GdS: The curious case of Bakayoko and what it tells us about Milan’s midfield

By Oliver Fisher -

The sudden involvement of Tiemoue Bakayoko at AC Milan is incredibly unusual and says a lot about some other midfielders in the Rossoneri squad, a report claims. 

As has been reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport, the futures of Tommaso Pobega and Aster Vranckx at Milan seem bleak as they appear to now be behind Bakayoko in the pecking order.

Until October, Pobega was the first alternative to Bennacer and Tonali, but now he has had 229 minutes in 17 games, ten of which were spent entirely on the bench. Vranckx was given a small amount of time recently but does not look set to be kept by Milan at the end of his loan deal.

In the meantime, Bakayoko had not played a minute of football all season for Milan. Then against Monza, he came on for the last eight minutes. He then came on for 25 minutes in the defeat against Fiorentina on Saturday.

Tags AC Milan Tiemoue Bakayoko

8 Comments

  1. Switch to a 3 man midfield 1 behind 2 and eliminate the AM position. Then it would benefit our depth as players like Adli and Pobega would be better suited, maybe even Vranckx too but I haven’t seen that much if him to know how he plays yet.

  2. Pobega is a proven talent, imo. He will only get better with more minutes. It’s strange to see him frozen out… Maybe it’s an attitude issue? Seems unlikely as bakayoko has the worst attitude.

    1. The problem with Pobega is that he’s another number 8 Iike Tonali.

      One of Pobega’s biggest strengths last year was late late runs into the box and scoring.

      Pioli wants to use his size at number 4 as more of a wrecker and Pobega has not adapted quickly. When he did it best I think it was the second Torino game when he really just sat back in front of the defence or took up a deep position.

      He hasn’t yet displayed the ability to play the role proactively and aggressively like Bennacer does. Bakayoko is naturally more aggressive in that #4 role which is why he is back in vogue.

  3. Sell Poegba for Singo so we finally have a wing back for the Right side – and play Aster. Give Adli more minutes as well. The talent (vision) is there. Take the pressure off CDK and let him sit for a while.

  4. The best replacement we have for Kessie’s role is Bakayoko. He didn’t cause any problems and stayed professional even after being benched for a year. Milan didn’t want to buy him, so he got frozen out. But now, since the buying clause is off the table, he’s finally getting some game time. To be honest, I think he deserves more minutes. If he does well, we could get him for free at the end of the season, and for a reasonable wage.

    1. I completely agree with this, we need the physical presence lost with Kessie. Krunic/Pobega are options and I like them both but also would have liked to see Bakayoko be included more. I’m sure there’s more to it that we don’t know but it has been surprising to see him frozen out so much especially after a successful first loan spell and making it clear that he always wanted to be at Milan.

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