Now it is obvious, almost like the elephant in the room. The complaints Allegri voiced during the first half of Fiorentina–Milan were impossible to miss: this version of Loftus-Cheek is, at the moment, neither one thing nor the other. Let us be clear straight away, there is nothing against the player, not at all. On the contrary. This season, on several occasions, he came on with the right attitude and made himself available to the team, even playing as a second striker at times, although that is clearly not his natural role.
The Ruben Loftus-Cheek dilemma:
No one can take those 10 goals he scored under Pioli away from him, and having a midfielder reach such numbers is a luxury. But then what? It almost sounds contradictory to say so, because if he were posting similar numbers again this year no one would complain, yet the former Chelsea player has never managed to go “beyond.” In fact, the following season, last year, he did not score at all. Ten goals one year, zero the next, with many performances in between that made you roll your eyes.
The foundations and the qualities are all there: a 1.91 m athlete, broad shoulders, excellent ability to attack space, good reading of attacking situations, a stride worthy of the European stage. And then? And then this year again, just one goal so far. But goals are not the right benchmark. What matters, the heart of the issue, is performance. Against Fiorentina it was emblematic: the ball arrives in a dangerous area, Loftus shields it well after a sharp vertical pass, then loses possession with disarming ease. Allegri, and the fans, wonder how it is possible to be so soft. Paradoxically, Luka Modrić, in his first six months in Italy, has shown he knows how to use his body far more effectively: small, slight, yet determined, as pointed out by Milan News.
This season, aside from a few brief setbacks, things have improved on the injury front as well. In Serie A, Loftus has already logged 826 minutes, compared to 1,032 across the whole of last season. It is a campaign with just one match per week, so there is time to recover and look after the body properly. There is also a top-level coach whose guiding principles include putting every player in the best possible condition to express their qualities. And indeed Loftus-Cheek seems capable of making a real impact, but just when it matters most, he deflates: he loses physical duels, does not shoot, and when he goes up for headers he often times the jump well but without the necessary aggression.
The coming months will be crucial not only for Milan, currently second and still in the title race, but also for the player himself. His contract runs until 2027, which means that in June he will enter the final year. In simple terms, either there will be a renewal, and many things in the Englishman’s performances must change radically, or, given the club’s usual approach, it will be goodbye. The context is there, the qualities are there too. Now it is up to Loftus-Cheek to shake himself out of his lethargy and shed the label of being “soft,” even if it must be said that, so far in his career, he has never fully managed to do so.
