AC Milan have found their Franck Kessie replacement internally as Ismael Bennacer continues to provide top quality performances in the double pivot, a report has detailed.
Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) writes how Kessie’s summer farewell seemed to have left a chasm in Milan’s midfield and there was not a player who arrived that obviously filled the gap in qualities that the Ivorian brought, at least while Tommaso Pobega continues to be introduced with care and Aster Vranckx has only had a cameo so far.
In this first phase of the season up to the international break it is fair to say Bennacer has been a shining star in the Rossoneri’s midfield, and he is increasingly becoming a leader of Pioli’s team after the Scudetto win.
In this regard, Algerian has continued in all respects the legacy of Kessie, taking on a few more tasks in the defensive phase and contributing with crucial goals too such as the one against Atalanta.
For this reason, the dialogues between the club and the player’s entourage to renew the contract expiring in 2024 have resumed. Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara struck a general agreement last spring, but then a sudden change of ideas followed as Bennacer’s entourage raised their demands with the ownership change in progress.
Now the Rossoneri are pushing for an agreement, hoping to reach a handshake for the renewal as soon as possible before interested clubs begin to come forward.
Milan can not play Tonali and Bennacer together because they leave a gap behind and then playing Kalulu and Tomori there’s another gap play Kjaer and try Vranckx maybe against Empoli because we actually need a defensive mid
Bennacer has been absolutely fantastic. His aggressiveness going after (and mostly winning) tackles against all of the very best opponents is so impressive. His ability to calmly dribble around or between and shield the ball away from opposing defenders and delivering accurate passes has been huge for us. He still, IMHO, remains the most underrated player on the team. Clearly our best players are Mike, Theo and Rafa (super talented… and I’m not starting the Rafa debate now here); but those 3 get tons of attention and credit. Bennacer does get credit from some; but he has been IMO equally great as those 3 and those are our 4 best players… yet he doesn’t get the credit and his weekly ratings after games haven’t been high enough.
fun fact Ismael Bennacer was top successful dribbler in italian league of around 86 % success rate when he was at empoli ,
for example neymar dribble success rate is only 52 %