Milan Player Ratings: AC Milan 0 - 1 Napoli

AC Milan continue to choke at home in a 1-0 loss to Napoli in the midst of the top four race. Gennaro Gattuso’s men predictably sat back and hit us on the counter whilst maintaining possession and forcing us to chase the ball for 90 minutes. The returns of Theo Hernandez and Ante Rebic were disastrous as the former was to blame for the goal and the latter picked up a stupid red card at the last minute. Milan are in crisis and one that could see us miss out on Champions League football despite sitting in first place for more than half the season.

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STARTING LINE-UP

Gianluigi Donnarumma: Frustrating day at the office as captain. He brely put a foot wrong and couldn’t do much on the goal. 6/10

Diogo Dalot: A strange performance as his stats look good but overall he was pretty useless in attack and was constantly bullied by Insigne down the wing in defence. 4.5/10

Fikayo Tomori: Another very strong performance from the on-loan defender and one that shows he definitely needs to be redeemed as he is quickly becoming the top choice. He went toe to toe with Insigne, Mertens and Osimhen and did well. 6.5/10

Matteo Gabbia: A good game from him on short notice. He held up well and there were no glaring mistakes. 5.5/10

Theo Hernandez: This one is annoying for me as it was so obvious prior to the game that Politano would wreck Theo and that is exactly what happened. His runs forward get more and more aimless as he does not know when to release the ball. Defensively, he was disastrous and left a huge gap for Politano to exploit and score the winner. FOTM 3/10

Sandro Tonali: A good display again and he proved he can contribute on both the defensive end and going forward. Despite his attempts to press forward, nothing much was created regardless. 6/10

Franck Kessie: A game to forget for Kessie. He looked exhausted and was being goaded by Napoli throughout the first half to keep him running and off the ball. 5/10

Samu Castillejo: Once again a frustrating performance. He need to play simple and to focus on delivering crosses and working on runs into the box, the dribbling just does not work for him. 5/10

Hakan Calhanoglu: Calhanoglu was solid in this game but was being hounded by Napoli. He kept the ball moving and created some good chances but looks tired and was taken off early. 6/10

Rade Krunic: Not much of note in this one. He is performing well enough but nothing major came from it in this tie. 6/10

Rafael Leao: He missed a sitter that could’ve changed the game. The chances are there, the support is there but Leao refuses to take his opportunities. Terrible look for a talented player and one that is costly to Milan’s hopes. 3.5/10

SUBSTITUTES

Alexis Saelemaekers: I could copy and paste my previous rating here. Again good work rate but his poor technical ability really hinders the impact from the wing and in front of goal. 5/10

Brahim Diaz: Finally a rather decent display, he looked a bit more solid and his dribbling ability came through. It was all for naught as he had no one to pass to but a slight improvement. 5.5/10

Ante Rebic: A poor display by a player who knows better. The ugly head of his anger issues is starting to rear it’s head as he constantly looks frustrated and picked up a ridiculous and unnecessary red card leaving us missing an attacker for the next Serie A game. 4/10

Soualiho Meite: An average performance. He did what he could and offered more dynamism than a tired Kessie but lacked the directness to keep the ball moving forward. 6/10

Jens Petter Hauge: He was brought in to spur the attack but we was constantly crowded out and outmuscled. He needs to better adapt to the Italian game. 5/10

MANAGER

Stefano Pioli: Not much for him to do in this one. He has his hands tied in attack as Leao refuses to step up and this game was a long time coming. Must’ve been frustrating for him too. 5/10