AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli continues to be able to count upon contributions from the bench, with Luka Jovic affirming his reputation as the super sub at the moment.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) talks about Milan’s ‘golden bench’ and compares it with the two teams leading the way in Serie A. For Inter, Arnautovic and Sanchez helped very little, while for Juventus Kean never scored and Milik gave a limited hand.
Neither have such an effective centre-forward off the bench as Jovic, who is first in Serie A for goals as a substitute. He has four like Lautaro, who however scored them all in one game and is obviously a starter usually.
In the ranking of bench strikers, four are chasing him: Pavoletti (Cagliari), Piccoli (Lecce), Henry (Verona) and Noah Okafor, another summer arrive at Milan who is showing himself to be capable of making an impact.
The other comparison is with the past: Milan have a history of crucial reserve attackers, with Massaro and Ganz making San Siro sing for years, but Jovic is a very different player.
The Serbian is perhaps a bit more like Tomasson and Pazzini in his characteristics, or even Papin, given he has a physical side to his game despite being 180cm, good finishing and great positioning.
Jovic is out of contract at the end of the season, and the same report also mentions that renewal talks are planned.
Jovic is proving himself to be a second striker. He does best when playing off of Giroud, as opposed to leading the line. I wonder how he would do in a 2-striker system.
That’s his best position actually. Remember at Frankfurt him and Rebic form an excellent partnership he was playing as a second stricker. He was never a true number 9.
Actually… Both Jovic AND Giroud seems to play best when they’re next to each other in the attack. I’ve always been a fan of 2 strikers and this duo would be devastating if they were allowed to play together. (Yes, I am aware there isn’t subs for them but whose fault is that? And there is still Okafor who can play up front as well.)