Lorenzo and Stefano discuss the situation of Rafael Leao, a player who has been heavily debated among AC Milan fans in recent years. How should the Rossoneri approach the situation? What could happen in the summer?
It has been a season filled with ups and downs for Leao, often within games as well, and this has sparked a debate about his future at the club. At the same time, he’s on 9 goals and 8 assists this season, including some very important ones as seen against Verona last night.
In the latest edition of Pub Chat, Lorenzo and Stefano gave their takes on Leao’s season so far and how Milan should approach the situation. Are we talking about an attitude problem, or is it simply a matter of ability? It’s safe to say that the debate is very complex.
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This has always been a ridiculous debate by short-sighted people.
Leao has collected now 16 goal participations this season. He has an average of 29 such per season for the last 4 seasons. He is the Serie A player with the highest number of assists for the last 5 seasons. He is the only active player with top 20 number of goals and top 10 number of assists for Milan, and all-time (since 1899) only 3 other Milan players have achieved this landmark, including Kaka and Seedorf. Leao’s stats place him in the top 3 of all 600+ Serie A players which is percentile 99.5. In all of Europe, only one other left winger has stats better than Rafa’s, and that’s the current best player in the world, Vini Jr.
Yes, Rafa is a highly irregular player; who doesn’t know that??? His career has always had ups and downs; still, all things considered and DESPITE the inconsistency he still performs better than 99.5% of all Serie A players in what really counts, that is, producing goals. Last I checked, in football you only win if you score goals.
And despite these stats, some idiots are always saying that we should sell Leao. The only teams that would be helped by us selling Leao would be our rivals.
Period, full stop. No need for any debate. Just look at the big picture. For all I care, Leao can look lazy, can walk on the pitch, can show poor body language (body language doesn’t win games; goals do), can disappear for large chunks of a game or for entire games, as long as he continues to produce about 30 goals for Milan per season. He will have strongly helped the team by doing that, regardless of perception by miope people.
Thank you. You’ve saved me the trouble with the stats. Anyone who can’t see what Rafa brings to the team in terms of output has poor footballing knowledge. He creates huge chances almost everytime he plays. And has around 30 goal contributions each season. You’re not getting better than that for cheaper. We have one of the best wingers in the whole of Europe and yet we debate, why?
Sounds like you are in agreement with Lorenzo and Stefano!
Leao certainly have his weakness and moments where we were frustrated with him but for all his disadvantage, he is still a very good player. The fans only focus on what he could do, not on what he has done for the team. It’s kinda sad really because all the criticism actually got to him at one point
To add more he unlocks the game, atttract 2-3 defenders thereby allowing others to thrive, others including Pulisic, watch when Leao is not playing, how do Milan perform?
Exactly. Whether the short-sighed idiots who advocate for his sale see it or not (well, they don’t), we live and die according to Leão. When he plays brilliantly we win convincingly. When he plays poorly but still produces a goal or an assist, we struggle to win but often we do win (like yesterday; without his brilliant assist we’d have dropped two points). When he is not playing or playing horribly, we struggle to create chances.
If we sell him, then we’ll permanently struggle to create chances and our other forwards will have fewer free spaces from which to operate given that indeed Leão consistently attracts double marking.
The mind-boggling part is, if we sell Leão, who exactly would we get for the left winger position, for an affordable price that would produce about 30 goals per season? We’d get some Joe Nobody replacement; we know that our owners are kind of cheap and won’t cough up enough money to replace Leão with a player with a similar goal production.
Yeah, if we could afford Vini Jr, then by all means; I’d rather have Vini than Leão. But we cannot afford Vini, and we already have Leão who is the second most prolific left winger in all of Europe after Vini, so we should just hang on to him.
Of course, it would be lovely if Leão were more consistent, fulfilled better his potential, had better work rate, and tracked back more efficiently.
However, what people don’t understand is that if Leão did all that, he would be another Vini Jr and we wouldn’t be able to afford him. He’d be playing for Liverpool or PSG or Bayern.
We can only afford Leão BECAUSE although very talented, he is irregular and has some shortcomings. Still, we are better off with Leão, warts and all, than without him.
Another interesting thing: I am of course primarily and much more intensely, a rossonero, an AC Milan lifelong fan. But my second team, the one I root for AFTER Milan, is Arsenal. So, look at Martinelli. He is a very decent left winger. He has done well for Arsenal. However he is significantly less talented than Leão, and he does not have the same seasonal goal participation stats that Leão has.
Still, the Arsenal fan base is not constantly criticizing Martinelli and crucifying him every time he doesn’t have a good game. They understand that he is not perfect but is good enough.
Why oh why we have a left winger better than Martinelli, but we keep crucifying him???
I said 16 goal participations this season; I was mistaken, it’s actually 17. Also, one needs to realize that he had 2 other plays this season that are not officially counted as assists but produced two additional goals: two shots he fired on target but the goalkeeper only partially saved because they were powerful shots; these shots then rebounded to another forward who made an easy tap in, for two additional goals. So just then and there, it’s 19 already (and there are still three and a half months until the end of the season), as those two additional goals were created by Leão. In my opinion this kind of situation should count as an assist, but sadly it does not.
Let’s also not forget that when Leão earns a PK, that also doesn’t count as an assist, but is indeed another goal produced.
Do you know how many penalties Leão has earned in his entire career? You’ll be surprised. A mind-boggling 109, according to FotMob. Think of it. If you add that to Leão’s goals and assists, the number is just huge.
So, he can look lazy for all I care but if he continues to have this kind of output (and he CONSISTENTLY does, season after season), then he much more than fulfilled his duty.