Milan, Gimenez flop: what Allegri thinks

The goal, this unknown. After eight days of the championship, Santiago Gimenez is still without a goal. Zero, nisba, nada, to put it in his own way. And yes, in Holland the Milan center forward had a good relationship with the opposing goal. When he moved to Italy, between the end of January and the beginning of February, Santi packed up the 65 goals he scored with Feyenoord, with the promise of scoring at least as many in his new adventure in Milan. Instead, Gimenez struggled last season and has never entered the scoreboard in the current Serie A, despite the various injuries of his teammates (from Leao to Nkunku and Pulisic) giving him the starting shirt on seven out of eight occasions. The only joy? The goal against Lecce in the Italian Cup. Little, too little to be from Milan.

MAX WANTS MORE

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Goals aside, Bebote’s last performances before last Friday’s match against Pisa were encouraging. Santiago had fought well against Juventus, earning the penalty which was then missed by Pulisic, then he had given a shock by coming off the bench against Fiorentina, earning himself another penalty, this time converted by Leao. Against Pisa, however, Santi once again scored brilliantly, so much so that Massimiliano Allegri shouted at him several times during the 76 minutes in which he remained on the pitch. The coach shouted in an attempt to shake his centre-forward. “Holy, wake up! Are you sleeping?”, Max’s favorite call. He is now also meditating on his attacking choices in view of the match against Atalanta tomorrow. Pulisic, as written further down the page, is still unavailable, but now there is also the candidacy of Nkunku in the role of Leao’s partner or a more conservative solution – Saelemaekers behind Leao -, replicating the system seen with Fiorentina. In today’s training Allegri will check whether the Frenchman, who has just recovered from a sprained toe, is finally ready for his first start in the league and, above all, whether Gimenez is suffering at the moment or is instead calm in view of the next match. In Max’s lot there is also Loftus-Cheek, who should be fit and active again in Bergamo: the Englishman is another option to be used (also) as a striker.

THE GAME OF “NINE”

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Santi, however, remains at least until January (and who knows if even then…) the only true center forward in the Milan squad. Nkunku and Leao may be adapted, but they are not by nature. It is normal, therefore, that Allegri is forced to always keep him alive in his choices from match to match. Atalanta is just the next stop. To think that, on the other bench, Juric will be able to afford to field one of Scamacca or Krstovic and keep the excluded one of the two as a substitute. By the way, how are the others in Serie A doing in the “nine” game? Among the starters, the only one left scoreless is Stulic from Lecce, but in Salento there is also Camarda who has already scored. Just as at Genoa, Colombo has now lost his place to the young Ekhator, who scored against Napoli. Similar story at Como, where Fabregas alternates Morata – in search of the first high – and Douvikas, who has already archived a goal. Basically, the number of starting center forwards who are still dry can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And, in relation to the minutes played, Gimenez is clearly the leader.

FUTURE

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It is logical to expect Santiago to do more, but it is no mystery that the Mexican came close to leaving Milan in the last days of the summer transfer market session. In short, the doubts were probably already there before. It’s up to Gimenez himself to escape them, who from the point of view of commitment is always unassailable. For Milan, however, it cannot be enough. We need shots worthy of a shirt – the “7” – worn in the past by a certain Andrij Shevchenko. The Ukrainian reached 175 points for the Rossoneri. Even less is asked of Santi, but starting to remove that annoying zero would lighten the burden on Bebote’s shoulders.