He may not have got his name on the scoresheet, but Samuel Chukwueze had yet another impressive outing for AC Milan during the win against Lecce yesterday.
Tuttosport (via MilanNews) writes this morning how after being a mystery object for several months, Chukwueze has finally changed gear and has now become an important card in the deck that is in Stefano Pioli’s hand.
The Nigerian winger was among the best on the field yesterday in the match against Lecce, in which he looked very bright almost every time the team went forward, and of course he got the assist for Christian Pulisic’s first goal.
On Thursday against Roma, in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, the former Villarreal man will most likely start on the bench because Ruben Loftus-Cheek will return, who was absent yesterday due to suspension.
He will still be able to be an important weapon from the bench, and the paper point out how there is now finally competition for placed. Interviewed by Milan TV after the game, Pioli spoke about Chukwueze.
“His mind has changed. Now he has confidence, he is positive, he believes in what he does. He knows better what the team must do in pitch. He’s a quality player,” he said.
“I’m very happy for him because he’s been through a difficult moment: from the outside everything seems rosy but the boys are under great pressure. He believed in it and worked a lot and that pleases me, to the club and to the team.”
impossible. some dude wrote 2 me that chuck will not become better and that we need greenwood at Milan
More worst some dude write : Saladmaker more better than chukwu. The player that cannot even beat junior messias for starting spot and only have 2 goal + 2 asist this season
Not everything has to be binary. Salamaekers had his strengths and worked really hard for the team in the time he was here.
Chukwueze is certainly a technical upgrade and now he’s starting to show his qualities. I’m old enough not to judge a player on their first season with a new club these days but it’s fair to say Chukwueze has struggled up to now but he had no pre-season with Milan and joined at the eve of the season, had injuries and AFCON interrupt him, so we’ve not seen what he can do if bedded properly into the team.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what Salamaekers brought to the team. We often say we want to see people work hard and fight for the shirt and he definitely did that. We also never really tried him on the left side, where Bologna have had some joy, because we had Leao there.
Let’s not jump to any hasty conclusions here. Chuk is just slowly starting to come around so let’s hope the continues with the same confidence when called upon.
Against Roma RLC will be back and Puli will take RW back. So Chuk will need to be patient and perform when called upon.
I hope we can afford more minutes to Okafor as well.