AC Milan suffered a disastrous 4-0 defeat to Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday night, as our concerning slump in form goes on.
The Rossoneri fell behind after just four minutes as Sergej Milinkovic-Savic broke the deadlock, with goals from Mattia Zaccagni, Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson completing the rout.
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That’s now three Serie A games without a win for Stefano Pioli’s men, and combined with our Coppa Italia exit and humbling defeat to Inter for the Italian Super Cup, concern is growing over our recent form and performances.
This result now leaves us 12 points adrift of league leaders Napoli, while there are just two points separating us and sixth-placed Atalanta as we come under increased pressure in the battle for a top-four finish too.
AC Milan player ratings vs Lazio:
Ciprian Tatarusanu, 4 – Shouldn’t be in the starting line-up as he offers no real sense of solidity or a decisive influence between the posts. Question marks can be raised over his efforts for a number of the goals as we need a more formidable presence at the back.
Davide Calabria, 4 – Poor performance as he was exposed down the right side as Lazio cut through us with ease to create openings. Battled hard, but defensively not good enough.
Pierre Kalulu, 4 – Lacking in stability and solidity in the heart of the backline. Pulled out of position for the first goal and then gave away the penalty for the third. Milan’s entire defence is struggling but his level has dropped this season.
Fikayo Tomori, 5 – Struggled along with the rest of the backline before being forced off with an injury in the first half.
Sergino Dest, 4 – Started well, but was badly caught out for the second goal as his defensive vulnerabilities were exposed. Didn’t offer enough quality in possession and going forward, and while Theo Hernandez hasn’t been in good form since the season resumed after the World Cup, his presence was missed.
Sandro Tonali, 5 – Committed throughout and continued to battle in midfield, but was overwhelmed and overrun by Lazio and it was difficult to watch him struggle to get a foothold in the game along with Benancer despite their best efforts.
Ismael Bennacer, 5 – Couldn’t impose himself and gain a sense of control for us in the midfield scrap, as Milan were often overrun and so had little influence in either phase of the game. Went close with an effort from a free-kick that just curled wide.
Messias Junior, 4 – More often than not, he offers little quality in the final third and doesn’t impact the game enough while rarely being a genuine direct goal threat. If Milan are going to continue to rely on him to be a creative influence, then we’re going to continue to struggle.
Brahim Diaz, 5.5 – Tried to make something happen in the final third and showed glimpses of his technical quality and skill to break past his markers and create openings. However, through a combination of Lazio’s pressure and a lack of quality around him, couldn’t really get anything going.
Rafael Leao, 4 – Offered little in attack as we couldn’t get him into threatening situations and did even less from a defensive perspective when we needed a real shift from all 11 players on the pitch on a bad night. Has bailed us out on so many occasions and we can’t continue to rely so heavily on him, but it was ultimately a poor night from Leao.
Olivier Giroud, 4 – Looks tired and nowhere near his best as he not only failed to offer a goal threat – albeit he didn’t get any decent service – but he also struggled to bring others into play with his usually reliable hold up play. A bad night for Milan defensively and offensively, and with no real control of the game, he was always going to suffer.
Substitutes:
Simon Kjaer, 5 – Despite the change, the struggles continued for Milan. Did make two key interventions in front of our goal though to prevent it from getting worse.
Alexis Saelemaekers, 5 – Couldn’t really have the desired impact as we continued to fall short and the game was gone in the latter stages.
Divock Origi, 5 – Didn’t offer much as we couldn’t create much of note to put him in a position to be a threat.
Charles De Ketelaere, 5 – Similar story to our other substitutes, as he provided very little in the last half hour but ultimately it was always going to be difficult given the team performance as a whole.
Ante Rebic, N/A