Alessandro Costacurta has suggested that AC Milan are actually a better team without Rafael Leao in it, at both ends of the field.
Leao went into the game against Atalanta full of confidence having scored three goals in his last two league games, versus Fiorentina and Pisa. However, he exited after just 45 minutes of action, and to call it ‘action’ might be too generous because he was anonymous.
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As La Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning, it continued the trend of ‘unrelenting extremes’ for the Portuguese forward, who seems to flip between feast and famine on a game by game basis. That being said, Massimiliano Allegri did confirm that he tried to play through a hip issue.
Costacurta was working as a pundit for Sky during last night’s game against Atalanta and he offered his thoughts on the Leao debate, after a disappointing night for the forward.
“Milan played much better without Leao. You can talk about strikers in a certain way, but with him on the pitch they concede more goals. It’s a fact that is and will continue to be discussed. With Leao on the pitch, Milan are no longer a team of eleven players,” he said (via MilanNews).
Facts. We could all tell the difference between Leao and no Leao.
And you didn’t notice Rabiot not playing? Or maybe not having substitutions so same players have to play? It is all Leao, you can tell? hahahahahahahahahaha, aahahahahahahahaha
You should try reading what Costacurta said.
Science …
Change on variable and observe the impact.
Leao was subbed at half time with no other changes (with me so far?)
Milan play better.
Sometimes you say smart stuff. Too often you seem to be so focused on insulting others you seem to forget to be the intelligence you demand from others.
Take your meds
Naaah, the fanbois prefer to call everyone who criticizes their false god a hater. Facts don’t matter to them.
Take Your Meds 😭🤣😅😅😅✌🏼
Cremonese?
or….. pulisic and rabiot did alot of work to get goals instead so the whole team defended instaed of trying to score goals for 90 mins..
True. The thing with Pulisic is even if he doesn’t score goals he has a value. He can drop back to form a diamond so that either Rabiot or Modric have a player to pass the ball forward to who will then drive the ball forward. Now, I think RLC can do this to some extent but his distribution when he starts to reach the 18 yard line is poor. Leao doesn’t do any of this. Rabiot and Modric are the only two midfielders who will make agressive/progressive passes. I was almost yelling at the tv when I saw open midfielders who could receive the ball but the passes weren’t made- this included Leao being open a couple of times. Fofana can drive the ball forward at times, but loses the ball too much and makes bad passes or shots. The midfield I would like to see for offense is Modric, Rabiot, and Jashari/RLC. I will also add since this hasn’t happened it leaves Gimenez with little service. The ball is rarely advanced enough in the center of the field to make a pass that splits defenders with a pass to the forward in the box.
Yes, you can see those 2 players missing.
Maybe, but…..Leao was also not on the pitch. After losing the opening match to Cremonese we went on a 5-1-0 run, including the Coppa, WITHOUT Leao. The one draw was against Juventus in a game we should/could have won. So we could have gone 6-0-0 in that stretch.
Rabiot and Pulisic then go down and Leao returns. We’re 1-2-0 since, and that could easily have been 0-2-1, as we were lucky to pull out a win against Fiorentina and a last gasp draw against Pisa.
Rabiot and Pulisic are fundamental, Leao is not.
This^^
I don’t want you to be right, but it’s hard to hide from the stats and the eye test at this point.
We can only hope Leao needs time to get back to being fully fit. It’s hard to imagine him not feeding from the very work you describe in Pulisic and Rabiot. But 3 seasons of similar makes it hard to be patient.
Looll stats say otherwise…. Stats shows us that since the start of leao milan won more games with leao than without leao 🙂
we conceded 2goals against cremonese without Leao and we lost, against Pisa it was 2-2, Its obvious everyone will not like you, but Leao’s pros outweighs the cons, Costacuta wasnt the best defender when he was playing for Milan, he had the likes of Albertini , good defensive midfielder in front of him. He should shut up and give Leao a break, everyone should go and watch Milan-Pisa, Leao got injured when he made a sliding tackle.
Isn’t Costacurta one of Milan’s best defenders? Name a player who complemented Tasotti, Baresi, and Maldini during Capello’s Invincible era. You must be a Leao fan, a Theo fan, and a Maldini fan. You’ll always defend Leao, even when he’s performing poorly and people are criticizing him truthfully.
Billy Costacurta has always stood on business and told the truth when it comes to Leao.
But he will be labeled a hater because his words are hurting some fanboys feelings.
This. 100% accurate.
Leao is a special talent who is underperforming, especially on an understaffed team of other players who are underperforming.
He has 3 goals in 5 games. Pulisic has 4 goals in 6 games played.
And we have commenters who more than anything love to stick out their bird-chests and chirp I-told-you-so. damn it gets old.