Sergino Dest has so far not been able to show off his qualities since arriving at AC Milan, and his last appearance off the bench did not exactly generate momentum.
Despite being a full-back, the defensive phase is not the strongest point of Dest’s game and this was seen when he gave away the penalty against Napoli on Sunday night after a clumsy mistimed challenge on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
However, our colleagues at SempreMilan.it report that Stefano Pioli is confident that the best is yet to come from Dest, because the American can also be exploited in the attacking phase when Alessandro Florenzi is back at his disposal.
Until then there must be alternation between the Barcelona loanee and the captain Davide Calabria. The sheer number of games mean rotation is needed and Dest does not have much time to adapt to Italian football.
The games against Chelsea and Juventus are already looming, which could be huge in the scheme of the season. Pioli has already worked with Diogo Dalot, a player very similar to the American in terms of his situation given both can play multiple roles and both were on loan from a top European team after failing to make a mark.
That experiment with the Portuguese brought positive results by the end – especially in European competitions – and could be repeated with Dest with a lot of work.
At least Dalot knows how to defend too.
People can’t jump to conclusions with Dest. He was thrown into a VERY difficult situation needing to try to cover Kvara who is embarrassing literally EVERY opponent he’s played against. Kjaer and Calabria were both beaten by him (luckily outside the box) and were forced to simply grab him and concede a yellow card. Liverpool defenders were beaten by him over and over and over again. Let’s not forget this.
To concede the penalty so early after he first started playing in that Napoli match must’ve hurt his confidence for the rest of that match; but the kid has skills and can play. Having said that, for USMNT and Barcelona, his greatest asset has been offensively going forward. He can play on both sides, he can cut inside and shoot, good at delivering crosses, solid dribbler, can receive long aerial passes with good control and he works hard.
In the end (and especially after Florenzi returns from injury), I think he’s best suited as a RW for this team over the very inconsistent Saelemakers and the mostly bad Messias. He will add much more skill, creativity and production to the attack than those 2.