Milan haven’t scored in two successive Serie A games for the first time since February 2021 and it’s no surprise that Italian sports papers mainly blame Stefano Pioli’s strikers after a 0-0 draw against Torino.
The Rossoneri didn’t make the most of Napoli‘s 3-2 loss against Fiorentina yesterday, collecting a goalless stalemate in Turin last night. They now have a two-point lead over Inter, which would climb to the top of the table if they win their game in hand against Bologna later this month.
While Mike Maignan and Sandro Tonali were named the best Milan players by Italian sports papers, Brahim Diaz was among the worst performers for the Rossoneri. According to Tuttosport and Corriere dello Sport, he was the worst player on the pitch.
The Spaniard ‘inexplicably wasted a couple of promising counter-attacks,’ wrote Il Corriere dello Sport that rated him 5/10. ‘He has turned off his light,’ added Tuttosport. The Turin-based paper got him an even lower rating: 4.5.
Diaz got the same grade as Alexis Saelemaekers, Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao on La Gazzetta dello Sport: 5.
As per La Rosea, the Portuguese winger was the most disappointing Milan player. “Some sparks of magic that evaporated immediately. Milan need to be more concrete now,” is the comment from the pink paper.
Don’t worry Brahim. You are Spanish… You are allowed to have 100 poor games before being bench.. If you are young Italian then you would have to worry because you could be sold in next transfer window.. So carry on.
Agree with you Magyar, not enough Italians in AC Milan and in the top italian clubs. No wonder why we are out of the World Cup, italian teams should have a core of Italians with a handful of foreign imports. The running of the clubs and the league is to blame. Seems over the past few years the league is also a retirement village for top players past their prime, a last pay cheque to collect and then they go into obscurity. On top of that no italian clubs in the champions league. All fall on deaf ears, it’s going to be another decade before an Italain club can make it to the champions league final.
both of your comments are 100% spot on, both of you have hit the nail on the head, how us fans can see the issue and the clubs cant is beyond me, how stupid are they, mamma mia honestly
Get Rebic back into the like up by having him interchange with leao between the left and centre of the attack, drop giroud and you’ll see the goals beginning to flow. we are using a dinosaur. A relic from a bygone era of hoof ball in attack, making the team one dimensional and predictable. drop giroud and we’ll begin to score again. then have him come on when need to be more direct.
Agree with the other posters.
If this was a youth team player (forget nationality) there’s simply no way they’d get past 45 minutes. I remember Gabbia, Maldini and Colombo all being hauled off at half time in games where the team, not they, were struggling.
@MaldinIs heir
Are you trying to make an argument for Maldini being good enough for Milan? haha.
i think if things dont change at the clubs the fans should boycott serie A, these clubs owenrs/directors are just taking the piss now, buying crap players to just make it look like they are doing their job… us fans are not fooled by these bluffers anymore
Everyone thinks this is football clubs acting like a “business” but the “business” case is based on a fundamentally flawed model. But nobody questions this because there’s so many people who feed off that flawed model especially the media. Football transfer news gives the media a never ending news cycle where they don’t even need to worry about telling the truth because nobody is going to sue over a story about a made up transfer.
@ Rosario:
a) You and I have absolutely no idea what ability Maldini has because we’ve barely seem him play. We have seen Brahim play – a lot.
b) By all accounts he’s one of the most skill players at the club and the few games he has played he’s been no worse than others and certainly no worse than Brahim.
@MALDINIS HEIR
Actually you could take a trip to Milanello and watch him train. There are players in the youth team with more ability than Maldini. whatever time he has had on the pitch has been totally unwarranted. Brahim has been a disaster this season though. that I agree.
Well said, MAGYAR 👍
It’ll be bizarre if they buy him outright, but don’t be surprised if they do.
Leao is better, but still another sunshine player.
@FERBAN
No chance he will be bought outright.
I’ll say though that there are very few players in this day and age operating well in that position. And if they are, Milan couldn’t afford them. Could Tonali operate as an AMC?
Magyar is 100% correct.
Leao wasn’t as bad as Saelemaekers last night only because he broke into the box at about 70mins and nearlt created a chance.
Giroud would look more impressive if he got the support and service to try and score but in this system the striker is always isolated and every striker looks a lot less impressive than normal. I will go so far as to say that Pioli’s system doesn’t accommodate a striker.
@Rosario
No, they probably won’t buy him at that price.
Tonali is probably suited better deeper. Maybe Renato Sanches is talented enough to play a more advanced role?
@FERBAN
Certainly talented enough but he’s another who excels when the game is in front of him. different requirement all together when your back is to goal. Milinkovic savic would be perfect, but Milan couldn’t afford him.
@Rosario
Absolutely let’s get Rebic back on the pitch. I was wondering where he was last night. Seems inexplicable that Messias was the only attacking sub Pioli made for last night’s abysmal offensive showing.
@PrimoCalcio.
He, Samu and bennacer were out with muscle fatigue. A bit weird because rebic has hardly even played.