Junior Messias has admitted that he struggled with the pressure of playing for a club like AC Milan, and that he tried to simply not make mistakes rather than doing anything with confidence.
Messias joined Milan on an initial one-year loan deal during the 2021 summer transfer window and he scored five league goals that season, which of course ended with a Scudetto win.
He would repeat his five league goals last season, also getting two assists as he had the campaign prior, but the Rossoneri decided to overhaul the right wing department.
Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze arrived during the summer window and that was enough to convince Messias to move to Genoa, with the conditions for the obligation to buy clause recently being met.
Messias spoke about his time with Genoa so far – with whom he has one goal in nine games – in an interview with Il Secolo XIX and he also reflected on the time that he spent with Milan. MilanNews published the quotes from the paper.
“Too much pressure at Milan, I played to avoid making mistakes. The enthusiasm I found here was important. The main thing, however, was the desire to return to play with joy,” he said.
“At Milan it’s not that you don’t enjoy playing, you’re at the top of the top, but there I realised I had to take the field to avoid making mistakes. I was criticised in that period and if you mentally focus on that, in the end you make a mistake.
“I wanted to go back to being the player I was at Crotone and I thought that Genoa could allow me to go back to being that player.”
This is why it’s important to evaluate the psychology of the players big clubs sign. Players like Messias and CDK cannot handle the pressure that comes with playing in a big club.
When Milan signed Messias we could have easily got Felipe Anderson for cheap which would have been a better signing.
Same with CDK. We could have signed Amrabat or Dybala instead.
Simple minded.
Amrabat?? Must be a joke. Just look how dreadful he has been at United.
Dybala? That guy is only available for 50% of games per season. Plus, where do we play him? He can’t run the right wing like he used to and offers no defense. The whole point of the 2023 transfer window was to beef up the middle and play 4-3-3 (regardless of how it turned out). The only position Dybala could have played for us was trequartista in 4-2-3-1 and he would have offered less pressing than little Brahim provided. Dybala is made for a 2-man front line. Roma will be his last stop in Europe. I predict Middle East or MLS after.
Amrabat or Dybala? Really?
THOSE are your choices to sign instead of Messias?????
I don’t know if you knew, but these guys also draw a salary too. There is no cheat mode like in FM.
– Dybala’s salary was 10x (was 13m at that time), Messias salary
– Felipe Anderson has double the salary of Messias and about 6-8x the transfer cost.
– Amrabat is nearly the same salary but an even worse player than Messias and in a different position. Why?
Even today, Dybala is still making nearly 8m a year before bonuses. That’s on par with Leao.
Story of Milan. They need someone like Zlatan to tell them about the imaginary traps.
“but there I realised I had to take the field to avoid making mistakes. ” Yep it’s a big club with a heavy shirt. Probably the same thing happened with CDK, a tiny mistake is magnified. Elsewhere you can get away with that or recover as there’s less media attention. Its interesting he says he avoided mistakes but his contribution was quite good.
on the CDK I’d say age as well as new league can play a factor. Not every 21-22 can handle such pressure immediately but grow into it. Leao on his first year, Paqueta also comes to mind as players who came young/ish couldnt handle it right away but later blossomed. That’s probably why many start in portugal/eredivise and even france. No way around it, it takes something special to thrive young at the likes of Milan-Inter-Juve-Bayern-Madrid-Liverpool etc.
It’s probably what separates world class players from everyone else. You can have talent, but if you don’t have the mentality you will never fulfill your full potential. You look at champions like Kaka and Shevchenko, who arrived and hit the ground running and never looked back. Ibra was like this, although his first big step was Juve, not with us. Even Abbiati had a stunning debut season. He was totally fearless and was a major contributor to the 1999 scudetto. Unfortunately, mental strength is difficult to assess…
Yep it’s mentals over anything else. And you have to have character. Its missing these days and fewer people have it. it’s why those few get paid way more too
“it takes something special to thrive young at the likes of Milan-Inter-Juve-Bayern-Madrid-Liverpool etc.” fully agree
Messias had way more of a good impact on Milans entire attack than CDK ever did.
Duh
But I wasn’t pitting one against the other
For the player and the hype he had around him Junior did great, he came through clutch on many occasions, his contributions were much better than what we got from much bigger names, present and past. He should be proud of what he achieved.
Agreed.
amen to that! I have nothing, but big respect for this man, he reached to the sky and made history.
Well said.
Thanks Messias. We’ll never forget your goal in Madrid.
Messias had 12 goals in two seasons I believe. He did way more than CDK did. Guy is a hard worker. Not necessary the most skilled, but he did very good for us. Beyond my expectations. Hopefully he can get back to playing regularly.