It was a special season for Milan as they managed to finish second and get back into the Champions League after a long wait.
The team also played brilliant football bar a few exclusions and always reacted well after a bad result as they went on to win against each of the top six teams at least once, including a 3-0 win away to Juventus that was a first since the Bianconeri moved to the Allianz Stadium.
Whilst the first half of the season was pretty much perfect, the second half was a bit shaky as the team suffered a lot of injuries including the long absence of Zlatan Ibrahimovic which ultimately put them in a tough spot for their Champions League hopes, but in the end Pioli and his men proved everyone wrong and managed to get the job done with big wins in the final games of the season.
The second half of the season saw Milan’s attacking players struggle quite a bit, which means are top three performers are surprisingly back-loaded.
3. Fikayo Tomori – Average rating: 6.48
It might come as a surprise for some as the Chelsea loanee had just half a season with the Rossoneri, but in that time he managed to bench the captain – Alessio Romagnoli – and form a very solid partnership with Simon Kjaer.
The Englishman set a very high standard and he only had two or three mistakes at most, whilst being very solid in the rest and settling in immediately, which also made Maldini exercise the option to buy him on a permanent basis.
2. Simon Kjaer – Average rating: 6.53
Another centre-back comes in second place as the Dane has been a pillar for Pioli’s. His leadership at the back was felt every game and even the team had a lot of injuries he has been a true warrior, which seemed unlikely when he arrived from Sevilla as an unknown quantity.
Kjaer had a slight drop in form as he was injured for a couple of games, but then he picked up from where he left off and as we mentioned above, he formed a great partnership with Tomori at the back. The two of them look to have sealed the two starting spots for next season.
1. Franck Kessie – Average rating 6.68
Who else but Franck Kessie. It should really come with no surprise that Kessie occupies the first spot as the Ivorian has really stepped up his game this season becoming a true leader for his side and a dominant force in the midfield.
Although he had to play alongside different players seemingly every game, Kessie got the better of the majority of opponents he faced and is a main reason for Milan’s success. The midfielder managed 13 goals and 6 assists in 37 games in Serie A and while a lot of them were penalties, he has to be given credit for the way he takes does penalties – precise and composed – which also helped him against Atalanta in the final day of the season.
For someone whose main function is to recover the ball, which he still did incredibly well, it certainly comes as a nice surprise to see him have a goal involvement every two games even if they came from penalties. Now to work on that renewal.
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