Monday, October 27, 2014

El Shaarawy: Barren Milan spell not upsetting me

The Rossoneri forward admitted his side lacked a cutting edge against Fiorentina but is confident he will soon be back among the goals
AC Milan attacker Stephan El Shaarawy has insisted that he is not letting his barren spell affect him - despite not having scored a competitive goal since August 2013.
The 22-year-old spent much of last season struggling with injury after a breakthrough campaign in 2012-13 in which he  carried the Rossoneri's top-four charge before Mario Balotelli's arrival from Manchester City.
El Shaarawy has once again been called upon to shoulder the goalscoring burden for the club since Balotelli's return to England, however, and has struggled for top form, failing to score in his five Serie A appearances so far this season.
However, after Filippo Inzaghi gave the young Italian only his second full game of 2014-15 in Sunday's 1-1 draw at home to Fiorentina, El Shaarawy says he is not reading too much into his lack of goals.
“Physically I feel fit and I am happy to have played the full 90 minutes," he told Milan's official website. "I shouldn’t be upset because I didn’t score - I just have to keep following this route.
"Obviously I’d have preferred to celebrate with a goal and a win like two years ago against Fiorentina.
"But we lacked effectiveness. We weren't as aggressive in comparison to other games but, overall, it was a solid performance. Despite only getting a draw, we were still able to sap some confidence from it.
"And really we shouldn’t be upset because of the point; we need to grow and improve, but we are happy with our performance.
"Unfortunately we couldn’t win, but luckily we’ve got the chance to pick ourselves up already on Wednesday."
Inzaghi's charges are hoping to return to winning ways at Cagliari, followed by a home clash with newly-promoted Palermo, and El Shaarawy stressed the importance of getting results against two teams in the bottom half of Serie A.
He added: "With the games against Cagliari and Palermo, this will be a decisive week for us as we need to win all six points, although it won’t be easy because both teams are very well organised.
"The game against Cagliari will be difficult because we’ll have to stay tight and then hit on the counter.
"We shall be very determined to do well from the first minute if we want to win and we should enter the pitch with the right spirit."