Going into the Champions League campaign after a difficult return last season, not many will have expected Matteo Gabbia and Tommaso Pobega to be among the scorers.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recalls that Pobega and Gabbia were both born in 1999, both came through the academy at Milan and played many games together before the midfield went off on various loan spells and returned to base this summer.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Both scored their first senior goals for the Rossoneri in the Champions League, and Gabbia’s was the one that started the rout against Dinamo Zagreb as he revealed his emotions after the game.
“I remember when I was on the other side and celebrated as a fan for Milan’s goals. I was a fan, I went to San Siro and today a great dream has come true for me,” he said.
There was the chance he could have left on loan in the summer given the presence of Kalulu and Tomori as the starting pairing plus Kjaer and the emerging Thiaw also in the squad, but Gabbia chose to stay and wait for his moment.
At 23 years and 4 days he became the second-youngest Milan defender to score in the Champions League after Panucci (20 years and 233 days, in 1993). It was his first goal for the Rossoneri and only his second in professional football after the one he scored for Lucchese in 2018-19.
The report even mentions how Gabbia started as a midfielder, in the middle in front of the defence, but his skills were refined and a more obvious role jumped out. While he may not have a particular specialty like Tomori and Kalulu’s pace or Kjaer’s physicality, he knows how to keep growing and improving.
Hahahah couldn’t resist somehow showcasing Slowbega in a positive light, out of nothing really.
Anyways, Gabbia has much.better reading of the game tactically than Tomori. He’s a faster Kjaer and can head the ball very well. He’s also better positioning than Tomori and Kalulu. Kalulu and moreso Tomori use their pace to make up for lacking in the mental part of defending. I think Gabbia Kalulu should be the pairing that works this season
So we can say the same thing about that SlaCdK kid? Well if we have to be patient with CDK, then the same rule applies to everybody else.
Why are you kiding to yourself ? Pobega is a trash and Gabbia is very limited. They’re just two players who found themselves involved in an already strong group managed by a very good coach. These two players must go on loan and be replaced with world class players able to push that milan to the next level
A trash that’s also called up to national duty? Can’t understand the hate. Gabbia proved that he still has plenty of room to grow. Being pretty consistent everytime he gets on the line up. Both are decent players to our squad’s depth.