AC Milan said goodbye to Olivier Giroud and Simon Kjaer at the end of last season which is the latest example of leadership leaving the club, and now the search is on for new senators in the dressing room.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, going into the summer Milan fans believed that the squad needed a €50m striker, a new right-back, a defensive midfielder, a centre-back and some other positions too. 50 million striker.
What if the biggest gap in the Milan squad was a leader? A charismatic player, with values more than value, someone who talks to his team-mates, enforces certain rules and says the right things at the right time.
Milan in the past have had several leaders at the same time such as Baresi, Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta, Gullit and Ancelotti, then Nesta, Seedorf, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Kaladze and others.
Allegri’s Scudetto had Gattuso, Seedorf, Nesta, Van Bommel, Ambrosini, Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Abbiati, Flamini, Bonera, Zambrotta and Pirlo too. The last Scudetto-winning side had Ibrahimovic, Kjaer and Giroud, but was more about collective harmony.
Two of the three are no longer there, the other is a Senior Advisor and so the leadership in Milan has to be completely rebuilt. Looking at the dressing room, there are some certainties.
Mike Maignan is a leader, even if he has a particular character: very focused on his work, charismatic but also edgy, not easy to manage. Fikayo Tomori is vocal, especially on the pitch: he talks a lot, makes himself heard but does not have the authority of the great central defenders of Milan.
Davide Calabria is the captain but is not experiencing the best moment, Alessandro Florenzi is important for creating a calm atmosphere but unfortunately he will be out for a long time, while Christian Pulisic is intelligent and serious but he arrived just a year ago.
And so, the most important man could become Alvaro Morata, who has inhabited the dressing rooms of Spain, Real Madrid, Juve, Atletico, Chelsea and has just won a European Championship as captain. It is no coincidence that already on the first day, after Milan-Torino, he spoke as a leader.
“We need to take a step further mentally. We need to work hard, work, commit more fouls, become a tougher team,” he said. But what about Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, two of the names we haven’t mentioned.
The cooling break hasn’t helped things. Theo and Leao’s reaction is striking because, at 26 and 25, they are at the age and experience with Milan to become the leaders of the group, instead they are at the centre of controversy and have started badly under the new coach.
Looking on the bright side, in a situation like this, there is room for new leaders to assert themselves. Reijnders, Fofana, Abraham, Pulisic: if they have something to say, let them raise their voices.
