Coming into the Euros, before I saw Poland play, the one player that I saw as their sole threat was of course the Nuke known as Lewandowski. A man who is still one of the best strikers in the world. Apart from him, maybe you could say Kuba or Krychowiak, but it was really all about the Bayern man. His reputation for Dortmund and Munich demanded it, so it made perfect sense that all eyes would be on him above any other Polish player.
So it was a surprise that not only were Poland really good as a whole team not relying on Lewandowski, but Milik was one of the players that really impressed. A smart intelligent attacking player, who knows how to find space and create chances. He was one of the players in all the Euros that came under the radar and shone.
Lewandowski actually didn't have that great a Euros, but because the team was so well coached with so many good individual players, that did not matter. Milik especially, playing in the hole and finding really clever spots that defenders failed to pick him up from was what impressed me the most. In every attack that Poland had, he was in some way involved crucially in it.
For Napoli to have acquired a talent like this is a great move. He is a good footballer who will easily fit into the highly technical market that is the Serie A. The league may not have been what it used to be back nineties and early millenium, but you still have to be very smart with a good football brain to succeed in it.
He'll be working with the very exciting Sarri who made Napoli the most attractive team to watch in the Serie A last season. Milik will also benefit from having some very nice players around him, and seeing how he can Insigne can combine in a quick counter-attack should be interesting.
However, not everyone is perfect and Milik is definitely imperfect. As good as he is in getting himself in great positions with great movement off the ball, the amount of times this guy missed really golden opportunities had me tweeting expletives like crazy. Some of the ones he spurned were unacceptable for a professional footballer. If he put away the chances that came his way at the Euros, Poland would have probably made the semis.
This is something that can be trained on with those misses being turned into goals. The perfect example of this is Mkhitaryan. Two seasons ago, Mkhitaryan was just like Milik. He would get into great areas, which does take skill, but would blunder in epic fashion. I am talking times where he would run half the length of the pitch, time his run to perfection past the defender and with only needing a tap-in, he would conspire to mess it up.
Then Tuchel might have sprinkled some magical dust on him and those blunders got turned into goals and he became one of the leading goalscorers from midfield in the Bundesliga. He was so good that Dortmund couldn't keep him and Mourinho swooped in and snatched him up.
So there is hope for Milik. This merely means getting on the training ground and just working day in day out. It's all about having composure and just perfecting his finishing technique. A player with his talent can put away those chances and get a lot of goals because of his natural ability to get into these goalscoring positions, which you can't train. So he's done the hard part, the other aspect of getting it in the fishnet is down to his work-ethic and Sarri himself along with the coaches getting him to properly finish.
By no means is he the answer to Higuain. That's a painful loss and the Napoli fans will let their feelings be known if Higuain is brave enough to step onto the pitch against them. What this signing signifies is Napoli keeping their identity of being that exciting forward-thinking team. Milik gives them something very different from Higuain but still maintains the attacking mindframe. And who knows, he couud turn out to be better. It all comes down to how Sarri fits him into the team and what new tricks he can teach him that works for Napoli. HH
Leave Comments Below
No comments:
Post a Comment