Massimo Ambrosini believes that the AC Milan midfield is currently missing two players who departed the club, namely Hakan Calhanoglu and Sandro Tonali.
The story of both players is well known by now, starting with Calhanoglu who departed Milan at the end of the 2020-21 season when his contract expired. He chose to join city rivals Inter rather than renew, something which many fans have not forgiven him for to this day.
The exit of Tonali meanwhile was arguably even more painful. The boyhood Milanista looked destined to remain for many years and yet Newcastle United showed up with a huge offer that the club and the player could not refuse.
He was then found guilty of breaching various betting regulations and served a long suspension, but he is now back in the fold and has gone back to being one of Italy’s key players too.
Ambrosini spoke during an interview with Radio Serie A and he was asked about who Milan might consider to be their ‘biggest regret’ in terms of a player that they lost who would help today.
“For the heart I say Tonali, while for the player he has become I say Calhanoglu,” he said (via Radio Rossonera).
We won the Scudetto without the Turkish scum.
Tonali on the other hand.
Excactly.
Why he doesnt say Kessie, I dont know
Don’t worry guys loftus cheek has more heart then tonali ever will
Kessie and Hakan paired up with Reijnders, would have been fire.
Not really, Hakan would be the AM and Rejndiers in the double pivot which obviously isn’t really good for him. He can’t defend. Kessie, Tonali was the best pairing.
Hakan never did well with us in either 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. The best configuration for him is the 3-5-2 that inter uses and which we don’t.
So unless we had played a 3-5-2 and had a player like Barella, I don’t see how Hakan would have done well.
Nonsense.
Just pure nonsense.
Hakan player 4 years at Milan and had total of 80 goal contributions.
That’s 20 per season.
Never did well with us!!??
People just say anything.
Is goal statisctics the only thing you look at ?
We was much better at inter while scoring and assisting less. And before you say anything about him scoring 13 goals last season, 10 of them were penalties. So in his arguably best season with shinter, he actually scored as much and assisted less than Reijnders in serie A. Can we say that Reijnders was better than Hakan last season ?
Hakan when he came to us was a left winger most of the time, much closer to the goal and thus much more able to create and score goals.
Also with us, he always played in Europa League, he never played in UCL, so he had a lot of opportunities to score (pad) his statistics against sitting ducks, the likes of of Ludogorets, Austria Vienna, Olympiakos and celtic.
No one was impressed by Hakan until Pioli came and made us play a 4-2-3-1.
He left and we immediatly won the scudetto against the team that got him, in this best season goalscoring and assisting wise.
So no I don’t miss him. He became better at inter good for him, but no regrets for me. The only one who is truly missed is Kessie (and Tonali to a lesser degree).
You said Hakan never did well with us.
How can someone not do well If he gives you 20 goals contributions per season?
You act like it’s easy to do it. Outside of Leao no one is doing that at Milan, or comes close to it.
Hakan at Milan only scored 3 penalties in 4 years. Don’t confuse his 10+ penalties a season at inter with Milan. He wasn’t shooting penalties at Milan. Kessie ans Zlatan were shooting them.
He was very good at Milan, but people don’t want to admit that because he left Milan and moved to inter.
Same with Gigio Donnarumma.
You can’t erase what they did just because they left.
I’d rather have Hakan over Tonali. Hakan was better than Tonali at Milan and he is better player than Tonali today.
I never said Hakan took penalties with us, where did you read that ? I was just pointing to that 13 goals with shinter.
I do hate him because of his attitude towards us, but even in 2019-21 I didnt like him much.
Leao did 20 goals/assists, so did Pulisic and prior to that Rebic, Suso and Bonaventura came close. All the others wingers or AMs were either mediocre or didnt play long enough
Absolutely agree with you, I don’t understand why Hakan was even mentioned as he was not even in the Scudetto team, I’d take that version of Kessie over this version of Hakan for Milan any day
despite of formation and position Hakan did well for Milan but now exchange the positions of Riejnder and RLC team will do good in the future,hopefully then we create more chances and defend better
We don’t need Calhanoglu please
If you read what Ambro said : “for the player he has become I say Calhanoglu”.
What position does Hakan play at Inter?
He plays as a regista, lowest player in their midfield set up.
He’d be paired up with Kessie, and Reijnders would move further up the pitch if they play 4231. If they play 433 Reijnders would be even a better fit since he is natural mezzala.
Hakan, Kessie, Reijnders.
Plus he said Tonali for his heart, not for his ability.
Hakan in Inter is not a DM, he spreads the game with his passing, thats his main thing. In double pivot he will need to defend… its a compleatly different formation and tactics. In the formation that Milan plays he will be the AM, not in double pivot.
First of all Hakan is a complete midfielder, who can defend and pass.
You would have Kessie as a DM. Kessie played in double pivot next to either Bennacer or Tonali. Neither Bennacer nor Tonali are DM’s. Ricci played as a DM for Italy, Bruno Guimaraes plays as a DM at Newcastle.
Also, Milan can easily play in 433 and Hakan will still play the same role he has at inter in the middle of the midfield surrounded by Kessie and Reijnders.
Sure, it’s not Kessie that they miss…it’s Tonali. Keep telling yourself that. Conveniently forgetting that we had Tonali the year after Kessie left and our midfield was shambles and we finished 5th in points that year. WHich is why we sold him. And why he now comes off the bench for a mid-table premiere league team.
What logic is that?
Yes we need 2 good midfielders,
so
kessie + trash=trash
Tonali + trash =trash
There is no point trying to make out Tonali is not a good player, when he is proving he is and people who understand football across the globe are rightly praising his performances.
I’m sorry you cant see it
It’s that the article says who the midfield is missing and doesn’t mention Kessie who was clearly the best one we had and the midfield has not been good since he left, even when Tonali was there.
Kessie + Bennacer = very good
Kessie + Tonali = good
Tonali + Bennacer = bad
Tonali + Krunic = bad
Tonali is a good player, nothing more. Not very good , Not great. But because he’s Italian everyone on here wants to keep pretending he was some great midfielder for us. He wasn’t.
Kessie Tonali was the best pairing… Them as a pair worked so well. The third midfielder could be whatever and we would still be competent in the middle.
Hakan is useless player it’s better even if you are one man down than playing with hakan
We had Calhanoglu but unfortunately they never valued him, and most fans here criticised him and call him all sorts of names.
Please No hakan.
Actually He plays very well.
But please NO HAKAN!!!
Like it or not calhanoglu and Tonali are yet to be replaced. Calhanoglu is smarter than all of our midfielders. Loftus cheek is good but lazy. Reijnders is promising and can be our calhanoglu.
Folks here casually know more than Ambro. Hilarious.
Nah Ambrosini, Tonali is just an average or below average player by the FACT AND TRUTH of many Milan supporters on Sempremilan.
He is only or at least only good for one thing, and that was financing a mercato that is still yet to pay out.
But oh well what do you know. The experts would soon call you an old head who has not realized the game has evolved or some nonsense like that.😁😊