Rafael Leao wore the captain’s armband in AC Milan’s 0-0 draw against Juventus last night and as highlighted by a report, it was a disappointing performance. With that responsibility, the star winger needed to do more.
Davide Calabria and Theo Hernandez both missed the game due to suspension and the armband was thus handed to Leao. The No.10 is one of the most experienced Milan players based on games played for the club, which is usually the metric for the captain’s armband.
As highlighted by Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), it was far from an impressive performance by Rafael Leao and he was even named the flop of the match by the newspaper. Stefano Pioli was hoping for another boost with the armband, as we saw at home against Verona when he scored the winner.
Unfortunately, Leao wasn’t able to be decisive and struggled against Juve’s defence, also failing to track back when needed to help out Alessandro Florenzi. He lost possession 19 times and out of seven attempted dribbles, only one of them was successful.
In other words, this is far from Leao’s top level and Milan will need him at his best in the final games of the season.
Can’t do a whole lot when teams defend with a low block and leave no spaces to run into.
Pioli can’t break teams like that down. The result is sterile possession and confusion on the pitch.
Sell that barbi….
It’s not always the manager…
You’re right. Players have to take accountability. But time and time again we see the same patterns emerge. It’s not a one-off. Systematic problems. I tend to point my finger at the manager.
Agreed, Leao is not Superman. Without suitable tactics prepared by the coach, neither Leao nor Mbappe for that matter can do anything against well-organized defenses. Even then the coach should be preapared to adjust the tactics during the game if the opponent finds a way to block the attacks. That’s Pioli’s main shortfall. If players were supposed to do things without well-prepared tactics, there would be no need for coaches and Pioli would be jobless.
Poli choice sometimes make me wanna scream at him. Which part of Leao demonstrates leadership 🤔?
ACM, you are absolutely right about the low block. People expecting Leão or Pulisic to dribble thru a low block are crazy. Somethings you can do: overload a side with runners, swing the ball side to side, have a defender act as a runner, attack before the defense sets up, or have the outsideback putting crosses in when you overload the box. The latter is just to create havoc in the box. The last thing you do is try to dribble thru the defense.