Why Filippo Inzaghi Must Start Stephan El Shaarawy at AC Milan

For those of you who are tired of watching Jeremy Menez dribble himself into a wall while his 10 teammates stand still, knowing that a ball won't come their way, there is a solution.

Quite simply, Stephan El Shaarawy needs to start every single week for AC Milan. He is the future of the club, and he offers a dimension that should be invaluable to Filippo Inzaghi's side.

Unfortunately, the youngster has been making more headlines for his juggling abilities off the field.

It's hard to find another attacker who tracks back and helps the defense as much as El Shaarawy. It could also be viewed as the reason why all the injuries started happening under ex-coach Massimiliano Allegri. The Pharaoh seemingly ran himself into the ground, and he hasn't been the same influence since.

The 22-year-old has started five games this season, spending four as an unused substitute and another two as a second-half sub. He still hasn't scored a Serie A goal since early 2013, but he has shown in the preseason and so far in Serie A that he just needs a bit of time to get his old form back.

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El Shaarawy only started one match for the entirety of last season after putting his name on the map with a fantastic campaign two years ago. In that campaign, he scored 14 goals before Christmas, ending the season with 16 goals and becoming the favored attacking choice for the Italian national team under Cesare Prandelli.

Since then, he's endured an almost nightmarish run of various injuries, including the foot surgery that really hampered his playing time last season.

Now that he's healthy, there's no reason why he should be on the bench. The player came out publicly to the Italian media, saying that he was angry at not being used for a stretch of games from the first minute.

Filippo Inzaghi surprisingly came out and said that his angriness at not being played reminded him of his own playing days, and that it was a quality he could respect, via Calciomercato.com (in Italian). This past weekend, in the horrifying 2-0 loss at home to Palermo, El Shaarawy was once again brought on in the second half when he should have been starting.

After beginning the season well, Menez has been infuriating to watch for the past month, while taking El Shaarawy's place in the starting lineup.

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On top of this, Fernando Torres has been anonymous in the past five matches, but he continues to be used as a starter. Whether or not that pressure comes from owner Silvio Berlusconi, no one will ever know.

With these two players not producing the way they should, it's even more inexcusable to see El Shaarawy on the bench. The player has plenty of hunger and needs consistency to finally find his scoring form.

Shortly after he was brought on during the second half against Palermo, El Shaarawy nearly scored on a fantastic curling effort from right outside the box.

We were used to seeing the Pharaoh delivering such strikes two seasons ago. Now he just needs the confidence and belief from Filippo Inzaghi to return to his old ways.

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