It is three months since Charles De Ketelaere became an AC Milan player and it has certainly been a mixed start to life at the club, a report claims.
Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) start by remarking how De Ketelaere is the only member of the Rossoneri attack that has not yet gotten into gear as he is yet to score a goal for the club, registering just one assist.
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The club are being patient with the Belgian and they hope to have him in the best psychological condition after the World Cup in Qatar, therefore ready for the second part of the season. CDK did not take advantage of the chance that coach Stefano Pioli gave him in Dinamo Zagreb and should start from the bench on Sunday against TOrino.
After a long and exhausting negotiation, the Rossoneri invested €35m to sign him from Club Brugge and so far that has produced very little yield. The paper describe him as a ‘weak link’ in a team that could well reach the Champions League knockouts and want to repeat their Scudetto success.
Aside from Zlatan Ibrahimović who will only return in January, everyone in the attacking department has now scored after Divock Origi got off the mark Milan-Monza. Now the hope is that De Ketelaere will net too.
He went into the dressing room with his head down after Milan had overwhelmed Monza with four goals as he did not feel it was right to celebrate with his team-mates under the Curva Sud after missing a glorious chance late on.
In Zagreb it went no better as he came off in the 52nd minute after getting a yellow card following a disappointing performance to that point, so we have not yet seen the real De Ketelaere.
Exactly two months have passed since the assist to Rafael Leão in Milan’s 2-0 win over Bologna, the Belgian’s first game as a starter. Pioli wanted to make De Ketelaere an immovable part of his attacking trident, but that has not happened.
