Alexis Saelemaekers has been linked with a departure this summer as AC Milan have brought in Samuel Chukwueze for the right flank. Fortunately for the Belgian, he can play in many different positions.
Since he arrived at Milan in 2020, Saelemaekers has played as a right-back, a right midfielder, a right-winger and a left-winger. In short, he’s a versatile player and this will come into use if he were to stay at the club.
According to Gazzetta Dello Sport, Stefano Pioli considers Saelemaekers a serious option for the right-back position. Chukwueze will start most games on the right side of the attack and Saelemaekers could alternate when needed, both with the Nigerian and the starting right-back.
Of course, Milan could also sell the Belgian as some offers are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Certainly, if he stays, it will be a tough battle to get playing time as both Davide Calabria and Alessandro Florenzi are ahead for the right-back role, while Christian Pulisic is the second choice for the right flank.
Both Calabria and Florenzi are injury prone. Saelemaekers will get plenty of time.
He should stay. The season is long. Any injury issues should be factored. He will serve as a perfect back up for all these positions. I know Pioli will like him to stay. This might be his breakthrough season.
Also try Kalulu and Calabria at DM position.
I have a feeling that both will excel as a CDM
Calabria as DM is a legit idea. He performed well in double pivot and has almost all criteria of a good DM, except Kessie-esque physicallity.
Yes please keep salamakers..He gives his all ,and indeed did not have a bad season for us ..
He can indeed play in many positions…let us keep him he will get playing time …A very useful player to have
I swell calabria will be perfect for the DM position. Let pioli give him a try.
Saelemaekers has good defensive sense, good progression, and could do better when he was not in his regular position. I hope he can become Abate 2.0.
He is technically better than abate and probably in every aspect of his game. It is just that his position is more advanced on the field that needs more offensive capabilities that he lacks of.
I’m talking about decision making, finishing, and crossing. He needs to work on them
If we are going to play Salesmakers at RB we should have just completed the deal for Singo. Calabria/Florenzi/Salesmakers does not convince. So Pioli has to teach Sales how to defend but cannot teach Singo who is by far superior physicality agility aggression and speed and already plays as a defender/wing back. Not to mention we could have dumped Messias and avoided a capital loss? Strange.
I agree to give Kalulu a chance as DM. He has great technique and good passing + is calm on the ball. This should have happened a long time ago. Pierre is too light to be a CB but he has the vista both in defense and attack. He will amaze everybody as DM. I think Calabria has been used in that position in the past and it didn’t really go well.
Everyone has a such a short memory I swear, kalulu was excellent at right back and only got into trouble as a cb, he’s obviously a bit slight at cb and has lost some confidence in that position even tho he was good there too for a while. There also seems to be an idiotic knee jerk support for whoever our captain is, but Calabria has been crap since becoming captain, shining a few games defensively but offering next to nothing offensively, which is something he used to do. I’d say start kalulu at right back and buy a center back if we didn’t make the stupid decision to make Calabria our captain, I understand how that works, but once our lineup fills out and we get a proper dm, I would say Calabria is our weakest link
Yess