Gimenez continues to be on the bench: Allegri doesn’t see him ready

In these cases it is never clear how much is a real belief or a simple wish to be expressed publicly, hoping to get it right. For over a month now, Allegri, when asked about Gimenez, has explained that he considers the Mexican an important resource for the end of the season. The classic extra weapon that returns to the team’s disposal after being missing for too long. The fact is that everything really seemed set up for it to be so: a jammed department, comrades full of problems of various kinds, tactical misunderstandings, personal uncertainties. Santiago seemed like the right man to revitalize the offensive phase. The hungriest, after four and a half months of forced absence and a necessary but devastating ankle surgery for the progress of his season.

recovery

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The Mexican was impatient, he wanted to return already in the derby and then he managed to return to the pitch two weeks later against Torino. A handful of important minutes and also quite comforting. It seemed like fresh air, in a team reduced to clinging to Pavlovic’s goals. The problem is that it’s not working. The tactical change from the two attackers to the trident failed, Leao’s psycho-physical recovery failed, and the attempt to return Milan to Gimenez failed. The good start with Toro was not followed up: half an hour at Maradona instead of Füllkrug, with the misery of just seven balls touched, and the whole match against Udinese spent watching on the bench. It was precisely this context that stood out, which generates many – and important – questions about him. In the context of a dramatically distorted match, why wasn’t Santi taken into consideration at all? Why did Allegri only warm up Füllkrug in the first half? Why did everyone enter the second half except him?

choices

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One answer could lie in the playing time in the legs of Füllkrug and Nkunku, superior to his, but in Naples the German still played only one half and the French just over a quarter of an hour: a segment that even Santi could have faced. It is therefore easier to imagine a purely technical choice, without considering that Allegri preferred a loan player – Füllkrug – who will return to the sender at the end of the season, while Gimenez was paid 28 million plus bonuses and up to now has scored seven goals in thirty-two appearances. If the Mexican wasn’t even considered at two-nil for Udinese, when then? The psychological component obviously plays a central role: first the inability to shake off the league goals stagnation at zero, then the tunnel of the long injury and now the lack of confidence on the part of the coach, which inevitably generates questions about the direction that next season could take. That is, when the club will most certainly bring home another center forward, one who is presumed to be of a good level. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel for Gimenez, who will have the pleasure of playing in a World Cup at home, but we need to make sense of this end of the season. Transforming Allegri’s hope into concrete.