On Wednesday, Crystal Palace’s Alexander Sørloth, in an interview with NTB in Norway, said something that should be remembered by all footballers when discussing his struggles at Selhurst Park: “There’s not a lot I can do to turn things around. One goal may be enough.”
For Tiemoué Bakayoko at Milan, the same logic can be applied, but not with goals.
The Chelsea loanee has, for the most part, endured a torrid start to the season in Italy, lambasted on a near weekly basis by the local media for his rather tepid, if not disastrous, performances.
However, despite all this, and much to their astonishment, Gennaro Gattuso persisted with the France international, and it’s finally paid off.
Since starting against Genoa on October 31st, the 24-year-old hasn’t missed a minute of football, and has done well in the last three games, including the 2-0 loss against Juventus.
In the league, over the course of the past 270 minutes of football in the league, Gazzetta dello Sport point out the Chelsea midfielder has won the most duels (26), including eight in the air (eight, also a team high), as well as recovering the most balls (24).
For Bakayoko, it’s mostly down to playing more regularly, helped by the amount of injuries suffered by his midfield teammates, and he’s won himself a spot in the team.
He said: “For me, it’s essential to play, I feel better and I know I can do even more. I need to stay focused and think about greatly contributing to the team”.
With an important game against Lazio coming up, Bakayoko’s form is of great to Milan, who, if it continues, might find it hard to find excuses not to trigger the €35m clause to make the move permanent, which was pretty much inconceivable just two weeks ago.
