Yacine Adli had seemingly done enough to convince Stefano Pioli of his qualities just a few weeks ago. However, the midfielder is back to square one, eager to prove himself along with a few other forgotten AC Milan players.
Adli arrived at Milan in the summer of 2022 and barely got any playing time in his first season with the club. Ahead of the current campaign, therefore, he switched positions to defensive midfielder and eventually got the chance amid Rade Krunic’s absence.
As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), however, he’s now seemingly back to square one. There are a few other players in a similar situation, such as Luka Romero who could do with a loan spell instead.
The forgotten ones
Adli was caught on camera celebrating the first goal against Lecce at the weekend, once again confirming how passionate he is about this time. And just a few weeks ago, as stated, it seemed like he had done enough to convince Pioli.
A fairy tale, almost, which saw him overcome all obstacles and claim a starting shirt. In the last two games, however, he hasn’t played a single minute for Milan. And the feeling is that it could be even harder to come back this time.
As the newspaper continues, the midfielder is not the only one struggling in the pecking order. Romero and Marco Pellegrino are in that situation as well, having both arrived with great promise in the summer. They haven’t been able to shine, though, and perhaps going out on loan could be beneficial for all three.
Pellegrino did get the chance against Napoli but that was only due to the defensive crisis, and he also sustained an injury in that game. An injury that will set him back many months, sure to be at the bottom of the pecking order upon his return.
Romero, meanwhile, has been unable to take advantage of Milan’s injuries on the right flank. The wondergoal against Real Madrid in pre-season is long forgotten and he could do with consistent playing time to regain good form.
Pioli’s mediocrity is best seen in his inability to get most out of his players.
He has tunnel vision when it comes to his tactics and style of play and only players that can adapt to his Milan the way he envisioned it have room in his squad. The rest can rot on the bench or go on a loan because they are deemed not ready or not worthy.
Sadly, his prefered tactics was easily dismantled in the past, or opponents just waited it out and when Milan dropped of exhaustion they quickly obliterated whatever was left of Pioli’s so called tactics.
Instead of recognizing player strengths, adapting his tactics to maximize their output, he is playing same players over and over again, slowly killing them (read that injuring them and exhausting them), and punishing others, stagnating their development, destroying their confidence and ruining their careers because of his own narrow-mindedness, his limitations and inability to step out of his own comfort zone and allow individuality and players brilliance to be the thing that carries the team, even though those are the very things that win almost all of Milan games, and not his rigid and most of the time inadequate playstyle.
Bottom line, as long as coach is limited, club growth will be limited and player development will be limited by coach.
It’s time to say goodbye to Pioli. At this point he has overstayed his time and should have been gone last season.
Unfortunately, this management is putting faith in the wrong coach who in my opinion cannot take this club to the next level.
The injuries has a lot to do with him and his training staff as well as the chief medical doctor.
They all should be replaced next season. This season is pretty much over. The team will find it more difficult to recover from this situation.
Management should act quickly to replace them in January if they want to accomplish anything this season.
Returning to 4-2-3-1 should mean that Adli gets a chance to play in the position in which he is, by far, best, namely as trequartista.
Adli isn’t fast enough to play trequartista. He needs more room to do what he does best, and that is in the regista role
To play as a regista the other pivot needs to be excellent defensively, because otherwise Adli’s lack of expertise in this department will always be a liability.
“Romero and Marco Pellegrino are in that situation as well, having both arrived with great promise in the summer.”
Romero was free because Lazio didn’t want him as he never played there. Pellegrino played ten minutes and was responsible for a goal taken. He needs more time to improve from the catastrophic sud America defenses. This mercato was hype mostly.
Neither of them were hyped. They were brought is as high potential for the future or future resale and neither were expect to be starting or have minutes often.
Hype has been about Pulisic, RLC, Tijj, Okafor and Chuck. Not counting Chuck, they are all showing the hype was very much justified.
Adli on the other hand is very different. He has been in Milan for a long time, he plays really well when utilized correctly even when he is not utilized correctly though he is not as effective.
If the expectations were to win 1 out of 4 UCL games, get embarrassed by top clubs and recently modest clubs, so yeah I guess the hype was justified. None of them would be a starter for a UCL contender.
Weverything won was because of individual quality of those players, while playing against the opponent and restrictive and borderline stupid tactics imposed by a mediocre coach.
Taking into account how much they are abused in training, that they play day in and day out without rest because rest are not Serie A ready, retarded tactics that don’t work and limitations of the person coaching them and his staff, players are overperforming.
You cant have an mediocre coach surrounded by incompetent staff and expect team to perform better than they are performing now.
Tell me you know nothing about floorball without telling me you know nothing about football.
If not because of Ibrahimovic leao, kalulu, and tonali etc will not consider good players because pioli is not going to bring good out of them he will after 1or2 years they will leave, and no primavera players are consider part of the team even thiew get chance because of injure
“Adli was caught on camera celebrating the first goal against Lecce at the weekend”…that was one of the saddest things I saw..my heart sank there to see someone really love the club but not get played. But at the same time as a professional, he had to leave the team given the coach doesn’t want you in the team and has actually said so. It’s different if Pioli said that it’s possible for Adli to work his way into the starting lineup but he clearly said he preferred others. Adli needs to let that dream slide if he’s serious as a footballer. He’s not going to be used under the current coach.
“And just a few weeks ago, as stated, it seemed like he had done enough to convince Pioli.” Yea right, he convinced fans but Pioli will bench him for his preferred option. It’ll be worse when Bennacer comes back.
That’s what’s sadder, I understand bennacer benching him, but Krunic? The one at fault for juventud goal? The one who was invisible at lecce? At least rotate them!
You could say he was responsible for the third goal against PSG and the penalty against Udinese. And more generally, it was noticed that he has not a lot of stamina, is a bit slow, and is a bit less reliable defensively that Krunic (which kind of says a lot considering that Krunic is not that good either defensively).
With that said, it seems that he does get less of pass that Krunic (or many other playes for that matter). I feel like if Krunic has done the same mistakes as Adli, he would still have started the follow up games, while Adli needs to put a good performance to even be subbed in.
Overall it is sad because Adli seems to have good potential and a good margin for improvment. He is young, has a good vision, is good with long balls and holds the ball well and showed a lot of stuff for someone who never played last season (I don’t count half a game as “played”), and it seems that, as long as Pioli is the coach, Adli needs to consider moving to another team if he wants to have a chance.
@DanRosso read what Giga wrote here because it’s basically what I was going to reply and the exact sentiment I share. I don’t mind either player but Adli should be getting more game time
Poor Adli, he barely plays and we haven’t seen him truly in-form yet. The Krunic and Pioli lovers are always so critical of his performances too, but stick their head in the sand when it comes to their donkey idols.
Pioli should start playing Romero as an attacking midfield since he love seeing pulisic in the wing