AC Milan won their first derby since 2022 on Sunday night, and they have Matteo Gabbia to thank for the late winner. The defender has been immensely impressive since returning to the club in January, and he spoke about the time he spent away from the club after the derby.
Gabbia’s upsurge in impact has been phenomenal. When Milan were at the height of their defensive crisis, many expected the club to spend money on reinforcements, but instead, they brought back Gabbia six months early from his loan spell at Villarreal.
A decision that was overlooked originally, but a fantastic decision in hindsight. Not a flashy addition to the squad, Gabbia quickly became a vital figure in the second half of the season for the Rossoneri, and when called upon he delivered.
However, with the Diavolo adding Strahinja Pavlovic to the squad, there were questions about what role he could play. Nevertheless, he has still played some minutes, and he gave Paulo Fonseca a reason to keep him in the lineup with a fantastic goal against Inter.
Speaking to Alberto Rimedio after the game, Gabbia looked back at his loan spell in Spain and explained how it helped him get where he is currently, and his words have been relayed by Radio Rossonera.
Matteo, exactly a year ago you were living at Villarreal, with a handful of appearances on the fringes of the Yellow Submarine project. Did you ever imagine that you could experience a night like this?
“I always work at my best. Then, honestly, at Villarreal in six months I played 15 games, so… There it’s a slightly different mentality, there was more alternation in the players.
However, I was highly regarded in that experience and it served me well. I work, as I said before, always to the best of my ability. And consequently, my dream is to experience evenings like that and to play matches like that. So, absolutely yes. In my head, my goal is to try to experience as many evenings of this level as possible.”
Gabbia was always good for us in my view but unfortunately he didn’t play that much or consistently for us before the Villareal loan but when he was called upon always did minimum decent.
Yeah our defending was pretty bad last season when he’s not there. Or did you remember last time when we are unbeatable early 2020 we had Gabbia there too.
Well not sure if you misread what I said here because I’ve ALWAYS thought he was a good defender for us and also while most people wanted him shipped out.
Yes, i meant he is good defender no doubt bout that, and we have improved defense with him. But previous coach didn’t have much trust to regularly play him, and opted to play foreign players which management bought back then.
ok no worries the last part of your post just had me a bit confused if we actually got eachother right. Yeah he has always had qualities and more often than not showed it when given the right opportunity which unfortunately was fairly rare to happen.
He is decent at defending and sometimes attacking too. His physical attributes are also good, i see him taller than Adli who is 6’1 (186cm), so Gabbia should be like 6’2 (188cm) bc he is almost the same height as Kjaer who is listed 190cm, he should maintain his muscle a bit to be like legend Maldini.
Jesus Lord! Can we send Calabria and Emerson to Villareal for 6mo’s? They seem to be a cure-all.
I’m really glad for him, been following him since he got promoted from Primavera cause he showed promise. Never complained for lack of playing time, always trained in silence and always delivered when called to arms. From his interviews you can see he’s well mannered, composed, smart with a strong character. A captain material for sure.
Something happened in Villarreal for sure
It’s difficult to see how he could’ve benefited from Villarreal where he played just 13 times under 4 different coaches and returned to Milan less than 6 months later in the midst of an injury crisis.
Unless it was more like an experience thing like a gap year.
The fact is he was never backed, and instead we tried the likes of Duarte. There’s 10m that could’ve been put to better use.
We’re not just talking any old randomers. We’re talking about a group of kids who made it through the AC Milan youth system. That puts them in the top 1% of footballers of their generation in Italy and probably therefore the world.
The conversion rate of less than 1% is negligent. There’s no other word to describe it..
Get off it with such a DUMB comment. Duarte hasn’t played for Milan since 2020 that was because of true injury crisis. Besides Gabbia has always been backed by the club. They sent him on loan so he could get starter minutes, the loan was before Kalulu was injured and when Thiaw looked to be an every day starter. Everyone thought Kjear was going to be a suitable 4th option so no need to keep Gabbia buried on the bench as it would stunt his development. See how with proper context it sounds like a reasonable move and apparently Gabbia thinks so too…
How dare you, he is right, he knows it better than Gabbia himself so stop said that he is dumb
Maybe Gabbia has ridiculously low expectations of himself given how we treat our youth players?
Nearly every single person who talks about Gabbia says that he’s either not good enough or is good enough but we still need an upgrade.
And the same for Calabria even after he lead the side to a Scudetto.
Every single one of our youth players is given the burden of doubt (as opposed to the benefit of doubt that is applied to new signings).
Why are you so angry?
Duarte is an example of one of the many CBs we signed since Gabbia broke into the first team.
How was he backed when he was rarely played, we signed CBs in his place, and only gave him a chance during injury crises before dropping him again?
This is literally what happened after last season when we signed Pavlovic and dropped him, only for him to once again have to prove himself.
All the while Tomori, Thiaw and even Pavlovic have had mistakes overlooked.
Why does it make you so angry when I point this out?
As expected from our star on this site
Why do people on this site take such an issue with me demanding more from our youth development???