In Milan’s win over Cagliari yesterday, some players really stood out (including match-winner Ismael Bennacer) but there were also some poor displays. Rafael Leao was one of the players that failed to deliver.
Rossoneri fans have become used to seeing Leao in good form almost every game but last night, he couldn’t achieve anything. He saw very little of the ball and when he did have it, he didn’t have the same ability to beat the defenders.
As stated by today’s edition of Tuttosport (via MilanNews), Bennacer was the MOTM with A rating of 7. Pierre Kalulu, Fikayo Tomori and Franck Kessie also did well at 6.5, while the others received a 6 (which is a pass).
There were some disappointing performances though, as Junior Messias and Brahim Diaz only got a 5.5 from the newspapers. Leao was even worse at 5 and it’s safe to say Milan expect a lot more from him on the left flank.
Super accurate ratings surprisingly. Leao was the worst for sure but hopefully this was a momentary dip and not his end of the season flopping like last year. Guy has it all, just needs to be mentally stronger and will be top class. Messias and Diaz simply are not good enough and must be upgraded hugely but hopefully it’s enough to get through the season. Forza!
You should not only be good at writing, you should be good also at analysing matches…leao was not a flop, he was simply respecting pioli orders.
Pioli wanted Milan to be central since Cagliari team are always agressive at the wings thereby allowing space in the middle…this also affected Theo who was also narrow throughout the whole match, Calabria incuded (pioli even talked about this in his last interview)
Leao was made to be central, which made our formation more of 4-2-2-2 (central attack), so leao was always in the middle and this made it hard for him to be picked out by teamate and also we couldn’t see him run in the wings..the times he got the ball, he was good and made no mistake.
Rebic came in 70th minutes, and didn’t follow the narrow strategy, because at that time of the match, pioli changed from narrow to wide, possibly because he wanted Milan players to hold the ball for long at the wings ends to frustrate the opponent, run down the clock and its easier to win the ball back faster at the wings than at the middle of the pitch.
Leao was following procedures, and his position in the middle took defenders away from GIROUD who saw alot of the ball because of this and apart from his assist, he could have scored atleast a goal.
Leao was subbed not because he was not good or bad, he was subbed because pioli felt he needed rebic agression towards the end of the match, which was same reason for salamaerkers coming on.
Football is like a game of chess, sometimes you sacrifice your players game just to win the match
Leao is fine
two people marked him which open the right area, even girourd is free in the middle
If we have better RW than messias/saeles we wouldve win with better results
Leao needs rest, that guy is severely burned out.
Start Rebic for the next games.
Leo is dumb stupid
They should sell it