It hasn’t been a great title defence from Milan this season. In fact it’s been one of the worst defences in Serie A history, but that hasn’t put me off. Coming into this season I hadn’t been particularly aware of Rafael Leão or Brahim Díaz as I’d never really strayed away from the Premier League apart from a brief period of watching La Liga a few years ago.
Leão is the sort of player that I’d have loved to watch when I was younger as he plays with a smile on his face and with the flair of many great attackers. Rafa’s skillset puts him in the same bracket as some of the most exciting wingers in Europe. A clever dribbler, capable of cutting in or going down the line and creating chances on either foot, Leão is an incredibly exciting watch on Milan’s left flank.
He has a nice connection with left-back Theo Hernandez who will often overlap him to offer a crossing option into the box. Leão’s shooting and crossing techniques are very clean which is shown by how much curve he’s able to generate. At 6’2, he has quite a lanky frame, coupled with his massive strides while running, and is absolutely rapid on the ball which makes him a huge transitional threat.
Moving onto Brahim Díaz who is a nippy 5’7 and has been played as a sort of false right-wing in more recent months in Pioli’s 3421 but is nominally a number 10. Díaz has is an excellent ball carrier who is a fantastic dribbler on both feet.
His excellent solo run vs Juventus at San Siro earlier this season was really the best showing of what Brahim can be at his best. Picking up Vlahovic’s loose pass just behind the halfway line, Díaz dribbled past Leonardo Bonucci and evaded a sliding challenge from Adrien Rabiot to calmly slot past Wojcech Szczesny to make it 2–0.
Díaz’s biggest problem, in my opinion, is that he sometimes isn’t as involved in games as he should be and gets overlooked. He’s a crafty player on the ball but I would like to see him on the ball more and to make more of an effort to take on left-backs.
I do think that Brahim would benefit more from having an equivalent talent to Theo Hernandez in the right-back/right wing-back slot so he had someone who he could find on overlaps more consistently.
Both Leão and Díaz have struggled since the world cup break, as have Milan in general, but when they are confident they are absolutely brilliant to watch. I regret not watching Milan last season when they won the Scudetto and Leão was named Serie A’s MVP.
It does seem like a very real possibility that Rafa could leave this summer if he isn’t able to sign a new contract and Milan choose to cash in, rather than lose him for nothing in summer 2024.
Brahim is more likely to stay with The Rossoneri, although there has been talk that he might renew his Real Madrid contract. That said it is hard to see where he fits in this current Madrid system unless he’s going to be a rotation option for them, which would be a shame in my opinion as I really love watching him.
