Rafael Leao is, without a doubt, the star of AC Milan. However, there must be a balance in football, and Carlo Pellegatti feels that this is not the case with Sergio Conceicao.
Having a fantastic footballer is great, until that player drops a little. This exact reason is why coaches must be so careful when constructing a team, it cannot live and die by one player in a 22-man game, that much is simple.
For Conceicao, there have been suggestions of ‘favouritism’ regarding certain players, and Fabio Ravezzani questioned the coach for this yesterday. However, today, another criticism of the coach has arrived, and it comes from Pellegatti, when speaking to Pressing, via Milan News.
Conceiçao’s formation choices?
“Leao plus ten others, all the way.”
Everyone knows how brilliant Leao can be, and from the bench, he displayed his quality again this weekend. However, we have often seen the Portuguese go missing in games, so whether a system can be tailored to his desires is certainly a question that must be tabled.
You take one line out of context and make a nonsense article from it. These words could be true about Pioli, but Sergio is surely not treating Leao as his favourite.
How exactly does a coach be said to have tailored the team’s tactics in favour of a player who was on the bench for the first half last game, which half we were behind for the entirety of? Also, is it wrong when the player who the coach ‘favours’ came in 2nd half and engineered a three goal comeback? I mean, lose and everyone and their mom sh*ts on the team. Win and it’s still said the manner of the win was not satisfactory. At this point I think there’s a genuine push to dismantle our team mentally from pundits, journalists and online pseudo Bielsa wannabes. Rafael Leao is far from perfect but he is still one of the best players in the world and certainly in Serie A. Heck, tailoring the team to bring out his best is exactly what the coach ought to be doing ffs!
So true sir. How are we sure they are not being paid by other serie A clubs to tear the team apart with wtong and negative publicity. I smell a rat. I suspect clubs like Lazio
Sempremilan hates Leao. We all know Sergio has not built milan around him. The evil mind behind this article
SM just reported what Pellegatti said. Just as they’re supposed to.
Is this Pelegatti guy always this obnoxious?
Let’s say it’s true Conceicau tailored the tactics for Leao in the 2nd half. But i don’t see anything wrong with that when Milan made a comeback from two goals and won the match.
To say that Leao is the “Star” of the team is a bit disingenuous. For the past two seasons, Pulisic has been the star of the team. I see Leao compared to players like Ronaldo. This is ridiculous. Unlike Ronaldo, he has been terribly inconsistent during this year and last years season. He is lazy on defense which creates gaps. Furthermore, he has one role and fades out of games. Pulisic is a creative player that does it all across the front line, drops back to pick up the ball in order to initiate play, and always drops back on defense. Talent is one of the most wasted of human traits. Leao is demonstrating that weekly.
leao was better than pulisic last season this season puli is better tho
It’s not just Sempremilan that hates Leão. It’s also a significant number of fans who love to criticize him and call him lazy. They advocate for his sale.
No, Leão is not perfect. But he has produced already 19 goal contributions this season (10 goals and 9 assists) with still 12 games to go. If he keeps until the end an average of one goal contribution every two games, It is conceivable that again, even in this season when he was targeted by coaches and had to sit out entire matches or halves of matches, he will achieve 25 seasonal goal contributions. This would be similar to what he has achieved in all 3 of the last 3 seasons (an average of 29) because he had way fewer minutes this season.
No, Leão is definitely not the problem of the team like his haters pretend. Someone who contributes with more than 20 goals is NOT the main problem in the team.
Yes, he is irregular. But there is one thing about which he is consistent: 20+ goal contributions every season.
For the haters’ information, Leão is one of only 4 players in the entire history of AC Milan (yes, since 1899) who is simultaneously in the top 20 of all-time goal scorers and top 10 of all-time assisters. The other 3? Kaká, Seedorf, and Gianni Rivera (all three, club legends).
How in the hell can a player who is top 4 in terms of goal production in the entire history of the club for the last 125 years, be the team’s problem???
The criticism that Leão endures is SIMPLY ABSURD.
People say he doesn’t track back. Well, Ancelotti has just said that in his opinion, if you have a golden player who contributes with a lot of goals, don’t ask him to track back, be exhausted, and decrease his goal contributions. Use the player to the best of his ability, that is, goals and assists. That’s logical. But no, the haters will blame Rafa for not tracking back and will conveniently forget about how much he scores and assists.
“The criticism that Leão endures is SIMPLY ABSURD.”
Maybe for someone who is blinded by his love. To majority, it’s clear as daylight. To earn the high salary one must constantly perform better than the average players.
*his love towards Leao.
Leao performes better than 98% of all Serie A players. That’s way above average. He has saved Milan in numerous occasions with goals + assists and like I said he is top 4 all time (since 1899) on this, together with Kaka, Seedorf and Gianni Rivera.
No, the issue is YOU being blind by your hatred.
You are not even a true Milan fan. You’re just a troll.
Exactly. THAT’S what is clear as daylight, unlike what hateful trolls like bb say.
Oops, this reply was intended to the poster Tundezfather below.
Leao is most effective off the bench. If he can tune his game to be effective for 90 mins, then that would be huge.
Ancellotti can wax lyrical all he likes, with the luxury players available to him, but Milan in its current state cannot afford such team members. We need players that give 100% for 90 mins…
Yes, Milan needs bad players that try for 90 minutes. Get in that mediocre waste that can’t get past a player but try hard. Omg
He is a coward, that is the problem. You can notice cowards like this among fans of every club. They always pile up on the best player they dislike because they imagined how things should be. I guess this complete mo**n thinks that saying Pulisic is great and how Leao is bad while Leao is actually creating half of Pulisic goals and 0 wise versa is an accident. When you don’t understand football you write things like this. This also goes for Oliver, Ben and that guy Isaak or whatever. Writing how Pulisic is great while you are writing how bad Leao is shows you have no clue. Leao was better than Pulisic last season. Even this season they are about the same level. How you can write so opposite articles in a case like that? Shame on you, horrible people.
I don’t think you know what the word coward means.
People who cannot dare to criticize their best-paid players and supposed leaders are cowards. People who aren’t afraid to express their opinions are far from cowards. Fng sheep you are. 😀
“while Leao is actually creating half of Pulisic goals”
LOL. Yeah, I remember the solo-goal against Inter where Leao did all the work. Just like Leao got the penalty for Pulisic.
“When you don’t understand football you write things like this. This also goes for Oliver, Ben and that guy Isaak or whatever. Writing how Pulisic is great while you are writing how bad Leao is shows you have no clue.”
Ridiculous coward. I don’t see you writing articles here. Easy to mock people behind an anonymous nickname while those guys use their own names and stand by their opinions.
And yeah, no one has any clue about anything – except you and Luigi. Everyone is a coward or a m0ron. Sure, sure. It must be that way and not the other way around. Keep dreaming. 🙂
Thanks you God bless you as then did kaka track back I don’t know cause all these small Portuguese coach without experience in football archivement your best attacking player should be upfront and use your defensive midfielders to yield him anytime they win the ball they lunch pass to him so as better player he can only have two to three defender as opponent dribble one or two and pass the ball his number 9 or shoot direct to goal simple we see junior in Madrid yamal in Barcelona salar in Liverpool dembele in psg doku in man city these types off player’s your teams top teams if my now we have acceloti or gurdiola as coach leao we always make top five players in the world every season
No no, read the article about Pulisic and then one about Leao. Same day. And then compare numbers. I would be ashamed to write that in the same day but I guess guys at Sempre Milan have no shame. Pulisic with 3 more goal contributions is described like a world class player. And Leao is inconsistent. You can also read how last season Pulisic was Milans besst player and Leao was horrible. And then you look at the numbers again. Leao ahead in every stat, goals per minute, assist per minute, dribble per minute, chances created. But when people are malicious and have no shame they keep doing that.
You’re looking at the wrong stats. Check the stats for defensive work. Just admit it, you don’t understand football.
A little 101 football here for you. Football matches are decided by goals. The one scoring more wins. Or the one conceding more loses if you prefer to think that way. You are only looking at two statistics out of dozens.
The stats you’re looking at doesn’t tell that Leao runs 1/3 less than Pulisic. (Fun fact, even the elderly Giroud runs more than Leao in each match while playing the CF role). They don’t show when Leao is absolutely useless for 89 minutes and gives the ball away 20 times but gets one assist or goal as is therefore praised as a GOAT for his efforts. The stats don’t tell that the others have participated in the defensive work for the whole 90 minutes while the one we’re talking about walks around the pitch.
And next you’ll say “he doesn’t need to defend” because he contributes. Yeah. If he contributed in the other thing (protecting OUR goal) we would have more points. Everyone else does that too in addition to pushing forward. Preventing the opponent from scoring is as important as creating goals. Fact. All goals are equal, no matter which end they’re being scored in. You don’t see Leao doing anything to prevent goals. And no, one silly foul for pushing the opponent’s back in the halfway-line (and getting a yellow for it) isn’t enough.
Open your eyes. There’s more to football than those two stats you’re obsessed with. There are two goals on the pitch. One where try to get the ball into and one which we’re supposed to protect.
Leao’s lack of defensive effort is ok as a sub because the other team is already tired. As a starter, his side of the field will always be a liability when the other team gets the ball, and pressing will never work.
Oh, Ben Dixon again.
🥱
I believe some of us here have missed the point: a team can not produce ONLY when a certain player is in. A coach should have alternative solutions. Rafa needs to be more serious, as the most talented player in this Milan. Theo is allowed to have a bad period, after so many good spells. The management SHOULD HAVE alternatives in these cases, which are not addressed for so many seasons! A prober LB to give Theo a break!
We should keep these 2 assets and get some good Italians to support them: 1-2 CB, 2 RB ( get rid of the clowns we have there), CM, DM, AM/RW, ST/CF different from Gimenez. Dead wood out: the British, the loans, the inconsistent
Yes, but then, the issue is not the player who is able to score and assist. The issue is the supporting cast and the coach who is unable to utilize well his best player. Pioli knew how to utilize Rafa.
We depend on Leao because other than Puli, there is no good attacking alternative and we lack the defensive coverage of a true DM like Kessie, to allow Rafa to focus on offense. When we had Kessie, Rafa was elected by the league the MVP.
The fault is also the managers’ who don’t know how to build a proper team and never replaced Kessie.
Yes, my favourite. You put Theo and Reijnders on that side and somehow that isn’t out of balance.