When AC Milan attacker Stephan El Shaarawy checked inside and curled the ball towards Sergio Romero's far post early in their draw with Sampdoria on Saturday, there was only one place the ball was going to end up. Sure enough, the spiky-topped Liguruan's trademark effort rippled the back of the net for the first time in Serie A since February 2013.
Stephan El Shaarawy is finally getting back to his best
At long last, the AC Milan forward has broken his Serie A goalscoring duck.
The goal left El Shaarawy in tears of joy and relief, and left the rossoneri praying that he’s finally getting back to his best after well over a season tarnished by persistent injury problems.
After all, go back two seasons and Il Faraone wasn't just a star of the future, he was a star altogether. By the end of November, a 20-year-old El Shaarawy had already scored 12 league goals in Serie A, and made his first international appearance. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that his persistent brilliance was keeping then-Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri in a job, with El Shaarawy carrying a team that remained devoid of star talent until Mario Balotelli's arrival in January.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after Balotelli’s arrival that El Shaarawy’s goals dried up. That can be partly explained in tactical terms, with the presence of a natural striker up top no longer leaving space for El Shaarawy to cut inside off the left flank and curl the ball inside the far post, as he seemed to like doing so often. However, it wasn’t long before injuries also started to cause even bigger problems for the young attacker.
As such, he incredibly only started one league match throughout all of last season, and failed to find the back of the net in his meagre six appearances. Milan struggled, Allegri was finally sacked, and they finished an El Shaarawyless season under Clarence Seedorf outside the European positions altogether. Over the summer, Seedorf departed, and made way for Milan legend Filippo Inzaghi.
From the very off, Inzaghi has put faith in El Shaarawy, with the off-season having seemingly provided enough time for Il Faraone to steadily build up his fitness. The Italian has appeared in all but three of the rossoneri’s fixtures this season, and has started to show the promise he did a couple of years ago.
Not only has he ostensibly put his injury problems behind him, but he’s also slotted perfectly into Inzaghi’s tactical system. So far -- possibly as much out of necessity as desire -- the new Milan coach has used a counter-attacking 4-3-3, with a mobile front three who look to spring forward into space on the break. The absence of a true, Balotelli-style No. 9 has enabled El Shaarawy to cut inside off the right, while Jérémy Ménez darts menacingly from his nominal starting spot as the rossoneri’s centre-forward.
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