Milan, where has Leao gone? Another subdued test. But Pioli absolves him

Leao’s match poster is a crooked cross in the first half. The Portuguese, repeatedly let loose by Mazzocchi, controls the ball on the trocar, raises his head and sends the ball to the first ring. The fans moan in disbelief, he lowers his gaze and leaves the game. He hasn’t scored in 10 league and cup matches. Where did it go?

BEAUTIFUL

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Bewildered, bewildered. In the 1-1 draw against Salernitana he managed almost nothing. On a couple of occasions he stumbled along the out line looking for one-on-one, the house specialty, but nothing. The Portuguese, as deus ex machina of the Rossoneri world, seems to have lost the way of the solver. The last call dates back to exactly two months ago, January 14 against Lecce, then ten games without scoring and a string of five games. Against Salernitana he finished with six negative passes, five positives and three blocked shots. None more than him. This is to say that he tried anyway, especially in the first half, but the grenade block set up by Gyomber, Daniliuc and Pirola intimidated him a bit. In the last outings in Serie A – obviously not all, but most – the Leao of the first two years for the Rossoneri has been reviewed, not very continuous and intermittent. Example: against Tottenham it was 7, but not today. Pioli, in the press room, reiterated that the problem is collective, in the sense that Rafael should be served better. “He improves, everyone improves”. This is the concept.

LOST BALLS

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Other clues come from the numbers. No tackle won, no through ball and 14 turnovers. Only Theo did worse than him (18). Pioli called him back to the bench after 62 minutes. This year he had only returned to the locker room so early against Torino, out after a spell at the end of October. Five months later it happened again. Above his head, perhaps, flutter shadows and dark clouds relating to an unsigned contract renewal. The upper floors of the Milan house continue to reiterate that the will is to repel the assaults of other clubs, but the Leao of the last two months is a completely different thing from the one seen in the first leg derby. Salernitana remains a watershed: in January, when Serie A resumed after the World Cup, they had knocked out a super Ochoa with a flicker of his. Motivated, decisive and protagonist. Today he doesn’t smile, muffled by the wall erected in front of him by his compatriot Sousa. The tough childhood in Almada, a suburb of Lisbon, taught him to dribble through life’s adversities. Now we need to raise our heads again.