Sky journalist Peppe Di Stefano has labelled Samuel Chukwueze as the ‘disappointment of the season’ for AC Milan given his lack of contribution.
Chukwueze joined Milan from LaLiga side Villarreal during the 2023 summer transfer window for a deal worth €20m plus some substantial bonuses, which made him the most expensive signing of a window that saw 10 players arrive.
The 24-year-old arrived after a season in which he amassed 13 goals and 11 assists in 52 appearances for Villarreal. Milan pushed hard and got their man in late July, and there was a lot of excitement about his arrival.
However, the Nigerian winger has amassed just two goals and one assists and he is yet to get off the mark in Serie A, with Christian Pulisic contributing far more to this point.
Speaking on Sky, Peppe Di Stefano spoke about Milan and the disappointment of Samuel Chukwueze’s unconvincing performances so far this season, with his comments relayed by PianetaMilan.
“Slavia Prague are a team that can be beaten but above all Milan must manage things well because there are four games before the break,” he began.
“Pioli has got many players back and therefore is no longer in an emergency and has a good squad in terms of numbers.
“He doesn’t have great alternatives at right wing, because Chukwueze is the disappointment of the season. Only 10 starts and few minutes for a player who hasn’t shown the qualities he showed with Villarreal.”
Maybe if Chuk actually got more than just cameos for 15 minutes he could actually settle. But of course pioli doesn’t like rotating properly…
To be fair Okafor and Jović could say the same thing about playing time but they have scored goals.
Well, Jovic is a striker, so he ought to find himself in scoring position more often. But yeah, Okafor does come on and score. If CDK is a lesson to go by, Chuk needs to continue to be given time and also another season before being judged as a failed transfer.
CDK still looks mentally weak, there are also players that are simply not good enough.
Luck has also played a huge part in their goals especially given their limited playing time.
In the short time they’ve been on the pitch and have found the ball bouncing off someone to land at their feet 5 yards out!
People really under-estimate luck in football (and life). It can pretty much make or break a player’s season/career.
I understand what you are saying about the ball falling to Jovic’s and Okafor’s feet and I would acknowledge that if it were one or maybe two goals, but these guys got themselves into those positions and finished, that’s not luck. Both Jovic and Okafor have 5 goals each and Chukwueze has zero and they all have similar playing time with Chukwueze having the most. Calling something unlucky is just explaining away failure. People create their own luck and saying otherwise is discrediting all the hard work put in becoming professional footballers or whatever others do in their lives. I am not trying to say you are wrong but just giving my view and hopefully motivate people not to be victims of their own minds.
My approach to luck actually reduces the victim mentality because it helps distinguish between the things we control and the things we don’t control.
If we focus on the things we control then we take absolute ownership of those things whilst not dwelling on the things we don’t control.
In this case, yes these guys through work rate (in the case of Okafor) and instinct (in the case of Jovic) have gotten themselves into the right positions.
Chuka’s luck has not been helped by his limited playing time in a large part because of the decision to sign 3 brand spanking new players for 1 position (as opposed to 1 player and keeping players who’d we already rolled the dice with and who had turned out to be more than ok).
In fact the whole scatter gun approach to transfers just involves rolling endless dice.
Pulisic is my favorite player, but I can even say Chuk has been extremely unlucky this season. I think because of a combination of things. Pulisic first half of season was really strong and Chuk was getting 10 minutes a game. Then Chuk gets injured out 3 weeks then Afcon where Nigeria made final so out a month. Chuks basically out for 2 months straight. Now Chuk is back and Pulisic’s is getting back into form. It’s just unlucky. Tbf he hasn’t had enough of a run of games to be judged,
should have gone for Orsolini or even better, keep salad or junior as back up rw and bought Hjulmand with that. We really needed a Hjulmand type and not 3 right wingers.. Romero is not forgotten here
Don’t we have Pulisic?
Why didn’t we just sign Pulisic and nobody else!
Because Leao will leave at some point and Pulisic will move to LW. Its been planned even before Pulisic was signed. This also accounts for Chukwueze’s signing. Why else would Pulisic come to Milan knowing Leao was in his position?
How can we ever hope to return to the top if we plan on selling our best players?
This is the problem with the attitude to the transfer market amongst fans. It invites this defeatist attitude where it’s accepted that star players will be sold (and the money blown on multiple replacements!).
“How can we ever hope to return to the top if we plan on selling our best players?”
Because every player will want to leave eventually. So it would be idiotic not to prepare for the inevitable.
Inter laught read this comment. They bassicly sell their best player every year.
For sure we won’t rise back to the top selling our best players and I rather pay Theo than sell him and bring in 3 new players that may or may not hit and more then likely none will be as good as Theo. I agree we did buy too many new players last summer all at once and all wingers or midfielders, it was risky. I think management was hoping one or two would hit like Pulisic and to a lesser degree Reijnders with a few others being serviceable deputies. Our team is deeper and slightly better compared to last season in my opinion. If Theo and Leao both leave this summer Cardinale is going to be on the hottest seat on the continent.
doubt
Pulisic has played on both wings in the past and has been better as RW for us.
I understand that but Pulisic is a LW player. If Leao is out or rested Pulisic is moved there because that is his best position.
bro,allow that boy to play football and stop talking with discrimination,just 20 million they bought him and u want him to do magic for u,go to Man united u will see a player called Anthony,he was bought 100 million yet not performing and no one is talking him
it is too early to George him,not up to 6 months besides u have not done well i your own profession and u are talking about someone that is better than you
I still blame Pioli because chukwueze should be our attacking midfield at least let him be deployed as our attacking midfield
M.maignan
Florenzi, Kjaer, Gabbia, Theo Hernandez
Benercer, rejnder
Okafor, chukwueze,leao
Jovic
LOL that wouldnt even work in fifa or pes. what a m0r0n
Chukwueze never played as an attacking midfielder, so to blame Pioli for not doing so is a bit of a strech.
I also don’t understand the logic of benching Pulisic, the best signing this season and having Okafor start on the right.
Okafor played around 500 minutes and started mostly from the bench, yet he managed to score 5 goals. That is a goal every 100 minutes or almost a goal per matches played.
Chuk is a 28 million euro Origi.
Half of Okafor’s goals came when the ball bounced off another player and landed on his foot!
I like Okafor but you can’t judge any of the players who don’t start.
That’s why our subs bench shouldn’t be made up of 25m signings (replacing actual league winners who we didn’t even sell at a profit!).
Yeah I kind of agree with this. Most of the goals scored by both Okafor and Jovic have come from goal mouth scrambles or loose balls from a cross or corner late in games, with Jovic or Okafor coming on for a midfielder to play high up next to Giroud, while Chukwueze has remained on the bench.
That’s just an excuse. If Okafor and Jović were able to tuck in those bounced balls it means they have good sense of positioning.
Exactly. Where has Chukie been? No where near the goal when Milan attack. I guess it’s just bad luck that Milan never get the ball into the penalty box when Chukie is on the pitch, eh?
It was also bad luck that Krunic never got elected for Ballon d’Or. Just when he was going to finally win it, Messi got lucky and won the WC. Damn.
La Liga attackers rarely perform in Serie A. There’s no depth in La Liga, garbage like Chukwueze are stat-padders. I doubt Chukwueze will improve next season. Given the other high profile signings have been good-excellent, one dud is a good return.
La Liga has dominated European football for the past decade so they’re doing something right.
If players aren’t performing in Serie A and are performing in more successful leagues then that is not a good sign.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are strong, the rest of the league is mediocre. When a Girona team with crap like Eric Garcia and Daley Blind are in the running for a UCL place, it doesn’t say a lot for the depth. Sevilla winning a bunch of Europa League wins is neither here nor there, most people couldn’t name any of their players.
Yes, the past decade, not the current one.
It’s been a while since La Liga is not the best European League.
Plus it was always about Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, Sevilla as well if you want to count the EL.
All the other teams are pretty mid.
I do not think that Chuk’s issues are just because this is his first Serie A season. I think it goes a lot deeper than that: he is a right winger who doesn’t have a right foot, and having another Serie A season won’t fix that. He is extremely predictable. Either he loses the ball or he cuts to the left to try a left foot shot. So, left backs know that, adapt, and neutralize him. He almost never goes deep to the end line to cross with his right foot, which is what we expect of a right winger.
For me, Chuk has all the looks of a bust and we should sell him and get a proper deputy for Pulisic. Chuk isn’t that. He is rather useless. But one bust in ten signings is still pretty good. This compares very favorably to the previous summer when only Thiaw wasn’t fully a bust; everybody else was. And Thiaw isn’t even that good, and has cost us numerous points due to amateur-level mistakes.
So, whatever the Maldini fans say, our last summer mercato was a lot better than the previous one.
Maldini is a football legend and I’ll always be grateful for his outstanding contribution on the field, but as a manager, I don’t think that Maldini was that successful, and his being sacked doesn’t upset me. Well, it does upset me a little regarding HOW it was done; a great legend like him could have been handled with more dignity; but ultimately, in my opinion, yes, he had to go, given that he was making the wrong signing decisions, after a while (also, he lost a lot of players for free). Yes, he did bring us some very good players in previous seasons, but he seemed to be losing his touch.
Agree with everything you said
At Milan there’s always pressure to perform. lucky for Pioli and unlucky for Chuk, Pulisic has hit the ground running so Chuk isn’t getting the minutes he needs to gain more confidence and improve.
HOWEVER, with the starts he has had, he hasn’t shown much. So it’s a double edged sword. With a coaching change in the summer his future is up in the air. He needs to get it together ASAP or end up at Atalanta then perform under less bright lights.
If Milan are the sort of club where there’s ‘pressure to perform’ surely that means that Milan are the sort of club that shouldn’t be constantly turning over players?
Because by the same logic it takes players time to get used to playing for an elite club?
We can’t just have randomers rocking up and hitting the big time.
It also means that players who know what it takes to play for a club like Milan, particularly established players and players from our youth set up, should be respected and given space instead of the club desperately trying to offload them so they can sign said randomers.
Look at January as just the most typical example:
Player out – Krunic, an experienced title winner who was frozen out because of a ‘vibe’.
Player in – Terracciano, some 20 year old from Verona.
We do this every transfer window. We push out players who know what it’s like to play for a club like Milan and replace them with players who don’t know what it’s like to play for a club like Milan.
And then act surprised if it doesn’t work out.
it doesnt help that chuck is slower than giroud.
Why does this Article sound like they want CP11 gone?
Build the team around cp11 or get rid of him
Sell the ONE FOOTED WONDER that even my mother could defend. Plays right wing and can t cross the ball with his right foot even if he is wide open. Time will not change him !!!
Remember… It was Pioli who pushed for Chuk. I don’t believe Pulisic was the RW he wanted. I believe the American ownership pushed that deal. Pioli’s plan in front was two versatile wingers who could dribble with Giroud spearheading in the middle. I still think he should try Pulisic in the position he played Brahim and play Chuk on the right.
Trash player