A number of AC Milan players drew praise from Tuttosport for their performance during last night’s 3-1 win against Hellas Verona at the Stadio Bentegodi.
The newspaper gave Mike Maignan a 5.5 and had him as the worst player for the Rossoneri while Davide Calabria got the same score as he struggling from a marking and positioning point of view. Pierre Kalulu (6) and Fikayo Tomori (6.5) did well as the centre-back pairing, and Theo Hernandez got a 6.
Sandro Tonali received a 9 out of 10 and was man of the match with his brace on his birthday that turned the game on its head, while Franck Kessie got a 6.
Rade Krunic received a 6 in the playmaker role with Alexis Saelemaekers getting the same on the right wing and Olivier Giroud also getting a 6 as the centre-forward, while Rafael Leao (9) was also in fantastic form. Pioli got an 8 for his game management and substitutions.
Tuttosport must be on some sorts of drugs.
How was Mike Maignan the worst player on the pitch?
There’s practically nothing he could have done to prevent that ball from going in. I’m guessing you people are expecting him to fly right, nonsense.
Seriously, plus he is so good with his feet and so important for our buildup play and possession. The back 4 rely on him so much to play out of the back. Ridiculous rating for Maignan.
Calabria was poor and should’ve had worst rating of match. Lazovic made a fool of him over and over again. Plus, when Tonali made that great flick pass to Calabria in the box, he should’ve scored. Calabria made one nice anticipation play to intercept a ball and get himself into shooting position in 2nd half; but same thing again, let us down with his shot straight at goalkeeper. I said on this page yesterday at halftime of the match in comments to an article about Florenzi being back, that Pioli should sub Calabria off and put FLorenzi in because he can more accurately finish and score in those situations — and look what happened!!! 1 minute and 42 seconds after he enters the pitch he puts in a perfect shot inside the far post!
Sometimes you bite the dog ,sometimes the dog bites you……Calabria was over matched, I do not put much weight in these evaluations,as it is totally dependent on player vs. player matchups for the most part. I know there are exceptions but it seems the evaluations should be based on what we expect from the player. Every player who faces Leao should/would get a 4 then, ratings should be based on potential. Maignan allows a goal, big deal, you cannot expect him to keep a clean sheet every game. Now as to the game,a couple things that stand out from the last recent games and this game. Our passing has improved, much more crisp and quicker, no looking around,when a player recieves the ball he already knows his options and gets rid of it, this has not been so in the past,next, Leao now when he loses the ball does not mope around but gets after it, either Pioli or his fellow team mates have lit a fire under his rear end,playing with intensity even when he does not have the ball at his feet. As to goals we have realized this is football played with the feet, headers will come, but no longer the focus of our attack, we were too predictable with our continued “header” service into the goal to Giroud who was always marked by at least 2 defenders. I would like to see Pioli really think outside the box against Atalanta and start Rebic at the 9. Our last 3-4 games where our offense has began to gain traction has no headers, all goals with the feet and for the most part directly on goal.