Fikayo Tomori continues to exceed all expectations while commanding the AC Milan defence. He joined the club last season, coming in on loan in January 2021. Tomori became a starter rather quickly and even scored a defining goal against Juventus to help Milan secure Champions League football.
Due to his excellence, Milan decided to make the deal permanent. The Rossoneri exercised their purchase option of £25 million from Chelsea. The deal has already shaped up to be a complete bargain for Milan.
Fikayo Tomori: The Commanding Presence of the AC Milan Defence
Ultima partita a San Siro con la vittoria ✅@acmilan pic.twitter.com/KVjFcYCejc
— Pierre Kalulu (@Kalulujr_) May 15, 2022
Recent Stretch for AC Milan
All the statistics of Tomori’s tenure with Milan are impressive. A good indicator of just how much he means is looking at Milan’s last Serie A matches. For starters, all of these matches have been victorious and have allowed Milan to be on the brink of their first Scudetto since 2011.
The first match was a 2-0 victory over Genoa, which brought Milan back to winning ways after a stretch of draws. The next was a major 2-1 victory over fifth-placed Lazio in a match that could’ve gone either way.
Afterwards was a 1-0 victory over Fiorentina when he completely shut down Arthur Cabral— a big-name arrival for Fiorentina in January.
Following up was a 3-1 victory against Hellas Verona. Tomori kept striker Giovanni Simeone quiet. This is no easy task, as Simeone holds 16 goals to his name in the league this season. Finally, the most recent match was a 2-0 victory versus Atalanta. Atalanta hold a very impressive attack, led by the likes of terrific forwards such as Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata. Neither strikers were able to create a flow or any chances for themselves as Tomori, and his partner in defence Pierre Kalulu, slowed them down the entire match.
Tomori has played all 90 minutes in every single one of the last five matches and has also not been disciplined a single time. He’s drawing the toughest tasks on defence and handling them with relative ease.
Leadership
First of all, Tomori is just 24 years old. Normally at this age, a player isn’t expected to be a vocal leader, let alone on a team that is on the verge of winning a major trophy. A number of AC Milan veterans who play a crucial role in leading the team. Tomori is rising amongst those ranks as a leader both on the pitch and in the locker room.
Tomori started his Milan journey starting alongside Simon Kjaer. The Dane was playing excellent football and was also known as one of the top leaders in the sport, for both club and internationally. Then, of course, Kjaer went down with an injury for the rest of the season. Another centre-back at Milan, Alessio Romagnoli, is the club captain. He rarely sees time on the pitch due to constant injury as well.
Due to all of this, Tomori unexpectedly received the duties of being a leader in the defence. Keep in mind that this is Serie A’s best defence in terms of goals allowed. He’s done an excellent job and a lot more is expected to come.
