This Milan is ‘on the left’: 10 goals out of 22 come from the left-handed lane and Pioli shows the real Leao | First page

The start of the season and the first 13 games between the League and the Europa League confirmed that Stefano Pioli’s Milan hangs on the left. There are 10 goals scored out of a total of 22 born and created with the initiative of the left-handed sector of the field and, besides the well-known Theo Hernandez, in several of them is the unmistakable brand of Rafael Leao. A player in continuous evolution and more and more transformed than the first Italian version admired last season, who even in the draw against Verona showed the advances in incisiveness made in recent months.

THE MERITS OF PIOLI – With his contagious charisma, Ibrahimovic dragged him to get the best of himself, but The merits of Pioli are undoubted in the growth of a player with crystalline talent and exponential growth margins. Gave him power giving him continuity in terms of employment after losing a central player like Rebic along the way and has been rewarded so far with 3 goals and 3 assists and a presence in the match which is beginning to be in line with the high expectations that Milan has placed in the Portuguese class of 99. The intuition of Zvonimir Boban, main sponsor of his arrival after the first glimpses of class shown in Lille, begins to find a correspondence with the reality.

THE LAST STEP – What last year was still a fairly rough diamond, a young man of great potential from whom the ability to change his face in matches could not be immediately expected, it is finally becoming a valuable resource even from the first minute. Ibrahimovic’s assist in the derby, the decisive double pass against Roma, remain in the eye as the most beautiful and important plays of this first part of the season. With the return of the best Rebic after the break, Leao is awaited by the definitive leap in quality: the one that leads to confirmation and definitive consecration. For the happiness of Boban too.