Alexis Saelemaekers has returned to AC Milan as almost an entirely new signing, and Massimiliano Allegri’s faith is being justified.
MilanNews write how Saelemaekers is showing a different attitude and mindset compared to before. His desire and determination has always been there, but he is now combining it with end product and confidence in his ability.
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Alexis ‘reborn’
The Belgian seems to have reborn after his stints in Italy at Bologna and Roma, and it’s precisely by his own and his coach’s will that he remained with the Rossoneri despite the enticements of Juventus and interest from the Premier League.
Saelemaekers has also been very important for his national team, starring over the international break against Liechtenstein and Kazakhstan. He got an assist in the first game, and then two in the second game.
Alexis remains an unpredictable player. He has always been useful in the non-possession phase, but now he’s improved dramatically in attack. In these first few outings with Milan, we’ve seen him up and down the right flank, which was Allegri’s vision.
The coach’s mission will therefore be to enhance the qualities of a player who is more mature, more aware of his own abilities and no doubt desperate to impress against his old club Bologna on Sunday.
Happy for Alexis.
One of the very few players Milan have signed over the last 5,6 years that actually has continued to improve year after year.
Saelemaekers is one player that management has somehow consistently tried to drive away from the club. Some fans have even labelled him as not being Milan quality, no matter what he does. Somehow, like a stubborn roach, he refuses to go away. I wonder who signed such an “irritating” player for Milan by the way?
Bvos he is a quality player not doubts and trust me he will improve more if given quality time
Hmm, do management sniff some fund next season.
I think he’ll be limited to a wingback role at Milan given our front 4.
For the start of this season, in the current team The Salad has the highest per 90: goals scoring actions, 3rd highest key passes, highest attempted and successful take ons, highest carries into the final third, and third highest shot scoring actions by volume. On the defensive end he has the highest tackle and interceptions rate per 90, highest tackling by volume, second highest tackle win rate. Good on both phases, ability to attack and defend. What’s not to like.
(I’ll caution it’s very early days still though and we’ve only played a handful of games)
This is a very long-winded and overly complicated way to say he has no actual goals or assists… as usual.
He started as one of our 2 forwards in our 3-5-2 last match against Lecce and had zero shots. Pulisic came in and in 10 minutes had a goal. That’s the difference. It’s the end product that matters and he doesn’t have it.
Let me know when he reaches his 2 goal per season average for us. A useful bench player, but can we stop the fawning over Saleamakers on this site, at least until he actually produces something. You would think he’s Lamine Yamal if you read these articles.
Noting that he did have a nice assist for Gimenez until it was chalked off for very tight offside. Not Saelemaekers fault that Gimenez can’t stay onside.
So lemme see it’s ok for you critique(?) a player but heaven forbid we remotely do the same, right?! 🤔
If your brain can’t function beyond goals as performance metrics then I can’t help you there bud 😂😂😂
Also, if you don’t want to read my long winded posts then you don’t be have to, no one’s forcing you or even comment on it for that matter. But I’m still happy you took the time to read it all, still complain about the length of the post while also providing an equally lengthy post in return 😅, I guess. In an article about Saelemaekers being more complete all I did was offer additional stats to support the thesis with stats for both of those phases with the caveat it’s still early days. He is after all a winger/wingback but who, as you’ve astutely observed, was “listed” once as an auxillary / false striker (hint: it’s in the word false 9) … and whose main job is goal creation (with the added bonus of being able to help out in defense) …and my stats seem to support that.
Nobody fawning over anybody here but I do appreciate when we see clear progress over time in a player at the club, even if I think he should be further along his path. But it’s still beautiful to watch 🤗
The problem with some people is that goals is all they ever look at. It’s not always about stats. Would you say Lukaku is a better player than R9 was since he’s surpassed him in some goal statistics? They eye test carries just as much, if not more weight than stats and Alexis has shown lots of promise as well as improvement over the years.
No. First of all, Lukaku does not have more goals than R9, despite playing well over 100 more matches.
Secondly, yes, goal contributions (goals and assists) are the most important stats when talking about attacking players which Saleamakers is, playing RW for most of his career. Dribbles don’t mean much if they don’t lead to anything. Same with passing. Chukuweze was a very impressive dribbler, unfortunately it never really lead to anything. It’s the equivalent of a basketball player that dribbles between the legs and behind his back, can beat his man but then misses the shot. Some people are impressed by that, I am not.