The handling of Yacine Adli continues to be a mystery as he is struggling for playing time and did not get a single minute in the last game against Empoli.
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Calciomercato.com recall how Pioli made five changes to the starting line-up compared to the team that beat Napoli, but the Franco-Algerian midfielder did not start or even come off the bench in what ended up being a 1-1 draw.
Adli was signed from Bordeaux in the summer of 2021 for a sum of around €10m and was left there on loan for a season before arriving in Italy. However, he has so far accumulated only 114 minutes in the league, divided into four games (Verona, Napoli, Sassuolo and Bologna).
Pioli sees him only as an attacking midfielder and not as a box-to-box player or even a deep-lying midfielder, but it seems that both Brahim Diaz and Charles De Ketelaere are ahead in the pecking order as are Rade Krunic or Ismael Bennacer being adapted into the role.
These are signs that are not encouraging for Adli’s future and which now look like an almost definitive verdict that Stefano Pioli does not trust him. Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara have tried to protect Adli this season, confirming their trust by keeping him in the January transfer market as well, but now the situation hasn’t changed.
It seems that a loan deal is now likely for next season because on the one hand the 22-year-old needs to get back to playing consistently, while on the other Milan could hardly get a return on the investment they made.
