The Mexican remains at zero goals in the league (627 minutes on the pitch), but if at the beginning of the season he worked for two and came close to scoring, now he is no longer able to be dangerous. With Roma ahead, there will be other favourites…
Santiago Gimenez has been in the tunnel for a couple of games and now the more he runs, the more he digs. The impression, watching him play, gets worse night after night and it’s natural to wonder if, instead of yet another confidence pill, it wouldn’t be good for him to sit down for a moment. Watching the others for a match and maybe entering the last 15 minutes, when you run desperately, throw balls into the area and no one thinks anymore.
the gimenez crisis
—
Santiago Gimenez perhaps thinks too much and is certainly in crisis: after 9 league games, 8 played as a starter, he is still without goals. He scored against Lecce in the Italian Cup and for the national team against Korea. For Milan, it is a big exception. His centre-forwards, when they were starters, scored at least one goal by the end of October: Ibrahimovic, Giroud, Bacca, Piatek, Balotelli, also Morata, Luiz Adriano, Pazzini, Kalinic and Nino Torres. Even Kluivert, in that terrible 1997, scored a goal in Udine in September.
cheerful phrases
—
Allegri extended a hand to him after the match: “Santiago is an important player for Milan. He’s giving us a lot of help in the defensive phase, he works hard, he works a lot for the team. I’m very happy. I’m convinced that he has to think about working and the goals will come. Together we can only move forward.” True for the first games of the season, up until De Gea’s save against Fiorentina, in which Gimenez worked for two and came close to scoring. Sometimes he made bad mistakes, sometimes he was unlucky, but he was close. Not against Pisa and Atalanta: he never took the goal, he was never dangerous. Indeed, in Bergamo he also seemed to be in psychological difficulty. Milan’s way of playing certainly doesn’t help them – a few crosses, a few vertical balls, never a continuous siege of the area – but there is something to change in this story… and not just because Gimenez went off with a blow against Atalanta. Against Roma on Sunday evening, the favorites for a starting shirt will be others.
the attack against Roma
—
The attack, by the way, deserves a discussion. The last four Italian champion teams, from 2022 to 2025, won the scudetto producing a number of expected goals per game between 2.08 (Inzaghi’s Inter) and 1.42 (Conte’s Napoli). This Milan, despite the excellent start, has an even lower value: 1.40. And he doesn’t make up for it with shots on goal, which are 4.44 per game. The Italian champions have always gone above 5 between 2022 and 2024. What does this mean? That Milan are not very dangerous. Allegri defends first and the team often attacks with individual improvisations. Inter dominates matches much more: 1.91 XG, 5.38 shots on average per game. It remains to be seen what Allegri will do to change. Loftus-Cheek has entered well: he is also an option as a starter. Maybe together with Leao, with Nkunku in the second half. Doing worse than in the first half in Bergamo will be difficult.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED