“There will be question marks on his attitude”- Joe Cole claims scouts will question £100million Chelsea target’s attitude in UCL clash
After the Chelsea-AC Milan match, former Blues winger Joe Cole claimed on BT Sport that scouts would question Milan striker Rafael Leao’s demeanor during the Italian team’s defeat against Chelsea. (h/t Football.London.)
The team led by Graham Potter won convincingly by a score of 3-0 at Stamford Bridge to earn their first Champions League victory of the year. Leao was not any better than the other Milan players in terms of performance.
The Portuguese international struggled to have an influence on the game, with the exception of one frantic run late in the first half to go past Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah to set up a shooting opportunity.
He was not located frequently enough by the Serie A champions as well. Other than that, it was obvious that he was unable to follow James’ runs. There was plenty of room for the English wing-back down the right side for him to score and provide an assist.
Here’s what Cole said about the 23-year-old’s performance and his attitude problem (h/t Football.London):
“Do you know what? For all of his talent and everything tonight, there will be scouts here, and there will be question marks on his attitude.
“He went like most of his teammates tonight. He went a bit limp against James. He didn’t get his own way. First 20 minutes, he was loving life, chest out, he was running at players.
“Reece James put it on him a bit, and we watched his body language. If you’re going to spend £100million or whatever his price tag will be, you’ve got to tick all of the boxes. There’s still some time left, and he is exciting.”
It is tough to judge a player’s performance in a game in which his team got outplayed. Moreover, Milan missed some key players due to injuries in this game, which was palpable with the gap in quality despite the fact that Chelsea would have been favourites even against the full-strength opponents.