AC Milan will say goodbye to Franck Kessie after half a decade at the club, and attention can now turn to who his potential replacement will be.
MilanNews writes how the Ivorian and his agent George Atangana have chosen to go a different way after being at Milan for five years and a future in Spain with Barcelona awaits. The Rossoneri are used to this now after Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu left last year, and now the scrutiny is on whether the management can replace him.
The report compares Kessie with Renato Sanches, and remarks how the former very skilled in coverage and recovering the ball, with an excellent propensity to sacrifice and a good reading of the various defensive situations, but he sometimes struggle when it comes to quick distribution of the ball and decision making in transition.
Renato Sanches remains an average if not below average player when it comes to these defensive capabilities even though his reading of the game when out of possession has improved at Lille. Where he stands out is where Kessie struggles as the Portuguese channels all his power into the progression and forward movement of the ball through dribbling and passing.
This was seen first hand when Milan lost 3-0 in the group stage of the Europe League against Lille in 2020-21 as Renato ran the show, showing his impressive ball carrying and the ability to create chances, functioning as almost a pure No.10 but with the physicality and explosiveness of a box to box player.
Stefano Pioli’s coaching will be key and in particular the instructions he gives to Sanches from a pressing and coverage point of view, but it is likely his assignments will certainly be different from Kessie’s.
The other point of comparison concerns the physical condition. Kessie was an incredibly reliable player from this point of view while the opposite can be said about the ex-Benfica man, who missed 13 and 14 games in the last two seasons respectively due to physical problems. Despite the summer injury and a month away for the African Cup of Nations, Kessie reached 39 appearances in 2021-22, versus 32 for the Portuguese.
The management deserve trust given how they have replaced players and used their analysis to build a Scudetto winning side, and they have evidently made the assessments on Renato Sanches, which he will now be called upon to confirm.
