Olivier Giroud has scored ten goals in 22 appearances with Milan this season and seems to have finally put an end to the Rossoneri’s No.9 curse.
Ten players tried their luck with the No. 9 shirt at Milan since Filippo Inzaghi retired in 2012 and the poor return has been labelled as the curse of the famous jersey.
Krzysztof Piatek, Gonzalo Higuain, André Silva, Gianluca Lapadula, Luiz Adriano, Fernando Torres, Mattia Destro, Alessandro Matri, Alexandre Pato and Mario Mandzukic failed to live up to expectations wearing the No.9 shirt before Giroud’s move to the club in the summer.
The French striker scored four goals in the last two games across all competitions, helping the Rossoneri seal victories against Inter in Serie A and Lazio in Coppa Italia. The former Chelsea striker has scored all his ten goals at San Siro. Eight of his ten goals were scored in home games, the remaining two are those netted in the derby, which, on paper, was an away fixture for Stefano Pioli’s side.
Suddenly he has a very good goal to minute ratio. Many of his appearances were off the bench.
All the 10 players listed above have been flops, except Pato. He was a magnificent player for Milan, ultimately ruined by injuries.
To be fair to Piatek he was doing fine and he got the number 9 at the start of the next season, but then GIampaolo came in and the tactical changes led to us scoring much fewer goals and he suffered under those tactics. I would’ve loved to see him up front in this young, hard working squad because I think he would be fantastic.
Giroud is a stop-gap signing, not an end to a curse. He has a very good goals to minute ratio, just as he did at Chelsea. Good player, but unlikely to be a long-term solution.
Will be our 9 next season too so I hope he keeps it up.
Pato a flop??!!! Don’t think so. IMO, if he could have stayed healthy…possibly would have become a Milan legend like some of the others.
You could argue that Pato was good with number 7 on his back and flopped as 9…
Look at the calibre of the so-called flops.
With the exception of in terms of quality, Pato and Mandzukic in terms of injuries, and Torres who was on the way out, all the others should never have flopped.
Higuain only flopped when he came to Milan. Piatek, and André Silva had huge potential that Milan stopped, and even Destro and Matri could’ve done a job (Matri has the title with Juve to prove it).