Some interesting numbers have emerged which highlight how Youssouf Fofana’s performances have changed without Adrien Rabiot.
The break comes at the right time for Milan after the draw against Parma, in which the team collapsed before half-time and were unable to salvage the situation. Massimiliano Allegri and his staff will work tirelessly to recover Rabiot and improve Ardon Jashari’s fitness.
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The former Marseille player’s absence over the past month has impacted not only the team’s results but also their playing style, and it’s no coincidence that the Rossoneri’s best performances came when he was alongside Luka Modric in the engine room.
Rabiot brings leadership, technical quality and the ability to manage the pace of games, taking the sting out in the key moments with physicality and experience. Not only that, but he makes those around him better too.
The impact on Fofana
Calciomercato.com‘s Antonio Belloni has highlighted some very interesting statistics on Fofana, a player Allegri clearly considers fundamental to his Milan. Without his compatriot Rabiot, he becomes a different player and not for the better.
➤ Touches per game with Rabiot on the pitch (vs. Bologna, Udinese, Napoli and Juventus): 22-34-24-28.
➤ Touches per game without Rabiot on the pitch (vs. Fiorentina, Pisa, Atalanta, Roma and Parma): 52-82-46-28-53.
Without Rabiot on the field – someone who becomes an additional playmaker alongside Modric when he starts – Fofana is getting on the ball twice as much, despite clearly not having the skill set to be a creator from deep.
➤ Possession lost with Rabiot on the pitch: 4-4-4-3
➤ Possession lost without Rabiot on the pitch: 12-12-13-7-9
Without Rabiot, Fofana has double the amount of touches and triple the number of balls lost. The numbers show that he is a completely different player without his compatriot, in a disruptive sense.
Milan are now a much more tactically organised side (barring moments of madness) with solid principles that have improved the team. The returns of Rabiot and Jashari could also open up new possibilities for the midfield. One thing is clear: Fofana will have to work hard to keep his spot.
FofanaBall
So without Rabiot, Fofana has been getting on the ball twice as much, has double the amount of touches and because of that triple the number of balls lost.
I wonder why would that be. Shouldn’t the midfielder that plays instead of Rabiot make up for Rabiot absence, touches, work load, instead of doubling the demands on Fofana?
Shouldn’t you be doing something you actually have an idea about? Every article where you can insult Leao or Ricci you do this. Literally every one. Now tell me do you know which role was Ricci given and which one Fofana when Rabiot got injured? Can you tell us the details and what Allegri asked of them and how Ricci failed in this? Thank you.
Because Ricci and Rabiot are nothing alike, simple as that.
Rabiot is an experienced player who played at the highest level, under the best coaches and is playing in his natural position.
Ricci is a young kid who is playing in a position that he never played in before and replacing the much better Rabiot in a relatively new position for him is a tall task.
If anything those stats show how quite limited Fofana actually is.
And you should be thankfull for this turn of event with Jashari’s injury and Rowe-Rabiot’s fight, otherwise we probably would never have gone for Rabiot in the first place.
You said they aren’t alike but then you mention the least important thing. Experience, great. But Rabiot is physically much stronger, taller, can run through people literally and so on. So not even similar in anything, Ricci wasn’t even asked to play like Rabiot, as his position was mostly next to Modric. A few times they even swapped positions. But Z can’t see that even if he rewatches the games 7000 times.
“Ricci is a young kid who is playing in a position that he never played in before and replacing the much better Rabiot in a relatively new position for him is a tall task.”
Ricci is 24, Fofana is 26.
Young kid?
Position that he never played before?
I wish people can actually do a little research, go watch some Torino and Empoli games before they just come up with excuses. He didn’t exclusively play as a regista for those 2 teams.
But let’s see what was just said today about Ricci.
Gattuso:
“Regista? Locatelli can play there, Ricci too. We have it. Locatelli is a natural playmaker, Ricci CAN ALSO PLAY AS A MEZZALA.”
Funny how he says that Locatelli is a natural playmaker but not Ricci, who people say is a regista.
Ricci:
“Are you better as a regista or a mezzala?
“Good question… I THINK I CAN PLAY BOTH ROLES, depending on what’s asked of me. Many people these days play as midfielders who can run forward, but also build up play. I CAN PLAY BOTH ROLES.”
I watched Torino games last season when media was pushing Milan to sign Ricci. Everything i see and criticise Ricci for today as a Milan player i was seeing while he was playing for Torino in his favorite position.
Enough with the excuses.
“Enough with the excuses.”
You say enough with the excuses but it’s you who is trying to pin Fofana’s underperformances on Ricci instead on him. It’s funny that when some players underperform despite the changing coaches, systems,… you’re quick to blame them but in this case it’s the other player’s fault.
In the Fiorentina game, Ricci had more touches (including the mid third) than Fofana while also having more progressive carries, more passes in total and a higher completition ratio and with a higher progressive distance. For that game they were equal on the defensive stats.
For the Pisa game, more passes completed for Ricci, a higher percentage, a higher progressive distance, more tackles, more blocks (but less interceptions). BARELY less touches (75 vs 78). A higher progressive distance with carries and less often dispossessed.
Atalanta game, same story for passes, but Fofana was better defensively. Slightly more touches for Ricci and again more progressive distance with Carries.
In the Roma game, Ricci won all this tackles (while Fofana caused a freekick then a penalty) and the stats about touches, passes and carries are still the same.
And finally in the Parma game, despite playing 20 minutes LESS than Fofana, he has more progressive passes.
This article was about Fofana, but somehow you managed to make this about Ricci, who is more accurate than Fofana, has more touches than him, has a higher progressive distances in both passes and carries (Fofana is supposed to be a ball carrier remember), while making less mistakes than him, but he somehow has to be blamed for Fofana having more touches than before and making more mistakes.
I think it’s about time you adress the Fofana issue rather than trying to deflect it.
I don’t pin Fofana’s underperformence on another player, Fofana is not that good no mater who he plays next to.
The point i was making is that Fofana, without Rabiot, but with Ricci is asked to do much more, thats why his touches have doubled.
Ricci’s passes are short, thats why he has a higher % because he is scared to risk and pass the ball forward. It was the same thing at Torino. Watch the games not just stats. How many of Ricci passes are in the final third? How many of his forward runs are in the opposing half or final third?
Even Modric looks worse next to Ricci, compared to Rabiot.
Fofana is also ass. Milan made 2 huge mistakes last summer, when after being interested in Thuram for 2 years they allowed him to go to Juventus for 20 mil while signing Fofana for 25 mil. Thuram is twice the player that Ricci and Fofana are.
Same with Manu Kone who they were interested in for even longer and allowed him to go to roma for 18 mil, instead signing Ricci this summer for 25 mil. Another midfielder who is twice the player Ricci and Fofana are. BTW both Thuram and Kone are 24 year old kids, as you say, for who they don’t have to make excuses and are bossing their midfields.
“Ricci’s passes are short, thats why he has a higher % because he is scared to risk and pass the ball forward”
He has actually completed more long ball in the last games than Rabiot used to do and in some games only Modrić has more long balls than him. Now how many of those can be considered progressive passes isn’t mentionned, but you don’t have many long balls backwards that’s for sure.
There are many reasons why we look a$$ currently, and it’s not just Rabiot and Pulišić’s absence. Teams are starting to understand that they should cut Modrić’s passing lanes and that they can spam crosses and eventually score.
In serie A there was only one game where we scored more than 2 goals, but lately we drew games where we score 2 goals.
Our problem isn’t the midfield’s lack of progression, but conceding more goals and most of the goals come from crosses.
And finally, I agree that we should have gone for Kone or Thuram or both during last summer, last winter and this summer.
Also FYI.
Rabiot’s touches in the games he played in serie A were as follow: 46-85-48-51 or around 57 touches per game.
Ricci’s touches in the games he started in serie A (minus Parma where he played only 70 minutes) were as follow:
58-75-47-42 or around 55 touches per game.
Is Fofana’s amount of touching the ball DOUBLING, can really be explained by Ricci having barely less 2 touches than Rabiot per game ?
Can you really say that Ricci is increasing Fofana’s workload while he has on average more touches per game than him and slightly less than Rabiot ?
What type of passes and touches are those?
What does he do with those passes and touches?
Compared to Rabiot are Ricci’s passes as vertical, less vertical or the same?
Same with his runs?
He can touch the ball a 1000 times during a game but what does he do with it after touching it.
Ricci is a liability in Milan midfield. Simple.
Before he started playing the midfeild with modric, Rabiot & Fofana are doing very well.
The new person that started playing when Milan form noise dived is Ricci.
Please let us not for excuses to blame Fofana because he is mot Italian and absolve Riccci from blame because he is Italian
We know that Ricci signing was to please the Italian authorities especially with the many questionable decions on Milan since the reduction of the number of Italian players
“Please let us not for excuses to blame Fofana because he is mot Italian and absolve Riccci from blame because he is Italian”
Should Ricci be blamed for Fofana conceding a freekick and a penalty against Roma ?
Should Ricci be blamed for Fofana always aiming for the sky when shooting ?
Yes things got worse when Ricci started instead of RABIOT, that means that Ricci is worse than RABIOT, but we already knew that.
See my response above for long passes, but I don’t have all the stats.
This article and your response were made PURELY on touches without explaining what happens after, passes,…
I just did the same with Rabiot and Ricci.
Does my response lack details ? Probably, but so does this whole article and many conclusions here.
He is the most important signing Milan made this season. I’d say Modric usually, but Rabiot will be here for 4-5 years. World class player.
So in other words, the more Fofana touches the ball, the worse we are.
The less Fofana touches the ball, the better he looks and the better we are.
More or less yeah 🤣
There are some interesting stats and other information and opinions flying around.
When no one seems to account for is that Pulisic has been absent for the same time that Rabiot has.
I believe most of us agree that Pulisic covers a lot of ground and makes himself available.
It’s not Rabiots touches that Fofana is covering. It’s Pulisic.
Fofana has been exposed for what we saw him to be last season. A hard-working bang average midfielder who couldn’t hit an open goal if he was two feet in front of it.
Ricci on the other hand has a sophisticated game. He covers a lot of ground. He makes a lot of passes. Yeah some of those are short and too many of them are back. But he is progressing before our eyes game over game.
What we will need to see is Pulisic in the lineup when pulisic is there.
Truth is, Rabiot brings more confidence to those around him. There’s more calm and control. He’s strong on the ball with good control and a decent shot on him. He’s everything Fofana is not. I just wonder if there’s a set up where Rabiot/Modric play with someone other than Fofana next to them.
It’s pretty simple. Fofana, and ricci, are best playing in front of the defense, ricci as a regista and Fofana as like an all out destroyer. Modric wants to play as a regista. So both Fofana and ricci have to adapt, which is not easy. All 3 are good players
Of course you highlight Rabiot’s absence and relate it to Fofana…How about this Oliver. The reason why Fofana is less effective is because Ricci is nowhere near doing the work that Rabiot does and as a consequence of his mediocre play, Fofana is out of balance having to do his own job and 50% of Rabiot’s since Ricci is less than effective at doing it…That’s what is happening here….Go back to the Lecce game and 1st half of Roma game and you will see Ricci essentially anonymous. The team is suffering without Rabiot and it has more to do with the player that is replacing him (Ricci) rather than anyone else…but good try Oliver.
Do you think Allegri will drop Fofana or Ricci when Rabiot returns??
Milan’s starting midfield of Fofana-Modric-Rabiot take Milan to the top of the league…and playing dominant football in the process…Rabiot get’s injured and is placed by Ricci and results are mixed…and rather than focus on Rabiot’s replacement (Ricci) and his clear average play you are attempting to divert attention away from Ricci, and his inability to be impactful like Rabiot, and somehow say Fofana is the problem???? I was born at night Oliver, but not last night!