Charles De Ketelaere has come under criticism over the past few days as he is yet to have a real breakout performance since his big money summer move from Club Brugge.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) speaks of a paradoxical situation whereby De Ketelaere is second in Serie A for the number of chances created per game, second only to Gerard Deulofeu and even ahead of Rafael Leao. He is also third in dribble success rate, behind only Banda (Lecce) and Djuricic (Sampdoria). Finally, the Belgian is also in the top ten of the players who have recovered the highest number of balls.
However, the numbers that people care most about are goals and assists. De Ketelaere is yet to net his first goal for the Rossoneri and the general consensus is that he is lacking the killer instinct through a final pass or shot to really make a difference.
It is clear that fans expected and are expecting something more in the final third from CDK, but it will take patience. The player pushed hard to join and will be working equally hard to prove his worth.
He did not have anything close to a full preseason with Milan so he potentially needs more time to get used to the mechanisms of a team that have precise instructions, especially in a crucial role like that of the attacking midfielder. Milan wanted him badly too, and at 21 years old there is plenty of time, as Pioli knows.
When you don’t know much about a player, it’s commonplace to make inquiries on YouTube and when a player’s YouTube compilation isn’t too exciting then erm… You know. But if Maldini has chased this guy all summer then there’s gotta be something more about him. Maybe time will tell. Leao himself needed a few season to explode, Tonali too, so I’m willing to give him all the time to get acclimatised to the system. He’ll definitely come good, question is when!