AC Milan are very much suffering from the void left by Franck Kessie’s exit as he was never properly replaced, according to a report.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) writes how Franck Kessie scored the winner in El Clasico this weekend to take Barcelona’s lead over Real Madrid to 12 points while Aster Vranckx, Tomasso Pobega and Yacine Adli – his supposed heirs in the Rossoneri midfield – lost at Udinese to fall 23 points behind Napoli.
Last season Kessie had sworn allegiance to Milan only to then go back on his promises and leave on a free transfer just as Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu had, but the Ivorian did contribute to the Scudetto win with 6 goals in 31 appearances, having got 13 goals in 37 games the season prior.
Whoever has tried to replace him in the Rossoneri midfield has not even come close to those heights. Vranckx has not started a league game, Adli only once and Pobega six times, with one goal between them.
With Barca seemingly cruising towards the LaLiga title, there are dreams of glory in Catalonia that Milan have abandoned for some time now as Napoli continue to travel at supersonic speed and the Rossoneri have not been able to keep up.
Among the reasons that Milan have fallen off so drastically is without a doubt the fact that Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer have struggled without a third starter-level player like they had with Kessie last year
The three aforementioned new midfielders even put together haven’t come close to having the effectiveness of Kessie and the lack of a real alternative has even seen Tonali and Bennacer struggle, with strong arguments that both played better alongside the former Atalanta man rather than with each other.
At this point last season in Serie A, Kessie had five goals to his name alone while in 2022-23 Tonali has two and Bennacer one, plus Pobega’s goal versus Roma off the bench. Zero for Krunic and Bakayoko.
It is also worth remembering that Stefano Pioli used Kessie’s physicality not only in the midfield but also as an attacking midfielder. Last summer, to add creativity to the department, the club chose to go all-in for Charles De Ketelaere who is a very different mould.
The results have so far been disappointing as the Belgian has not yet managed to score and has had only one truly convincing match – his debut as starter at San Siro against Bologna – then a long series of anonymous games.
Milan hope that the second season will see the former Club Brugge man blossom just as Tonali did and before him Leao, but for a ‘new Kessie’ another signing will be needed in the summer.
