AC Milan and Daniel Maldini must together make a decision regarding his future after another season without much playing time.
Calciomercato.com describes this summer as ‘the first real crossroads in the career’ of Daniel Maldini as in the coming weeks he will have to decide whether to stay at Milan and continue his growth or leave to get more playing time.
Last season he only managed 239 minutes of game time spread over 13 appearances across all competitions, though he did get his first senior goal netting the opener against Spezia with a header in a 2-1 win in September.
After his vacation he will take stock with his father Paolo and with head coach Stefano Pioli, then he will decide what to do. The idea of a stay remains very concrete though as another year at Milanello would allow Daniel to continue improving and to learn from quality team-mates, while he would also help Milan from a squad list regulation point of view as they need four players from their academy in Serie A and the Champions League.
However, there is an alternative which might be better for the development of the 20-year-old and that is to go out on loan. SPAL tried to sign him and came very close so they could come back in, but what is certain is that there are many admirers in Serie A and Serie B, he just has to figure out whether to stay or leave.
He needs to go on loan and show he can play football at this level. Players with super talent are first team stars at 19-20 today, he needs to play 30 matches in a season to develop. He was useless whenever he played. Yes, he scored 1 goal, but that was it.
He needs to be converted to either a deep lying playmaker or CM. The way he tackles is quite good in terms of technique and I’m not talking about vs Seedorf when he was a kid although that technique was quite apparent then. He needs to show more as a playmaker tbh. Even when Diaz was out of form, he wasn’t chosen should tell u something about his level not quite being there yet.