Santiago Gimenez scored his last AC Milan goal nearly a month ago, and it seems that he has fallen victim to the same issues as his team-mates.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, Gimenez too was ‘sucked into the black hole’ which nobody has managed to emerge unscathed from at Milan this year. When the curtain fell on the winter window, the faces of the transfer campaign for the Rossoneri were Gimenez and Joao Felix.
They made a red hot start, but then Joao ended up ‘the whirlpool’, before Santiago joined him. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on the day of his official presentation, said it clearly: the team must help him express himself at his best.
From light to darkness
Gimenez brought with him a very impressive goals per game average both in the Eredivisie and in the Champions League. He thus arrived with the tag of being the striker that Milan ‘had been missing for years’.
However, he comes from a lower level league than the Italian one, he is 23 years of age and found himself in a chaos that he probably never would have imagined of this magnitude. So, he gradually disappeared from the scene.
An assist on his debut, in the Coppa Italia vs. Roma, a goal vs. Empoli and one vs. Verona in the two subsequent performances in the league, and the equaliser against his old side Feyenoord in the second leg at San Siro. After that, more or less total darkness.
In the last four league games there is no trace of him in the scoresheets, if we exclude the assist to Rafael Leao in the defeat in Bologna. In Lecce the planets aligned on the wrong side: a goal disallowed by the VAR after 47 seconds for a matter of centimetres, then hitting the woodwork.
Choices and the paradox
The rest was a concomitance of negative situations that are starting to drag on beyond what is expected in an adaptation period. Partly it depends on him: sometimes wrong choices in the final pass or in the search for the goal, some technical blunders in the opponent’s area (11 balls lost).
Much, however, depends on the overall context. Simply, the team is not able to support him as it should and as his characteristics require. Gimenez is a centre-forward who wants to be found in space of in behind, and not a striker who will hold the ball up in the area.
He does not have the dribbling of Christian Pulisic or Rafael Leao, but rather the positioning and anticipation to put service away. It’s a paradox, because Sergio Conceiçao’s style suggests the team should move quickly up field, but instead they get stuck in patterns of horizontal ball circulation.
The Mexican’s impact on the Rossoneri world remains very good and the general growth prospects are what paints the horizon to be sunny. Milan, forced to start again next season, will hope to really see the best from Gimenez.
I’m not so worried about the scoring. He is excellent in finding the right positioning inside the box and if the team works well he will score a good number of goals, probably 15-20 a season. What worries me is all the rest. He offers very little outside the box.
He’s had to adapt to a new league and better competition. We’ve seen some positive signs but he clearly has many deficiencies, some of which he’s unlikely to ever overcome. At the end of the day he’s a €30m player not a €100m player. I think we should expect somewhere in the realm of 12-16 goals per season in all competitions and be happy with that
He was just unlucky against Lecce. He had a goal disallowed, a post from a difficult situation and a couple more attempts. It can be seen that he is an excellent player, only Milan has to play more in the opponent’s penalty area. This is an excellent centre-forward.
He’s flashed his quality, and has the desire. He’ll get it all together. have faith.
Hyperbolic nonsense. He could have scored twice. Gds is trash
Toxicity around this club.
Remember The Hyped So Called: The Fab Four. Who created that overconfidence phrase.
He is doing ok, leave him alone
I love how the excuses come when we are talking about Gimenez. He’s been poor. Outside of tap ins, he offers nothing outside the box.
This thing about adaptation is also silly. It shouldn’t take a striker a month to adapt especially against the inferior opposition Milan has faced in the league. Just look at what Muani is doing in Juve. He came in and had an immediate impact because he is a quality player.
I never rated Gimenez from the start, and it’s about to be sink or swim because Milan has a very rough schedule coming up.
I guess his poor first touch is due to being in a new league. Also, his fighting for position on crosses is lacking. Say what you want a about Giroud, but he was able to bully his way into dangerous positions on crosses
Right. That’s what is most worrying. He has no advantage to exploit as a striker. He doesn’t have speed to run in behind. He doesn’t have the touch to link up play and create opportunities for himself. He doesn’t have the strength to bully defenders. And he doesn’t have the motor to lead a press.
His only strength is his finishing, which I believe will be questioned against stronger defenders and goalkeepers.
Being written off faster than CDK. Maybe we can sell him to Atalanta…🙄🙄🙄
He is a great asset and it’s too early to be worried. The players alongside the coach need to understand one another on how to play as team, then maybe we can start judging performances then.
But for now, imo of course, we need to keep Conceicao for next season and task him to at least qualify for the next CL and win any available trophy if possible
Leao can dribble?
Better dribbler than passer or crosser.
Piatek 2.0
Why Gimenez has stopped scoring? Easy. He stopped getting service. How many chances have they created for him? Hint: Not that many.