Many AC Milan fans have been calling for Stefano Pioli to use Noah Okafor as a centre-forward when Olivier Giroud needs rest or cannot play as opposed to fielding Luka Jovic.
However, as Calciomercato.com recall, Okafor has not scored a goal since September 30 when he netted the second goal in the 2-0 win over Lazio at San Siro, while he hasn’t scored in the Champions League since October 2022 with Red Bull Salzburg and with the Switzerland his last goal was in June.
Okafor is one of the players Pioli hopes will step up with the attack reduced to a minimum by injuries and suspensions ahead of the resumption of games after the international break, with the matches against Fiorentina and Borussia Dortmund huge in the scheme of the season.
Pioli is confident of HAVING Christian Pulisic and Rafa Leao back for the Dortmund game, but with Jovic appearing so far of little use to the cause there is a need to find the best version of Okafor, who has been imited by some physical problems.
He cost €15m in the summer and he was a very specific choice to have a replacement both for Leao on the left wing and Giroud up front, where he has played in the last couple of games for Switzerland.
He played 69 minutes against Israel plus injury time and then 75 minutes against Kosovo, so that will have to be considered. This is why Jovic could start as a slight favourite for the match against his former team Fiorentina, with Okafor preserved for Borussia Dortmund, against whom Giroud will play.
The last few matches before the international break have reiterated once again that, without the Frenchman, Milan are struggling to score goals.
This website admin is a joke. When he was given time on the pitch he did good enough. More than enough. He was playing very good and all of sudden, Pioli started playing Jovic for no reason… He kept playing the worst and Pioli kept playing. It looks like Pioli has nonsense logic in his mind like ‘Oh, this guy was Serie a last season, Okafor wasn’t. So he is like “Okafor has to ‘learn’ the league first (by watching from bench) ” Decent coach picks the best players who are performing. Not players who has ‘experience’. The same logic applies to Adli as well. He was doing good and suddenly Krunic and Pobega are ahead of him.
I guess “good” is relative. Has he been Leao-good? Only in dreams. Has he been Serie A/UCL contender-good? Not yet. It depends of the expectations, but if we consider this team is playing the 4th spot, so he’s good.
I agree with you completely, I don’t understand why Adli doesn’t play more, because it is certain that Jović, Krunic and Pobega will leave the club in the summer, Adli must get more minutes because what he has played so far is anything but bad, Okafor must play against Fiorentina, Milan needs a win there and it doesn’t make sense to put Jović before Okafor, Jović has been really bad so far
You have to play Okafor more to GET MORE out of him. Pioli keeps giving him small cameos here and there and expects miracles. These guys aren’t machines. They need to play more to get more consistency. Same with Jovic. If you aren’t committed to a striker (like you are to Grioud) you won’t get much production out of him.
Jovic is useless, he should be sent away from Milan ASAP
This is all Managements fault – Furlani and Moncada.
In fairness to Okafor he is NOT a #9 – he is a natural Left winger and has never scored more than 9-10 goals per season in Switzerland. So it was foolish to think he could be converted to a #9 and he would all of a sudden be a prolific goal scorer. He’s a winger and can play as a false 9 occasionally but he’s not a 20 goals scorer. That’s not fair to him. If he was he wouldn’t have cost 13M. Yes I do agree he should play more and I’d rather play him as a false 9 than start Jovic – but it’s not fair to him to think even if we did that he would be banging in goals like it was nothing.
Jovic is trash and was a last second panic buy from Georgio and Moncada cause they screwed up in not signing many other available and affordable strikers in the summer when they had that chance. Now we are stuck in this position – relying yet again, on a 37yr old Giroud. That 30M we spent on Chukuweze could have been spent on a #9 especially since we already had signed Pulisic for RW and we probably couldn’t afford the luxury of two RW’s given our paltry budget. Another mistake. Now we are talking about reaching for one year wonder players (David, Guiessry, Akfor, etc…) in January with bloated price tags because we didn’t secure the most important position on the pitch in the summer. Splendid. Excellent job Georgio.
Relying on Krunic, bringing back Pobega (when Tornio was dying to sign him for good value) not getting a backup LB; no striker, no DM, and no RB to challenge Calabria; Chuk looks like an “early” bust for 30M; giving Pioli all the power that he cannot handle; not replacing Maldini straight away with a respected figure;…. – ya we are definitely “cooking” lol.
He just scored for the national team. The reason he doesn’t have many goals with Milan is because he doesn’t play much as striker for Milan.
Unless all the other strikers are injured or somehow okafor in last 10 minutes of the game scores a hat trick then pioli will still keep him in bench.
That’s how dumb and stubborn pioli is.
Week in and week out, he keeps playing leao and giroud who is 37 yo and make them over work until they’re injured.
Because it’s the only way he knows how to win a game, hoping for giroud and leao to do their best to save his ass