Not long ago, there was talk of a possible renewal for Rafael Leao and an even longer term future at AC Milan. Now, the narrative has changed.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, the new Leao is a striker who sacrifices himself in a role that isn’t his own and takes to the field even if he isn’t in top condition. Why? Because the team comes first.
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Rafa has given up the open space he once had on the left flank to seek a few centimetres of space inside the penalty area. He’s no longer a full-time winger, but a centre-forward who can move slowly or quickly – the important thing is that he arrives on time to make contact with the ball.
Massimiliano Allegri’s initial plans were for him and Christian Pulisic to exploit quick counter-attacks but this proved more complex, so much so that Pulisic seemed to have exhausted his goal reserves by the end of December.
Rafa’s rage
Leao’s frustration at the Olimpico on Sunday night was evident, as he left the pitch slowly (to the ire of sporting director Igli Tare in the stands). He also walked past Maignan’s conciliatory attempt and Allegri’s embrace, seemingly unhappy about a lack of service.
The scene wasn’t particularly impressive, but the positive thing is that Rafa wanted to stay on the pitch in an attempt to finally help the team. For this reason, no fine or official warning was issued by the club, because it was perceived that he demonstrated the competitive spirit that can’t hurt.
What happens now though is anyone’s guess. Allegri is unlikely to change the formation to accommodate Rafa, instead focusing on two strikers. For this reason, and given the overall trajectory of Leao’s career (he hasn’t really kicked on since 2022/2023) the club will consider any offers.
The potential contract renewal until June 2030 doesn’t rule out this prospect, even if MilanNews claimed that talks are on hold. On the contrary, the real question is who could afford a hefty deal for a player who isn’t currently among the top players in his position.
The market and replacements
Leao has a €170m release clause, a figure currently far from his true value, which would be ‘much less’, perhaps around €80m. There is possible interest from the Premier League and Saudi Arabia to keep an eye on, while his salary is €5.5m net per season plus bonuses.
Any offer, however, will have to be commensurate with the situation, and with a striker who despite his inconsistencies has nevertheless scored 80 goals (with only two penalties) in 284 AC Milan appearances.
Who could replace him? Milan could take a look at Antonio Nusa, who has scored three goals in 27 games for RB Leipzig. The German side are currently fifth in the Bundesliga, out of the Champions League.
Failure to qualify for the European competition could convince the Red Bull club to sell the star player. His value is around €35m and Milan are monitoring his situation, but again he is definitely not a natural striker.
Is this some kind of a joke?
Good news, finally the rapper’s lazy аss will be kicked out!
Leao is absolutely spot on in his frustration.
He has been asked to sacrifice his strengths to act as a striker – well that’s a two way street – he needs to be treated like a striker in that case.
You know what strikers need? Service!
Instead we have one to the best dribblers in the game playing with his back to goal trying to do link up play with a midfield the is scared of passing the ball forwards!
Then there are the wingbacks – on the left flank we have a defender, and on the right we have someone with the work-rate of a horse, but sadly the football IQ of…a horse.
Any STRIKER would be shaking with rage if they were getting the service Leao is getting.
Unless we can find a way of giving him a freer role (like signing an actual focal point), then for his own sake, he should leave.
Yeah unfortunately this is only one side of the story. The other being the fact that the reason we cannot play 433 or 4231, is because the man can’t be trusted to help out in defence. Also, have you ever seen Pulisic or Gimenez throw a tamper tantrum when they aren’t serviced? No. They try again, and again, and again and when the service still isn’t there because the team is playing badly, at least they run their a$$ off to help out in defence and try to turn the match around. Look, I’ve never been a fan of Leao’s mentality, but I won’t go as far as to say he should be should. He’s done a lot for this club. But honestly, I do think he is better when there is more competition. And when Santi gets back to full fitness, I do feel like it will be him and Pulisic again.
It’s not that he cant be trusted to help out in defence, it’s that he won’t, and again, that’s ok in the right circumstances.
Peak Leao had Tonali covering his a**e, which Tonali could do because Kessie was bossing the middle (it’s no coincidence that this was also peak Theo). Not replacing Kessie and changing Tonali’s role left a hole either between Theo and Leao, or behind them – footballers exist as part of a chain, not in isolation.
It’s lazy journalism to posit that Leao hasn’t progressed. In four years, the players that allowed him to shine have all been sold, not one of them has been replaced, and now he’s playing out of position.
And if he leaves, he’ll go to somewhere like PSG where he’s surrounded by talent, be incredible, and then our fans will call him a traitor.
He can’t win.
You are both right. But the answer is still is that we need to either have the right system for the player that we have, or have the right players for the system that we use. The issue is beyond the individual players at this point.
Allegri’s 3-5-2 has proven to be the best system for a squad composed of many players that are average to above average. It’s taken us from 8th to 2nd, with the best defense in the league. If we can just figure out the attack, we’ll be competing for the scudetto. At this point, I think Allegri has enough credit in the bank that it won’t be him changing system, or the club changing him (same as changing system). The club is going to change players.
Leao is not a striker, this is abundantly clear. He can still do enough to help us into the top 4, but for this attack to take the next step we need a real no. 9 supported by a second striker or trequartista. Pulisic can fill that roll much better, but even he might not last much longer than Leao at this point. It was never going to happen, but something like a Vlahovic-Lookman/Raspadori pairing is what we need.
Papa makes a good point about our fullbacks. In this system they take the role of the winger providing assists. Workrate is great, but at least one of them needs to provide offensive output. Bartesaghi has shown a very good crossing ability. He’s just missing that no. 9 who would be able to get up and claim the cross either for a header on goal or down to someone else, and he’s still learning his position, so I’m not too worried about him. Saelemaekers, on the other hand, is problematic. I do really appreciate his workrate. In fact, some of the other players could use a bit of that, but his offensive output is negligeable. We might do with an upgrade, offensively speaking, on that side, but we also just renewed him, so not sure the club has a change in mind this summer.
TLDR: We need different players up top, better service from the right wingback, and perhaps another Rabiot in midfield for the right side.
Vero Rossonero – spot on with this analysis. The Leao Haters should read this. Yes, his defense is non-existent but he’s playing out of position and Allegri isn’t going to change from a 3-5-2 when we’ve only surrendered 22 goals.
Frankly, Leao needs to play in a league whose teams don’t bunker in and play box to box, open play. La Liga, the Eredivisie and maybe even the Premier League (which could fork up the $60m-80m eu that Milan will want – they’ll take far less than the $150m+ eu buyout) are better leagues offering more room for Leao to play out wide on the left. I wish him well.
This is an absurd argument. Basically you are saying that instead of asking Leao help out and run we should get a bunch of players to cover for him so he doesn’t have to. He’s not Messi and he should not be treated as such. He’s lazy speed merchant who’s best quality is his pace, which is starting to leave him at this point. He can complain about service all he wants but he was given a nice thru ball in this Lazio game and he couldn’t run past the Lazio defenders. He’s not the same player. Not only has he not progressed but he has regressed. His best days are behind him. Sell now while we can still get something for him.
No, I’m not saying that’s what we should do, I’m in fact saying that’s literally what we did in the very recent past 🤷🏻♂️. That’s what won us a league title, and that’s what won Leao Serie A player of the season. I’m not making up scenarios, I’m talking about something that actually happened. Don’t you remember it?
You’re exactly the kind of fan I’m talking about with my PSG comment.
” he needs to be treated like a striker in that case.
You know what strikers need? Service!”
And strikers need to work to get serviced. You know, play for the team?
100% Rafa doesn’t know how to play striker, nor does he ever create space for himself or drop deeper to receive the ball and create something. Can’t just rely on service. Motion creates motion.
But this is more on Allegri for continuing to implement a winger out of position.
Haters always ignore the fact, they are always waiting to blow a positive thing out of proportion, lets fact check number of assist in the last 5years, who provide the most assist to our average strikers in the last 5yrs? Leao of course, a striker need service and should be properly provided with one, not some selfish play. Leao appreciates service.
The hatred from some section of the fan is totally unnecessary
Keep living in the past !
We should have sold Leao in the place of Tonali.
Not true. Have you seen when Fullkrug gets into the side? He isn’t good, so I’m not saying Fullkrug should start but he knows how to move and take space and connect players. He gets service, which he then fumbles. The midfield has tried to service Leao, he can’t do it. He doesn’t have the strength and back to goal talent needed. He also doesn’t have the vision. All his assists (most) come from running to the end line and putting it across the 6, which is fantastic of course, but as a 9, he can’t do it. He makes NO C-runs, looping runs, reverse runs, inverted runs, nothing at all. He needs to study Henry and how he played, although it’s probably too late. At one point against Lazio, Leao received the ball at around the 18 with b ack to goal and each time he either was dispossessed or he passed the ball to a Lazio player. He doesn’t have the vision or skill to do that. He’s a track star and that’s about it. I wanted him to get to an Henry/Kaka level and I thought it was possible but it’s time to call it as it is. He’s a B+ level player on average.
Leao dribble? You mean he can outrun you. Dribbling I perceive to be something else.
Even that you have to wait for 10 games like he is walking in the park before we see it.
Time to part sorry.
I was a big fan btw
Milan is still 8 points behind Inter, so Milan is still competing for Scudetto, so Inter fan is writing ✍🏻 this rubbish fake new to disturb Milan….hahaha….well Napoli can’t write off either….so Inter fan will start writing ✍🏻 fake news about Napoli soon…hahaha
My feeling is that Rafa and Pulisic are too similar profiles. Both rely on speed, acceleration, technique and both want to be the support striker (come from the deep, make those runs), not the target striker. Maybe that is the reason that when either one of them was injured then the one on the pitch was doing much better then either of them today.
💯
Yes, it’s clear. And exactly correct: earlier in the season, when one or the other was not available, the attack played better. They CANNOT play together in a two striker system.
Agree that both have played better when not paired together. Disagree that they are too similar profiles.
Rafa is a thoroughbred, a true race horse on the left side and one of the best in the world out wide on that side. But not only does he not track back fast enough to assist on defense, he also rarely works for the team making runs to open up space for others.
Pulisic, on the other hand, is more of a swiss army knife with a great knack for showing up at the right time to provide goal. He also plays with his head up and finds the players making runs. FYI, tactically I am curious what the plan was Sunday against Lazio as it did look like there were a coule of times when he could have tried to lead Leao into space with a pass. That he tracks back and helps on defense is unquestioned.
Lastly, on Salad, his play has tailed off since the start of the season. That said, he did a great job with DiMarco in the Derby.
His teammates have the right to throw a tantrum every game as he is constantly walking around and misplacing passes. He has to go and bring Chiesa
Chiesa is a has-been, washed shadow of his former self. No, we don’t need Chiesa.
These headlines are such predictable BS… Watch, Rafa scores in one of the games and boom “Rafa is happy!” or “All is well again!”
Milan won’t sell an asset on a low, ever. Nor is there any demand for Rafa.
Haha I trust GdS as much as I trust Putin wants peace
Sure, the player who has a contract until 2030 and has been injured all season is going to be sold, but the player who is out of contract in 2027 (Pulisic) will stay.
Leao’s contract expires in 2028 whereas Pulisic’s expires in 2027 but Milan has an option to automatically his renew until 2028 as well.
I’m not saying that Leao or Pulisic will be sold though.
We’ve been waiting for leao to take the step up for 4 seasons now. Just sell him already. He’s good, but not do we over rate him
His value has been dropping year by year.
60mil and he can go
I don’t see 60M€ offers coming in.
I knew this would happen when Massimo Allegry has been appointed as Milan Coach, remember the issue of Ronadhino and Pirlo. He is the coach with no style of playing. If the other coach were given the same player Milan will automatical became a champion
Wooohoooo. This is good news. Now I cannot wait for him to be gone and I would rejoice on the day that he leaves for good. Cr#p player. Respect for what he did in the past but since the day he selected #10 as his number he has been crap in my opinion. Never was a number 10 player… he is a disgrace to that number cuz he does not have the touch, nor skill, nor brains for that number. He should have sticked to his previous number. Never was impressed with him.
If an offer of 80 million or more comes and we find a decent replacement sell him, if not Furlani must stop being cheap and fork out 50-60 mill for a ST, the 30-40 mill options are not useful
With his lazy attitude, no epl team will bid for him. His best is to be in the Saudi league. He is the cause if his own downfall, thinking talent alone was enough. All he is is one dimensional player on the wings. Sell him for what they offer if he can’t adapt. A player who can’t do the basic one- two, quick pass to find space, but has to send the ball all the way back to defense everytime with his back to the goal. He will never improve and it’s best to get some money off him
The only thing lazy is the comments made by bluffers accusing Leao of being lazy. He makes runs, he does enough work off the ball. Players like him don’t spend half the game tracking back. He remains the most talented player in the squad and the top scorer, despite not being fit and not playing in his natural role.
Leao can never improve again, Milan should sell him fast
Why didn’t you sell it last season?
I dont think any club is foolish enough to bid on a rapper who runs 500m during an entire game and who cant make 2 straight dribbles…
Even a bind person knows that Leao is useless
Leao and Pulisic should be sell this summer. We need new fresh young players