Immobile has 23 goals this season. CR7 has 16, in second place.
Luis Alberto, J. Correa, and a very good keeper in Strakosha. Lazio has star players, who don't have to take shit for a bad season.
Lazio was 8th last year, and yet SMS was somehow made the best midfielder in Serie A last year, how?
Atalanta and Lazio benefit from playing with lowered expectations. Their players have less pressure than they would at Milan, Juve, or Inter. I think Roma is a bigger club than Lazio and certainly bigger than Atalanta, but even then, there is less scrutiny there than at Milan.
Napoli is imploding, and they have better players than Milan, Lazio, and Atalanta. But outside of Naples, where Napoli is such a central part of the society, doing poorly at Napoli isn't the same as doing poorly at Milan.
If Milan bought Immobile, or Luis Alberto, or J. Correa, who I think are all very good players, I don't think they would be able to produce for Milan what they produce for Lazio now.
Look at Immobile at Lazio and then when he's asked to be the main striker for Italy. He isn't the same player.
Mourinho talked about having the type of players who want to play in the big games, who want to be the one expected to win, who want to be the leader. He says those are what big clubs need.
I think Suso is talented. I hate him, but he's talented. Let's say he goes to Lazio or Roma, I'm sure he'll do better. Against Sampdoria, he was terrible. That's not Suso's normal play. Because he doesn't have the mentality. None of our players do.
I think part of the mental side is something you learn, but there's also a ruthlessness that our team doesn't have. Zlatan has it. He has the talent and the mentality to be a leader. CR7 has that. Kaka had that. Maldini had that.
Every player on our team has talent, honestly, they do. They don't have the ability to play at a big club. It's a different level. You're expected to perform, expected to do well, and when you make a mistake, you will get crushed over it. I'm sure if you put Hakan at Lazio, he'd do great. Suso at Valencia? People will ask why we sold him. Kessie at Wolves? Headlines would read about how Milan was stupid to let him go.
For God's sake I see people saying Mohamed Salah is having a bad season. Really? I look, and he has 11 goals in 19 games. He's been injured for long periods of the season, and yet, he's having a bad season apparently. That's what happens when you're are an important player. You are always under pressure.
Same thing goes for managers. Gasperini just lost to SPAL, after losing to Fiorentina, who had 10 men in the Coppa. If Gasperini did that with Milan, what would happen? Are people calling for his head? Gasperini started his tenure at Atalanta with 4 losses in 5 games, do you think he survives Milan with that? At Inter, he lost to Trabzonspor at home, before losing to Novara. How many people would have asked to give him time after something like that?
I don't think that Milan is playing better because of Ibra, not only because there are big weaknesses in the way we play (that's more due to formation, in my opinion) but because Zlatan takes away attention from our weak-minded players. They aren't learning as much as they are allowing him to take the pressure on instead. Unless we grab more players like Theo, I fear we will regress when Ibra is gone, whenever that happens.
