CM: Efficiency, physicality and goals – Pioli has his Milinkovic-Savic in Loftus-Cheek | OneFootball

One of the players that Stefano Pioli relied upon most during his time as Lazio manager was Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and he seems to have found a similar profile at AC Milan.

As Calciomercato.com write, some have compared Ruben Loftus-Cheek with Milinkovic-Savic, the former Lazio midfielder now playing for Al Hillal. They are not quite the same player, but they certainly have a lot of overlapping characteristics.

This is especially clear from the numbers of the first four months of the year, in which the former Chelsea man was simply sensational. He has nine goals across all competitions, which makes 10 in total for the season.

His goals in 2024 came against Empoli, Udinese, Bologna (2) and Fiorentina in Serie A plus Rennes and Slavia Praha (both the first leg and the second leg) in the Europa League, to which we must add convincing performances for the team, in the defensive phase too.

Christian Pulisic did well as an attacking midfielder against Lecce, but this evening the ‘London giant’ will return to replace him, also to counter the physicality of Roma which has caused the Rossoneri issues in the past.

In European competitions the No.8 has won over 60% of duels (14 out of 23), which becomes five out of five if we only consider the aerial ones. He also has a pass completion rate of 92.5%, impressive given he operates in an area full of traffic.

With the Scudetto going to Inter, Loftus-Cheek has only one great objective: to win the Europa League, which he has already won in 2021 with Chelsea under Maurizio Sarri.

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