Leao and Giroud on the field with Sampdoria to reverse the trend: they are both on 13 goals this season, but both in withdrawal for too long
Maignan’s saves have been, and will be, fundamental, but at this point they are no longer enough. To close the season respecting the precise company mission – that is to qualify for the next Champions League as well – you need to score. The draws-soup, seen too many times in this strange Rossoneri year, would be equivalent to committing suicide.
Tragic fact
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Yes, you need to score goals and the concept is as obvious as it is difficult to put into practice, judging by the trend. Milan comes from three games without having moved to the item scorers. A tragically remarkable fact in itself, but which becomes enormous if you go to leaf through the past. The last time the Devil had lined up three matches without scoring dates back to December 2019-January 2020: 0-0 with Sassuolo, 0-5 with Atalanta, 0-0 with Sampdoria. That’s right: the sinking of Bergamo is also involved, the lowest point of the recent AC Milan era. If instead we go to make up for the last time in which the absence of goals was associated with three consecutive defeats as in this case, we have to go back even 21 years. It was March of 2002.
Badness
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Once upon a time, Pioli’s Milan sent a thousand different players to score in a thousand different ways. Now, however, it is necessary to squeeze the last drops of energy from a season which, if in terms of fourth place is still to be taken home, largely owes it to the lack of malice in front of goal. Because the Devil, even if not always, created. But he has capitalized little in relation to the offensive mass produced. In these last 270 minutes, those who have to be decisive by profession are called to take the team by the hand. No one, therefore, more than Leao and Giroud, who perhaps can find an extra stimulus in the race to see who will end the year with the highest booty in the squad. They are both at 13, the challenge is launched. A speech that is particularly valid for the Frenchman, who has got Milan out of the way several times but who now – also and above all due to physical problems – has lost his way to the net. The last one in the league dates back to March 13 (Salernitana), the last of the season to April 18 (Champions quarterfinal with Napoli). Meaning Oly only threw her in once in the last couple of months. He has been without six league games (considering those played), in A he had never experienced such a long abstinence. Leao has better numbers in 2023, but even in his case the plate cries: last ring on April 23, with the brace against Lecce. And so, if the challenge between Rafa and Oly can help us get back to scoring, so be it.
May 20, 2023 (change May 20, 2023 | 09:29)
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