Player Ratings: Roma 2-1 AC Milan (3-1 agg) – Several below 5; Pioli disasterclass | OneFootball

AC Milan put in another poor performance as Roma convincingly defended, as well as extended, their aggregate lead in the Europa League quarter-final. Several players were subpar and below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.

Starting XI

Maignan (6): Honestly, even if the failed touch at the end was comical, he couldn’t do anything about the goals scored tonight. He also made a few decent stops to deny Roma more glory. The loss is definitely not on him, once again he was left alone.

Calabria (4.5): Inverted role, yet again, and one has to wonder why Pioli would want the captain in that position. When played as a proper right-back, he can be decent and sometimes even very good (Napoli games last season). But like this, he doesn’t shine at all and got caught sleeping on the first goal, truly a fatal error.

Gabbia (5): The goal, which was very nice, salvages his rating a little but there is no doubt that this was a very poor display from him. He was way too rash on the second, trying to body Lukaku, instead of just following the run. The clearance moments after was far from good either.

Tomori (5.5): He was the best Milan defender on the pitch today and that says a lot, given that he didn’t get a pass from us here. The positioning was questionable on more than one occasion and he seemed to struggle with communication.

Hernandez (5): Yes, Pioli didn’t exactly deploy tactics that benefit the Frenchman, but it’s also true that the left-back has to do more. He’s such a good player normally and what we saw tonight was just a bunch of sideways/backpasses and half-hearted runs forward.

Bennacer (4.5): Milan want him on the pitch for two things, specifically defensive work and vertical passing. Today, we saw nothing of this in the 40 minutes he got on the pitch. He was caught sleeping on the first goal, just like Calabria, and even when he saw Leao free on the left, he didn’t dare to play the tough pass.

Musah (4.5): Yikes. He did so well with his dribbling but that has no meaning if the end product is bad every single time. Such a frustrating performance to witness and he knew it himself too. His vision is just incredibly poor at the moment.

Pulisic (5): Perhaps one or two good 1v1s on the right, but nothing more than that. He struggled to impose himself, truth be told, and easily lost the duel against Mancini before the first goal. He can do more, we all know it.

Loftus-Cheek (5): His finishing let him down, or perhaps it was more so a case of the Roma players being in the right places. Above all, though, Milan needed him to do more in the midfield battle. Before the second goal, Pellegrini was left free to hit the ball to Lukaku, RLC should have closed him down (and it happened time after time).

Leao (5): He ended up getting an assist, and he did create one or two good chances, so he deserves some slack. However, he only came to life at the end of the game and whenever he did beat his man, the cross just wasn’t right. This wasn’t the answer we were hoping for, even if Pioli shares the blame for all individual performances today.

Giroud (4.5): Static, never in the right place, losing duels and so on. The contrast with Lukaku – and even Abraham – was striking as the Roma strikers handled the hold-up play brilliantly. The Frenchman failed to do just that, which made life very difficult for Milan.

Substitutes

Jovic (5): He added some energy to the attack, we’ll give him that, but he also missed a few opportunities in the box (all blocked).

Reijnders (5): Didn’t really change the game in any way and when he did have chances to shoot, he failed to make the most of them.

Chukwueze (5.5): The closest player to getting a pass, i.e. a 6, today excluding Maignan. He did just what Milan had missed up until his entrance and created some opportunities. Ultimately, though, the end product could have been better from him.

Okafor (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.

Florenzi (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.

The manager

Pioli (4): Where do we even start? Milan were outplayed despite being one man up and they looked completely without hope from the first minute. Roma knew exactly what they were doing, the Rossoneri didn’t. Hit-and-hope football without the hope, and surely this was the final nail in the coffin for him. Dreadful in every sense of the word.