Ruben Amorim has made it clear that he will evaluate his squad this pre-season, and it all started with the friendly against Glasgow this weekend. So, who were the winners and losers?
Milan have played their first of four friendlies this summer. While it wasn’t the best performance, they came back from behind to draw 2-2, and Francesco Camarda got to bag a brace. In other words, there were still positives to take from the game.
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As has been widely reported lately, and also confirmed by Amorim himself, the friendlies are more important this pre-season. It’s not just an opportunity for the players to regain form, but for many of them, it’s also several auditions.
Indeed, Amorim hasn’t made up his mind on all of the players just yet, having confirmed that he will use the pre-season performances to help make his final decisions. As such, we can look at yesterday’s friendly and pick out some winners as well as losers.
Note: Before you all get mad in the comments, I must emphasise that this article doesn’t just look at the performances last night. It also takes the context of each player into account, which you will notice, so you can still be a ‘loser’ even if the performance was decent.
Winners
This section looks at the players who, thanks to their performance, boosted their positions in the squad ahead of the friendlies in Australia and Indonesia. There is also one player who didn’t play, though, but I will explain this inclusion.
Francesco Camarda
We have to start with the obvious. The 18-year-old found the back of the net twice, his first two goals for the senior side, and he impressed with his overall performance as well. Afterwards, Ruben Amorim even felt obliged to confirm him on the spot.
Photos by WM Sport Media/Getty Images and Claudio Villa/AC Milan
He’s the biggest winner from the game, there is no doubt about that, as he can now focus on preparing for the 2026-27 season without thinking about a potential loan move. Let’s just hope that he can continue his goalscoring form.
Samuel Chukwueze
While not confirmed on the spot, I would argue that Chukwueze was co-MOTM along with Camarda. He entered the game with a lot of energy and immediately caused issues for the Celtic defence. And that assist for the striker was stunning in every sense of the word.
The only question mark would be his position, as he played as a right wing-back, but that is for Amorim to figure out. The Nigerian did exactly what was asked of him and a little more, so he can be very happy with how the afternoon in Glasgow went.
David Odogu
He’s not expected to remain in the first team, obviously, but the German really impressed me last night. I guess we have to take the opponents into account, but he remained close to his man and also dared to step up when needed, not just in the defensive phase but also in possession.
Photo by AC Milan
As I said, it’s rather unlikely that he will remain so a loan move should be on the cards, but he’s a winner because he has surely attracted some more interest. If not more, then he has solidified the interest he already had.
Pietro Terracciano
The veteran didn’t feature due to injury, in fact he didn’t even fly to Glasgow, but I would still say that he was a winner. That’s because Lorenzo Torriani didn’t impress massively in his place as the second-choice goalkeeper, which I will discuss more under the loser section.
He has travelled with the team for the games against Inter and Chelsea, so we should expect some playing time, especially since Mike Maignan won’t be part of the tour.
Losers
While the winner section was mostly tied to the performance, this will also factor in the context of the player. Comotto will be a very good example of that, so make sure to read my motivation before shouting at me in the comments (after you can shout, of course).
Samuele Ricci
Let’s start with the poor performances, first one courtesy of Ricci. Not only did he make a massive mistake on the second goal, passing the ball between two players, but he also struggled to dictate the game. In his No.6 role, that’s something he has to be able to do.
Photo by AC Milan
I’m a fan of the player, but he was rather slow on the ball and didn’t really attempt that many hard passes. He did once or twice, but the outcome was poor. When you consider that Amorim has question marks about where he will fit in, this game didn’t help.
Strahinja Pavlovic
The second poor performance was delivered by Pavlovic, and again, it wasn’t just because of the ridiculous pass on the first goal. There had been several poor passes before that, showing a lack of concentration (and technical ability?).
On top of that, he was really disappointing when put under pressure. Maybe it’s just the old pre-season form, but Amorim will surely be asking himself if Pavlovic is the right starter for the left-hand side. Amidst it all, Gerard Martin is being linked with the club too…
Christian Comotto
Moving on to the players who weren’t necessarily terrible, I have to mention Comotto here. It’s okay if you want to hate me for this, but I just don’t think he made the most of the occasion. Yes, it was a decent performance, but he would have needed much more to convince Amorim.
Photo by WM Sport Media/Getty Images
At the end of the day, Milan’s midfield is very competitive and if the youngster wants to remain for the upcoming season, then he needs to step up on all fronts: making himself more available, attempting tougher passes, imposing himself physically, and so on.
The opponents are only going to get tougher from here so for me, it was a missed opportunity to shine for the youngster.
Lorenzo Torriani
As alluded to earlier, I don’t think it was a confident display from Torriani. He looked very insecure, especially in possession, and that is probably the opposite of what Amorim needs. On top of that, his positioning wasn’t great either.
The goals should be blamed on his teammates, without a doubt, but he could have come out on the second one. It was just one of several situations that made me think twice about his role for the season. I hope he proves me wrong in the next games.
Andrej Kostic
Finally, we have the Montenegrin striker. He got the chance to play from start but never really got into the game. The only thing that stuck with me from his 45-minute cameo, basically, is when he tried to attempt a bicycle kick on the edge of the penalty box.
Photo by AC Milan
We all know that he wants to stay in the first team for this season and not go out on loan, but Camarda settled that dispute immediately. A loan is now imminent for the youngster, unless he’s fine with playing in Serie D in the event that he might get a few minutes for the first team.