Since arriving last summer, Yunus Musah has struggled to find a regular position within the AC Milan team. Nevertheless, he may have an opportunity to cement himself now.
Musah is certainly a very intriguing player for several reasons. Not only does the American have capabilities as a wide player, but he also has the ability to do a role in the midfield, and this is potentially where his future lies.
As Milan News writes, when Real Madrid attacked, the 21-year-old was fantastic, becoming a fifth defender in the Rossoneri’s system to aid against Vinicius Junior. Whilst his role was professional, it wasn’t the biggest area of focus.
Instead, it was his work in the midfield. The report states that the American may be the final piece in the puzzle, as he brought balance, not only to the midfield trio but to the team. Performances like that are impressive, more so when against opposition like Madrid.
From that, it is questioned whether the youngster can be the ‘next Kessie’ for the Rossoneri, and whilst one performance will not give assurances of that, continued efforts like Tuesday’s will. After all, being ‘splendid in the Bernabeu test’ is as good as it gets, and if he continues, perhaps Milan will find another fundamental piece in the chessboard.
He is more of a RM then a CM anyway. But comparing him to kessie is a far cry. The only thing he has in common with franky boi is they both black.
Musah was the only confusing signing for me in that first post-Maldini mercato – felt like an American vanity project – but let’s hope Fonseca’s able to get the best out of him in Serie A now too.
Please do tell us how Romero, a third RW, made sense.
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He’s just not a player in a two-man midfield. Looked great in a 3 man midfield. He has mistakes in him but you can iron out the kinks in time.
Any way you look at it, we just look so much more balanced in a three man midfield.
So is it Fofana the new Kessié or is Musah the new Kessié ? You gotta put more efforts in these articles.
As far as I’m concerned, neither of them is the new Kessié and in a 3 men midfield you’d need other types of profiles, not necessarly a Kessié type.
For now, Fofana has been the more stable of the 2 and has overall more good games. For Musah, this is his first good game since last’s season UCL campaign, so let’s not jump too quickly to conclusions.
If we manage to get Ricci and/or Frendrup and get rid of Loftus-Cheek, I think we’d be on our way to have a really good midfield.
It’s a new aggregate site ffs. The primary article is from Milan News. Did you read it at all?
He certainly has Kessie’s energy. Not so much power, but he’s 21 and starting to do a quality job for us. If he’s keeps improving he will be better than Kessie..
The problem is Pioli and Fonseca haven’t used Musah in the right way. Having him play multiple positions will stunt his growth.
Musah should be deployed as a mezzala on the Right midfield and Milan should be playing 433. Th is 4231 is beyond ridiculous especially given that we don’t have a natural attacking midfielder.
💯 Musah needs to find a position and stay there.
Not in any shape or form. Musah would be a better RB than Calabria
Fofana would be the new Kessie.
I’m wondering if they should convert him to being a fullback. People get sucked in by his ball carrying ability, but I think his 1v1 defending is maybe his best strength. He’s very good at wingback, role is simpler than in central midfield defensively. At CM, positioning and anticipation are key. Seeing Calabria get immediately roasted by Vini jr made me realize how much of a liability he is now and how good a job Emerson and Musah did on defense.
If Musah could credibly play Right Wingback, it would make Milan more difficult to defend, as Musah/Pulisic would present problems to other clubs opposite Theo/Leao that Calabria/Royal with Pulisic (or Sammy if CP moves inside) do not.
I’m so glad they are finally realizing how fast he is on D. I’ve followed him on usmnt and wondered why they never used him for their right fullback position. So I agree with all your comment.
Neither Musah nor Fofana is as good as Kessié as a DM. Kessié was never fully replaced, and that’s one of the main reasons why our Scudetto defense was golden, and it has never been the same once Kessié was no longer with us to shield the defense.
Fofana is a good player. Musah not so much yet but he is still young and he does have potential, and he is indeed improving; and yes, the latest game was his best with the Milan jersey.
But the new Kessié? That’s wild exaggeration. Besides, when we attach these labels to a young player, we are putting a big burden on his shoulders; saying these things is more detrimental than helpful.
Let’s allow Musah to be Musah and to keep learning and improving; he doesn’t need to be the new Kessié.
I’ve followed Musah from the time he was first introduced to USMNT fans as an 18 year old (he’s now 21), and I’ve said this on this forum multiple times and I’ll say it once again – Musah’s greatest performances have PRIMARILY been when he is put in a DEFENSIVE role, with very simple responsibilities.
The guy has tremendous physical attributes – he is fantastically strong and quick and has great ball skills and is very, very hard to dispossess. These are not things that a player can just grow or develop.
What’s missing is judgement and vision and decision making, together with positioning sense. These are mainly mental skills, and hopefully can be honed and developed over time with more experience and excellent coaching and by locking him down into a specific field position instead of playing him all over in different positions.
Right now, what Musah does best is if you tell him, see that player Superstar X? Your job is to stop that guy from getting the ball and if he has the ball, take it away from him, and just pass it to the nearest open team mate. Keep it simple, nothing fancy.
Because yeah, he absolutely 100% has the physical tools to defend and make any superstar on the opposing team totally disappear. We all saw that in the match against Real Madrid, against Vinicius, and USMNT fans saw him do that two years ago against Bellingham at the World Cup against England.
So, extrapolating from that, he should be, IMHO, developed mainly as a defensive midfielder, either as the primary backup to or as a dual pivot defensive mid pairing with Fofana.
Whenever he is playing out wide, or in a more offensive role, his missing positional sense means that too often, he’s not in the right place at the right time, and as a result he just disappears and doesn’t get involved enough in the action. Or, he may hold onto the ball too long bringing it upfield, or he’ll try a difficult pass, and end up losing the ball.
So, in summary, Musah already has all the tools to be a great defensive midfielder. With time, he may be a great box to box midfielder, but he isn’t one right now.
except when he ran through their entire squad and hit leao with a quick 1v1…he can break a press and he is not bothered who is in front of him. He basically targeted Modric until the pointed I started feeling bad for him…
The thing missing right now is another guy next to reijnders between the lines that can turn with the ball…
I agree that defending is his best attribute because hes already an incredibly gifted defender he was dribbled passed 10 times last season in 2400 minutes…those are kessie numbers…Fofana took about 800 min to get there…Timing and perfect positioning helps him win the ball and quickly counter and he gets leao involved in the game.
His ability to move the ball through the midfield could stop the build up from only moving up the left side which is desperately needed…
8s need to have a motor, defend well in space, dribble, pass…hes doing all those at a high level…he has better passing stats than reijnders who is an amazing passer. Also vision-wise, its hard to find a player who scans as well as he does..but until this year, he wasn’t looking for the quick pass.
Will add that you don’t need to lock him in one position…Pep creates dynamic players by playing them in multiple positions especially defensively. You can’t play the tactics of that last game if he couldn’t play as a full back, a CM and a Winger…
With the national team he very often would switch positions with Dest and Weah as all 3 were comfortable shifting and it makes a team much harder to defend…
Real was not a true test of Musah’s ability to function at a high level as a box to box midfielder, mainly because Real is such a freakishly unbalanced team right now.
Their two forwards – Vinicius and Mbappe – don’t track back to help out with their midfield defense.
Their two wide midfielders – Valverde and Bellingham, are both very offensively minded midfielders that spend more than 2/3 of the match on the opposition side of the field and rarely track all the way back into defense.
Then you have the 100-year old Luca Modric, still functionally great as a non-mobile Pirlo type crack distributor of offensive passes, but not somebody who is going to be trying to defend against an attacking Yunus Musah.
So the only midfielder staying home is Tchouameni, all by his lonesome. That’s reflected in his stats, which shows a very defensive skillset and almost no offensive output, which was not what he was like when he was playing for Monaco, where he was a true box to box midfielder.
A lot of commentators mentioned that this was the critical flaw that caused Real to lose so badly – they played without a functioning midfield.
Musah vs. a one man defensive midfield and a one legged 100-year old Modric is going to always turn out great.
But most teams are not like that, especially in Serie A or in CONCACAF, where midfield and low blocks are the norm and double team pressing is common, and trying to dribble through all of that congestion and pressing has a much lower chance of success than against a team like Real Madrid.
Sounds strange, but it’s true.
And yeah, there have been many times when I’ve seen Musah try to dribble past a double team and lose the ball, or he’ll run into a double team and try to make a pass to a team mate who is covered and his pass gets turned over.
So he has to work on that, to know when to hold onto the ball and not try to be the hero, when to do the smart thing and make a safe backpass instead of a more dangerous forward or sideways pass. He has to work on his positioning, to combine better with his team mates.
All that is very doable, he just needs to play a regular fixed position and get some proper coaching and more experience.
You have said it well,musah is more ok in defensive than offensive area.
The kid is barely 21. He can become truly effective with proper coaching. Whether he gets that or not is yet to be seen