Massimiliano Allegri needs to get Rafael Leao going for AC Milan’s benefit, and he hopes that Sunday’s events will be a turning point.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) reports this morning that the relationship between Leao and Allegri is a fine line running through Milan’s season. Allegri reprimanded Leao in front of part of the team in the dressing room after the Juventus draw.
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Allegri made it clear to Leao that he must give more on the pitch if he wants to earn a place in Milan this season. Otherwise, he risks being left on the bench. It must be said though that the relationship between the two has been very good over the past two months and can continue to be so.
What happened on Sunday
Things began when Allegri turned to Leao when he was getting ready to come on and said: “Don’t p*** me off…” Instead, what followed was two big missed chances. The first one, with a virtually empty net, caused the coach to ask: “How did he manage to put that one out?”
Then Leao wasted an assist from the phenomenal Luka Modric, and Allegri went berserk. He banged his hands on his head and screamed, even unleashing a tirade at the bench: “Now nobody speaks in the dressing room.”
In the dressing room, he did indeed speak. He told Leao that his attitude was not right and that the forward must raise his intensity levels on the pitch. Being clinical in front of goal is always the ideal, but the feeling is that it is Leao’s work off the ball that is angering the coach.
It’s no coincidence that among Allegri’s remarks caught on camera is a somewhat symbolic “Rafa, come back!” The point now is to understand how Leao’s season and his relationship with Allegri will evolve, with mitigating circumstances such as his long absence due to a calf issue.
For now, though, Leao faces a battle just to keep his spot. Christian Pulisic has one of the places in the attacking pairing locked down, so Santiago Gimenez and Christopher Nkunku – the latter improving in condition – hope to consign Rafa to a spot on the bench.
I find it funny that all the articles in the previous break we praising Leão supposed improvment, how Allegri made him a new man, great,… and now he has an ultimateum, no longer a starter, trash,… while barely playing 65 minutes overall this season…
The media around Milan are absolutely nuts.
It’s called being a Giant, it’s strange how our own fans forget we are AC MILAN.
Told you, this is the season media and fans turn against Leao. He maxed out on the contract and will therefore need to be sold.
The reporter or writer of this article is garbage journalist. You just want to destruct and unsettle Leao this way you guys did to Theo last season.
Enough of your report on Leao everyday. If you don’t have anything to write about football anymore but Leao PLEASE GO TO VARIOUS WORLD CUP QUALIFYING CENTRES AND YOU WILL SEE SOMETHING TO REPORT BUT PLEASE LEAVE LEAO ALONE. We had enough of this. I checked inter Milan page all I can see is praises even when they lost to Juventus no inter player was criticized but Milan out played Juventus got draw our player has no peace. LEAVE LEAO ALONE PLEASE LEAVE HIM ALONE.
Nobody did anything to Theo you sad fanboy. Theo chose to be so incredibly lazy and not try, that literally no big club in the world wanted him when he decided to leave. The only even half option was Atleti, but their fans Immediately hated the idea. Nobody wanted him for a reason. Stop defending laziness
YES LEAVE HIM ALONE, THEY DONT WANT HIM IN HIS BEST FORM. THEY WANT TO DESTABILIZE HIM AND MILAN. LOOK AT THEY ARE ALREADY PITCHING RABIOT AGAINST HIM.
Any Milan fan who joined media to bring unsettlement to Leao is a garbage fan and senseless because he should realize media are destroying and destructing our players with what they write and thus make the players unable perform better. When inter lost to Juventus which of the writers wrote something against one player? But now everyday is Leao this Leao that. Enough is enough
You fail the point, his inconsistency is baffling, after all this years he still is a liability for the team.
When Inter lost to Juve there were tons of bad opinions for all players and coach, what are you talking about, this is the nature of football, be it Inter, Milan or Real Madrid
You are the Liability, have every won MVP and scudetto, Leao has never been the problem I can tell you . Pioli was the earlier problem when he refused to bring in better players and stuck with krunic, then theo and the strong of coaches
Is this Sempre Milan or Sempre Inter?
Allegri doesn’t like players dawdling around the pitch. Even Pogba never did that under him at Juventus, he was all action, and our squad from the early 2010, even though they weren’t that great, they were all hard workers. Allegri wants players who are willing to run, look at Antonelli, he wasn’t the greatest LB in the world but he worked hard, same goes for Abate, Nocerino, Mexes, etc etc
The problem is the he is over rated and we should have sold him 1-2 seasons ago.
You leao fangirls need to get a grip. Nobody has said anything that isnt just reality. Leao is lazy, there’s no excusing that. He’s lazy and often misses big chances. Being good 1 game in 10 is not worth the money he’s on. He became the best paid player at the club and then his performances nose dived. Little effort, little end product when it matters. When Rasmus Hojlund is making him look like a chump, there’s no excuses. Stop defending his purposeful mediocrity because you like his youtube highlights
Go and support Arsenal pls
Leao hasn’t played 60 minutes since his return from injury, before which he was scoring.