Costacurta claims Milan are ‘better’ without Leao: “With him on the pitch they concede more”

Alessandro Costacurta has suggested that AC Milan are actually a better team without Rafael Leao in it, at both ends of the field.

Leao went into the game against Atalanta full of confidence having scored three goals in his last two league games, versus Fiorentina and Pisa. However, he exited after just 45 minutes of action, and to call it ‘action’ might be too generous because he was anonymous.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning, it continued the trend of ‘unrelenting extremes’ for the Portuguese forward, who seems to flip between feast and famine on a game by game basis. That being said, Massimiliano Allegri did confirm that he tried to play through a hip issue.

Costacurta was working as a pundit for Sky during last night’s game against Atalanta and he offered his thoughts on the Leao debate, after a disappointing night for the forward.

“Milan played much better without Leao. You can talk about strikers in a certain way, but with him on the pitch they concede more goals. It’s a fact that is and will continue to be discussed. With Leao on the pitch, Milan are no longer a team of eleven players,” he said (via MilanNews).