Yunus Musah left the field to jeers during AC Milan’s win over Como on Saturday, and yet the club still believe hugely in his potential.
As Calciomercato.com write, the three points obtained by Milan on Saturday evening against Como were worth a lot because they came against a team in good form, taking advantage of the head-to-head games between teams above them to trim the gap to fourth spot down to six points.
It was a game that confirmed the exponential growth of two top players: Christian Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders, who scored the goals that engineered the turnaround. However, it also sadly demonstrated the limitations of Yunus Musah.
The former Valencia man is clearly seen as a useful asset by Sergio Conceicao given the amount of starts he has had since he arrived. Unfortunately for the American, the early chance spurned with the goal gaping and two men in the middle would set the tone for the night.
The Milan fans greeted his exit from the pitch in the 52nd minute in favour of Joao Felix with jeers, and yet the management – Giorgio Furlani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Geoffrey Moncada – remain convinced of the American’s qualities and have renewed their trust in him in recent days.
Moncada in particular is adamant that Musah is one of the few players in the squad with a ‘Premier League engine’, referring to the ground that he covers and the pace he plays the game at. He arrived in the summer of 2024 from Valencia for €20m, and is now worth more than €30m to Milan.
Clearly he must improve on various aspects such as his management of the ball in possession, his movement and balancing the two phases, so as not to repeat the mistakes seen in recent weeks. That said, the club’s trust has been reiterated several times, now he must repay that faith.
From what I see, he can only play at high level as full back on the right. He is not composed enough with the ball to play n6 and he is too limited in the last 30 meters to play as n8.
Unfortunately I agree.
The right call would be “he is to dumb do play n6 or n8” and it was obvious since he arrived ,but lets call it he is not composed enough
And let’s all chant “But he’s got potential” together!
i bet he could be world class Wing back…thats why conte wanted him… to play in 352 formation
I think why Conceicao always use Musah than Fofana, is because Musah has the speed.
He can in a second bring the ball forward. But I agree so many other attributes he have to optimize. Not only his running ability.
What good does his “bringing the ball forward” do when it always ends in a missplaced pass, turnover or an incredibly poor shot in the highest rows in the stands?
I would rather have RLC in team than Musha.
Lets not forget , he was the reason why we did end top 8 in UCL and had to play extra matches.
That 2 silly yellow against against Dynamo Zagreb in the first half should not be excused unless you excuse Theo too. That was that match he was totally a sht, he bought the team down after a good start from that Supercopa win.
You can’t teach speed. The question is can you teach better decision making?
perfect encapsulation of the kid. He’s 21, i think he can learn to have more composure. I still believe he was not supposed to be a starter and the fact that he is, just shows our lack of planning in the midfield. He was supposed to be 5-6th choice.
Fortunately after this season, Moncada won’t have any real power. The new SD will ditch Musah and he’s not a €30 million player, Milan will do well to get €15 for him. He has zero footballing intelligence. His only asset is that he’ll be playing in a home world cup, maybe he’ll sell shirts in the USA, but that’s it.
Honest truth.
Musah upgraded his play a lot. If he continues to push more defensive play, he can become strong as a Kessie.
Unfortunately this season is bad for Milan, but opportunity is to sell all players without impact.
We don’t play in the Premier League.
And if Musah did, it would be at West Ham/Everton/Fulham, because top EPL sides still like high IQ players, even if speed and strength are paramount.
Not good enough.
Facts.
I’d start Musah over Leao any day of the week – and his decision making is better… which isn’t saying a great deal..
Lmao thank God your not our coach
Lmao i’m glad you’re not Milan manager cause that would be a big disaster 🤣
Yes if we are applying for marathon. The only place I’d bet on Musah.
He’d be pulling the shoulders and waists of the other runners and get disqualified before the first mile though.
What are you talking?
Yeah you play him as left winger or even striker, and he can score better than shevchenko.
No judgement from from, 0 goals, useless pass.
No way he is Kessie or tonali replacement
😂 😂 😂
Musah made and continues to make lots of blunders. But let’s not forget how instrumental he was to Milan’s away victory over Real Madrid in the CL. He has a lot of ability on the ball in tight spaces. And he has a huge engine. Frustrating right now? Definitely. But that is not a reason to give up on him.
How many good games did he have in 2 seasons? 1, 5, 50? How many?
Not sure. It’s frustrating to watch for sure. But how many games have we played in the last 2 seasons under a good coach who had a well rehearsed system and patterns of play that his team followed, in which Musah had time to learn and understand his role within the system? Zero.
One lucky match against an opponent who had a miserable night doesn’t mean Musah can play football. Watch the other 99% of his matches that prove my point.
He should done it better. He can kill the game earlier. Leave if you like but don’t expect 30 M.
A lot of Milan talent in loanee, futuro and primavera that ready to given minute play in serie A.
“He arrived in the summer of 2024 from Valencia for €20m, and is now worth more than €30m to Milan.”
It’s not yet April 1st I think
Well time to cash in and sell him to premier league club…that is a big IF any of them wants a low IQ player who can’t defends nor offense. Heck the guy can’t even pass lmao
He shut down Vini Jr. in the CL and put him in his pocket because he can’t defend? You’re just jumping on the bandwagon of negativity here without objectively evaluating the evidence.
Mediocre player. He learned nothing in 2 seasons at Italy, he won’t learn anything in the next 2. They need to sell him while he is still a “talent”.
Missing a sitter sucks and happens to everyone if you play long enough. But my issue with Musah is vision. I have not seen him make one pass in transition that is weighted well and hits the intended target in stride. If you really are the “engine room” of the team you have the ball on your feet in a lot of good positions (which Musah does) but his passing inevitably is either late or behind his targets. Is this fixable? I don’t know. He is young but he has played a lot of first team minutes for club and country and his distribution doesn’t seem any better than it was when he was 18
Also Musah’s assets would be more livable if he had a strong defensive mid beside him.
You can put a Ferrari Formula 1 engine inside a Lada but it still won’t make it a F1 car though.
The potential is clearly there. He might never become a good passer but the rest will develop over time (hopefully not too slowly). Remember how frustrated we were last season by Tijji’s shooting?
Musah needed (maybe still needs) a loan season to develop somewhere where he can play day in and day out without too much pressure and expectations.
Musah needs a decade or two to transform into a “decent player”. We don’t have that luxury though.
He’s never good enough. They put a label ‘potential’ to justify it.
It’s probably more of the owner’s direction in enforce more african players into the team? otherwise he’d be loooong gone with this football level haha 🙂 some people love it lol
Exactly. The “potential” is just the excuse – his “get out of jail” card.
The problem with Musah is that he doesn’t progress.
Everyone knows him as an American international, but the fact is, he came up through the English youth system. When he was a U15, his “potential” was unlimited, and he was the captain of the England U15s, on a team with Jude Bellingham, Jadon Sancho and several others now starting in Big 5 leagues.
By the time he was 18, he’d decided to play for the US because all those youth teammates had improved while he had not, and he had little chance of playing for England’s senior squad.
I watched him for two years at Sevilla before his almost two seasons with Milan, and as always, he has unlimited energy and shows flashes of potential, but at the end of the day, he makes too many mistakes, and the same kind of mistakes.
As much as I enjoy watching Americans play for top clubs in top competitions, Musah is not AC Milan quality. The best thing Red Bird could do would be to try to swap him for Tyler Adams at Bournemouth (not specifically because he’s American but because he’s a top EPL “destroyer” who could be had more cheaply than comparable players….because he’s American).
Musah is versatile and needs to work hard on shooting to the goal. Besides Musah all players should be able to shoot from distance and speed playing tactics. Defenders need to be serious and concentrate to defend their goal mouth.