Mattia Liberali has been very impressive in preseason so far and at 17 years of age, AC Milan know that they must handle him in the best way.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, the video of Liberali dancing with the ball in front of Dani Ceballos and Brahim Diaz has appeared on the social media feeds of many Milan fans in the last 12 hours, and now everyone is beginning to take note.
What does the immediate future hold for him? Paulo Fonseca will decide, and in his post-match press conference he said: “Liberali plays with courage but we have to think about it, understand what is best for him, whether to go and play where he can have more space or stay here, stay with us for a while and have the opportunity to play for Milan Futuro.”
He still has a couple of weeks to make a call, but the paper state that Liberali will almost certainly stay at Milan. At the very least, he will train with the first team and will be an important player in the Under 23s.
If Fonseca then continues on the path of using a more technical attacking midfielder – therefore with Christian Pulisic and not Ruben Loftus-Cheek as the No.10 – Mattia could become the American’s deputy and play more than a few games.
Liberali is not afraid to try things. Using his quick feet and also his quick mind, he always wants to create something either with his dribbling or his shooting, to entertain rather than to think too tactically.
In Chicago, against Real Madrid, he saw the space open after a turnover by Brahim Diaz and attacked it, accelerating and providing a perfect pass for Chukwueze. That was a glimpse of everything that the teenager could provide.
The Rossoneri risked losing him a year ago, when he had not yet signed a contract and Benfica were pushing. Now a very bright future awaits with his boyhood club and Zlatan Ibrahimovic will keep a close eye on him, perhaps even against Barcelona who were linked yesterday.
We shouldn’t invest in Samardic makes zero sense. We have many players that can fill that role plus we have Liberali and Zeroli who in a year should be able to play for the first team.
I hope he gets many minutes in the next friendly!
It’s not up to the manager to decide the players’ fate.
The manager’s job is to win matches in the short to medium term.
It’s up to the directors to plan the long term strategy of the club including developing players.
A key part of that is a long term transfer strategy that balances the immediate short term needs of the manager and long term development of the players.
For example a manager might want lots of strikers but that doesn’t mean he gets them.
Crucially the directors should be looking at the likes of Liberali and Camarda and ensuring their transfer decisions compliment their long term development.
Also the directors should be supporting the club captain rather than signing a player to undermine him.
This was the whole reason they introduced directors of football.
A true number 10. Not seen one of these for a while as they are becoming obsolete
Keep him at all costs. If he gets loaned out, make sure its to a team who gives young Italians game time
If he stays at Milan, he in futuro with Camarda but have him as back up to Pulisic as our AMF
I love the kid, but let’s still remember he is a kid. Remember Mastour? Overhype and too much pressure ruined him.
Personally I wouldn’t rush him into the first team – he should stay in futuro and grow more muscle mass and more experience.
No need to rush him.
Remember Cubarsi, Pedri, Gavi, Yamal? Should I continue? Stop with this nonsens. They are all ready for some first team. Like Simic was. Just give them playtime.
Mastour was always more suited to showboating for YouTube than playing 11 aside football.
But he’s one player that was probably always going to fail.
The numerous other failures didn’t suffer any of the same limelight. Quite the reverse. Most were loaned out endlessly until we forgot about them.
Those who stuck around for 5 mins were buried behind new signings.
Cutrone seemed to handle the limelight just fine so much he outscored Silva, Kalinic and Higuain. But Milan kept signing new strikers to replace him, before selling him.
He’s been a journey man ever since and struggled to find his first season form (albeit he was Como’s leading goalscorer last season taking them back to Serie A).
Cutrone scored at every level at youth level and then was forced out.
Nearly every single youth player we’ve produced has been forced out eventually.
Now