Going beyond Rafael Leao’s obvious important in terms of the skill he shows and the goal contributions he racks up, the numbers show that AC Milan are better as a team when he plays.
Leao has now recovered from the injury to the hamstring of his right thigh and he wants to at least try to be on the bench against Atalanta, and then return from the start in Newcastle United next week.
Sky published a graphic on their website which highlights just how important the winger is for Milan’s fortunes. With him in the team over the past two seasons, the Rossoneri have 33 wins in 62 games with 12 losses, at an average of 1.87 points per game.
When Leao doesn’t play, that average points per game figure drops to 0.86, with just two wins in seven games and five defeats.
Milan certainly miss the 24-year-old, who has become the leader of the attack over the past couple of years after being crowned the Serie A MVP in 2021-22.
That’s why he is the highest paid player
In isolation the stats look good but compared to others there are quite a few people ahead of him. Domestically this season, Theo, Reinjders, Calabria, Pulisic, Mike, Tomori, Thiaw all had better points per match than Leao (1.92). That’s more than half the regular squad. Throw in RLC too if you think he’s regular.
Last season,.however, he did have one of the best points per match (2.00) with only Theo and the hated one (yes “that” guy ) doing better than him. I didn’t include Vranckx as he had a small number of games
Right off the bat, you can tell that this article is cherry picking data. Over the past two years? Who cares? What has happened this season?
I’m guessing Pulisic and Giroud have been MUCH more important than Leao, this season.
What is FAR more important, this season, is striker and defender v. midfield. Our midfielders have been near useless this season. I count two goals and three assists between the ENTIRE midfield (one goal and one assist for Reijnders and RLC, and an assist for Musah. The rest of the midfield has been USELESS, statistically.
Yea I’m not impressed with the new midfield at all. Seems like we still lack something and it’s probably steel. Even with Loftus Cheek who I think has been given a pass the last two games.
You are correct, the +/- on Puli (+16) and Tomori (+14) are miles ahead of everyone else in the team. They both rank significantly higher in points per match (both 2.33) than Leao (1.92) too.
We can of course interpret this as not being dependent on Leao anymore