Former AC Milan player Ruud Gullit has claimed that Brahim Diaz is playing at a level at Real Madrid which he did not show whilst he was playing for the Rossoneri.
Speaking to the Spanish newspaper AS (via Pianeta Milan), the former Dutch international expressed some regret that Milan did not manage to see the absolute best of Brahim Diaz whilst he was playing for the Rossoneri.
Brahim spent three seasons on loan at Milan before eventually returning to Los Blancos last summer when Milan were unable to pay the optional loan fee to keep him.
He played 124 games for Milan and managed to get 18 goals and 15 assists. His form was always patchy, but at times he was easily one of the best players in the team.
Now that he is back at Real Madrid and featuring regularly for the first team, it seems he has been able to reach a new level of performance.
Whilst not a regular starter, he has appeared in 31 games for Carlo Ancelotti’s team this season and scored eight goals, whilst also getting four assists.
Gullit has put the improved form down to the Spaniard simply settling at Real Madrid and in La Liga better than he did at Milan.
“Look, if he had played the way he played when he was with us… Because he wasn’t always like that. I think he made a good decision, I saw him play and he does very, very well. The style is different, it was good for him to come back to Madrid. He made the leap in quality, I saw him do things that I didn’t see him do when he was at AC Milan. Maybe it was just that, finding the right team and the right competition for him,” Gullit said.
having better teammates and a league where the flow is more open have nothing to do with it. right?
Im not even gonna mention the legendary coach he has vs what he had here
Pfft, Krunic on a bad day is at least on Bellingham level, Messias is like Vini’s twin brother from another mother.
Well, Serie A is a better league than La Liga. Defenses in Italy are better than in Spain. Serie A has a larger number of top teams, 7 or 8, than La LIga which for the longest time was a 2-horse race (Real and Barcelona) with lately a couple of others joining the competition for the top spots. Still, other than the few top teams, La Liga is very bad, while mid-table teams in Serie A and even some bottom dwellers can be a tough nut to crack. So, naturally Brahim is having less trouble with the La Liga defenses.
This said, I liked Brahim and would have loved to see him staying at Milan. Good luck to him.
How is Serie A a ‘better’ league when Spanish teams have dominated both the Champions League and Europa League for the past 15 years, and Serie A teams have struggled in Europe with some teams failing to qualify from the group stages?
It seems objectively La Liga is more successful and this may something to do with the fact that it gets more out of players.
Players struggling in Serie A is no longer anything to be proud of.
I’d have to agree somewhat. Iin the one hand la Liga is better on a technical level. But on the other hand, they do well in Europe (UCL) because they have two super powers of football with vast amounts of money that are able to buy/keep top talent. In the Europa League it’s pretty much Sevilla and specifically Emery who was a beast in that cup. That being said, even when many Serie A teams in the 00s had great squads (I’m thinking Juve, Inter) the never went far in Europe and it was always us that carried the flag. And that probably was because we played a more European style, more attacking football. But that also meant we got eaten up in the league because of lack of space afforded. In Europe, u have to open up to win and that’s probably why we succeeded too.
Because Real has a coach…
It’s a problem in nearly every team in Serie A.
Players don’t perform at the same level in Serie A as they do in other more successful leagues.
Salah went from being a decent player to one of the best players in the world when he moved to the premier league. Ronaldo’s career died when he arrived in Serie A.
That’s not a money thing, that’s a tactically rigid thing. Pioli is one of the more tactical flexible Serie A coaches but a Serie A coach nonetheless.
Yeah and that’s why Italian coaches have won more Premier League titles than any other nationality and why we are the European Champions. Ridiculous
“the former Dutch international expressed some regret that Milan did not manage to see the absolute best of XXX”
The story of the current coach.
Saw him play the other day but I was reminded that the football is different between the two leagues. Brahim seem to have more space to work with and was not tackled as aggressively. The gameplay supports the more technical side of the sport and him gaining the tactical aspect from Serie A made him alot better in la Liga. You can tell he sees the pitch better, also due to more space being afforded
Expecting an attacking-minded player to perform better in La Liga than Serie A is like excepting boiling water to be hot. It’s that obvious. They can’t defend in Spain and everyone knows how good every Serie A team is at defending.