Luka Jovic bagged his first goal for AC Milan in the 3-1 win against Frosinone on Saturday evening. It didn’t end there, however, as he also assisted Fikayo Tomori’s goal. The Italian newspapers only had praise for him this morning.
The Serbian striker finally got off the mark the Rossoneri, scoring the opener with just two minutes left of the first half. It was a very composed finish, making the most of a poor clearance, but by no means was it an easy goal.
Today’s newspapers only had words of praise for Jovic and all gave him a very good rating. In our player ratings, he was named the MOTM at 7.5/10. Below are the ratings of the newspapers, as compiled by MilanNews.
Gazzetta dello Sport: 7
Tuttosport: 7.5
Corriere dello Sport: 7
“Luka is a man of few words: he rarely touched the ball but he broke the deadlock and also assisted the third goal,” Gazzetta wrote. It remains to be seen if Pioli will field Jovic or Olivier Giroud from start against Atalanta next week, as the Frenchman will be back from his suspension then.
Atalanta will be without their star striker Gianluca Scamacca, which is a huge boost for Milan. The Italian has bagged six goals this season and would have been a real threat to the Rossoneri defence, which is already decimated.
It’s in Milan’s interest for Jovic to succeed, he is already at the club,he came cheap,he is young, technically good,has a tactical awareness of his teammates, and has a very good physique, all he needs to do is work harder, if his form picks up and we get a new coach that’s not afraid of using young players, then the best thing to do is bring back Colombo,Maldini, Nasti, I watched Empoli yesterday,Maldini has gained size and confidence, and he is very versatile, Nasti too is gaining confidence , Colombo too continues to grow every day,Lazetic needs another loan in a Serie ‘b team.
But not withstanding we can still get a new and young striker, but as for Giroud, honestly his contract should not be renewed, he still pops up to score goals once in a while, but we need a new direction, even Okafor will blossom into a double digit striker, he has everything he needs, he needs to just work harder…
Giroud has 8 goals this season so far and 18 goals last season. We dont need a striker than can score 15+ goals? Get real
But but but… Giroud is too slow in the video games so he shouldn’t be renewed. RIght?
Interesting that you mention Maldini.
I’ve watched close to every minute Maldini has played since he scored his goal against Milan last season.
He is every bit as talented as NDour, Scalvini and Casadei who, as far as I can tell, are not just the stand out talents of the next generation of Italians (cut-off being players born in 2004) but have the potential to be truly world class. He has every trick open to Baldanzi, for example, but with 10 to 15cm in height, significantly more speed and physicality capacity. This gives him the ability to play almost every attacking role from AM to either wing and SS. I suspect he could eventually play as a #9 out of necessity.
It’s a twist of fate that is almost perverse that Maldini looks almost everything that we appear to have wanted CDK to be. His ball control is sublime and his dribbling is not far behind. He’s 6’2 – 6’3 with enough of a burst of pace to play on a wing but he looks most natural in the centre (where he was drifting against Genoa). Unlike CDK he has 360 degrees open to him and looks comfortable on the ball both dictating the tempo and distributing.
He’s young (not so much in age now but in terms of physical maturity) and raw at the moment but the ability is so clearly there.
CDK, who is 6 months older than Maldini (both born in 2001), is a really good point of comparison because it highlights the damage that the Italian system does to its young players. It’s why I am happy Ndour and Casedei have left home. Scalvini is lucky because he is at the only club in Italy that is both willing to develop young players and provides a platform for the kids to showcase their talents in any given year. Spezia’s bubble burst and now the same thing is happening at Empoli. Sassuolo ebbs and flows, certainly more than Atalanta.
In CKD’s 21st year (i.e. the 21/22 season), he played 4,137 minutes for a Belgian side. At the same time Maldini played 239 minutes for the whole season during which he watched Milan win a Scudetto from the bench.
What we will never know, but what is most crucial to comparing the players is knowing what Maldini would have done in Belgium in that same year.
What I think it crystal clear is that it’s the time that the Italian kid can’t get that is doing all the damage and which is also causing Italian clubs to waste money.
In the next season, CDK is signed by Milan for 35m euros while Maldini is sent out on loan to a relegation threatened Spezia. CDK gets 1,480 minutes (a cap which mostly applied because the coach lost faith after giving CDK significant opportunity early). Maldini played 646 minutes mostly due to injury for a total 3 goals compared to CDK’s 1 assist. So even on the flawed metric (for midfield player not on the attacking front line) of goal contributions, the one time in their career’s there is an accurate point of comparison Maldini outperformed CDK significantly (even more so if you saw the both play).
I think we can reverse engineer the situation to conclude, at a minimum, that CDK would not have seen a second more game time than Maldini had he grown up in Italy. He’d be similarly struggling for opportunity thought I doubt even Gasperini would have seen enough of him to have any faith in him.
The Italian system is rewarding players, who I believe are often inferior, for minutes the system will not give to Italian youth. The biggest issue facing player development is recreating the minutes of competitive senior match time between the ages of 18 and 22.
Ive watched him too and what you’re saying is correct. I’m actually of the opinion that he’d make a great central midfielder. His tackling is so underrated. His timing and the way he tackles reminds me of Paolo so much and he gets it very very right (he doesn’t do it often but when he does he gets it right). His physique reminds me of Paolo lol. Make me want to have him as the next CB haha 😂 he did after all tackle Seedorf lol 😂
He is growing though but still somewhat timid. Not as timid as CDK though. Its just the personality side that needs work. He needs to be bolder
Giroud should be benched after his petulant behaviour which made him miss 2 important games – Jovic should remain with Giroud, his cover…
I am happy for Jovic – great news for all, but the spot is still Giroud’s.
Yep. Consistency is the key. Giroud has 7 goals in Serie A alone and 2-3 assists. Hard to ignore that.
Commentators and press go from one extreme to the other, delirious to inconsolable, latin extremes, a characteristic of too many journalists jostling to be heard. Just as it is for Ferrari. Cool heads need to remain composed and not over-react – let Pioli do his job and support him and the Team. Sempre Milan.