AC Milan’s midfielders have struggled to contribute with goals so far this season, despite Massimiliano Allegri mentioning double digits at the start of the campaign.
After the defeat against Lazio, speaking to the media, Allegri made it clear that the midfielders haven’t contributed enough goals for Milan. When taking a look at the numbers, as highlighted by Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo at the bottom) it’s hard to disagree.
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No midfielder, unless you consider Christian Pulisic and Alexis Saelemaekers, has scored more than one goal this season. Adrien Rabiot and Ardon Jashari are still searching for their first goals, even if some slack can be cut for the Swiss international who only just returned.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (goal against Lecce), Luka Modric (goal against Bologna), Youssouf Fofana (goals against Udinese), and Samuele Ricci (goal against Atalanta) all have one goal each. This goes against Allegri’s words, speaking of double digits for some of his midfielders earlier this season.
Data behind the struggles
This is an issue, especially since the Scudetto rivals Napoli and Inter are the opposite. Antonio Conte’s side have scored elven goals through Kevin De Bruyne, Zambo Anguissa, Scott McTominay, and Billy Gilmour, while Cristian Chivu’s team boasts five goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, even without considering Piotr Zielinski, Petar Sucic, Niccolo and Barella, all of whom have one.
So, why are Milan’s midfielders struggling? Digging into the data, there’s no single explanation for all of them. Fofana, for example, is averaging over 1.6 shots per game and has hit the target the eleven times (compared to Pulisic’s eight), but he’s gotten very little out of his many attempts.
Loftus-Cheek also has trouble aiming (just two shots on target out of 12), while Ricci, Modric, and Jashari attempt fewer shots, especially from outside the box.
The real anomaly, however, is Rabiot. With Max, the Frenchman set his record for goals in a single season, reaching 11 in 2022-23 at Juventus. Yet, something hasn’t gone according to plan so far, with zero goals for the Rossoneri,
Furthermore, he has only attgempted six shots in total, three of which went wide and three were blocked by defenders.
Set-piece goals lacking
Above all, Rabiot is lacking is in his contribution from set pieces, despite being a speciality of his thanks to his height and above-average timing. It’s no coincidence that Allegri, with his comments after the Lazio game, spoke not only of the need to score more from midfield, but also from set pieces.
“Pulisic and Leao are scoring,” Max then clarified, dismissing reporters’ questions about adding a striker in January. Instead, the real signing would be to increase the number of midfielders. They need to start on Monday against Torino, when they will play to keep their spot at the top of the league
I don’t think anyone is worried about Rabiot not scoring. I don’t think there is a midfielder anywhere in world football that will get you more than 5-10 goals per season. I’ll bet the average is closer to 5? If any of our midfielders get 4 or 5 goals, I’d consider that a ‘normal’ return for a midfielder.
💯 – and if Fofana could start passing instead of striking we’d have more goals anyway…
AC Milan currently sit on top of Serie A, Top….Fofana has one goal more than half of Milan’s midfield roster and was directly responsible for the two goals Milan has scored in both recent 1-0 wins! I’m comfortable with that output. Reminder…Milan are top of the table with one of the best defensive records, which Fofana absolutely plays a major role in. How does he get into such fantastic scoring positions?
They have been playing terrible football and only eked out wins. They’ll finish thrid or fourth.
The articles in the last 2 days seem to think Milan is 7th and struggling, wtf is going on
Narrowly ost one away cup game to a fired up Lazio with a heavily rotated squad and suddenly the sky’s falling in. I’m with you, the tone at the moment is ridiculous.
We’re second (to Inter) in the league’s XG charts and second (to Juve) in XGA. We’ve addressed a lot of last season’s issues. Are we playing crazy dominant football and blowing everyone away… no. But are we interesting to watch, competitive and have room to grow and improve? Sure.
Would Allegri play with 5 midfielders-lol. How many do you need? They don’t score because they are cut off from the front line. With only two up front have you noticed how Pulisic and Leão have to drop back to receive the ball. Teams are easily covering the two front players. The wing backs have too far to run to get involved in any quick breaking play.
Exactly. Expecting your midfielders to score 10 goals each and asking the team to park the bus just doesn’t jive.
Maybe Serie A should only award points for convincing wins? “eked’ out wins should be maybe 1.5pts?
At some point eked out wins become loses.
No they don’t, Losses become losses. An ugly win and a champagne and caviar win are both worth 3pts. If I had a dime for every time Milan dominated and lost, I’d be wealthy. Style over substance!
Sure they do. The day the keeper doesn’t make three great saves or someone who never scores a header puts one in, you lose. I’m talking about controlling the game not hoping the other team doesn’t score. ACM has had the breaks go their way so far. A deflected goal from a defender, Inter missing sitters…. etc. We’ll see as the season goes on. Now, if they don’t kick Torino’s butt and dominate…. well, we’ll see.
Nope, sorry. goals win matches…and that’s the only thing that does…It’s the only thing that matters…Goals and winning…Didn’t Milan dominate Juve? They sure did! But didn’t win. Ever see a team with 75% of the possession lose? Yup, 100s of times!! Didn’t Roma out played Milan for virtually the 1st hour? and lost!
Allegri was hired to win! not play entertaining football…and guess what…Milan are top of the pile.
How about goals from Leao and Nkunku?
Why do these lames continue playing?
Final 3rd is complete $hit except for Puli
Mid is the only decent thing we have and Maignan who is having a super season
Wow, Rafa has just as much goals as Puli. Playing out of his preferred position. Scored his 2 penalty chances while Pulisic missed, which arguably lost us 2 points.
Tell me ur a hater without telling me ur a hater.
Clearly you’ve not watched any Milan games…when you do, Leao is the tall guy…scoring goals!