Rafael Leao is one of Serie A’s box office players, and this is not new information. Indeed, the AC Milan star is up there with the best in the league.
Whether Leao is or isn’t the best player in Serie A, the question is there about him. Of course, he is also young enough to keep growing in the future. So, in 18 months, maybe it will not even be a question.
With his recent shift centrally, the forward has opened up several new avenues, and there is a chance that the next few years could see him skyrocket with his output at a fantastic rate currently. Even with injuries, he has scored the second-highest number of goals.
Florenzi on Leao
Alessandro Florenzi knows Leao better than most, given they shared a dressing room for a few years, and on Sky Sports, the Italian spoke of his former teammate’s qualities and even questioned his old club, as Football Italia relays.
“I think strong players must take responsibility and must be well-positioned on the pitch. They have to play in a certain way to express their football. I don’t know if Milan are giving Leao as much as Leao is giving to Milan right now.
“Milan now play on the counter, which suits him, but I’ve seen him play on a more harmonious team in terms of playing style, and he emerged. To me, he remains the best player in Serie A.”
“I don’t know if Milan are giving Leao as much as Leao is giving to Milan right now.”
“Milan now play on the counter, which suits him, but I’ve seen him play on a more harmonious team in terms of playing style, and he emerged. To me, he remains the best player in Serie A.”…………….Say no more
Did you see what Di Canio said in the same Sport Italia session? They’re missing half of the information here. Regardless, the point is that he’s much better in a 4-3-3. Ultimately, the 3-5-2 is harming Leao and in turn harming Milan.
Milan is 2nd on the table in 352 while they were 8 playing 433 last season.
The 352 isn’t harming Milan, Leao and the rest of the forwards missing wide open goals is harming Milan.
As Mk says, Leao isn’t even the best player on his own team
Maybe not. We had this debate our Polish national team playing 3-5-2 when we always played 4-4-2 and then Lewandowski said that at Barca he even had a game when they played 7 different formations in one game to manage the game. We don’t lose goals with 3-5-2 and score more easy with 4-3-3. Allegri will always stick to not conceding first. Remember that when he was here the first time he had Pato, Dinho, Robinho, Zlatan and Seedorf at the same time, got rid off 2 and Seedorf got more defensive duties.
Utterly absurd statement. He’s not even the best player on his team.
Then you have Lauturo Martinez who is miles better. I would take Thuram over Leao as well.
Dimarco is better. Yildiz is better. Nico Paz. I could go on but you get the point. There are many better than Leao.
Sorry….but one ‘utterly absurd statement’ quickly followed by another.
Nico Paz, Thuram and Yildiz are not better, that is absurd. Lauturo is arguably better but they are really two completely different players. Honestly like to see Lauturo play as a winger in a 433 and see if he’s as effective as leao in the 352. So I take it back Lauturo is not better. Florenzi is 💯
I think it is fair to say Inter’s midfield was also far superior to ours. Their defense was more complete as well. Given the quality of teammates, Leao hasn’t had the ideal environment to develop compared to Lauturo. Constant roster changes, coaches coming and going arguably the team not improving much since his best season.
Only one way we could settle the debate is having a team that stays together the next 3 seasons, including our coaching staff while adding a couple high level players in that period without it being at the expense of our strong players.
Far superior midfield? Do you recall the last game between Milan v Inter? Btw Inter did not win and their midfield was overrun by Milan’s.