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AC Milan play their first competitive game of the season tonight against Bari in the Coppa Italia, and Rafael Leao will again play up front.
As Corriere dello Sport (via MilanPress) recall, this choice is consistent with what we saw in pre-season, where Leao virtually always played as the leader of the attack, often paired with Christian Pulisic as he will be tonight.
The friendlies convinced Max Allegri to continue on this path. In preseason, the Portuguese made four appearances with three goals and one assist. Not only that, but especially against Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea, he performed excellently when he had to push the team forward and on counter-attacks.
The spark between Leao and Allegri was immediate as the pair were united at the beginning of June. The Tuscan-born coach called the former Lille player to confirm his centrality in the project, showing faith that Leao repaid from the first training session by showing a great desire.
Getting Rafael Leao to be a consistent high-level performer is one of the challenges that awaits for Allegri but also for his team-mates. In this sense, a signing like Luka Modric should really help in terms of creating opportunities, and the Croatian was full of praise for his new team-mates.
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