There continues to be a great deal of mystery surrounding the attacking midfielder role for AC Milan and in particular the two summer additions Charles De Ketelaere and Yacine Adli.
The media and certain sections of the Milan fan base have criticised De Ketelaere for not performing as his €30m+ price tag suggests that he should, despite the fact he is playing in a completely new system at a new club with new team-mates in a new league.
Instead of using tens of video clips to try and analyse why things haven’t clicked for the Belgian – as well as for Adli – there are some quite telling signs when looking at the heat maps.
Let’s presume how Brahim Diaz plays is exactly how Pioli wants the No.10 to play. The exact area/space occupied by the Spaniard in his heat map is very similar to that of Hakan Calhanoglu’s in his last season at the club, so now we have a point of reference how the playmaker should operate in Pioli’s system.
Now let’s take a look at how De Ketelaere’s heat map in the last three Seasons at Club Brugge compares. The striking thing is that there is virtually zero overlap with the two above and therefore he has virtually nothing in common with the way Pioli asks the No.10 to play.
It must be said that he played different positions at Brugge but only when certain players were suspended or injured.
Now we’ll have a look at Adli’s heat map at Bordeaux, and it is not surprising to see that again there is very little similarity. The Franco-Algerian plays way deeper than Brahim Diaz, having more in common with how Calhanoglu is playing at Inter.
Below we see Calhanoglu’s area of operation since he moved away from Milan to city rivals Inter and Adli’s before joining Milan, and the similarity is striking.
As another point of comparison we will show Sandro Tonali’s heat map from this season. All are very similar but neither Hakan or Sandro play trequartista, therefore why should Adli play there?
If we say that Adli is similar to the way Calhanoglu plays/played – and a lot of supporters had major issues with the way the Turk operated for the Rossoneri but a position adjustment made him flourish under Simone Inzaghi – how can we expect that a ‘similar’ player will work for Milan this time in the same system?
Neither De Ketelaere nor Adli are natural in the No.10 position, while Brahim Diaz learned that role in Manchester City’s academy and still isn’t performing consistently.
Instead of putting blame on two players who are not natural to that position, journalists should perhaps be asking questions about who approved the signing of both players as trequartisti when the signs were there that they would both be very incompatible with Pioli’s demands.
