Among the various sub-plots during Sunday evening’s 3-3 draw with Genoa was the performance of Rafael Leao, who left the field to jeers.
As Calciomercato.com recall, the Curva Sud – after unconditional support throughout a season that will yield nothing to celebrate in terms of trophies – decided to express its disappointment by remaining silent for 80 minutes, when they then left the stadium.
Both the team and the club are in the crosshairs, and certain players more than others. At the moment where Leao was brought off after Genoa made it 2-1, the winger lowered his head and headed towards the changing rooms without staying on the bench.
He was accompanied by jeers from most of the fans. Not overwhelming, but they were certainly audible, and it once again proves that for better or for worse Leão is always at the centre of attention.
Now opponents seem to constantly double team him to limit him, and when he is unable to impact the game in the way that he would want Leao feels bad about it and has to process the boos in silence.
Against Genoa Leao continued the negative trend of the last month: lazy when not in possession of the ball and practically non-existent in the attacking phase. In general, his entire season so far has certainly been below potential.
He has 13 goals and 13 assists in 44 games which are not awful numbers, but they vitiate the overall judgment on a growth path that has suffered a sharp slowdown in terms of quality and consistency of performances.
At the age of 25 (which he will turn in just over a month) he still cannot justify these ups and downs. Leao is at the right age to decide to become a champion. He has the technical and athletic means to succeed, but only he can take that next step.
He is such a baby when things dont go his way.. at half time you could already see all you needed from his body language.. 0 drive to be a winner, to be a champion..
Mbappe, 4 example, at half time he’d come on roaring to go and scored 2 goals for his team to win. Regardless of the opponents..
Leao? Nope
Mbappe vanishes a fair bit in games, especially compared to prime Messi and CR7 which should be his standard.
Take it easy dude.. prime messi and penaldo are not standards… it’s totally unfair to expect players to do that
same way it’s unfair to judge Leao on the team’s failure, especially the defense leaking like crazy, its psychological rather than quality, well he needs a bit more discipline on the field, a bit lazy but he is a bundle of talent for the right coach. His ways can be corrected by a coach that knows what he is doing tactical wise. Leao is not the problem of the team, even when double marked we saw flashes
I don’t blame leao for tomori or tiaw making blunders. That is that and this is this.. i do blame for stuff that happen in the final third.. especially when the ball goes through him..
And honestly, he’s a bit overrated. There was hundreds of players who shown flashes and not much more through their career.. like kpb.
Mbappé scored three goals in World Cup final. He was carrying PSG on his shoulders when Messi was walking on the field and Neymar was injured or absent because of the carnival in Rio. This season is strange because PSG is bitter that he’ll leave.
Leao looks like a spoiled children. They gave him number 10, made him a fashion icon, gave him the armband. Even Zlatan doesn’t look very concerned as he could tell him to grow up as he did when he was a player. He’s still a huge talent but we don’t know how to manage him anymore.
10000%
Sell the rapper and buy Joao Felix or even Gudmundsson.
He desperately needs someone that can bring out his mentality and motivation. As there’s a thin line to be the next Balotelli or be in line with players like Mbappe & co.
We definitely needs to sell him, no creativity, lazy as a sloth, and I can’t stand his : I DONT CARE attitude so he just walks on the field when we need him the most!
I agree he is so bloody lazy take the money and get rid.
Support the players. That’s what they need. They don’t need even more negativity. All the noise around the club is part of what’s happening to the squad, to the players.
Show respect when you comment on these articles.
maybe they should show respect and play like its their last match and they wanna go out with a bang.. idk
Do we, as fans, pay (cable or ticket, whatever) to watch people play dull AF? No energy, defeatist attitude? Where is the respect to those who watch?
Even these amatuers, down the street, at local league show more grinta and fight than most pro players nowadays..
Bro you do understand that with all that’s going on we’re still the second best team in the league meaning 18 others have done much worse than us. This was a tough game. Its not like we didn’t try, we dominated in pretty much all relevant stats you can think of but the scoreline 🤷♂️
These things happen in football
This things happen a bit 2 much for my taste. Especially if you want to consider we’re “second best” in Italy..
Honestly, you say we dominated, 2 me it looked like genoa was playing with us. They had a game plan and were following it. And got results. Milan, not so much!
I don’t want to see him with the captain armband again after that attitude. Why making a selfish childish social media guy captain of Milan?? Nonsense!!! He’s an important player but just because you can dribble and some clueless coach relying on you doesn’t make you a leader. In difficult situations we’ve seen him lacking the necessary composure of a ,not even say a leader, but a mere public figure. And then after this unconvincing gesture Pioli will still start him next game with his other freaking son who’s going to MLS and sit Okafor. Omg .But I think Pioli is just confused at this point and doesn’t even know the priorities to set for the remaining matches. You don’t necessarily have to win these matches my man just play our players and the more disciplined ones even if we’ll finish 5th.
Lazy , indolent, full of himself, childish mentality. He’s not a champion and I doubt he ever will be. I belive this summer is our last chance to sell him high before everybody will figure out the real Leao as I picture him. It’s sad, hard to accept but it’s reality. We need players more motivated , more involved, with hunger , with passion and with more consistent delivery in the field. Leao play one good game and next 5-6 bad games in a row. Exactly like Theo . They are the same style of players and mentality. Talented of course but inconsistent and discontinued . I would sell them both right in this summer.
Ok now…let the visceral curse begun from our colleagues from this site…😆😆
I think Leao wants to go. All his attitudes say it all. It’s all ruse start criticising him so he can hold it as excuse to leave Milan. That’s his plan..Leao is a fine weather player, so if we can buy word class players to fill the void we have in this team, its better we sell him right away. I love him no doubt but he has shown he can take responsibility.
well deserved jeers towards leao but quite frankly i was surprised that when the match ended that the performance of the entire team wasnt jeered louder than it was.
I wonder if he has ever studied music theory, or time signatures.
His teammates need to free him more often. Opponents always double team him and still manages deliver crosses in the box. He must improve though.