When he arrived at the end of January last year, a majority of the fans didn’t even know who he was. Since then, Alexis Saelemaekers has become a fundamental player for Milan and Stefano Pioli.
As MilanNews highlight in their piece about the Belgian, he was bought from Anderlecht for a fee of just €7m. Quickly, he won over the fans and his teammates with an incredible work-rate, adding goals and great performances to that.
In 12 months, Saelemaekers has managed to almost triple its market value, now worth no less than €20m. In the last 15 games of last season, he registered one goal and one assist. This season, he has three goals and three assists in 20 games.
The winger has managed to combine quality and quantity ion the pitch, clearly very important for the attacking phase and also in the defensive one, always tracking back. Without him on the pitch, there is indeed a notable difference.
Saelemakers has played 28 matches in Serie A without ever losing. In the 9 missed matches, Milan have lost on four occasions (against Inter, Genoa, Juventus and Atalanta). This stat really reflects the technical and tactical importance of the Rossoneri No.56.
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This is exactly the path on which we should watch JP Hauge! But that’ll happen ONLY if Pioli starts pushing the boy to his maximum, and NOT DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE AS HE HAD till now. It’s not just to put him IN, but also to have his teammates involve him in the game, which we hadn’t seen it happening!
Anyways, so happy for the Salamander!
We love you saelemaker.