Santiago Gimenez had gone over two months without scoring a goal for AC Milan, but he ended his drought against Venezia on Sunday.
Calciomercato.com recall that it had been 79 very long days since Gimenez had scored against Feyenoord in the Champions League, his most recent goal. Then, the Mexican centre-forward sealed the win over Venezia with a nice lob, patting the Milan crest as he went to celebrate in front of the fans.
Sergio Conceicao had only given him seven minutes on the field against Atalanta and in the Coppa Italia derby, an unmistakable sign of how he is now behind Tammy Abraham and Luka Jovic in the hierarchy.
With the score at 1-0, Conceicao decided to give a bigger opportunity to Gimenez, who came on in the 65th minute. Things didn’t start well as he failed to hit the target after an excellent cross by Loftus-Cheek, then ruined a counter-attack.
Deep into injury time, he scored a goal that could be considered a potential turning point. He didn’t even connect sweetly with Tijjani Reijnders’ ball over the top, but got it over Radu and it nestled in. It is a third league goal for the former Feyenoord player, who hopes to put the struggles behind him.
The goal scored against Venezia is more useful to Gimenez than to Milan. The Rossoneri leadership ‘have not questioned the investment’ even in these two months without goals and with so many games started on the bench.
Santi will be ‘the striker of the new era’, beyond any evaluation of Jovic and Abraham or the possibility of a new striker arriving. The Diavolo are still prepared to ‘go all-in’ on Gimenez for the present and, above all, for the future.
He looks so sad. And I wish he got rid of that horrible nasal strip 😅
It’s difficult for strikers to come in January and make any impact. Also Conceição wasn’t playing a good formation that was good for Gimenez until he switched to a 343 or 3421.
I think we should sell Leao and get a good attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder to play 3421. We don’t need wingers. We need better wingbacks. Leao loses the ball too much and he doesn’t track back enough to win back the ball when he loses it. That’s causing more unnecessary problems for the team with counter attacks.
At this point we don’t need Leao or any wingers like Chukwueze.
Thank god you don’t manage Milan
Cam we just stop with these type of reports and articles please. It’s beyond foolish to even suggest he’s a bust. He came in the middle of the season, in a period where whole team was struggling, to a new league with new language and culture. Wtf did anyone expect? He was bound to find difficulties.
I’m still excited to see him in new season, starting fresh after settling in and ful preseason under his belt.
Just sign some playmakers with vision and good passing abilities who will create opportunities and provide him with service. These runners and carriers are a bust.
Agreed – he does need more time.
He also needs to be used in a system that suits his skillset. He’s a poacher in the box, not the type of attacker who drops back and helps in the build up – he doesn’t have the first touch for it.
Unfortunately he’s just not good enough for a world class striker. There is nothing in his game or history to suggest he is.
Reality is that he was overpriced and overpaid for the quality he can offer. Excluding all of the excuses circling around he’s not cutting it and will never be able to hold attack of A.C. Milan.
Finally, someone with some common sense. I’ve been saying it the whole time, it was a $30million donation to feyennord, it was such a rushed decision to sign him, I prefer Abraham every day of the week
some fans here said the same thing to tiji about him not up to milan quality a season ago, but look at him now.. even tonali not that good on his first season with milan.. let’s give santi a chance, a full season or two and then we can talk again.