November 2020 has once again seen some remarkable football played across the continent. As games have been coming thick and fast, some players have truly stepped up and showed no signs of fatigue, despite many leagues getting a meagre week or 2 break and pre-season.

In Italy, it’s Stefano Pioli’s side that have come out the traps flying, and alongside Inter are recovering the Milan footballing reputation against neighbours and arch rivals Juventus. With no losses at all thus far in the league, and their first defeat of the entire season coming this month in the Europa League, AC Milan have been incredible in their performances. Leading this charge, is their talismanic no. 11, the infamous and legendary Zlatan Ibrahimović. At 39 years of age, many would have thought this Milan move would have been the last outing for the lion, he has shown no signs of slowing as he has bagged 11 goals already this season across all competitions.

It may be inevitable, however thanks to his performances in the dominant Milan games this month have earnt him the 3rd ever award for NextGoalWinner European Player of the Month. Here’s why…

Match By Match

November 1st: Udinese 1-2 AC Milan – In the opening fixture of this month for AC Milan, they continued their fantastic Serie A form with a 2-1 victory over Udinese. The ageless Zlatan picked up a MoTM award for his controlling performance in this one, after a goal and assist ensured 3 points and a perfect record in the early stages of this season. With his 83rd minute winner, Zlatan netted his 8th of the season, and picked up an 8.32/10 rating for his game-winning performance.

November 5th: AC Milan 0-3 Lille – In this fixture, Milan’s unbeaten season run came to an abrupt end at home to Lille in the Europa League 3rd group stage matchup. At the end of this month, they earned a hard-fought 1-1 in the away fixture, however as Zlatan wasn’t involved, we won’t talk about that one too much. Instead, we must acknowledge this poor performance all-round from Milan and Zlatan, as they were dominated by Lille and their attacking midfielder Yusuf Yazici, who bagged himself a hattrick in this one. Despite his previous form, Zlatan was almost shut out of this game, as he managed just a 6.43/10 rating for his performance. He only managed 21 touches and 2 shots (admittedly both on target) as Milan failed to break through. In the 62nd minute and already 3-0 down, Zlatan was brought off as they looked destined to admit defeat and the end of their magnificent start to the season. A real blip in this month for Zlatan, and one he was quick to rectify.

November 8th: AC Milan 2-2 Verona – And rectify he did, as Milan went back to their unbeatable ways, and a 2-2 draw at home to Verona. Although not the perfect response the club would have wanted, it was a strong and determined performance, as they battled to recover the game in the 92nd minute, and Zlatan’s equalizer. In this one, he took home his 2nd of 3 MoTM awards for his performance in the dramatic game. Milan fell 2-0 down early thanks to a goal from Barak and an own goal from Calabria. However this didn’t deter the Milan side, who fought back and got an own goal from Magnani to bring them back into it. In the final stages of the contest, Ibrahimović bagged the equalising goal and wrapped up a tough old battle. This game could have seen Milan take all 3 points, had Zlatan not missed his penalty, however it was destined to play out as a draw. Ibrahimović played a much more impactful game as he managed 14 shots (3 on target), won 13 aerial duels and had 65 touches of the ball to achieve his 7.98/10 and MoTM performance.

November 22nd: Napoli 1-3 AC Milan – After an extended break, Milan returned to winning ways, against a tough Napoli side. Zlatan bagged his 3rd MoTM award from a stunning performance in which he netted twice to bring his month’s goal tally up to 4 and his season total to 11. Despite coming off in the 79th minute, he had already made an impact with his opening 2 strikes, along with his overall play, as he made an 8.92/10 performance thanks to his 3 shots (2 on target), 8 Aerial duels won and 34 important touches. Additionally, these goals put him ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the scoring charts. What did however cause alarm for the Milan supporters, was that Zlatan limped off with a muscle problem in the latter stages of this game, which ultimately caused him to miss out on the final 2 games of the month. Despite missing those 2 fixtures, his performances in 3 of the 4 games he was involved in earnt this award, and although his age doesn’t necessarily factor into the impact he has had, it does certainly make the achievements even more impressive. Like many others, I am hoping he makes a quick recovery and picks up where he left off.