What Rafael Leao can do to reach an even higher level after AC Milan renewal

By Hussnian Qaiser -

Rafael Leao has become the real superstar of this AC Milan side and the man who the Rossoneri have relied on numerous times over the past two years to win the Scudetto and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

A lot of Milan fans would say that Leao, along with Mike Magnian and perhaps Sandro Tonali and Theo Hernandez, is arguably the most important player in this side, and they would not be wrong to say so.

With the Portuguese player renewing his deal until 2028, he has shown his loyalty and love towards the red and black shirt, but this is also a strong signal from the club too about how serious the project is.

So, with Leao having extended his stay with us until 2028 at least, it would be a good idea to look at which areas he can work on to take his game to the next level and get closer to becoming the best left winger in the world, and maybe one day challenge for the Ballon d’Or.

Other than Vinicius junior, there are not many left wingers in world football better than Leao, but there is still the general consensus that he is not quite at the level of the Brazilian superstar. What can he do to reach that next level?

Consistency

The first thing that Leao needs to work on is his consistency. He has had many great moments in a Milan shirt and has won a number of games on his own, with the hat-trick of assists against Sassuolo to seal the title, the brace against Inter in the derby earlier this season and the solo run against Napoli in the Champions League springing to mind.

As great as these moments have been, however, there have been times in which Rafa has been off form and not as effective as he can be. The start of this calendar year is a great example, as he failed to find the back of the net for over 12 games.

Part of that was down to Pioli for playing him out of position but when you are as good as Leao is, that is a very long off period for his standards. He needs to start becoming decisive more regularly.

Decision making

Another thing that Leao needs to do is add more goal contributions into his game. In all fairness, he has been improving on this aspect every season since being here, as he has come a long way from the seven goal contributions (6G, 1A) in his first season.

In the 2022-23 campaign he is up to 21 goal contributions (13G, 8A) with a game still left to go in the league. Although his numbers this season have been great, us Milan fans know he can hit double figures in both goals and assists as well as push for 20+ goals in a league season.

Additionally, with the acquisition of a top striker as Milan are expected to make this summer, his numbers should naturally go up with the attacking threat more spread and more space to exploit.

Hard yards

Finally, one thing that Leao needs to up is his work rate. This goes under the radar at times and in the past Simon Kjaer has also joked around by saying that they do not mind as long as Leao wins games, but if he tracked his man it would make our powerful left flank even more dangerous.

This season, there have been a few incidents in which Theo Hernandez was left with two men to try and cover because the Portuguese winger did not track back and that can hurt the balance of the side.

Overall, Milan fans are rightly over the moon about Leao renewing, given he is the one player in the squad who is capable of deciding games on his own and he continues to make the fans at San Siro stand on their feet.

Once the ex-Lille man improves on the aspects listed above he will be a force to be reckoned with, but despite all that one thing Leao should never change about his game is his smile. Whenever he plays with that smile, he brings a joy to us Milan fans, something we all missed since the times of Ronaldinho.

Tags AC Milan Rafael Leao

10 Comments

  1. And I thought he was already a perfect player who shouldn’t be criticized ever because the fanbois get upset and lose their sleep and there is no room for improvement anyway. 😀

  2. Well, a certain Kylian Mbappe is also a LW just like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, not only Vini Jr.
    To reach a higher level 1st of all people need to stop with the excuses. Oh, Pioli played him out of position? He still played on the LW, just couple meters more centrally and matter fact, he had more freedom in that system because he didn’t have to track back. People act like Pioli played him in the DM.
    He needs to learn how to be effective without just using his speed and athleticism. Right now, he is only effective on the counter attack because he only relies on his athleticism. Milan has problems vs teams that sit back because there isn’t room for Leao to just out run defenders. Learn how to play in tight spaces. Go watch videos of Kvara.
    Learn how to move and play without the ball. Football is all about moving body and ball in open spaces. Don’t wait on the ball by the sideline, but make runs, cuts, open lanes for teammates to give you the ball in advantageous position, just like the 1st goal vs Napoli in the 4-0 win. He needs to do that all the time. One of the reasons why our offense is so stagnant vs lesser teams is his lack of movement off the ball.
    Learn how to be an areal threat. He is usually the tallest player on the team and he rarely engages in areal duels. He is a non factor on set pieces. Leao is taller, stronger and bigger than Osimhen but when it comes to areal duels he is Brahim Diaz in comparison to Osimhen because he lacks the grit, the heart, the desire to engage in those duels.
    Learn how to shoot the ball properly. Hire a shooting coach.
    Be more present in the penalty box. He usually acts like he is allergic to it. But again that’s because he is all about the athleticism and the penalty area is usually congested. How often do we get penalties? And we used to be AC Rigore. It’s only Giroud in there by himself.
    Finally, grow some cojones and step up and shoot the penalties like every so-called best player on a team does.
    You wanna be a great player you can’t be one dimensional. You gotta expand your game and come back better every year. Great players score and are effective in variety of ways. Leao for now is only effective on the counter attack when he has a ton of open space to run and out run slower full backs and defenders. If you put someone on him that can somewhat match his athleticism he is easily taken out of the game. Couple examples for that are Dumfries in the return leg of ucl semi final, he had him locked up in his pocket, and also that 19 year old Salzburg rb Dedic who had him neutralized in both group games.
    Next season he will be the highest paid player on the team. The media, the pundits, the fans will not tolerate one good game 3 bad games. He isn’t going to be pampered anymore. Time to show what you made of.
    He has all the tangible qualities to be a great player but lack most, if not all of the intangibles.

    1. “Learn how to shoot the ball properly. Hire a shooting coach.”

      Not needed. All the best goal scorers have spend thousands of hours repeating the same drills by themselves. You pick up the ball and shoot next to the far post and do that again. And again. Several dozen times per session. You don’t need to hire anyone. It’s all about the willingness and motivation to improve. That comes from within and you either have it or don’t.

      Ask Zlatan did he need a shooting coach. Nope. He had the will to improve. The will to be the best. That’s what you need. Grinta, FFS!

    2. You said: “You wanna be a great player you can’t be one dimensional. You gotta expand your game and come back better every year. Great players score and are effective in variety of ways. Leao for now is only effective on the counter attack when he has a ton of open space to run and out run slower full backs and defenders.”

      Did you watch his second goal against Verona? How is that for scoring from a crowded space?

      Leão this season, 16 goals and 11 assists total, all competitions. Beats Giroud by 2 goal contributions. Leads the team with 27 freaking goal contributions and people still criticize him. Incredible.

      We wouldn’t have won the Scudetto last year without him, and wouldn’t have qualified for next year’s UCL without him. The team plays visibly worse when he’s not on the pitch. Even when he doesn’t shine, he still draws two defenders to double mark him. A large part of why we lost the UCL semis to Inter was that he wasn’t there for the first leg, and was still out of 100% physical form for the second leg.

      Yes, he can (and will) improve even more but he is our best player. Enjoy him! I’m thrilled that he renewed the contract.

      Oh, he had a drop in form for a while? If you haven’t noticed, the whole team did. Why single him out for this kind of criticism? We’d have to criticize the whole starting XI and most subs for what happened from January through March.

      What’s up with the constant criticism here?

      I don’t care if he disappears for 85 minutes but then scores 2 goals and wins the match for us, like he did against Verona yesterday. Kjaer is right when he says he doesn’t care either.

      He needs to learn from Kvara? He had 3 more goals than Kvara. Maybe Kvara should learn from Leão. Despite Napoli having a more complete offense and finishing with +49 goal difference, Leão still had better numbers than Kvara. How many goals would Rafa have scored if he played for Napoli?

      And PKs? We have Giroud. He almost always scores from the mark. Missed only once over the last two seasons. We don’t need Rafa for taking PKs. Giroud is an oustanding PK taker. He is our official one. Sure, it would be nice to see Leão taking some PKs but that’s definitely not the priority now, when we have a play that scores from the mark almost every time.

      I know you’ll say I’m a “fanboy.” Nope. I just acknowledge and praise quality when I see it, and there is no doubt whatsoever that Leão is a superb player (the best one we have), which we wouldn’t know if we didn’t watch games and only read certain comments here.

      Jesus, I’m sick and tired of all the Leão bashing here. Thank God we have him. Forza Rafa, and grazie mille. Forza Milan!

  3. These are really good points,Leao’s shooting is very poor, latest example against Juventus just inside the box after getting past his marker,he shoot into the stands, wrong decision making most of the time also need to work on
    If he wants to be a great player,he must involve himself & be decisive in all

  4. Wait a little… So Kvaratskhelia is better than Leão, is this really what I read here? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    1. Like I said, he (Kvara) is not better than Rafa, I agree with you and disagree with the overblown criticism of Leão. Kvara is a great player but he plays for Napoli, a very complete team that achieved +49 goal differential this season, while we always had a problem with the imbalanced offense with no decent RW which allows opponents to double mark and triple mark Leão. Still, Leão scored 3 more goals than Kvara this season. Can you imagine how many Rafa would have scored if he played for Napoli?

      When we defend Leão we are always accused of being “fanboys.” It’s similar (but for different reasons) to when we defend Tonali. We are called “fanboys” because he is Italian and a lifelong Milanista. Yep, and I love both characteristics. My Milan jersey is #8. I’m a fan. Yes, certainly Sandro at times makes mistakes or doesn’t play well. It happens to ALL players, even Messi (I’m not saying that Sandro is as good as Messi, just saying that the best player in the world also disappears in certain games, plays horribly and doesn’t contribute at all; in other games he is brilliant; it happens to the best; why can’t it happen to Rafa and Sandro?).

      However, Sandro has many outstanding games as well, and so does Rafa.

      We have a core group of players who are all very good. Rafa, the best one we have. Maignan, arguably co-best, just as good. And then, Theo, Olivier (when he gets service), and Sandro. Isma was great this season before his injury.

      The problems we had were not because of these players. The problems we had were the lack of a decent RW, a depth problem with the lack of decent deputies for Giroud, Maigan, Theo and others (I mean, Origi, Tatarusanu, and Bakayoko??? Give me a break!!!), and some defensive failures after we lost box-to-box player Kessié. A weak CAM issue, with Brahim having brilliant games but more often not (too small, falls too much, CBs bump him out easily) and CDK being a joke this season (he did show some signs of life yesterday; hopefully he’ll do better next season).

      Also, a problem defending high balls, which fortunately improved a lot after our best summer signing, Thiaw, started more games.

      Still, over here some of our best players get criticized all the time, especially Leão and Tonali, and those who praise their qualities are called fanboys. Go figure!

      If we had some better deputies for essential positions, we’d probably have challenged Napoli and would certainly have at least finished second.

      We almost finished second anyway. We got robbed of two points against Bologna; that game that ended 1-1 had their goal out of a clear foul on Tomori, and 2 clear PKs were not called for us. The correct score there would have been 3-0. Just that and we’d have been level with Inter in points; just don’t have the Mike Maignan injury and we’d have left Inter and Lazio far behind and would have threatened Napoli (although I do realize that it would have been tough to catch them).

      Napoli had an incredible 90 points and +49 goal differential. Still, we were the only team that humiliated them 4-0 and we bumped them out of the UCL. This is thanks to our core of good players. The bad results we had were not the fault of these good players, for the most part. Still, over here one would think that our good players are horrible, when we read certain comments made here. It’s surreal.

  5. Z, every point you made was impressive, I don’t know why some people here don’t understand basic English, only the so called fanboys will disregard all you said.

    The truth is that Leao need to take his game to the next level if he’s to become a great player in the future. Z stated all he lack he didn’t bash him so I don’t know why you disputed him.

    Though he slightly is a better player than Kvara but if he can be more effective in tight spaces, he’ll be far better than him. We also know that he loses his mind in games easily, his shooting has been average, all these are good factors for his disappearance against low block teams. He only need to take his game to the next level. He need to be more involved and his game will be skied.

    As for the shooting practice, if you think Zlatan didn’t have a shooting coach at Leao’s age, then you’re truly a fan boy.

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