Charles De Ketelaere came close to breaking his goal drought against Monza but once again, it wasn’t his evening. AC Milan are still right to believe in him, though, as Andrea Longoni argues.
The Belgian arrived for over €30m in the summer and he has since struggled to impose himself at Milan. Against Monza, he missed a very good opportunity and as described by Andrea Longoni for MilanNews, it feels like he is ‘cursed’.
Given his age and quality, though, Milan are absolutely right to insist on him but the same cannot really be said for Divock Origi. The striker failed to impress last night and he certainly has ‘fewer excuses’ than CDK amid his experience, as Longoni puts it.
Olivier Giroud will likely be the starting striker against Atalanta next weekend and Brahim Diaz seems to be ahead of De Ketelaere for now as well. In any case, Milan are now out of their poor moment and will be looking forward with more confidence.
He is NOT cursed, he needs to play regularly. 20-30mns at a time is NOT it. For reasons unknown to us, Pioli keeps starting Diaz, who is on loan and will go back. CDK is an investment and needs to play MORE.
First thing Pioli can do is, let him play as a striker. The last game when he started as a striker wasn’t bad. Or the second thing Pioli can try is, make him our playmaker.. He can distribute well, just not that good to dribble or to play on the wing
Origi has the same excuse.
I don’t care what age he is (and let’s face it age in football is relative given how young some “experienced” players are). In the past few months he has left stable employment, emigrated to a new country that speaks a different language and has a different culture, joined a new employer with different approaches, was unable to attend work for a period of time due to injury, and since attending has only been in the office some days.
A barman would struggle with this level of upheaval no wonder professional footballers operating at the top of their game can struggle to make the transition.
It’s why all transfers are risky and many don’t work out. I’m not saying teams shouldn’t sign players but I am saying we need to be mindful of thinking it’s the solution to problems. In fact transfers should never be seen as a solution to a problem only as a means to raise the level where the fall back position is the status quo.
I expect CDK to be great next season. Chill…Origi is overpaid for what he is giving to Milan, I think he gets double compared to CDK.