As Mike Maignan faces another period of recovery, having suffered another calf injury in the last few days, Ciprian Tatarusanu will keep his spot between the sticks. However, he will have to improve.
It’s obviously tough to replace Maignan not just because of his great passing ability, but also because he’s simply a very good shot-stopper. And no one is expecting miracles from Tatarusanu, but yet a bit more than what we have seen thus far.
The Romanian has made a few good saves, such as the one on Mason Mount away at Chelsea, but there have also been signs of great weakness. When Maignan isn’t on the pitch, Milan lose a very necessary leader in the defence.
Taking the game against Hellas Verona as an example, Tatarusanu really struggled to command the penalty box whenever there was an aerial duel. He often fails to get off his line and his punches are never really that convincing, nearly costing Milan the win with a missed one in that game.
Inevitably, the defenders will be affected by this as they cannot trust their goalkeeper completely to come out and secure the ball. We can all remember Simon Kjaer’s reaction when he came out too late once (see here). This, without a doubt, is the most worrying aspect of having Tatarusanu as the goalkeeper until the World Cup break.
Then there is his passing ability. As said, it’s more or less impossible to match Maignan in that respect as a backup goalkeeper. However, Tatarsanu takes way too much time with the ball either at his feet or in his hands, failing to make use of Milan’s counter-attacking abilities.
Unlike commanding the area, passing the ball quicker is an easy fix for Tatarusanu and that is one of the things he must improve on in this upcoming period. No one is expecting miracles, but we all know the Romanian can do better than what we have seen so far.
I have been saying this in my posts over and over in the past 2 weeks… he is hurting our possession/offense.
We must give the chance to the young goalkeeper simple as that