It’s being reported that under fire Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho wants his club’s board to loosen the pursestrings and bring in AC Milan defender Alessio Romagnoli.

At a potential fee of £40m, would the Milan captain enhance Man United’s defence?

The twenty-three year old is good in the air and in the 2017-18 season the Italian international averaged around 2.5 aerial battles per Serie A outing. Currently that’s down on Chris Smallings average of four headers per game this term but no other current United centre-half is as high as Alessio’s.

Romagnoli is also a very good distributor from the backline. He possess high concentration levels and he’s able to hold onto the ball when under pressure, as you’d expect from an Italian centre back.

Man Utd’s defence has lacked composure this season and the Italian international looks very assured with the ball at his feet. So far this term, Alessio has a 91.4% passing success rate in the Italian top flight and he’s up at 93.7% in the Europa League. No Man United player, never mind a defender, has a passing success rate above 90% so fat this season. Being a graduate of the great Zdenek Zeman, you would expect that the defender would know how to play from the back.

Another positive his Alessio’s age. Being in his early twenties, that should keep the United hierarchy happy as they want to bring in more youthful signings.

When you get compared to the legendary Alessandro Nesta then you have to be classed as a fine central defender.

So when you take all that into account, then it would seem that signing Alessio would be an easy yes but it kind of tells you half the story.

When you watch the internationalist regularly then you might think about consistency issues. To be fair, the whole Milan squad have had that problem in recent years. Man Utd have got similar problems so it could be a risk bringing in another defender who hasn’t quite hit top form for long enough spells.

I know he’s a defensive minded player but I would expect more goals from him as he’s good in the air but he’s only scored just three times for the Rossoneri.

The last time United bought a promising defender from Italy it was Matteo Darmian. It’s fair to say that the right back has struggle to reach his potential in England.

You then have to question on whether or not AC Milan would want to sell their star defender?

I suppose it all depends on where the Milanese side are positioned come the January transfer window. They’ve made a slow start to the current season but a hefty win in their game in hand and they could climb up to fourth place and will be back in the race to finish in the Champions League places.

Another consideration is that UEFA are keeping an eye on Milan’s bank balance, will they need to sell to balance the books?

Personally I would pick Inter Milan’s Milan Skriniar over Romagnoli as I think the Slovakian could be better suited to the Premier League.

When you look at the current Manchester United defence then I’d say Alessio Romagnoli would be an improvement than those that are already there. Getting him and Skriniar would certainly bolster the United backline but it could prove problematic getting either in this season.

Posted on October 9th, 2018 by scott
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