AC Milan got themselves in the win column in their first Serie A game of the season, beating Bologna 2-0 at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, and there were some positive signs on display.
Tuttosport in the title of their ratings (via MilanNews) highlights two players who had an excellent match but who are not in the headlines this morning, namely Rafael Leao and Rade Krunic.
The headline reads: ‘Turbo Leao, Krunic directs’. The paper gave the Portuguese winger a 7 out of 10, with the following assessment: ‘When he turns on the turbo, there is no Bologna defender who can stem him in the slightest’.
The Bosnian (6.5) also got praise because he ‘directs in the possession phase’. Christian Pulisic also did well and got a 7 after netting his first goal for the club.
Oliver Giroud got a goal and an assist but earned a 6, while Tijjani Reijnders was the brightest of the midfield three and also got an assist, though he received a 6 too.
The only negative score went to Noah Okafor who came off the bench as part of a quadruple change and failed to really assert himself (5.5).
Yep, another good display by Krunic.
I really fail to understand all this grudge against this guy. He’s a reliable, solid squad player, with good stats overall, very important to the stability of the midfield.
His ‘background’ playing is very useful to the side. Just to mention an example: remember the masterstroke Theo’s goal against Atalanta on the last Scudetto season? It all with a crucial tackle made by Krunic.
Anyway, he’s a good player, whats the reason to negotiate him for peanuts?!
No grudge. Milan just trying to upgrade if he leaves. He was only ever supposed to be a rotation piece for us, and back when we had Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer healthy and playing, Krunic would never see the pitch.
Milan is definitely not offloading him for peanuts. 12-15mil is fair for him. He’s no Fred.
Ohhh my god. krunic fan boys are gonna be unbearable. Exactly what did Krunic directed? The 3 meters long backwards or lateral passes? Rejnders was the engine of the team. It was actually frustrating to watch such a talented team (maybe not so much Calabria and RLC) stained with a player as constrained as Krunic. Hopefully he either gets sold or we get to see Musah take his place.
Did you watch the game? Krunic broke up play regularly, negotiated tight spaces with excellent ball control, and made some excellent forward passes. Sometimes you don’t know what you have til it’s gone. You won’t find a better replacement for 10m, so keeping him is what we should do.
Not to mention he’s been incredibly durable. I can’t remember him having any long injury layoffs since he’s been at the club.
To our own demise that’s unfortunately true.
I’ve watched almost every single Milan game for the last 20 years. And Krunic is a banter era player. There’s nothing Krunic does that any ANY professional football player could also do. I suppose the guy has a hell of an attitude and any manager in any profession appreciates having people who are just easy to manage but he’s just not on par with the rest of the roster and with what I suppose should be our expectations.
When you watched the “banter era” did you never wonder how we kept destroying players?
Or did you just write off all 500 odd players we went through as “not Milan quality”?
Nothing to do with the constant turnover and coaches some of whom it was their first gig as a coach….
The fact that Krunic is performing is a sign that the team is performing.
He’s the exact sort of player who would’ve struggled at Milan in the “banter era” and then gone on to win a Scudetto with Juve joining such mindbogglingly talented players like Borriello, Matri, Sturaro, Padoin, Giaccherini, Cáceres and (why not) Bonucci…..
You measure top sides not by their best players but by whether they can lift average players to be champions. And Krunic is a champion. He played a crucial role in our title run in when Bennacer and Kessie were on African Cup duty and he was integral to our run to the semi-finals of the champions league last season, an achievement which seems remarkably under-appreciated round these parts….
20 years?? You’re telling me you watched Bakaye Traore and concluded that Krunic is that level??? Come on bro. I’ve been a fan since 1989. This ain’t it. Watch football long enough you’d know Krunic is positionally very effective. His awareness is quite good. He’s not flashy so he doesn’t get the plaudits but if you know what you’re looking at you’d appreciate how he goes about things quietly and effectively
Traore barely played and was soon shipped off so he was not cancer like Krunic
Ok just name any other mid except jack, monto, Bertolacci, Sosa, Fernandez, Poli, Kucka….
Come one bro, don’t let your gate consume you
Well said man, People keep talking about Lord Krunic like he is the Messias of the midfield…the guys is just useless, cant make decent passes, he’s slow and his defensive abilites are crap. Krunic should be sold asap, can’t stand watching him anymore.
They are so delusional, it’s hilarious. Dude is slow, can’t pass a long-ball, can’t play one-touch to speed up a counter, defensively just runs around like a headless chicken and just passes backwards. There were massive gaps in the middle of the pitch, but of course it’s not his fault right. He’s such a donkey, let’s get some quality in there. His fans make him out to be prime Busquets after every game.
This Krunic war between fans could eclipse even The Great Maldini War.
Indeed. One question though… Is there a place for the people who don’t have strong feelings about him? 😀
I mean, I used to think he was pure garbage and never did anything good for the team but then 1-2 years ago noticed he can actually defend “well enough” sometimes but I’m still convinced we need a better player. So I’m not 100% in the “I F’NG HATE HIM!!!!” club nor 100% in the “Krunic is THE GOAT!!!”-fanboy club. I think I’m straight at the halfwayline but is there such place in this upcoming war? Do I have to pick sides? 🙂
Yes you’re either a lover or a hater 😆. I don’t really care about him either. If he stays fine if he leaves in January fine.
No one should hate Krunic. It’s just the ‘Krunic situation’ and the lengths Pioli will go to give him playing time, which are infuriating. Pioli has fielded him in almost every position to the detriment of several more capable players in those roles.
Hauge – Say what you will, but he showed goals and promising flashes in the few minutes he got. Yet, slow, with zero dribbles and lame crossing, Krunic would play the few times Leao or Rebic were not available.
Bakayoko, Vranckx, Pobega – All of them are way better than Krunic. One was a beast at DM just a year ago with Napoli, Vranckx was like Krunic but with speed and a little bit of dribbling, and Pobega is like Krunic with a good long-range shot and strength.
Adli and CDK – Both promising and highly technical, yet Krunic would get more playing time than them.
Krunic is the weakest link in our squad and must be fixed asap. It shouldn’t be expensive or hard to find an upgrade.
Hard to disagree with anything you wrote…
everything he wrote is BS
You think Bakayoko and Pobega are better than Krunic?? At DM????
take the list of everyone who averages over 12km run per game and pick someone then…de roon…and koopmeiners cant do 12, but are the closest. Hjulmand would be the furthest down i would go.
I absolutely hate Krunic and his boyfriend Pioli
Also Calabria as well
It’s really isn’t asking a lot for fans to actually like the players that they’re watching.
You’d expect inter fans to carry on like some of you lot.
Support the team (which by the way is the players) or go do something else.
Poor Krunič. Played well, didnt make any mistakes yet the clowns are not happy. They just cant stand him. They treat him like he is Cerci of the DM/CM.
If yall cant stand watching an ac milan player play for ac milan then you’re better off changing the channel to some soap opera
This isn’t a war over if Krunic is great or not. This is a question of whether we want to lose the last remaining midfielder from previous seasons with a week left in the market. The answer should be no, unless you want to try to integrate an entirely new midfielder during the season.
Replied here by mistake but I agree with you!
Precisely, Flossonero. But unfortunately reading / text comprehension is not exactly a strong point for many people on our wonderful cyberworld. No one here is a Krunic ‘fanboy’, it’s just a question of plain and objective appraisal / understanding of the game. Again: the guy is not a genius, a flamboyant player or anything like that, but he’s pretty useful in his duties. And we’ll definitely not be easy to find a proper replacement for only 10M on the last week of the market.
20 years, Chris? And I’m a Milan fan since 1985, that its to say, even BEFORE Berlusconi’s Era. So what?
Lol, said about the same thing. This isn’t my first rodeo
Lol Krunic has a higher rating than Reijnders 😂😂😂.
Something is really going on behind the scenes, Krunic was lost most part of the game wen Calabria was constantly overrun by 2 to 3 players, what about when Reijnders had to chase a payer and stop a clean run at goal 🤣🤣🤣
EXACTLY! And yet it was Reijnders who prevented a goal from happening tracking all the way back to prevent Aebischer from getting a first time shot on target, while Krunic was nowhere near the box….
Tuttosport is Juve paper
Krunic was solid in this game but how did they give Pulisic and Leao both a 7? Pulisic was Man of the Match and should have 7.5+. Leao was fairly pedestrian by his usual standards.
With that I agree. Krunic deserved something between 6 / 6.5, and to Leão I would give a 6, cause he really can give us infinitely more.
The fact that he can give us more means he should be rated lower than he performed?
Yes.
Does Krunic need to score hattrick at every game to earn approval of you guys? He’s playing as DM ffs. You can’t expect him to make Pirlo-like passes or Beckham-like crosses. I actually am happy if he sticks to those 3m passes. Sometimes you just need to play it simple, not overcomplicate things.
I personally don’t think he’s the next Makalele or something. But, just by reading some of the comments in this site, it sounds like someone’s grandma could do better than him. Look at his statistic vs Bologna, he ran 12.4km, only behind Reijnders ffs. And those short passes meant that high completion rate too, and if midfielders dont lose possession/create turnovers = that’s good.
I also don’t mind if he leaves or he stays. I appreciate his versatility and availability. The season is long, we will need him. Beside, who realistically could replace him with the same price? Dominguez? Sure it’s just one game but dude didn’t help his case at all last night.
He doesn’t play as a DM well.
“Keep it simple with passes”
Or is it that he’s simply not good enough?
Also he often passes back to the goalkeeper so stats don’t tell the full story.
As far as Dominguez, it’s about individual talent. One of Thiaw’s last games at Schalke was a 6-1 defeat. It doesn’t diminish the individual talent.
With transfer market almost close. Selling krunic would be disaster. Can you find replacement with just 1 week ? You will end with panic buying if you sell krunic . It is better focused on sell origi,caldara,ballo toure and saladmaker first , all of them are surplus and out of system . You can sell krunic next summer after bennacer fully recovered
Dominguez is a no-brainer
Or my favorite Federico Redondo from Argentina(who has a Spanish passport)
Do you people think a midfield of Krunic-RLC-Tijjani is enough to take on Inter’s midfield?
yes
Why would Krunic do better against Inter than he did last season, which was horrible? He’s the guy, if we keep him, who we play in the Coppa Italia or something. We need a real DM.
if RLC can get in shape and this isnt some longterm issue hes dealing with. All 3 guys should be pushing 12km per game.
Krunic was horrible against Inter last season. This is why I favor an actual defensive midfielder joining us.
The peanut gallery is already running away with this score. We played against Bologna not a top tier team.
We need to do better.
Krunic might need to stay this season to integrate Musah in over time. Probably a safer option than getting someone in last minute and having to integrate them in AND Musah….
He needs to go asap along with fraud Pioli.
Musah was a terrible buy anyhow.
Defensively we are terrible. Tomori, Calabria are terrible, Krunic is godawful.
this musah take will age poorly. also one more win from pioli and im done with him.
Krunic is okay. He should be sold once we get a new coach but right now we need him. I maintain that the main problem is Pioli and his lack of proper tactics that would allow us to dominate weaker teams and put games to bed quicker. Bologna were incredibly weak so it’s hard to say if there has been any improvement. Torino will be tougher and then Inter will be the big test. Let’s see what happens.
As for the ratings… Pulisic was great but faded late on, Reijnders is a revelation, Leao didn’t do enough compared to the expectations. Giroud keeps surprising but we need to get Okafor up to speed because Giroud won’t be able to keep playing every match. Chuckwueze was underwhelming but I have high hopes for him.
Ridiculous. Krunic was terrible as always, that is why we Bologna had so many shots on goal.
Tuttosport is Ladri paper.
Loftus Cheek needs to chase back on defense and mark better.
He wasn’t good in this game.
understatement. its hard to watch guys work hard to mark while someone jogs around aimlessly.