Leao flops in Milan’s big matches: the reasons

Stefano Pioli has lost, perhaps permanently, the threads with which to maneuver his team, but recently he has repeatedly underlined a concept of absolute truth: “When the legs don’t turn, most of the time it’s not an athletic issue, but a mental one. It is the head that governs the muscles.” The phrase is quite useful for retracing Leao’s match at the Olimpico, where we saw him make mistakes that weren’t even possible in the Sunday League. Wrong passes in complete solitude, lopsided crosses as if Rafa’s feet had become blocks of concrete and not the velvet slippers with which we are used to seeing him. So, head on: if you’re not calm inside, outside it becomes a disaster.

level

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The problem, however, is the usual one. And this is what most fans and professionals criticize him for: when the team is struggling and can’t find the switch, if the person with the greatest qualities doesn’t turn on the light, then who should do it? Because it is true that individuals get excited when the group performs properly, but the opposite is also true: it is legitimate to ask high-level individuals to take the group by the hand. Of Rafa’s 180 minutes against Roma in the cup, the red card given to Celik will essentially remain. The rest is a string of I wish but I can’t. A frustration that produced a string of banal crosses into the box, a football from forty years ago where the faults of the player and the manager go hand in hand.

words from leaders

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It’s a shame also because the Portuguese’s approach to the second round was impeccable. Meanwhile, they liked the fact that the star of the team sat next to Pioli. And then Rafa had said significant things about the match at the Olimpico, like “we all spoke together after Sassuolo, we know the importance of this match”, “we play for all of us, if we play well we’re happy. I’m with a great coach and great people here at Milan.” But, above all, he spoke about himself like this: “I want to be a leader on the pitch. In the first leg I was disappointed because I could have done more, not because I didn’t try. But to grow, there must be criticism.” Impeccable, as the AC Milan world would have wanted him in Rome, where the last time he had challenged the Giallorossi he had scored a sensational goal with a semi-overhead kick. That was a Milan that was flying, nine points in the top three of the championship and a horizon that not even the worst pessimist could have imagined deteriorating to this point.

contradictions

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Leao was part of all this. With his long weeks without goals, abstinence lasting well beyond what was permitted which annoyed him, which was followed by periods of generous, beautiful and productive football, especially in the Europa League before Roma arrived. In the background therefore remains the usual question: when, the leap in quality? When, that obligatory step to run towards that Golden Ball that he says he wants to aspire to? There remain great contradictions from Rafa’s season so far, the culmination of which for better or worse are the overhead kick against PSG and the whistles from three quarters of the Meazza at the time of the substitution in the first round against Roma. The postcards from a year ago also remain, when Leao dragged the Devil into the top four of the Champions League, creating a phenomenon in Naples. Just as there remain many other big matches in which he didn’t leave his mark. A 175 million clause looms over his head, which makes people ask if it is a reasonable sum for someone like him. The answer is necessarily vague: for Rafa a year ago at the Maradona, absolutely yes, for the one yesterday at the Olimpico it would only be a provocation. A derby arrives on Monday that Milan cannot lose: succeeding thanks to their Rafa would be a welcome thing.