In the coming days Paulo Fonseca must decide on the team to field against Udinese on Saturday evening at San Siro, and Noah Okafor is hoping for a chance.
Today’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via Radio Rossonera) talks about Okafor’s situation, firstly with regards to why he remained at Milanello during the international break rather than heading off to represent Switzerland.
The dispute between the Swiss coach Murat Yakin and Okafor – which culminated with zero minutes at the European Championship and the exclusion from the call-ups for the September and October commitments – could, paradoxically, help the Swiss to climb the hierarchies at Milan.
Okafor scored as a substitute in the first game of the new season against Torino and started the following two against Parma and Lazio, but was on the pitch for just 62 minutes in total in the other six matches played.
This is ‘too little for a player of his talent’ the paper adds, because he ‘needs continuity to get into the swing of things and unleash all his athletic power’. Instead, when he is called upon for any kind of impact, he isn’t in match rhythm.
This is where his non-call-up with Switzerland came to his aid. Okafor has always trained consistently at Milanello under the eyes of Fonseca, showing him that he is worthy and ‘wants a chance from the first minute’.
The opportunity could arrive as early as Saturday against Udinese because the former Red Bull Salzburg man is expected to start alongside Alvaro Morata up front, with Tammy Abraham dropping to the bench. A new chance should therefore arrive for Okafor to demonstrate his capabilities.
I really don’t understand this club. We had a good thing going ….our bench was producing pretty well last year. The players (Jovic, Okafor et al) didn’t seem to mind those roles. It’s true they might not score everytime they’re on but they were pretty decent at producing.
Fast forward to this year where we seemingly want to dismantle that. The guys barely get a shot at games. The whole signing of Jovic was just odd to say the least and dude, the #9, couldn’t make the UCL list, why even bother in the first place. You cant always have starters on your bench because then they won’t be a bench player anymore paradoxically. Some are ok coming off the bench or used as rotation and that’s perfectly fine. Matter of fact you want to have some of those players in the team. I don’t understand the need to constantly trying to improve areas where we are already pretty good at.
There are some signings Milan made that makes no sense to me. Okafor, Jovic and Musah are all bizarre signings including Emerson.
I don’t know how or where these players like Okafor, Jovic, and Musah fit into a 4231 formation and there were better quality right backs available but we signed Emerson Royal? Smh