Rafael Leao has given an interview with ESPN in which he spoke about the difficulty of Serie A and also made an interesting comment on where he sees Christian Pulisic’s best position.
Leao joined up with the rest of the Milan squad earlier in the week out in the United States having concluded his vacation after the European Championship with Portugal, which ended with a quarter-final exit to Theo Hernandez and Mike Maignan’s France on penalties.
A crucial season awaits for the winger after a 2023-24 season where he alternated his usual moments of brilliance with some more anonymous performances, and the hope is that his compatriot Paulo Fonseca can raise him and the other players to the next level.
Leao spoke to ESPN about a number of different topics from playing alongside Pulisic to what Serie A is like as a league, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“I knew Pulisic’s qualities well. He wasn’t playing a lot at Chelsea. I wasn’t surprised at all, he has great quality. When he arrived at Milan I sent him a message and I wrote: brother, let’s kill them. We really needed someone like him to bring something different to the pitch,” he said.
“Serie A is a very complicated league, the defenders are strong and we needed someone different, someone with quality and speed and I think Pulisic has fitted in very well in our team.
“I’m very happy to have him as a teammate, he’s a player who can change the game in a second. I’m happy with him and I expect him to repeat himself, or rather maybe improve further in the season that is about to begin.
“I’m not a coach, but I prefer Christian when he plays as a number 10. From the centre he has the ability to occupy space both on the left and on the right. I think he can be very dangerous in that position, but in general he does very well both as an attacking midfielder and on the right.
“As a 10 he would give me some assists, we could play fast, with one-twos or with a touch in the middle of the field… he can do everything.”
Wow imagine that attack:
Morata
Leao, Pulisic, Chukwueze
Man my mouth is watering.
And now imagine the midfield: barely 2 DMs whom so far can’t defend against teams like inter who play 3-5-2. This has “a highway to our goal” written over it.
Hate to dampen the enthusiasm but Pulisic as a 10 with all those attackers is going to lead to the team overrun in the middle, suffering catastrophic counter attacks!
And that’s even if Fofana does join, it’s just not balanced to me.
Disagree. Puli does a great job getting back in defense and getting overrun has less to do with the player profiles and more to do with positioning. A team that stays compact will be better at clogging up the midfield and making counters more difficult. The problems we had last season were due to Pioli’s tactics which often left us stretched and without anybody in the middle. You can already see how Fonseca’s tactics are different and the team will remain more compact.
Piolis tactics left the team stretched but not having a DM was a big factor as well and if they don’t get Fonseca Fofana or a proven DM the same problems will appear in a 4-2-3-1.
So what play a defensive minded player as your attacking midfielder? Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it? Those are all attacking positions. Good teams attack with 11 and defend with 11. Making sure we stay compact has much more to do with our ability to thwart the counter than does individual player profiles.
Chukwueze not reliable so pulisic should remain right winger starter and samardzic very perfect for the no 10 position(flair, energy, vision, shooting power and responsiveness) all in samardzic and many more!!!
Who told you to play a dm as a 10 ? Those are your words.
If samardzic joins he would be a good 10 as he is a midfielder and he can be joined by Reijnders & Fofana. Leao , Morata, Puli/chuk are already a very offensive line-up.
Loftus(I don’t really like him as a 10) or Reijnders are also offer more balance in the role. Anyways Pulisic was fantastic on the RW.
It could work IF we get a true DM. Fofana is defensive but likes to attack as well. I mean someone who hates going up the field. It worked for Carletto when he had gatusso, Madrid did it with Makelele and later Casemiro. a Kante type (even though later on he ventured up front). a Javi Martinez at Bayern. You get my point, extremely offensive front 4 isnt new, but it only works with a mid that is trully defensive.
It’s no surprise sht hit the fan at madrid w/o makelele, and recently PSG failed with Messi, Neymar, Mbappe.
the question is, who would be that midfielder for us?
Thank you, finally a good understanding of what is and isn’t a DM.
Who would be that midfielder for us is a bit difficult to answer:
I did prefer Hojbjerg at some point but we lost him to Marseille.
Amrabat is a true defensive midfielder but his tenure in United casted doubts on him.
Johnny Cardoso is perhaps an option to consider but I’m not too knowledgeable about him.
Some also talk about Koné but he did seem to be more of a ball carrier rather than a defensive player.
If we sell Thiaw for 40M€, Adli for 15M€, don’t go for Royal or Samardzic, perhaps we can get Hjulmand ?
Yes , I agree, that’s the only way it works with 2 true DM’s .
Pulisic is the new Kaka👍👌
Have you ever seen Kaka play? Pulisic is nothing like Kaka and never will be. Even Leao in top form looks like a baby compared to Kaka
samardzic would be a good addition, at because he also needs a back up
Pulisic has taken advantage of Leao’s ability to create space and open up the play for him. He’s very intelligent in this way. However I’m not sure he’ll get the same space playing closer to Leao though. Also You gotta be sturdy as a CAM..hope he doesn’t get injured as a result of the change. But I like him as a RW that roams like he did last year. Not sold on Chuk, still think he’s an expensive backup but hopefully with a year in Serie A under his belt, he’s going to do better this season 😁
I wouldn’t start messing with a good thing. Pulisic worked great on the RW and the attack was not our problem last season. And there is nothing wrong with having a player like Chuku come off the bench or start some games when Pulisic needs a rest.
what most of you is failing to see is fonseca style of play with chuku as rw will be different with puli as rw.
with chuku at rw he will favor dribble to cross with likes of morata in the box
with puli at rw he will favor dribble to cut back pass and shot or shot yourself.
but with chuku at Rw and puli at 10.
they leave the opponent clueless on who will make the run into the box with morata leao puli and chuku on the offensive.
the question has been answered but the management for some reason believe it is too much.
i have watch fofana play. truly he his supported by other defensive mind players but that nigga is a beast in recovery and i see him go far with fonseca style of play. who i really want to see turn up is Rei can Reijder display what e did in euro with the orange again in milan if they give him fofana.
this two duo will sustain our midfield for a long run if they find a way to gel. they don’t get tired easily.
In my FC 24 career mode, I put Puli as a CAM and I win lot of games and he score lot of goals. But this is real life, so it’s a different thing. I hope Fonseca give it a try and let’s see if it will work . . .