and Onana were considered Kessie replacements. Onyedika has been a beast for Brugge this season in UCL. BTW Brugge signed him with the money they fleeced Maldini for CDK.
We live in a time that if you give facts or tell the truth about something they call it hate.
No person is disrespecting himself more than when he is a fanboy of another person. There are plenty of maldini fanboys whose judgement is clouded because they can’t separate Maldini the player and Maldini the director.
The player was the best defender of all time and Milan biggest legend. The director is not competent to hold the job he has. I don’t think he even has the licence to be a sporting director, that’s why he has to have massara.
If he had a different last name would people be so OK with Milan director losing 2 of our best players for free every summer. I don’t think so.
Lets face the facts….
At the beginning of this season, Kessie left. We needed a replacement for Kessie. Would you pick Enzo .. a 21 yearold who has NO Achievement… as a Kessie replacement? NO. You would go for someone who is proven his skills in big leagues to hold the spot.
So, a new midfield signing was needed. Renato was chosen. But he chose money. Now.. the name of enzo popped up. Then there was Pobega returning from Loan.. with the team already has Tonali, Bennacer.. Krunic and Bakeyoko. Already have 5 CDMs with pobega where we need only 4. Now the choice is.. Do we keep Pobega.. ? Or sign Enzo? Again.. Pobega is proven in seria a.. young.. and Enzo is a nobody at that moment. Maldini didn’t take the risk.
As for myself, Am I a Maldni fanboy? Of course.. as a player. As a director.. I fully acknowledge his shortcomings. He is BAD, like total useless kind of bad when it comes to negotiating.. may it be transfer fee or renewal. He has his influence one young players for sure. But he is bad at negotiating. That’s his drawback and needs to improve. But is it enough reason to HATE him as a director without looking at his achievement? NO F_CKING WAY. Dude just got us out of the worse possible financial crisis and got us a scudetto. Yet you guys think of him as the worst thing that happened after Hitler and as if he committed crimes worse than Holocaust. And not competent for the job? How so? Did you see the players he brought? Are you expecting EVERY player a director buys to be Messi CR7, Pele, R9 and Puyol? You think ALL Signings of EVERY director just becomes successful world beaters? GTFO.
All I ask is.. use your reasoning and stop hating randomly. See the facts and judge accordingly instead of just saying Maldni bad and need to go. Just because a few of his signings weren’t the best in the world is not a reason for hatred. Period. If you think it’s enough to hate.. Then you are the one with a clouded judgement my friend.
@Milan4lyf
Lets talk about facts.
Enzo signed for Benfica on July 14th, Renato signed with PSG on August 4th. Maldini didn’t go back for Enzo after Renato chose the PSG money, on the contrary Milan lost Enzo because Maldini decided to wait on Renato even though it was obvious to everyone except to clueless Maldini that Renato was waiting for PSG.
The same Renato who is BTW notoriously injury prone player. I think he is again out because of an Injury.
So whats a bigger risk, signing unproven (In Europe) supertalented 21 year old Enzo a DM, or Injury prone inconsistent flop as Renato Sanches, who isn’t even a defensive midfielder.
You ask would i choose Enzo a 21 year old as you say unproven player? It doesn’t matter what i would choose but what would the chief scout choose, he is the expert not me or you or Maldini for that matter.
And BTW Milan still end up signing unproven players to replace Kessie. Pobega isn’t a defensive midfielder nor is Vranckx who is for sure young and unproven.
You say that Maldini got us out of the worse financial crisis. HOW? In what way Maldini helped. Did he help by losing some of our most valuable players for free? He is the one slowing the financial progress. That’s over 100 mil that went out of the door.
Gazidis and Elliot dragged us out of the financial crisis. They are the one that hired Moncada to look for cheap young players. If its up to Maldini, by his words, he would spend just like Leonardo did before him.
Buying on a cheap is Elliot strategy which BTW worked until Maldini this summer decided to deviate and spend big on one player instead of spreading the transfer money on several players in the 15 mil range price tag. And that one player he blew all the money on has been the biggest transfer bust in Milan history so far.
And saying Maldini dragged us out is why some people get irritated. Maldini fans want to give Maldini credit for something he had no role in, but he actually hurt the club.
Milan turnaround started after the covid break. Go back and check who were our best players that led that turnaround. Gigio, Kessie, Hakan, Romagnoli, Jack players Maldini didn’t even sign. Along with Rebic, Ibra, Bennacer, Leao players that Boban signed (according to Boban himslef) Theo.
The players you see this year are mostly Maldini’s signings and it shows
“Enzo signed for Benfica on July 14th, Renato signed with PSG on August 4th. Maldini didn’t go back for Enzo after Renato chose the PSG money, on the contrary Milan lost Enzo because Maldini decided to wait on Renato even though it was obvious to everyone except to clueless Maldini that Renato was waiting for PSG. The same Renato who is BTW notoriously injury prone player. I think he is again out because of an Injury. So whats a bigger risk, signing unproven (In Europe) supertalented 21 year old Enzo a DM, or Injury prone inconsistent flop as Renato Sanches, who isn’t even a defensive midfielder.”
Of course Enzo signed For Benfica. Why would ANY Sporting director sign an unproven 21 year old to hold the fort of Milan midfield instead of renato who was a beast in Lille’s Ligue 1 winning season? Of course he is injury prone.. but when he plays.,. he Always Contributes to the team. What’s wrong with that? Renato’s versatality is Exactly why Pioli wanted him.
“You ask would i choose Enzo a 21 year old as you say unproven player? It doesn’t matter what i would choose but what would the chief scout choose, he is the expert not me or you or Maldini for that matter.
And BTW Milan still end up signing unproven players to replace Kessie. Pobega isn’t a defensive midfielder nor is Vranckx who is for sure young and unproven.
You say that Maldini got us out of the worse financial crisis. HOW? In what way Maldini helped. Did he help by losing some of our most valuable players for free? He is the one slowing the financial progress. That’s over 100 mil that went out of the door.”
Vrankxx.. nor Pobega was chosen to be Kessie replacement.. Tonali was chosen as Kessie replacement. Vrankxx and Pobega was always picked as a backup to them.
“Gazidis and Elliot dragged us out of the financial crisis. They are the one that hired Moncada to look for cheap young players. If its up to Maldini, by his words, he would spend just like Leonardo did before him.”
Of course he would. In case you didn’t know… SD and Scout .. is a team. SD sets the requirement, Scout goes out to look for the player and reports back to the SD. SD then decides who to get and handles the negotiation. Moreover… Moncada DIDN’T Sign ANYONE, Maldini did.
“Buying on a cheap is Elliot strategy which BTW worked until Maldini this summer decided to deviate and spend big on one player instead of spreading the transfer money on several players in the 15 mil range price tag. And that one player he blew all the money on has been the biggest transfer bust in Milan history so far.”
That strategy worked because MMM was a very effective team and finding good talents and locking them early. It wasn’t Elliot’s strategy to spend less. It was aimed to balance the book so the budget made available was tight to the SD. It was the SD who had to prepare every proposal to sign a player and get approval, not the other way around., It wasn’t Elliot who picked the players and asked Maldni to sign them. It was MMM who picked the players and Maldini had to convince Elliot why the signing was needed.
“And saying Maldini dragged us out is why some people get irritated. Maldini fans want to give Maldini credit for something he had no role in, but he actually hurt the club.”
Show me another SD who brought so many Low priced HIGH Value players on one team. Maignan, Theo, Kalulu, Tomori, Theo, Ibra, Giroud, Kjear, Leao, Bennacer, Tonali… Just hating because a SD made some wrong decision is not the answer mate. You need to appreciate the achievements as well of a SD. the success of a SD is how much the values of the players aka Assets have increased and pretty much every player that Maldini actually bought with money, had their value skyrocketed. So no matter how much you hate, Maldini as a SD brought a LOT More than what he lost. IS he perfect? No. He has his weaknesses. But is he bad as a SD? NO. His successes isn’t easy to replicate.
“Milan turnaround started after the covid break. Go back and check who were our best players that led that turnaround. Gigio, Kessie, Hakan, Romagnoli, Jack players Maldini didn’t even sign. Along with Rebic, Ibra, Bennacer, Leao players that Boban signed (according to Boban himslef) Theo.
The players you see this year are mostly Maldini’s signings and it shows”
Wrong.. .. these same players you mentioned.. Kessie, Gigio. Hakan. Roma.. They were there in the previous season as well Under Gattuso. We finished 6th. SO NO. Those weren’t the most important players. Let me jog your memory.
The season that turned Milan around was 20/21 when we finished in top 4. The most influential player was Ibra.. then the meteoric rise of Theo in that season… with Kjaers experience in defense… and bennacer’s insane performance that turn ben and Kessie into the best midfield pair in the whole serie a that season and that beast performances of Tomori in the second half of the season that lead us to sign him later in 21/22. hands down. Maldini brought ALL OF Those players. Now you can say it was Moncada and Massara as well.. of course it was.. They were a team and Maldini as the SD had to convince Elliot to get them. BTW The ONLY Player Boban actually signed himself is Rebic and Begovic. Boban also Played a big part in bringing Ibra but It was Maldini who personally talked to ibra to convince him about the project. Leao said himself in multiple interview that that it was Maldini who convinced him, saying you don’t think twice when Maldini calls you. Theo was only interested in Milan after Maldini flew to Madrid to talk with him personally. Maignan was chosen by Moncada and Maldini signed him immediately before negotiations with Donna even ended. Bennacer caught Maldini’s eyes in Africa cup and he personally called isma to convince him to join from Arsenal. As for Milan’s Rise, I do agree… those players are the ones who started the rise of Milan. But then they left. And we got ourselves qualified for UCL and then won Scudetto with the new players that Maldini played A BIG part in signing. You can live in the denial all you want.. In my opinion, Maldini did a fantastic job so far. Of course he messed up negotiations big time in multiple occasions and costed the club some big money.. But he made it up to the club as well, literally bringing Milan back closer to it’s former Glory. Just imagine.. we are one match away from reaching UCL Semi finals. lol I don’t think Maldini is perfect.. BUT I sure believe MMM is the best chance we got at the moment to returning Milan at what we are. Champions.
*Quarter Finals.
“You say that Maldini got us out of the worse financial crisis. HOW? In what way Maldini helped. Did he help by losing some of our most valuable players for free? He is the one slowing the financial progress. That’s over 100 mil that went out of the door.”
Elliot gave Maldini limited budget almost every season after balancing books with FFP.. right? Even to this day.. Maldini is operating on a limited budget. Maldini had to use the info given to him by Moncada and Filter all the players to pick the best ones that suits Milan to plug ALL the holes in the team(there were too many)… and within the very tight budget. Now.. Look at the players he bought with the budget.. Also.. look at the value NOW. Maldini sure lost 100 mil.. actually more I think.. But He made the club at least over 300mil+ by outright skyrocketing the values of the players he brought. I mean Kalulu.. His market value is gonna rise to easily 70/80 mil because he will become the best in his position. Maignan’s is already the same. Theo is already 80mil. Leao is 150 miil and we bought him for 30 mil. Do the same math for Thiaw, Tonali, Bennacer.. See my point? YOu haters are mad because some traitors left for free. GOOD RIDDANCE. We are doing just fine. I hope Pioli starts playing Adli, CDK and Vrankxx.. They are scouted By Moncada anyway so they are good that’s for certain. Its only a matter of time till they start performing and their values will skyrocket as well. Not to mention we have a young Camarda in the primavery who I hope will start tearing the senior league apart as well if fame doesnt get into his head too early. Now that the team is playing well and qualifying for UCL and won Serie A.. Ticket sales are higher with tournament prize money as well as new sponsors.. that’s about 70/80 mil more. Maldini is bringing a LOT more than what he lost. At least that’s how I see it.
Yeah Obviously it was smarter to try to sign Renato who is guaranteed to miss half of the season because of injuries, over betting on a stud young player who proved his talent since day 1 in benfica, both in Portugal league and the UCL. He didn’t blew up at the world cup, as you say, he was already beasting prior to the World Cup. And he was already a star in Argentina for one of the 2 biggest clubs in that country and the whole continent. He was already used to playing in high-pressure games.
Gazidis and Elliott set the budget. Maldini is just forced to work within that budget. So, the financial growth is because of those above Maldini. Moncada identifies players , and Maldini then decides which to sign.
Moncada identified Enzo, Maldini chose Renato,
Moncada identified Kolo Muani on free, Maldini and Massara chose Origi.
Listen to your scouts, stop thinking you are the smartest man in the room.
The rise in value of our players means nothing if they leave for free.
Leao can be worth 100 milion but if he walks for free in 15 months that just means a 100 mil lost again.
Milan turnaround started at the 2nd part of 2019/2020 season. When Milan went on like 30 game unbeaten streak that carried in the following season. Go juggle your memory and see how Hakan, Kessie gigio, and Romagnoli played then. Hakan, along with Bruno Fernandez, was top chance creators in whole Europe.
People were calling Kessie the best DM in Europe.
Gigio was top 5 GK.
Romagnoli was a stud.
You said they didn’t play well under Gattuso. Well, who did? The whole team was a mess , as they were up until the stoppage because of covid.
If we are honest all the way ,that stoppage saved Maldini’s and Pioli’s job, because Gazidis was ready to fire them all and hire Ragnick. You remember why Boban got fired , because he told the media Gazidis plan after disastrous start of 2019 season to fire everyone.
Still, after the 2020 was over Elliott and Gazidis tried to sign Igli Tare to be Milan’s sporting director, but he turned them down. Shows how much faith they had in Maldini. They also showed that same faith when they didn’t even extend his contract. You remember Maldini crying in the media about his contract after Milan won the title. And they only gave him 2 year contract.
These are new owners don’t be surprised if at the end of this season or even earlier if they bring someone to work above Maldini or instead of him.
Losing high value assets is unacceptable in any kind of business especially not in todays football based on self sufficiency and sustainability.
No matter the excuses, those 4 players leaving for free falls on Maldini. Players lying or not doesn’t matter. That’s a dirty business and you have to be able as a SD to see thru the BS.
Just like players and agents lie so does sporting directors and clubs.
As the saying goes ALL is fair in love, war and business
People keep saying Maldini operates with limited budget.
Do you know why Maldini operates with such low or limited budgets?
Because he is incapable of selling players . He doesn’t bring any money into the transfer budget by selling players. If he can actually sell players, even for low fee , that money would be added on the money he is already given by the owners to spend on new players,
You say I hate on Maldini, my issue with Maldini is because what I see with Napoli.
If Maldini was better at his job especially in selling players, Milan would have been 18 points ahead of everyone and going for a second scudetto in a row and even building a dynasty because the rest of the league is dog shit. We missed on a chance to go on and separate ourselves from the rest of the league if he was better at handling contracts and selling players instead of letting them leave for free.
Big opportunity missed with Juve and Inter being a mess.
And again you doing the same thing, you give all the credit to Maldini. Maldini skyrocket the value of the players, how? He is the one that makes them play better? Are the fans coming to see Maldini so he brings Milan money from ticket sales?
His job is to listen to the scouts and not mess up the negotiations. Then it’s on the coach and the players.
And settle down. Kalulu isn’t going to be worth 70-80 mil, what is his position anyway? Is he a RB or a CB?
nor is leao worth 150 mil. Chelsea offered 70+ that’s his value..
Thiaw has played like 5 games , calm down.
Bennacer and Tonali will never be sold for a lot of money.
Bennacer is too small to play in another league, maybe Spain , and Tonali is Italian, they rarely leave Italy and even more rarely succeed outside of Italy.
I don’t think you Know how a Sporting director functions, do ya? EVERY Sporting Decision in the club is made by the SD. Period. Players leaving for free.. means the SD is to blame. Players who turn into beasts in the team.. is also a credit to SD. Players who the club had the option to sign but refused and ended up turning into beasts in other leagues.. is a failure of the SD. Then again, qualifying in back to back UCL, winning Serie A.. is a direct Credit to the SD.
Delu$ional haters like you are quick to blame SD for players leaving for free.. yet.. you refuse to acknowledge the Successes of the SD. lol See the bias in yourself still? Probably not.. because if you could rise above your bias, you would see Maldini as a SD did more for Milan than evEryONE over the past 10 years combined.
Basically… Your whole gripe with Maldini is that he let Gigio Kessie Hakan and Roma leave for free. Of course it was his fault and it is all on him. But you are so blind in your hatred that you can’t even see what he did for Milan. lol My issue with haters like you is.. you are so biased.. you only see the failures.. You don’t see the successes.
As for Maldini Renewals, Why would Elliot renew any contracts for a club they won’t even own anymore? Did you forget that Elliot had sold the club to redbird? It was up to cardinale to renew contracts and he did. Sporting director’s contracts aren’t long term like 5 years. It’s usually two years/three years and it depends on the willingness of both parties.
And thank god Gazidis didn’t have his way and sign Ragnick. That bloke almost had Manu bankrupted. No thanks. Good ridd@nce.
You are so blind you are even trying to tell us that Milan’s resurgence started with Gattuso era. Lol Well.. THANK GOD you didn’t say the resurgance started with Li younghong because Gigio, Hakan, Kessie and Roma was signed by Fassobelli. LOL I never thought I would hear than from a Milan fan. Why are ALL you haters the same delu$ional beings?
Only a delu$ional h@ter can think that COVID of all things ‘saved’ Maldini and Pioli’s job when the pair actually began working during covid. GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT.
This Maldini and Pioli pair literally qualified the whole team for Back to back UCLs and won a serie A. But wait.. Just because 4 players left for free .. Maldini is worse than Hitler according to you. LMFAO
Kalulu’s market value is already 35 mil officially.. and he will cost significantly more for any team that wants to sign him and he is only 22. he’s not even in his prime. His value will surpass 80mil. For some reason.. you .. a supposedly Milan fan.. think Kalulu isn’t good because he can play every defensive positions in a team? Do you really watch Milan games mate? LOL
And of course Maldini getting limited budget is his own fault. NO ONE will deny that. He has his flaws. he failed negotiations at the start of his career as a SD. But why would anyone deny that he did a fantastic job with the limited budget that he received every season till NOW? Hating someone without even looking at the achievements has a term.. we call it Big_ot! Don’t be a Big_ot mate! lol
Dude.. you outright hate Maldini. It has NOTHING to do with Napoli. Napoli is in a very good run of form like Milan was last season. Period. Napoli isn’t a dynasty yet. They have managed to bring out the very best of EVERY player in the team, like anguissa.. a dead average player.. looks like a beast in Napoli due to a high of confidence from back to back victories. These insane run of forms of teams is a tradition in Serie a. Happens pretty much every season for a team in this league. You are so full of hatred, you are banging your head on the wall about four players who left yet didn’t say a word about the ones we have on the team now.
Everything you typed is ALL about failures of Maldini, and not a word about his successes? the titles.. the UCL qualifications etc.
BTW.. before you go on your bul$hit like the credit goes to Elliot, Moncada and all crying as none of those success are Maldini’s credit.. Well.. EVERY ONE OF THEM IS MALDINI’s CREDIT.
He is the SD and is in complete charge of making Every sporting decision of the club. Sporting successes are exactly his credits. That’s what being an SD MEANS. Which also means the failures are his to take. EVERY player we missed out on, such as Kolo Muani and all, his Maldini’s failure as well.
The difference between you and me is.. I acknowledge Maldini’s failures AS WELL AS his successes. BUT YOU my friend.. all you see is failures. THAT is the DEFINITION of a hater.
I can now conclude that CDK is a fuc*ing joke, we may have to cut our losses. Poor pressing cost us this game. Again we are not pressing as a unit, the pressing is just weak, the whole team was just clueless on the pitch and that’s down on the coach.
Messias and CDK were lost, lacking ideas, I was shocked they even came out for the second half.
It was a pain to watch.
There is one weak link from milans starting evelen and that is milans no. 8
Offers nothing in defence , cant pass a ball, cant drible. Or am i missing something ?
You played a good game today Igor
Just one? LOL, trust me, there’s many. Based on yesteday’s performance 1/3 of the players shouldn’t have entered the pitch at all.
Tonali is the biggest weak spot on this team but he gets an automatic start every weak because he is Italian. Nobody else could do so little and continue to start every week.
It’s so good to have Maignan as a goalkeeper, he is just fantastic !
Thiaw was not helped much by Tomori this evening, giving him 5 is too harsh. Kalulu was ok, Theo what a goal again !
Bennacer is out of shape, he needs more time, Tonali has benen very discreet.
Bakayoko ? Where is Pobega ?
Adli did not have enough time but we can see clearly he has the good attitude, fighting on every ball and having smart positioning.
Rebic, Messias and CDK need to do more. They didn’t impress this evening.
Good efforts from Giroud but he had too few opportunities.
Missed Diaz yet?
Rebic is a waste of space
The bloody lot of them are a load of shit. To sit and watch this is bloody terrible. What can’t Maldini do something about this how can he sit and watch it.
Fiorentina deserved to win. Now I’m not saying we would’ve won with Leao, but this type of match could highlight his importance for some. The guy can be an idiot and stroll around for 89 minutes, but he’s the only one with the X factor who can come up with that 1 moment of brilliance to score or make an assist, and usually that’s all it takes to win a match or score a point.
I don’t like Diaz one bit, I think he’s weak useless player, but I admit we need him on the pitch simply because our alternatives stink to high heaven.
I agree that CDK was not the problem today though. Italiano clearly has our number and we always struggle against his press. Pioli’s plan was to hit them on the counter on the odd occasions we would manage to beat their press or run behind, but without Leao and Diaz it never happened.
Firstly, not even about the game but Leao… never post stupid things like this ever against about CDK, support him in interviews but not this. It’s looks sad when you lose and he doesn’t score.. then about the game, It’s unbelievable, even in this system I see liability’s. Thiaw is ok but Tomori men, idk what he’s doing. I always find him wild, like totally not calm, very “stressed” and because of that attackers notice it and just wait till he comes close and play him out. In this system when we don’t press good enough or some people do it on 50% a good opponent plays out you’re press and sets up a chance, Fiorentina could have done that more today aswell. Than the subs…. Horrible horrible horrible. I know it’s Ibra and I know what a legend he is but it’s pretty sad when a 41 year old Ibra needs tot fix things, but that’s not even the worst sub.. Bakayoko men really??? What a joke of a player. This team is only good with Leao because Rebic was awful again, Theo was decent, good goal. Hopefully we play better against Spurs and CDK please do something but I think it’s done, his confidence is very low.
Milan’s biggest problem is that they get dominated in the midfield against EVERY team. Tonali is just not up to the task. Milan isn’t going to solve this problem until they realize this. Ibra should start against Salernitana. Im tired of Giroud who offers nothing except for occasionally getting on the end of a header.
Milan’s entire attacking strategy.
1. Look for leao/theo.
2. Get the ball to their feet.
3. Pray to god.
This is all on Pioli. He couldn’t guide the team to adopt at least ANY viable attacking plays in 3 years now.
Our whole strategy is to lob a long ball to the opponents half and pray to god that Leao/Theo is around to pick it up by chance and do something with it. EVERY. SINGLE. GAME… Same play. Is it a bad strategy? No. Obviously team would play around their best players.
The problem is.. It’s the ONLY thing we do. None of our players have the urgency to go into a fast counter attack except theo, Leao and shockingly.. Saele. NO ONE looks for a pinpoint through ball except leao. Our attack depends entirely on luck.
Pioli needs to try new attacking plays in the practice.
Tonali… His attacking and defensive workrate has dipped significantly. It needs to be improved ASAP.
I think it’s time to use Kalulu in the RWB. He is far superior to Saele and Messias combined as neither of these two adds ANYTHING in the attack.
Vrankxx must be really really bad. I hope for the sake of Pioli that Aster doesn’t emerge like Thiaw.
As for CDK, his confidence is shot down to below zero. Clearly, he is playing with more stress than the joy of it. Not to mention being totally clueless in the attacking phase. But the whole thing applies to the ENTIRE Milan team. I remember Leao being the exact same in the first season. “Fans” were calling for his head everywhere. And NOW.. we can’t win a SINGLE game if Leao isn’t at his best.
I would give up on CDK only if he remains equally unproductive in the next 2 years. Selling him at this point would be a big mistake. He clearly has better quality than the whole Milan Attack at the moment. He just lacks the confidence. The coach needs to take care of it.
Agree with most of the rating except Thiaw’s. He made a mistake yes.. but the rest of his game was very solid.
There is ONE burning problem in this Milan’s team. Pass Accuracy of the players is GODAWFUL. Clearly.. it’s not something our coaching staff focuses on. THERE IS NO WAY ON EARTH A TEAM WHO ASPIRES TO BE CHAMPIONS.. PLAYS THIS BAD OF A PASSING GAME. passing is LITERALLY The basic skill of Football and we cant put a basic one.
It’s not that players are bad passers.. They just don’t have any idea where their teammates are supposed to be in the attacking phase, it’s impossible to anticipate for them because there is clearly no direction from the coach. THAT’s.. on Pioli. You will NEVER See this happening in Pep’s or Klopp’s or Ancelotti’s team. Hell it doesn’t happen in Napoli, Lazio, Inter, Roma or Atalanta either. But it happens in Milan. We misplace too many passes without ANY pressure. This needs to be addressed ASAP.
WE SERIOUSLY need to consider Bringing Kessie back to Milan on Loan or just buy him outright. We need the stability he provides in Midfield and his defensive contributions. Tonali is not yet ready/mature enough to take Kessie’s place for sure.
Forza Milan.
You write too long. I read only part “pass to theo leao”.
So let’s see. Theo and Leao are only top quality attacking players in Milan. With formation 4 2 3 1, Milan played full attacking ( when have ball) and full defensive when opponent attack. But due to overhaul of players that don’t work any more so that’s why we coincided so many goals. Milan went in full attacking mode due to less quality of individual players. Players like Messias, Saelemakers, Diaz, and now Charles De Ketelaere are not superstars. But Theo and Leao on contrary have speed and shoot at least, Leao have technique as well. Unfortunately we lost Rebic impact this year, Origi is more of a serie b player and Ibrahimovic career is over. So this problem with 4 2 3 1 is going to be major problem to Pioli, and that might have finished his career in Milan.
I’ve been saying this for a long time now. Milan under Pioli has been the worst passing team in professional football. There is no plan, no movement off the ball and just poor accuracy. It was better when Ibra was starting every game because they can play off of him and he is a good passer but overall Pioli has no ideas offensively other than wait for Leao or Theo to make a run.
@Milanelo..
I do write long. I read only part “You write too long” and thought its fair to not read any further. lol
Got played off the park in the middle and could barely get across half way in the first half.
We can get dominated by sides that play 3 in the middle. The AMs are barely midfielders so you can’t really rely on any of them to play more box to box roles.
The back 3 does not play high enough to be a factor in this part of the midfield battle.
Sell CDK and Origi for whatever you can get, cash in on Leao, buy Kessie, give Ibra some sort of official player-assistant manager position so he can light a fire under the team.
Right this sinking ship.
Correct. One of the hallmarks of a bad businessman (like Maldini) is not knowing when to cut losses. Origi is garbage and we actually knew that before he was signed, but the free price tag lured Maldini in, even though his wages are high. CDK was a huge gamble that didn’t pay off. No other major club wanted him, that should have been a sign. I know there are still some apologists out there who want to give him time, but he hasn’t shown ANYTHING at all so far.
I hate it when we make a mediocre team look good. The sad truth is that Pioli is not a great coach, his level is mid-table clubs. The Scudetto was more luck than amazing coaching. Inter and Juve were not very good while Napoli hadn’t found their new key players yet. In most matches it feels like our offensive strategy is to hope that Theo or Leao makes a good run, or Ibra does something (last season), or someone takes a shot from 20+ yards. Subs often make no sense and/or come too late. That being said, we also have another huge problem:
Maldini is a pretty bad director (his qualification is that he was a legend as a player???) as he has wasted a lot of money on garbage like Origi and CDK, while letting better players (e.g. Botman) slip out of his hands. We have to much dead weight on the books (sadly Rebic seems to fall in that category now).
So in many ways we are not that much better than during the banter era. At least our new owners seem to know what they’re doing in the long run. Let’s just hope we keep making top 4 and the stadium gets approved soon.
I’m torn on the criticism of Pioli.
The use of the young players is frustrating but I think he has wrung much more out of the squad than the sum of its parts. That is a good coach in my book.
Who are the players Milan has that are of a quality that you would associate with a scudetto winning best 11?
Leao, Theo, Kessie, Zlatan and Maignan would be my names. Maybe Calabria as a solid role player.
Tonali, Tomori and Kalulu had strong years but were not exactly proven beyond doubt. The centre backs in particular have a reputation due to a run of 11 games.
There is virtually no depth in the squad (certainly not that Pioli likes and I can’t say I’d strongly argue the point with him).
Zlatan was done half way through last season. Kessie is gone and has been replaced with Bennacer who has gone to another level.
Tomori, Kalulu and Tomori have faltered. The squad is seriously average which is why I think we should be proactively offloading Leao to the highest bidder.
He could be turned in to 4 quality players. That’s a net benefit for the side.
I’m not surprised, Fiorentina have looked good in Europe in recent weeks. We’re distracted by the Spurs game. Normal service will resume next week. Tomori has been poor all season. He needs to be dropped occasionally.
Maybe that’s why he didn’t break to WC2022 squad? The england manager knows better than us?
se potessi dare una valutazione del giocatore, allora darei a ANTE REBIC un VALORE di 4, 54.22 minuti Il Milan avrebbe dovuto segnare un GOL se Rebic non fosse stato avido.
Rebic, Giroud, Tomori, Origi, Bakayoko definitely should leave the club. The team is struggling to score. Mesias should be trusted to lead the attack.
Tonali was the worst man on the pitch tonight, but we made some bad decisions in attack too. For instance, both Theo and Rebic waiting WAY too long to pass allowing fiorentina to run back and defend. Same for Messias making perfect runs behind lines but not getting the ball from bennacer.
Not a horrendous night, just some bad decisions. Let’s not overreact lads.
Giroud gets 5.5 and Ibra gets 6, very funny.
At this point the only way Giroud scores is if Theo, or less likely Leao, makes a cross and he can head it in. Ibra should have retired last year. We have no creativity in the middle. Bennacer is a good DM but offensively poor, Tonali and CDK are useless. Rebic has forgot how to play professional football, and Origi shouldn’t even play in a pick-up match at the park. Messias and Saladmaker work hard but not up to the level that a top club requires.
Giroud is as frustrating as he is decisive. I am beginning to feel if we won’t be better off without him. One week he scores a stunner, the next week he can’t even control a simple pass to him. Damn frustrating. We should ship both him and Origi back to the EPL. If we don’t get the right profile striker we won’t be able to compete in Serie A, let alone the UCL.
I watched the game last night ,and what i have to say is this ,the midfield could not string two passes together ,i felt really sorry for Giroud ,thought under the circumstances he did well ,and two shots on target ,,but out of such little service ,he will score goals but need opportunities,,thought keletare is slowly coming into form,,but we must also use salamakers against Tottenham..Of course vital we have Rafeol Leo back ,who can always create opportunities something especially for Olivier..Great goal from Theo Hernandez…Still confident we will get a result against Tottenham on Wednesday .
Well this is a pickle!
Our attack is way too dependent on Leao. Seems like no Leao no party. But it also gets to three points: the starting RW is not good enough, the backup for LW is not good enough and we’re simply becoming a one person attack. As opposed to last year where it was a team attack, it’s now one sided.
Secondly, I can’t believe CDK got higher rating than other players. He’s now so bad that a standard pass is now heralded as some crazy skill. When we play with CDK, out attack game is toothless, there’s no way to put it better. I feel cringe anytime he’s starting and when the ball comes to him. Diaz is vastly better. Maybe he should go out on loan or something but his performance is simply not good enough. I’d prefer ANY other player in that role
This brings me to Adli who I’ve been critical of because it was easy to say “just throw in Adli”. But based on this performance I REALLY dont know why he hasn’t been given a shot anymore. He impressed me the most. He was able to pass out of presses and confined spaces with accuracy. He has better command of the field than CDK and he’s not afraid or timid. I really think he needs to be used more in that CAM role. Plus, as before he came to Milan, is good on defence.
“When we play with CDK, out attack game is toothless, there’s no way to put it better. I feel cringe anytime he’s starting and when the ball comes to him. Diaz is vastly better. ”
Anyone with at least a 1/4 of brain will agree with this. CDK brings nothing to the table ATM. I’m not saying he won’t be good someday but at his current form he should not be allowed to enter the pitch unless Milan are leading the game and getting 3 points.