AC Milan will almost certainly have lost further ground on Juventus and Inter by drawing 2-2 against Salernitana in the last game before Christmas, courtesy of a late Luka Jovic equaliser.
Milan took the lead in the first half through Fikayo Tomori and it seemed that it would be a successful trip south for the Diavolo, but things soon turned. Federico Fazio headed in from a corner just before the break, and then Antonio Candreva’s shot caught Mike Maignan out.
The late goal from Jovic saved a point for Milan, but they needed all three to keep any sort of pressure on the teams above them.
Today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see below) handed out ratings out of 10 to the players and the coach of both teams, and it does not make for pretty reading from a Milan perspective. Only three players managed to reach 6.5 and they were Tomori, Jovic and Davide Calabria.
There was a respectable but underwhelming 6/10 for Alessandro Florenzi, Simon Kjaer, the returning Ismael Bennacer and Jan-Carlo Simic.
Maignan’s error earned him a 5.5, which was the same rating handed to Tijjani Reijnders, Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud. The latter’s rating could have been worse had he not headed the ball to Jovic for the equaliser.
Rafael Leao had a poor night, getting 5/10, whilst Theo Hernandez was the lowest ranked with 4.5. Stefano Pioli was given 5/10, the same rating as the team overall.
Player ratings are subjective but to a degree. For me, GdS have been a more reasonable source this season than SempreMilan. Here are the big disagreements I had with last night’s match where I agreed with GdS
Calabria: GdS 6.5 SM 5.5
Bennacer: GdS 6 SM 5.5
Reijnders: GdS 5.5 SM 6.5
RLC: GdS 4.5 SM 5.5
Generally speaking, I feel the SempreMilan ratings are overly generous to the new midfield three and overly harsh on Krunic and Calabria. I’m curious to know other people’s thoughts on this?
i feel the same.
I don’t think that’s the case at all.
Leao is the worst rated every time. Reijnders gets 6.5 or 7 whatever happens…
The issue I have with the GDS and Tuttosport ratings is they overvalued single incidents. As an example, if a player is downright awful throughout the match but they miraculously score a goal then their ratings are typically in the 6-7 range automatically. Whereas Sempre Milan has inherent bias built into their ratings against/for the players you mentioned and others. As you rightly stated, ratings re subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt.
…and Cardinale was expecting Milan to seriously challenge for the Champions League Cup. Go and fish!