KJH can be great at Milan

Recently our much troubled striker, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, has been linked with a move away from the club come January. At first it was Steve McClaren’s Dutch side FC Twente that were apparently lining him up but it has also come out that both Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson are also keen to make a move for the Dutchman in January.

But it will be a grave mistake by the club to let Huntelaar leave to any club. For despite his much troubled start to the campaign and his lack of playing time, in KJH we have a quality player, an out-and-out striker who is the ideal target man and with the goal scoring instinct of any of the great Dutch strikers before him. To let him go simply will mean that the club will have to go and buy another player and this is something the club is clearly in no position to do.

And buy another striker is exactly what the club will have to do for in Borriello we do not have a player who has the potential to bring greatness to the club like a van Basten, Inzaghi or Shevchenko have done before him. Whilst he may perform against lesser sides like Cagliari, Parma and the like, against world class opposition like Inter and Real Madrid he has and will always struggle to make an impact. Even against Palermo at the weekend when he was marked by a soon to be star of the game, Simon Kjaer, he was completely dominated and had little to no impact on the game.

One gets the feeling that Leo is making a scapegoat of KJH for the team’s poor start to the campaign which is completely unjust. For even after his heroics against Catania which helped leapfrog us into second place, Leo has barely given him a chance to build upon that success. And this is a real shame, for KJH is now wasting away on the bench.

As you, the reader, would be well aware I am a big fan of Leo and I give him high praise for his ability to turn the fortunes of the team around this season. Yet, this is one issue of contention that I have in regard to our Brazilian tactician.

If Leo is using KJH as some kind of scapegoat for his own failures early in the season, then it is completely unfair. For as I mentioned earlier, KJH is a typical target man, a poacher in the traditional sense and for this he relies heavily on service. And though this may be a weakness of KJH game, it is by no means an uncommon trait in many world class strikers been and gone. Inzaghi for one, a legendary striker in his own right, has always relied service whether it came from the brillance of Kaka, Rui Costa or Zidane in his days at Juventus.

So whilst this may be a weakness, it explains why in the early half of the season KJH struggled so much. For the whole side was, at that time, playing so horrendously that chances were few and far between. So much so were we struggling to create chances that we only managed a measly four goals in the first seven matches in Serie A this season. Given our inability to create chances early in the season it is no wonder why KJH struggled for any striker would have also suffered under such circumstances.

We need to remember that KJH’s outstanding goal scoring records. We need to remember that in his four break-through seasons at Ajax, KJH tallied an impressive 105 goals from 136 matches. One might argue, however, that Serie is a step up from the Eredivisie and that therefore success in the Dutch League does not necessarily translate into success in Italy. But let us remember some of the previous Dutch stars who left the Netherlands with a similar record and went on to great success in both Spain and England. Ruud Van Nistlerooy for instance, left PSV after scoring 75 goals in just 91 matches. Van Nistlerooy then went on to star for Manchester United, scoring 150 goals in 219 matches. Van Nistlerooy continued his impressive scoring record in Spain as he so far has collected 64 goals in 97 matches. A certain Marco Van Basten is another example. Like KJH, Marco Van Basten left the Netherlands with a great goal scoring ratio of 152 goals in 172 matches. And this success in the Eredivisie was translated into success in the Serie A as MVB would go on to score an incredible 125 goals in 198 matches for Milan.

This is not to say that KJH is up there with the likes of Van Nistlerooy and Van Basten as KJH has yet to prove himself in either of his stints at Real Madrid and AC Milan. However, these stats do show that KJH has the ability, just like his Dutch masters before him, to make it big at a club like AC Milan.

It is undeniable that KJH just has not been given a decent enough chance to prove himself. How he is continually overlooked by Leo and how Borriello is continually preferred is baffling. Sure Borriello has notched up a few goals this season and performed well on a few occasions. But looking at Borriello’s stats more closely and they really do not tell the story of any great success. In eight starts in Serie A, Marco has managed four goals and has needed 23 shots – of which only 7 have been on target – to record them. In particular, a shot on goal ratio of just over 30 per cent is none to impressive.

Comparably, KJH has managed two goals in his five starts and has needed only 9 shots – of which 5 were on target – to record them. This gives KJH a more impressive shot on goal ratio of over 50 per cent as well as a more impressive goals to shot ratio of 22 per cent compared to Marco’s 17 per cent.

In KJH the talent is there, Leo just needs to find a way to harness it. Selling him is not an option. For one we would not get great money for his value would have fallen in the last six months and also because we cannot afford to go out and buy another class striker.

The fact the both Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson – two of the greatest managers of the modern era – are interested in KJH is testament to our Dutch strikers ability and talent. In addition, given his ability, talent and relative youth and the needs of our current team along with our current financial limitations, we simply cannot afford to let him go.