GdS: The three key men Pioli will lean on to cultivate Milan’s Scudetto dream

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan are still in the Scudetto race despite the fact it is now out of their hands, but three key men must come up trumps if they are to emerge with the trophy.

La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) picks out three key players who can cultivate Milan’s Scudetto dream starting with Pierre Kalulu, who arrived at Milan in the summer of 2020 from Lyon as an unknown but since then has grown a lot.

In his first season he made 13 appearances for 725 minutes and this season he has 22 apeparances and 1,398 minutes, in large part down to the physical problems of Simon Kjær and Alessio Romagnoli. The Frenchman has stepped up incredibly and proved to be made of steel, even scoring the winner against Empoli last month.

In the midfield it is Sandro Tonali who has been the most pleasant surprise of the season to help with Franck Kessié’s inconsistency, but the paper have picked out Ismaël Bennacer as the key.

It is hard to argue given the Algerian helps in the defensive phase with his tackling and awareness, but also in attack with his dribbling and quick vertical passing. When Bennacer is missing in the middle of the field, Milan feel the difference.

In attack, Milan are struggling as they have scored 3 goals in the last 5 games, compared to 10 for Inter and 9 for Napoli. Not only that, but the Rossoneri are the only team in the top six of Serie A not to have a player hit double figures in goals.

Zlatan Ibrahimović is out injured again and Rafael Leão cannot be relied upon to be top scorer from the wing, so it is on Olivier Giroud to score another 4-5 big goals that could be enough to decide the season.

Tags AC Milan Ismaël Bennacer Olivier Giroud Pierre Kalulu
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