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 🫡
lol……….
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.
Rafa is our best player and the best in Serbia a on his day, I have watched a lot of Portugal games because of Leao’s participation and the Portugal squad is littered with talent, yet Leao starts and excels, Fonseca has to employ a different man to man management with Leao and Theo, he needs guidance from the likes of Ancelotti and JoseM as I don’t think he is doing a good job with Theo and Leao at present..
Correction: Pulisic is our best player. More efficient, defends more and plays for the team. Also 100x the “leader” Leao is. Facts.
I agree with you, 100 percent, whatever beef Fonseca have will end up been his undoing, Leao remains the best, as a coach you have to find a way to get the best out of him, for everyone’s sake, his job, the fans
I was very disappointed in Leao, but not surprised. He did not celebrate the go-ahead goal in any way; not even a smile. He went straight to the dressing room after the final whistle rather than celebrating the victory w his teammates. His 3 moments of goalless brilliance each match — when he stutter steps and dribbles for 15 meters before making a move around someone only to fluff the pass or sky the shot — are not worth it on their own. But when you add in his behavior…what else is there to say?
For all his skill and potential (and attitude) he does not deliver on the pitch, and ultimately that matters most.
Also, the last two times he has been replaced by Okafor (a start and then a sub) Okafor has played a role in the scoring. He doesnt dilly dally; instead he had made decisive moves and uses his pace to create open space and then he picks out a cross/pass to a teammate. And he only makes one move to do it, not 3 move. He is more decisive and does not give the other team’s players a chance to catch up. Okafor has been delivering.
So none of you saw Leao raising his two hands up in the air when TJ scored?
Leao will either raise to the occasion and elevate his game eventually or he will continue to crumble at every criticism aimed at him, which is Par for the course when you’re the highest paid player on the team and aren’t playing up to your known potential.
The good thing here is the attacking depth that we clearly have now to put in play while Rafa figures it out.
I hate this line so much. “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.”
It’s not an issue at all that Okafor is playing well, that’s great, it’s good for everyone even Leao, it’s only you dopes in the media who try to stir up stuff to get attention. I don’t think it matters that Rafa seemed disappointed to come off. That’s great, that means he cares, and I think now that there’s attacking balance, he can be more free to have his ups and downs with less pressure. I have no problem with Rafa not being a leader, I appreciate that at a pace of .4 goal contributions a game we can say he’s struggling and can play better; because let’s be real, at his current pace he’s still producing more than most wingers in serie A.
Maybe Rafa benefits from not being a leader, maybe he’s a very unique talent who does better as one of the eleven than a leader of the eleven.
I have said a long time now that we should not expect Leao to ever become a leader. He does not have it in him. And I agree with Capello. He is an uncommen player, and should be accepted as one. If the dressing room does so, he will thrive and become the best version of himself.
Fully agree with Capello. Already said this (copy-pasted below) months ago. And looks like Fonseca is starting to realize it now. They
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What I see is that we want to create a team around Leao. Leao as the centre of the project. It’s translated in our playing style as well. To be really too dependent on him. That’s a wrong move I guess. Yes, he’s our highest paid player, our highest valued player. But it’s so clear that he never has this elite mentality.
He’s surely not a type of player who can lead the pack. Nor the one who can immediately raise his level in the time of crisis. We need to start treating him as an ‘extra’. As a support. As a complementer. An icing on the cake. A Ronaldinho in Messi’s Barca (sadly we don’t have our Messi). An unmatched card in the four of a kind.
That way he also can feel less pressure as we all know how he does under pressure.
I agree with your comment but there was never a Ronaldinho in Messi’s Barca.
There was a Messi in Ronaldinho’s Barca.
Braca became Messis after they sold Ronaldinho to Milan, because Ronaldinho was lazy, unprofessional and bad influence in his last season there, plus he missed half of that 07/08 season because of an injury.
The fact of the matter is that unless Leao gets his act together, things will only get worse. Milan cannot support a ‘luxury’ player. We are still trying to find our identity as a team, leaving the old, boring, give it to Leao and hope he does something, tactic. That was the Pioli way that we sacked off last season.
This new team is energised when Leao is not on the pitch and he can either knuckle down and become part of the new way, or leave, his choice. Until he does, as bb suggested, use him off the bench for a spell, when his runs can cause chaos. That’s the best use he can be to the team in this moment. But for goodness sake, get him working on his end product. He used to have it and now he doesn’t. That’s a problem in his head.
Why all these fuss about Leao and Okafor?, the reason management got Okafor is that Leao will have a competition on the left wing, it left for Leao to update his game, do things no one expects, be a team player, I still believe in him but he needs to cut the ego, celebrate with the team.that’s all.
Leao needs to feel the confindance from other players, coach, staff and also the management to grow and show his potential. Moreover, the formation has changed and also the attackers.
We need Leao and Theo to win and also the defence needs to grow if we want to win!