Rafael Leao is once again front page news after his outburst following being taken off during the defeat to Lazio last night.
Milan missed out on the chance to cut the gap at the top of the table as they were beaten 1-0 in the capital, and the newspaper columns are awash with a tide of negative news as so often happens after a bad result.
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Above all, there is a lot of talk about how Leao demonstrated his unhappiness after being taken off in the second half. It came just after Christian Pulisic didn’t release a pass to him, and the Portuguese forward ignored Mike Maignan’s intervention, shoving Massimiliano Allegri twice before kicking water bottles on the bench.
Below, a video from CompMilano demonstrated why Leao might have some valid frustrations. While it doesn’t justify the way he behaved after being subbed off, he did make several threatening runs that were not found because his team-mates didn’t pick their heads up.
The “service” we gave Leao vs Lazio
pic.twitter.com/YTNdLLp3kX— c0mp (@c0mpmilano) March 16, 2026
This video shows how ridiculous many of his complaints are. ACM should just always give Leao the ball and stand back. I do think Pulisic missed the pass to Leao as he seemed to have decided to back pass it as Leao made the run. Leao sounds like a two year that no one wants to play with him. Glad to see this behavior is supported by the SempreLeao web site.
This is funny.
You can do this for every player.
You can do this for other players when Leao has the ball, they make the run but don’t get the ball.
Pulisic makes constant runs without getting the ball.
I think the missing of runs is in part due to Allegri not having a real offensive structure. Players should be comfortable making passes to open spaces knowing that a player will be there. ACM seems to be slow in hitting these types of passes.
Exactly.
Right, and Ive Never seen Saelmakers pass Pulisic the ball. Salemakers will never pass to pulisic on the Overlap, and always cuts back and takes Wild Shots
Exactly. Do this for Pulisic every week and see how often he doesn’t get the ball when he makes runs. Happens to both of them.
God in heaven… STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR HIM! Hes been the biggest passenger of the team all year. A player that can only be effective in his perfect scenario is not a player worth playing. Hes been completely useless 2 games in a row, and doesnt even have the confidence to dribble his man anymore. We play a man down whenever hes on the pitch. Put fullkrug up top from minute 1 and sit his childish ahh on the bench where he belongs
You’re right. Füllkrug deserves a chance from the get go
The truth is bitter……
What is this video suppose to show? In most of the videos he has defenders on either side of him. Show the dozens of other times his teammates passed him the ball and he did nothing with it. He’s one of these guys who always thinks he’s open when he’s not. Or screams at his teammate when they don’t pass him the ball when he is clearly offsides.
We improved our team by getting rid of the “best LB in the world” who was lazy and had a terrible attitude. I say we do the same with this lazy player with a terrible attitude.
The team looked it’s best this season when Leao was out injured. Pulisic needs a proper CF to play off of. He scored almost all of his goals before Allegri started pairing him with Leao.
You can’t contribute absolutely nothing and then complain when the coach takes you out.
The headlines reference Pulisic not passing Rafa the ball and references the video. The video shows Pavlovic with the ball at his feet and attempting a shot. Granted, there were instances when Pulisic did not make the pass but no more than any other game and if we are to be honest the entire team stunk yesterday, even Modric. Salemakers was terrible yesterday. When he has the ball and dribbles to the center nothing good comes of it yet he does it time and time again. Jashari’s passes stunk. Again, the whole team stunk and some of our players think they have a license to carry the ball deep into opposition territory without considering a pass to our forwards i.e., Salemakers and Pavlovic.
Paid advert and collateral damage. Can someone kindly make a video of Leao’s failed dribbles , passes and tantrums? Who lost the ball before mikhytarian got his 1v1 chance against inter merda? And who still had the guts to be strolling while he gestures to Modric and his boys to play “fetch”?
If he loses the ball,he’s having a bad day? Oh, he’s had pubaglia, hernia, pulled muscle, tight hamstrings, woke up on the wrong side of the bed , wire the wrong socks etc. Any excuse but the truth! Is he the only one injured?
Modric at 40 has played more minutes, made more tackles, played more passes, run more km than the proud , arrogant 26yr old “Ferrari” with a swapped Lada engine this year! Imagine being paid 5m + 2m in bonuses, totalling 7m a year to stroll around.
The blame is on management who lack the skills to assemble a proper squad. They would not sign anyone in his position nor allow anyone usurp his place. The coaches were comfortable with one tactic: pass the ball to leao, let him run! You go wait in the box.
Not now bruv leao cannot beat his first marker. Lol
Chris held on to the ball too long at times in that game for sure, but that’s not a reason to throw tantrums like that for some who has been there as long as Rafa has. I get his frustration, but he needs to act and lead by example…
Bring back leao like pioli did. Left winger. He will explode. But first, allegri must change the formation. We know allegri like sarri, they only have 1 formation. 😂😂
Pls keep Leao on his prefered wing and start fulkrug from get go, why will you be playing a running winder as a 9, when your team is not a ticki- tacka team like como, arsenal or Barcelona.
Allegro has the largest fault.
His frustration should be directed to his lazy self
Leao is already in the offside position in the picture. It would have been a wasted attack had Puli made the pass.