Paolo Di Canio and Fabio Capello were both covering the AC Milan game last night for Sky, and they argued over Rafael Leao’s performance against Club Brugge.
Milan got all three points thanks to goals from Christian Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders (a brace), yet it is Leao’s name that is in the headlines again despite the far he had far from a terrible performance. He was taken off in the second half, with Noah Okafor replacing him.
The issue is that the Swiss made an instant impact by setting up Reijnders for his first goal, all while Leao trudged around to the bench. At full-time, the Portuguese winger did not celebrate under the Curva Sud with his team-mates but instead chose to go down the tunnel.
The Leao saga therefore continues to rumble on, given he is without a Champions League goal this season and has just one goal in 10 games across all competitions, albeit with four assists to his name.
Capello and Di Canio were part of the Sky panel that covered the game and they each gave their thoughts on how he played, with Football Italia relaying how their interaction went.
Capello: “We shouldn’t think of Leao as a leader but as an uncommon player. You have to accept this. He must also understand all these things. He is no longer a crucial player, and he must change his attitude.
“To do so, he must be accepted and supported by his teammates. He hasn’t yet understood the lesson. He played a good game.”
Di Canio: “It was a victory, an important victory. If Milan had lost, they would have been nearly out,” said the former striker. I disagree [with Capello]. Three successful dribbles don’t make a good game.
“He didn’t move much, it’s my idea. We can’t become accustomed to mediocrity. He may have dribbled past Brugge players, but Okafor and Chukwueze were better in terms of passing. I’ve understood what’s Leao. It’s a fantastic watch when you look at it from afar.
“Is he a Vini Jr? Is he a Thierry Henry? No, wait, is it a Robben? Ah, no, it’s a good copy. When you look at it closely, you realise it’s a decent copy. From afar, it’s a nice watch.
“He’s great when he has a lot of space, but then he is not too smart when he has to link up with his teammates. Why did Fonseca replace him with 30 minutes remaining? What did he see?”
Being a physical specimen or having great skill does not make one a leader. Not even in sports.
Leaders are people whom others chose to follow for a myriad of reasons. I’ve never met anyone in my years of leadership who said, “I need to learn to be more selfish and self absorbed”.
After yesterday and through the antics of this season and last it is clear Rafa is not made to be a leader. This doesn’t mean he is not a good player. It doesn’t mean he cannot be a great player.
It simply means that he will not make those around him better by simply being on the pitch.
You can extend this to Theo as well.
Mike intrigues me but I don’t hold out hope. If he is leadership material we should see better from our CB pairing. Given that I think we are seeing better cohesion and fewer individual blunders when in our own box I hold hope he is growing to fill the clear on-field leadership vacuum.
Puli is Cpt of USMNT, but it is evident that for all his success and work rate the team do not follow his lead when Leao and Theo are on the field. Maybe he grows in influence if his form continues, but the signs are not there.
Changing gear a bit, Pioli played an individual style. Man defense, exploit individual matchups.
This style then elevated the profiles within the squad of the best individual players. Fonseca – for all that the team still looks a bit too much like Pioli with hair – is bringing a team concept.
I believe we are slow to adapt because this requires very different things from on pitch leadership.
This excites me. As new leaders emerge the team will play better by leaps and bounds. But, as with any such change it will be painful. In sports this is exposed to the entire public making the dynamic even harder to manage.
I hope Theao can find there place as excellent players while Fonseca can find the leaders he needs on the pitch to fully realize his paradigm.
As new leaders emerge, the team will play better by leaps and bounds only if the old leaders fall behind in line or are removed from the team.
Couple players had the spotlight solely on them for few years and are not handling well that the spotlight is being taken away from them by the new players and leaders. That’s why we have moping and sulking around by couple of those players.
That’s a big hit to handle for fragile egos.
That is defn part of the pain.
There will also be those who believe they deserve to fill the gap and expect to be “anointed”. The butt-hurt will be disruptive until the pecking order settles
Other pain will be in the results. For a game like the Leverkusen match leadership likely sees us with a better result.
It seems Fonseca is working on this by his comments.
Just leave the guy on bench for a few matches,let’s say 5 matches. Make him want to play again and you will unlock the beast again. Keeping him on bench 1 match and then sending him as starter two days later just so he can show us his childish attitude and how displeased he is, is just foolish.
I am also Not ok with everything of leao.
But what ist DiCanio?
Is He Hitler?
Is He Mussolini?
Is He Franco?
No He IS a good Copy 🫡
What is magical about five games?
Leao is key to the success of this season and the success of the team over the next couple of years at least. So it is up to Fonseca and the staff to determine what Rafa needs. It is up to Rafa to choose to be awesome.
We will learn a great deal about Rafa these next few months. I hope what we learn is that he is choosing to be the best he can be”.
Milan will have to decide if his contribution the next few years is on the pitch or as a capital gain we convert into players that fit the new paradigm.
I hope Rafa chooses awesome and chooses Milan.