AC Milan: Ranking Best and Worst Rossoneri Players for April

Making a list of the best and worst AC Milan players of the month of April is a somewhat difficult task considering the fact that this month might be one of the worst the club has ever had.

After starting the month with a victory over Palermo, the team proceeded to drop 10 of the next 12 available points, drawing against Sampdoria and Inter before losing consecutive games against Udinese and Genoa.

It's not just the results that have been galling.  No Milan team in recent memory has looked like this.  Filippo Inzaghi's outfit has visibly given up, producing flaccid performances that have simply been awful to watch.

Today, we'll suss out which Milan players stunk more than the rest this month and try to give credit to the few who can hold their heads high as a disastrous page in the calendar gets turned.

The Best

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Diego Lopez is one of the very few players on the Milan roster to truly earn his red-and-black stripes.

Ever since he arrived from Real Madrid in the summer, Lopez has easily been the best player on the team.  Playing behind a defense that is suspect at the best of times and outright bad at the worst, Lopez has kept Milan competitive in games that it really hasn't deserved to be competitive in.

In the face of a sometimes-constant barrage, he's pulled off save after impressive save.  His parry of a vicious effort by Hernanes in the early stages of the Derby della Madonnina on April 19 went a long way to preserving that goalless draw.

Even in the midst of Milan's flop of a performance against Genoa on Wednesday he still, according to Squawka.com, made six saves, keeping the game from turning into a complete rout until Iago Falque's stoppage-time penalty.

Lopez's season is very closely paralleling the one Samir Handanovic had two seasons ago with Inter—had it not been for him in goal, a lackluster season might have turned downright embarrassing.

For both the month and the season up to this point, Lopez is easily the best player Milan has had.

The Best of the Rest

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Phillipe Mexes

Considering the fact that most people assumed he wouldn't even play again this season after he attacked Lazio's Stefano Mauri in January, Phillipe Mexes had a surprisingly good month.

He scored his second goal in a little more than a month against Genoa.  Had the game in which he scored the first—Milan's March 21 tilt with Cagliari in which he both scored and drew a penalty—come in April, he might even have seriously contended for Lopez's top spot.

For the most part, his defense has been sound.  He was spared the inglorious fate of scoring an own goal in the Derby thanks to a correct foul called off the ball, but other than that, he has not been subject to the sometimes-glaring mistakes that Milan's defense has become known for.

Overall, a solid month.

Suso

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity after arriving on a winter transfer from Liverpool, Suso got his first minutes of the year this month in substitute appearances against Palermo and Sampdoria.  In the latter game he hit the woodwork with what would have been winner seven minutes from time.  He started the next two games and was a bright spot in each.

Against Inter he represented something of a problem from the right wing, cutting in a few times and twice stinging the hands of Samir Handanovic—the second time at full stretch.  In the team's singularly uninspiring performance last weekend against Udinese he was again a bright spot, trying to break Andrea Stramaccioni's defense down on the dribble and get the ball into dangerous areas.

Giampaolo Pazzini

He's hardly played this year, but Giampaolo Pazzini gets a spot on the list for being one of the few people who actually came to play against Udinese.

During the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln once said to the detractors of Ulysses S. Grant, "I need this man—he fights."  Inzaghi could say the same of Pazzini.  He has served the role earmarked to him this year with dignity, and when he has gotten onto the field, he has given his all for the shirt he's worn for the last three years.

If Milan wants to finish the season with honor, it may do well giving Pazzini the starting striker spot, especially considering...

The Worst

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The hopes were so high.  When Mattia Destro arrived at Milan in January on loan, the purchase option on the young striker was considered a foregone conclusion.  He played well in his first game with the team and scored in his second, but since then, things have gone downhill.

The month of April was one large disappointment.  He's shown little to no skill in hold-up play, and when he's managed to receive the ball in the box, his attempts at goal have been entirely without venom.  While it's true that he's had so little quality service that it is hard to get into a rhythm, the best strikers turn the odd ball into a true chance—and Destro simply hasn't done that.

He's been so bad that Pippo Inzaghi relegated him to substitute duty for the derby against Inter.  It is, of course, entirely possible that his benching in that game had something to do with the bone bruise he suffered against Sampdoria the week before, but in subsequent weeks, he only played 16 and nine minutes, respectively, according to WhoScored.com.

Destro was highly touted, but this deal seems like it's destined to be a flop—although, thankfully, it's not an expensive one.  

The Worst of the Rest

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Keisuke Honda

Keisuke Honda only played once in April, and it's easy to see why.  His stats from WhoScored paint a bleak picture of his performance this weekend against Genoa.

He only managed a paltry 37 touches in 53 minutes of work.  He only completed 75 percent of his passes—all of them from short range stuff—and didn't even attempt to cross the ball.  He was dispossessed three times and only managed a single shot off-target.

After the protracted saga it took to get Honda to Milan, it's looking less and less like he deserves the No. 10 shirt.  Another miss from Adriano Galliani.

Gabriel Paletta

Gabriel Paletta was the best defender in the league last year and was expected to help shore up Milan's leaky defense when he arrived from Parma in the winter window.  He had some good early performances but has regressed, and this month didn't look good.

He didn't play well in Milan's 1-1 draw with Sampdoria, and when he came on as a sub for an injured Alex against Inter, the team's defense actually got worse rather than better.  He had a torrid time against Udinese before himself succumbing to injury and leaving the field at the half.