Bacca vs Martinez

Bacca scores, but he doesn't score goals that mean anything. The talent is there, but he is mentally weak.

Seems like an odd comment to make about a player who scored two goals in a Europa League final. Do you feel he's mentally weak on the basis of all his play or is this just in light of his international performances?

If it's the latter, then I won't object. For Milan at least, his conversion of chances has been superb. Most of his issues arise from poor technique. He's capable of the occasional moment of brilliance when linking up but for the most part his first touch is inconsistent and his passing is average. If anything, I feel he contributes more than his "talent" would suggest possible. One could never fault his desire to score however and he's managed to collect a very respectable goal tally despite feeding off scraps for the most part at Milan.

P.S. It's great to see you posting again, Moto!

A mix of the latter and his past season at Milan.

If you look at the actual goals he scored against teams of consequence they are few and far between. Prior to this season he even had a good record of being a creator, but I want to say he recorded maybe 2 assists this season. Given the end of the season he appeared to be done with the club mentally given most reports which could ultimately be the real issue of him just not fitting.

I do not wish to say he is a bad player, I just mean that he is a player that needs to take a step up to reach the next echelon of his ability and while the talent is there unless he can get control of his mental faculties I think he will always be on the fringe of greatness.

I agree that his output against the top sides in Serie A has been underwhelming. I think that's as much a combination of our approach and performance as a team in these games as Bacca's mentality or lack there-of.

Bacca's uncomfortable holding the ball up as a reference point which has often served to emphasise the role of either Niang or Adriano beside him when we're playing a superior team that will lock us in our own half. Bacca puts in a defensive shift in such games but he's heavily reliant on service and he ends up isolated. Our lack of pace and purpose on the break doesn't help him either.

I do agree that you'd hope for more from him in such games but in my mind, he does the same things for us as he always would, we just don't have the quality to get him into the positions he needs to be in regularly enough when we play the top teams. He's certainly had chances in those games across an entire season which he's failed to take but the problem is, at Milan, you don't know when the next big scoring opportunity is going to arrive.

The players who have put in important performances against the big sides this season have been those who are capable of doing something all by themselves, like Bonaventura or Kucka. Our lack of cohesion as a team has meant we've been reliant upon those who can come up with a moment of individual brilliance to save us. Bacca's largely reliant upon his team mates and he's suffered.

I think that lack of cohesion in our attacking play, the inconsistency of our line-up, formation and approach, has contributed as well to his poor season creatively.

I would be very interested to see Bacca line up under a coach who is known for improving his players and who has a very clear attacking philosophy to see whether he could take a step up, as you put it. I feel though that his margins for improvement, given his age, are very slight.