Daniel Maldini and Alexis Saelemaekers were part of AC Milan’s second-half XI in the friendly against Rapid Wien yesterday evening. Surprisingly, perhaps, they impressed a lot and were among the best Rossoneri men on the pitch.
Paulo Fonseca divided the game into two XIs, giving 22 players a chance, and the second-half XI was by far the most impressive. It was also in the final 45 minutes that Milan scored their only goal, courtesy of the veteran Alessandro Florenzi.
Two more players that stood out, though, were Maldini and Saelemaekers. The latter was named the MOTM in our player ratings thanks to his creativity in the attacking phase. The Italian, meanwhile, got the assist for Florenzi’s goal and also combined really well with his teammates.
The interesting thing is that both of these players are expected to leave Milan this summer, and on a permanent basis as well. Maldini’s contract will expire next summer and Monza are keen, while Saelemaekers has attracted interest from the Premier League.
Milan might be having second thoughts about letting these players go, following the performances yesterday. On the other hand, the friendly asserted if not increased their value on the transfer window and the Rossoneri could thus end up cashing in more.
Saelemaekers is a very good player, he needs a coach that will motivate him, and give him a chance to shine, he is technically and tactically intelligent, Maldini too has a very promising career, he has incredible physique, technical quality and skill, Milan needs to give him an opportunity to play and shine
I don’t see Maldini getting to Milan’s level. He and Pobeg clearly are not the players we hope for. He’s 23 now. He can only stay because of homegrown UEFA rules because we may need him so we can be in line with UEFA rules on homegrown players. It’s better to loan him out to a small team at his level where he will have less pressure or sell him. Whereas, Sealameakers can be a good sub if he’s put in a good condition by our coach. But if the right price comes, he can be sold.
The mythical ‘Milan level’.
If the Milan level is so elite how come we’ve literally gone through thousands of players in the past 10 years???
We signed 4 wingers last summer alone.
We have about 20 attackers on our books currently.
It’s not much of an exclusive club if you excuse the pun.
Salemaeker is a “good” player against the backdrop of our B team and the youngsters.
With the first team in place he is invisible.
Erm he played in the semi-finals of the champions league.
But the players who got knocked out at the group stage are clearly superior.
It’s a vibe thing.
Saladmaker is so good we should just sell leao and play him.
As far as I am concerned, it doesn’t make any sense selling or loaning out any of d 2. Salaemakers and Maldini… It’s insane… U sell ur players cheap n go out there begging other clubs for their young players who have not even proven to be better than our own players… B4 u sell a player, I think Maldini deserves a chance, if we can give chukwueze, Jovic, Musah, okafor a chance, Maldini deserves it too ..
Well we have about 60 players on our books including about 10 wingers so there isn’t really the space.
Based on one pre-season friendly? These second thoughts are bullshit.
1st of all, this a just one game.
Secondly, we don’t need an bloated squad. Every player has to be useful in terms of having playing time. With Puli, Leao, LFC, Okafor, Jovic, Chukwu, Morata… in front it would be tight.
Alot will depend on what the coach wants though.
Its better for maldini, Saelemaekers to join other clubs where they can get first team football and coach that can help them improve.
Last year market bad choices are emerging, it’s time to correct them by keeping the two and getting rid of others….
Sala has had tons of chances under Pioli prior to this year with Bologna.
Has not done much.
Maldini on the other hand,hasn’t had a chance under Pioli. We should keep him and let Salamaekers go.
He helped the team win the Scudetto and get to the semi-finals of the champions league.
Saele nor Maldini didn’t really shine against Vienna. It was more like the others were played like cr@p which made those two look better. I’m not even saying “good” as they weren’t really playing well either. Better than the rest, sure. But…
For the love of God Saelemaekers is better than Chukueze, what exactly is bro still around doing?
Maldini clearly doesn’t have what it takes to take the big leap in quality to be an upgrade to our lad. For a 23 year-old player, we should have seen it already. The only reason people here want him to stay is because of his name
Yeah why would we want players who have a strong link to the club anyway? You seem to be an expert about Daniel Maldini, for how long did you scout him? For my part I followed him at Empoli, he was bad, injured though and didn’t have much playing time but he did good lately with Monza. He should go back there, unless Fonseca really plans to use him. As for his age I don’t see the point, Reijnders was 25 when we got him and he was a gamble.
Same for Chukwueze who is 25 now and feeling the pressure. 30M€ to have the same production as Messias or Saelemaekers is a shame. He has to deliver now.
Ha ha 😂.
Dude is comparing players by ages only.
Chukwueze by the age of 23 already had experience playing in UCL, Europa league, scoring vs Real Madrid.
He was part of a team that won the Europa league, where he was the top assist provider in the competition.
Daniel Maldini by age 23 is known solely by being Paolo’s son, Cesare’s grandson and Christian’s brother.
“Yeah, why would we want players who have a strong link to the club anyway? ”
That’s cute. Milan does need players with strong link to the club, but players that can actually play, not just because of their link.
He couldn’t even start for Monza and it’s not like Monza is bending over backwards to bring him back.
By that argument and Maldini’s Heir it seems we should drop Chuk and keep Salad. (Sort of going vegetarian?)
I’d be a fan. It took too long for Chuk to adapt last year and a new coach this year has me concerned. Salad was strong for a strong Bologna last year, we know he hustles and tracks back like Puli, etc. in short a high ceiling.
I have thought since I started following Milan that Salad was a player who would become impactful. I still think so.
It’d be a bit hard for Maldini to have done the things that Chukwueze did given he rarely actually played and Milan kept signing players in front of him.
But even the mighty Chukwueze struggled when….Milan signed a player in front of him in Pulisic.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Maldini at 23 in half a season not being a starter for Monza scored 4 goals and had 1 assist, that assist coming against Milan when Monza beat us 4-2. Meanwhile 30M€ Chukwueze at 25, known for scoring against Real Madrid it seems, was criticised by Pioli in press conferences because he was reportedly lazy at practice and he scored 3 goals with 3 assists in all competitions in the entire season. No better than Castillejo or Messias. If he doesn’t deliver this season, he’ll be officially a bust, and a big one for that price tag.
I think for everyone’s sake a sale makes sense. Don’t keep Maldini in limbo forever, let him go play somewhere. If he did well at Monza and they want him back that seems fine. And if epl level money comes in for Saelamakers, you take it. If we can get 15-20mil for a guy who, no offense, only manages about 7 goal contributions a season, you take the money
Give Daniel Maldini the keys for the next match.
Fonseca will very quickly come to realise that he doesn’t need Samardzic or even RLC.
Maldini has the natural 2-way, box to box game that can easily become that of the attacking #8 in a midfield 3 (or just the AM in a 4-2-3-1). The reason he is important for Milan is because he has the passing range and dribbling ability to unlock the low block which is something RLC lacks. Not to mention that he can hit the dead ball like an old fashioned specialist.
Combine Daniel Maldini with Fofana, Tijani and/or Bennacer and it can all work.
I’m getting greedy but I will eat all of the humble pie in the world if Fonseca can be open minded about talent starting him back in the face. I have to conceded that he already seems to be doing that.
You must have seen a different Daniel Maldini. Does he have a clone or something who can actually play? Because the Daniel Maldini I’ve seen is a really mediocre player who only had space at Milan because of his last name (and I do love his father). Daniel Maldini is in no way, shape or form, a player who is able to start for AC Milan.
Yeah, I’ve seen the different one. I’ve bother to watch him in the last 2 seasons.
Would Maldini be any worse than two times Scudetto winner Emanuele Giaccherini or even five times Scudetto winner Simone Padoin?
I know we can only ever dream of having such supercalifragilisticexpialidocious players, players who were forged in dying stars, but maybe, just maybe, it’s not all about some completely arbitrary player ratings, and more about actually about keeping players at a club long enough that they might, maybe, reach their potential.
Or we could keep scratching our heads wondering how Italy haven’t qualified for a World Cup since 2010.
I know it must be something in the water.
This is all a waste of time…
Here’s how many attackers we have on our books (roughly):
1. Rafael Leão
2. Christian Pulisic
3. Luka Jović
4. Alvaro Morata
5. Noah Okafor
6. Samuel Chukwueze
7. Daniel Maldini
8. Marko Lazetić
9. Alexis Saelemaekers
10. Lorenzo Colombo
11. Divock Origi
12. Luka Romero
13. Chaka Traorè.
Plus some youth players like Camarda, Liberali, Sia and other names that get bandied about but if the above continues have no future at the club.
It’s a mess.
The squad is a mess.
And no individual is to blame. This isn’t ‘look what Maldini did’ or ‘look what the current management is doing’.
It’s systematic.
Too many transfers, massive squads, numerous players sitting on books, and a general unstructured approach to developing youth or any players.
Last summer alone we signed 5 new attackers – in one transfer window.
And the worst part was the fans were actually happy about this.
In what world did we need 3 x RWs?
And nothing triggers abuse on this site like me questioning the transfer system.
You can say what you like about individuals – Maldini or Moncada or whoever, Pioli or Fonseca or whoever, Calabria or Adli or whoever – but if anyone questions a ‘system’ well that is a bridge too far.
Who’d have thought that challenging a failing system (one that has cost Italy multiple World Cup qualifications) could be so controversial.
We want this madness to stop, we want Milan and Italy to return to being internationally competitive, well maybe looking to Spain where they have smaller squads and more targeted transfers.
We are looking to Spain.
We just signed Morata!.
😂
I agree with much of what you are saying.
But your analysis of how many attacking players came in last season is ignoring how many attacking players left (sold or loaned).
Saelemaekers, Messias, CDK, Origi, Traore.
Overall I think the squad numbers stayed much the same.