A number of AC Milan players have been praised for their performances during the 3-0 Europa League play-off first leg win over Stade Rennais at San Siro last night.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan) has their player ratings from the game, starting with Mike Maignan who got a 6.5 out of 10 for making some good stops in the second half.
Alessandro Florenzi was given a 7 after an excellent assist for Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s opener and a solid defensive performance. Simon Kjær got a 6.5 for a ‘flawless match’ in addition to having a hand in RLC’s second goal.
Matteo Gabbia is in a ‘moment of enviable form’ and he neutralised their main threat Kalimuendo, getting a 6.5, while Theo Hernandez took the corner for the 2-0 goal and set up Rafael Leao for the third to get a 7.
Tijjani Reijnders didn’t really manage to direct the game in front of the defence until Rennes became unstable, while Yunus Musah was similarly a bit lost at times until Milan had a comfortable lead. Both got a 6.
Christian Pulisic ‘started with the handbrake on’ but as the minutes passed he made an impact, so he got a 6.5, while Leao hit the crossbar and scored the third goal so he was awarded a 7.
Loftus-Cheek was scored an 8 for the brace that he scored with two headers, while Olivier Giroud ‘worked hard, but accomplished little’ so was given a 5.5.
Malick Thiaw, Ismael Bennacer and Noah Okafor were given a 6 for their contributions off the bench, while Stefano Pioli scored a 7 for deploying a ‘perfect Milan’.
These are more realistic ratings as oppose to the ones from this site. I do think Reijnders is under rated. His role was a CDM sitting in front of the centeral defenders. RLC played down the right channel while Theo or Musha would make runs down the left. ACM, I thought played too much down the left in the first half and became more dangerous in the second when RLC and Musha started to turn on players. Pulisic sat out either high and wide or between the lines which allowed him to get some interplay with RLC or carry the ball to the center of the field. This varied the attack. I thought Reijnders was a 6.5 because he did his job.