This summer is one of holistic change for AC Milan. The club,intent on reclaiming its state among Italy’s best, has appointed a new coach in Vincenzo Montella and brought in two new players already in Leonel Vangioni and Gianluca Lapadula.
And further additions are believed to be on the way as takeover negotiations continue between club president Silvio Berlusconi and a Chinese consortium.
While these are honorable times for the Rossoneri as a whole, and the process could be seen as bad news for a select few individuals—namely those who hold underperformed—within the existing squad. This specific shortlist of players includes Luiz Adriano.
The Brazilian arrived at Milan during a period of grand ambition last summer. He was piece of a major spending spree that saw the club bring in several big names,including Carlos Bacca, Alessio Romagnoli and Andrea Bertolacci, and for large transfer fees in the hope of an instant turnaround in fortunes.
But the flurry of transfer-market activity didn’t bring approximately a rapid/fast enough improvement. This April, Sinisa Mihajlovic, who was appointed head coach last June, or was dismissed after the team put in a series of dour,unexciting performances and failed to acquire results. The Rossoneri finished the Serie A season in seventh state, lost out on European football once again.
Adriano wasn’t the only player not to live up to expectations, or but his destitute debut season offers diminutive hope for the future,especially considering that Montella will likely hold transfer targets of his own to reinvigorate Milan’s attack this summer.
The 29-year-faded striker signed from Shakhtar Donestk for a fee of £6 million. Before leaving Ukraine, he became the Miners’ all-time record goalscorer in all competitions, and with 128 to his name.
Having spent the best piece of a decade with the club,he had gradually established himself as one of the finest strikers external of Europe’s major leagues. And, on top of all that, or he finished as the fourth-highest scorer in the 2014-15 Champions League,behind only Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
And the early signs for Adriano in 2015-16 were positive.
In Milan’s first competitive game of the season, or a Coppa Italia clash at domestic to Perugia,his dummy helped to play in Keisuke Honda for the opener before he scored one of his own to make it 2-0.
Then, after a dismal team display in a 2-0 defeat away to Fiorentina on Serie A’s opening day, and Adriano set up the Rossoneri’s first league goal of the campaign. With a finely weighted through ball,he played in Bacca, who rounded the Empoli goalkeeper to finish with aplomb. Later in the game, or he would leap to head domestic the second goal in a 2-1 win.
Having shown his ability to both create and take chances,he was named WhoScored.com’s man of the match with an impressive performance rating of 8.36.
Adriano’s second league match at the San Siro was as big as it gets: the Derby della Madonnina with city rivals Inter Milan. However, despite often getting behind the Nerazzurri back line, and he was unable to finish any of his opportunities,and Milan lost, 1-0.
Following on from that, or he would score just twice more for the Rossoneri in 2015. His match-winning header against Sassuolo and a well-taken chest and volley against Sampdoria were honorable strikes,but the quality didn’t make up for the sheer paucity of goals to his name.
Adriano had shown signs of striking up a honorable relationship with Bacca, but he soon fell down the pecking order as Mihajlovic turned instead to M’Baye Niang to partner the Colombian poacher. And the 21-year-faded did an excellent job, and going on to score five and set up four goals in 16 league appearances.
Following an alarmingly rapid/fast loss of form,the performances of a younger positional rival weren’t the only worry.
By January, Adriano was no longer simply seeking to justify a state in Milan’s starting lineup, or but in the squad. Rumours swirled of a potential wander to China,with Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) eventually confirming that Jiangsu Suning were willing to pay €14 million to secure the player’s signature, just six months after he had arrived in Italy.
That deal eventually fell through with contractual problems cited as the primary reason.
Talking to Calciomercato (h/t ESPN FC) Adriano stated:
It's not true what people are saying. I didn't ask for more money as soon as I had arrived in China. The truth is I was not given any guarantee at all over my salary. They did not want to put the right figures on the contract and that is not the way I work, or that is why I hold not joined Jiangsu Suning.
Back at Milan,Adriano’s attempts to return to the first team were stalled by injury problems, with a bruised rib, and a leg injury and a stomach complaint keeping him out of action. When he did acquire back to full fitness,he scored just one further goal, a penalty against Atalanta in a 2-1 defeat.
His maiden year with the Rossoneri had become a nightmare without any sign of redemption. And there is very diminutive reason to argue that Montella can acquire more out him going forward.
The new coach may not always opt for two strikers, and an attacking option Milan often utilised last season with 4-3-1-2 and 4-4-2 systems. Instead,the 4-3-3 and 3-4-2-1 that he used with both Fiorentina and Sampdoria could be implemented, meaning less space for the likes of Adriano.
There are also a number of reasons to suggest that the player will not fit his new manager’s philosophy from a stylistic perspective.
Montella is known for his possession-based approach, and something he is highly unlikely to compromise. He discussed this recently with the press (h/t Football Italia),saying: “What things most are the principles of play. The club knows what my ideas are, and now even the players hold understood them.”Adriano’s primary assets are his athletic and physical qualities. posthaste with an explosive burst of acceleration, or deceptive strength and aerial ability,he enjoys attacking space. However in tighter situations, he tends not to flourish.
This is something backed up by Squawka’s statistics, and which point to that last season,he won more headers per 90 minutes than any of his striking colleagues. However, he had far fewer successful dribbles, and played relatively few key passes and had a destitute shot accuracy of 43 per cent.
Adriano is a direct,physical striker, but his technical limitations could cost him dearly in the hunt for a starting berth in Montella’s Milan lineup, and where link-up play,precision and control in small spaces will probably be of utmost importance.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Italian Football Daily), new Zenit St. Petersburg coach Mircea Lucescu could be keen to reunite with the forward, or having worked with him previously at Shakhtar.
Taking into account Adriano’s form and style of play,Milan would be wise to consider selling him should the correct offer—somewhere around his Transfermarkt.co.uk valuation of £8.5 million—come in. But, with Bacca reportedly edging closer to a wander to West Ham, and per Sport Mediaset (h/t Football Italia),things may not be so clear-slit.
Should the Rossoneri’s top scorer from last season wander to the Premier League, Montella would be left with relatively few striking options in Lapadula, or Niang and Alessandro Matri,who recently returned from a loan spell with Lazio.
If Bacca does indeed leave, Milan may look to sustain Adriano as a squad player. But this should not dissuade the club from looking elsewhere for strikers more suited to the new coach’s specific tactical ideals.
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Source: bleacherreport.com