As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, even Pioli was unable to get Leao to make a tangible contribution to the team in the non-possession phase, so it was more a case of what he was doing in the attacking third.
Things went worse for Paulo Fonseca and (so far) Sergio Conceiçao who in this 2024-25 season have squeezed less from Leao than was reasonable to expect. Especially because he is the highest paid and most talented player in the squad.
Maybe next season Allegri will make his contribution to help Leao make the definitive leap in quality, and to consecrate him among the top players in the world. The coach from Livorno respects him and, if he has the opportunity to train him, he intends to fully exploit his mix of speed and technique.
This is even at the cost of ‘helping him’ in the defensive phase, as happened with Juve when he asked Blaise Matuidi, Mario Mandzukic or Federico Bernardeschi to run more to cover Cristiano Ronaldo.
Under Pioli, Leao was practically always a starter, while this season – with his two compatriots in charge – he has started 10 times on the bench, and in one of those games (vs. Udinese) he didn’t even come home.
His overall record is 10 goals and nine assists, decent numbers, but another statistic is impressive: when he was thrown on during the match, he showed his best. Coming off the bench, Leao played 315 minutes in which he scored three goals and provided three assists.
The last such impact came on Saturday in Lecce. Calculator in hand, he has had a goal or an assist every 52 minutes when used as a substitute. As a starter, however, he averages one goal contribution every 183 minutes.
Translated: this season, when he comes on and takes advantage of the opponents’ tiredness and the spaces that open up, Leao does much better. It is a strange paradox, and is probably unsustainable.
How would Allegri handle it? Max likes talented players and in Juventus’ golden years – those of the five consecutive Scudetti – he used a 4-2-3-1. Pjanic was the regista, then Cuadrado (or Dani Alves), Dybala and Mandzukic behind Higuain.
It is easy to imagine, therefore, that he would do everything possible to make the most of Leao’s qualities, of whom during an interview with Corriere della Sera in 2022 he had some praise for the former Lille star.
“He is an exceptional and very modern player,” Allegri said. His arrival would remove Leao from the market, because the club might have been willing to accept less than his €175m release clause.
There have been links with Chelsea and an offer may have been tempting, especially if Milan decided to rebuild the squad, changing the old guard. With Max, at least for Rafa, the chances of staying with the Diavolo would increase a lot.
