AC Milan suffered a 4-3 defeat to Fiorentina on Saturday night as individual errors and missed chances led to our first defeat of the season.
The Rossoneri were hoping to pick up from where they left off prior to the international break in Florence, but ultimately things didn’t go to plan and many of the issues were self-inflicted.
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Both Ciprian Tatarusanu and Theo Hernandez were guilty of making costly mistakes which led to goals, while our frontline missed chance after chance as our wastefulness in front of goal was equally to blame.
While there were some positive displays across the pitch, it was ultimately a disappointing weekend as Milan fell to a loss for the first time in Serie A this season after 13 games.
Milan player ratings vs Fiorentina
Ciprian Tatarusanu, 4 – Hugely disappointing outing after a string of decent performances since stepping in for Mike Maignan. His howler for the opening goal set the tone for what was to come, as it was a costly mistake and added more pressure on the team while he was poor for two of the three other goals too.
Pierre Kalulu, 6 – Decent performance as he was solid defensively and kept things tight on that side. Perhaps struggled in terms of his offensive work as he couldn’t offer a threat when getting forward.
Simon Kjaer, 6.5 – Another top display from our Danish stalwart. Not only was he a rock defensively and a leader in marshalling the backline, but his distribution was superb throughout too.
Matteo Gabbia, 4.5 – A really disappointing return to the side. Struggled throughout and lost key one-on-one battles which led directly to goals as Vlahovic gave him a torrid time. In context, there is a degree of sympathy too having not featured for so long.
Theo Hernandez, 4 – Did well for Ibrahimovic’s second with a great assist, but that aside, was anonymous for large periods of the game and capped it off with a sloppy error as he gifted possession to Fiorentina on the edge of our box which they took full advantage of and killed the game to make it 4-2.
Franck Kessie, 6 – Not one of his best performances but neither was it one of his more disappointing displays. Battled hard without ever really going above and beyond to dominate in midfield.
Sandro Tonali, 6.5 – Was brilliant off the ball in terms of his pressure and winning possession back, while he also tried to find space between the lines and have an impact on our attacking play. Another positive effort, replaced as he ran out of steam.
Alexis Saelemaekers, 5.5 – Worked hard from a defensive perspective as he applied pressure in Fiorentina’s half, but offered little to nothing in an attacking sense which was a disappointment.
Brahim Diaz, 5 – Struggled to influence our play as he failed to find pockets of space in key areas like he normally does and couldn’t pull the strings between the lines to offer us creativity in the final third.
Rafael Leao, 6.5 – Milan’s most threatening play seemingly came through him constantly as he took his man on time and time again and had some good openings. Much like a few of his teammates though, he was wasteful in key moments when he needs to be more ruthless and scoring goals.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 7 – Had a really poor first half as he was guilty of missing some big chances and didn’t really offer anything in our build-up play. However, responded well after the break with two goals as he led our mini-fightback and forced the own goal. Impactful, but we need more from him in our general play.
Substitutions:
Olivier Giroud, 5.5 – Worked tirelessly after coming on to put pressure on Fiorentina but without ever really offering a direct goalscoring threat himself.
Alessandro Florenzi, 6 – Did his job defensively as he covered well by sweeping across when needed and kept things tight on his flank as Milan continued to attack down the left.
Junior Messias, 5 – Showed a couple of glimpses of class, but couldn’t make a decisive impact after coming on.
Ismael Bennacer, 6 – Did his job well for the most part as Milan continued to push numbers forward in search of getting back into the game. That led to problems too though as our tactical structure was out of sync while chasing the game.
Rade Krunic, N/A