With Milan sitting down with Brescia for possible deffered payment of Tonali’s 25M Split as 15M option on loan and 10M bonus rumours have now emerged that Brescia are not willing to discount Tonali’s asking price and are looking for new buyers for the player.
Tonali had a very mixed season that there would be good arguments from his supporters and his naysayers alike on whether he was good for the team or not. Let’s take a look at a few reasons as to why Milan should redeem Tonali.
- Potential at the age of 21
Tonali is one of the youngest and brightest prospects in Italian football. Finishing 13th in the Golden Boy award 2019 Tonali had high expectations when he finished the 2019/20 season at Brescia. There was a derby in the market for Tonali and finally his boyhood club Milan snapped him up.
While Tonali was used in a 4-3-3 by coach Corini at Brescia and was the undisputed starter, Milan played a 4-2-3-1 and had competition in the form of Kessie and Bennacer. The roles differed vastly, at Brescia playing as a regista Tonali was flanked by 2 mezzala’s and they shared the defensive burden.
At Milan Tonali played in a double pivot where Pioli used him as the deep lying playmaker along with duties of maintaining a narrow 2nd line of defense as well as press opponents. This exposed him to much more duties than usual and at his age it was a bit too much. However as the season progressed we could see that Tonali was settling into the role more until injuries hampered his season and Meite was started to be preffered by Pioli.
- Penetrative passing and passing option
One of Tonali’s distinctive traits at Brescia was to play penetrating pass that would split the lines. We got quite a demonstration of this vs Lille when Tonali played on Rebic for his eventual assist for Castillejo. His ability to generate passes at certain angles are also an asset.
I mentioned earlier how Tonali slowly grew into his role. One example of how he was good for acting as a DLP or even helping to bring the ball out from the back was when Kalulu was pressed by Cagliari front 3. Tonali easily acted as a 3rd passing option and helped Milan beat the first line of press before he went on a run to beat his marker.
- His Athletic data
Modern footballers are extremely quick and most of the sprint speeds are recorded by forward players or the full backs. For a Defensive midfielder Tonali has recorded one of the quickest sprint speed in Serie A against Fiorentina when he recorded 35.03 kmp/h. This data shows how athletically Tonali has very sound physical ability.
- The homegrown UEFA role
When fielding a 23 man squad, every team are expected to field 8 homegrown players. According to UEFA homegrown players are defined as those who have spent 3 years in the relevant club’s country (in this case it is Italy) between the ages 15-21.
With Milan having lost Donnarumma and the future of Caldara and Alessio in limbo, Milan would need to fill the quota with Primavera players. With Tonali Milan can have a quality addition to the homegrown quota that can compete in the squad.
- The Player actually wants to play for Milan
Maldini in the past has spoken about how players are asked to make an economic sacrifice when signing for Milan owing to poor finances and FFP issues. The “will” of the player is paramount in these situations and Tonali is a fan of Milan since his childhood and the player wants to be part of Milan in its resurgence.
FINAL VERDICT
While we can only qualitatively speak about the player, the fans cannot speak to the financial situation of the club and it is only something the people in power can handle.
The prowess of Maldini, Massara and Gazidis in the market , making the squad competitive with small investments, have shown the tifosi that Milan can be great again and as a fan I trust in them whatever be their final decision.a
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