4 Areas for AC Milan's Jeremy Menez to Improve on in 2015/16 Season

Last season, Jeremy Menez led AC Milan in scoring and was, along with Diego Lopez, one of the few bright spots of Milan's campaign. Menez's return of 16 goals was a career high—and good for fifth in the league—but it wasn't enough to inspire Milan to any higher than 10th place.

Menez was one of the stars of the season, perhaps the best outfield player that Milan had last year.

In spite of that, Menez can definitely improve on his 2014-15 campaign. The Frenchman's numbers might be flashy, but they belie some flaws that could be fatal if he doesn't correct them.

What are those flaws? That's what this article is all about.

Here are the four biggest things Jeremy Menez needs to improve on during the 2015-16 season.

Pass the Ball

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Milan's breakaways often ground to a halt at Menez's feet.

Milan was a decent team going forward on the break last season. Say what you will about the lack of creativity in possession, but if they managed to burst forward on the counter, they got themselves into dangerous positions.

When those breaks came to Menez, though, they too often ground down.

One of the reasons Menez has never blossomed into a truly great player is because he has a hefty selfish streak. All too often he would receive the ball in dangerous situations—or drive it there himself—only to dribble the ball around so long that he was either dispossessed or lost the chance to make the pass that would lead to a chance.

Menez needs to ditch that selfish streak. The Rossoneri missed out on a lot of goals and winning positions because he tried to do everything himself instead of making the right pass at the right time.

If he can change that and give his teammates the ball, the team will be a lot sharper in front of goal.

Score from Open Play

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Menez scored half of his goals from the spot.

Sixteen goals is an impressive number, especially in Serie A, the most difficult of the major leagues to score in.

But that number becomes far less impressive when you realize that a half of them were penalty kicks.

Menez did have his moments from open play, particularly his ridiculous backheel against Parma in the second week of the season.

Unfortunately, that only happened another seven times. Had then-manager Filippo Inzaghi decided on another player to be his primary penalty-taker, Menez's season would look very mediocre indeed.

Menez can't rely on the penalty spot to pad out his stat sheet. He needs to convert in open play with more regularity in order to be able to bring his game to the next level.

Keep Your Head

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Menez didn't help his team when he was sent off against Genoa.

Menez didn't get booked at the rate of forwards such as Domenico Berardi or Mario Balotelli in his days as a starter, but he did manage to put his team in a pretty deep hole late in the season.

After being sent off for a second bookable offense during the April 29 against Genoa, Menez blew up at the referees. After subjecting them to a series of offensive gestures and verbal abuse, he was suspended for four games.

Given that there were only five matches left in the season, he didn't play again. What's worse, Milan's attack began to look a lot more fluid in his absence.

Menez was only booked in four games last season, but Milan dropped points in all four of them and lost three. When Menez started becoming unhinged, the team followed.

If Menez manages to gain a place in Sinisa Mihajlovic's setup, he's going to have to avoid similar incidents in the future lest he find his team's attack continues to work just as well—or better—when he's not on the field.

Consistency

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Menez had a few ugly dry spells.

Menez scored his goals in bunches last season, but there were some significant dry spells.

After scoring three times in Milan's first two games, it took him eight matches—and two months—to add to that tally. He had another long drought between February and March, going a month without finding the back of the net.

He was in a similar situation before he was suspended—the aforementioned Genoa game was his fourth consecutive outing without scoring.

With new signings Luiz Adriano and Carlos Bacca creating a crowd on Milan's front line, Menez is going to have to produce with a lot more consistency if he's going to keep himself on the field. With so many forwards jostling for space, long scoring droughts are not something he'll be able to afford.