Club football has once again come to a halt, and many members of the AC Milan squad will fly around Europe and even the world to represent their national teams.
The international break is both a help and a hinderance to players and coaches. It provides some respite from the trials and tribulations of club football, but everyone would probably like to get back out there quickly and right the wrongs from the 3-3 draw against Cagliari.
There are already a couple of notable headlines heading into the break this time around, starting with the confusion and war of words surrounding Alvaro Morata. The striker missed the Cagliari game due to concussion protocol and Paulo Fonseca didn’t like the Spain coach stating he would play for them.
He is being assessed by the national team doctors but they are currently expected to respect the request for a 10-day rest as per the advice he received after having a CT scan, therefore he could play Spain’s second game.
There is a bit of mystery surrounding Luka Jovic, who – like Morata – has been absent due to what Milan are saying is an injury but has been summoned by Serbia. If he plays for his country then it is a strong sign that he has been frozen out by the Rossoneri.
Some rumblings earlier in the week suggested that Fikayo Tomori was on stand-by because eight England players have withdrawn from Lee Carsley’s squad for the Greece and Ireland games, but the call never came.
The other bit of news concerns Noah Okafor, who seemed to have been completely frozen out by the Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin after a European Championship that was far from ideal. However, he has played himself back into the squad after his start to the season.
Below is the full schedule of the Milan players who have been summoned by their respective countries, including the youth internationals.
Theo Hernández and Mike Maignan (France)
➤ France v.s Israel: Thursday 14 November at 20:45 CET, Saint-Denis – UEFA Nations League
➤ Italy vs. France: Sunday 17 November at 20:45 CET, Milan – UEFA Nations League
Luka Jović and Strahinja Pavlović (Serbia)
➤ Switzerland vs. Serbia: Friday 15 November at 20:45 CET, Zurich – UEFA Nations League
➤ Serbia vs. Denmark: Monday 18 November at 20:45 CET, Leskovac – UEFA Nations League
Yunus Musah and Christian Pulisic (USA)
➤ Jamaica vs. USA: Friday 15 November at 00:00 CET, Kingston – CONCACAF Nations League
➤ USA vs. Jamaica: Tuesday 19 November at 02:00 CET, Saint Louis – CONCACAF Nations League
Samuel Chukwueze (Nigeria)
➤ Benin vs. Nigeria: Thursday 14 November at 18:00 CET, Abidjan (Ivory Coast) – AFCON qualifiers
➤ Nigeria vs. Rwanda: Monday 18 November at 18:00 CET, Uyo – AFCON qualifiers
Tijjani Reijnders (Netherlands)
➤ Netherlands vs. Hungary: Saturday 16 November at 20:45 CET, Amsterdam – UEFA Nations League
➤ Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Netherlands: Tuesday 19 November at 20:45 CET, Zenica – UEFA Nations League
Rafael Leao (Portugal)
➤ Portugal vs. Poland: Friday 15 November at 20:45 CET, Porto – UEFA Nations League
➤ Croatia vs. Portugal: Monday 18 November at 20:45 CET, Split – UEFA Nations League
Alvaro Morata (Spain)
➤ Denmark vs. Spain: Friday 15 November at 20:45 CET, Copenhagen – UEFA Nations League
➤ Spain vs. Switzerland: Monday 18 November at 20:45 CET, Tenerife – UEFA Nations League
Noah Okafor (Switzerland)
➤ Switzerland vs. Serbia: Friday 15 November at 20:45 CET, Zurich – UEFA Nations League
➤ Spain vs. Switzerland: Monday 18 November at 20:45 CET, Tenerife – UEFA Nations League
Lorenzo Torriani and Kevin Zeroli (Italy U20)
➤ Poland vs. Italy: Friday 15 November at 16:00 CET, Bialystok – Elite League U20
➤ Italy vs. Romania: Tuesday 19 November at 14:00 CET, Bagno a Ripoli – Elite League U20
Francesco Camarda and Mattia Liberali (Italy U19)
➤ Italy vs. Montenegro: Wednesday 13 November at 13:00 CET, Akranes (Greece) – U19 Euro qualifiers
➤ Italy vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Saturday 16 November at 13:00 CET, Akranes (Greece) – U19 Euro qualifiers
➤ Greece vs. Italy: Tuesday 19 November at 14:30 CET, Heraklion – U19 Euro qualifiers
It’s actually 18. There are also Vittorio Magni, Emanuele Sala and Diego Sia for the U19 Azzurrini.
I was saying one of these days; Milan has 19 players who have won major tournaments including the UCL, the UEFA Euro, the FIFA Club World Cup, all top 5 domestic championships (EPL, Serie A, La Liga, German Bundesliga, and Ligue 1), and 2 who where FIFA World Cup vice-champions, as well as a large number of other less prestigious but still important titles like the African Cup of Nations, the Europa League, the Conference, the CONCACAF Nations League and other non-top-5 European domestic leagues like those in Austria, Serbia, and Portugal (that is, not top 5, but also not Andorra or Liechtenstein).
Then, we have 18 internationals who were called up to their national teams, plus one who usually does go but this time isn’t going.
That’s for ANY club in the world, a rather decent roster. As a matter of fact we have only 4 players in the senior squad who haven’t won something important elsewhere: Emerson Royal (unsurprisingly), Sportiello, Terracciano, and surprisingly Reijnders; not exactly the latter’s fault; normally he’d be a 20th one with a flashy title to his name, but he is unlucky in the fact that in his career he has played for only one other club before Milan (and that was a lousy one) and he plays – very well, it should be said – for a national team that although decent, has underperformed, not winning anything for the last several decades; but there is little doubt that Tijjani has enough quality to have won titles, if he had played for better clubs or a better national team.
So we have enough for more than one and a half squads of elite players… but we’re still a mid-table team that can’t beat Parma and Cagliari and can barely beat Monza.
This spells the idea that the fault is primarily the coach’s (and that of the clowns who hired him). Because, see, other mid-table clubs and even bottom feeders don’t have this prestigious roster but they can still compete against us and even beat us. They are generally unable to do the same to our main rivals who also have prestigious rosters. So why can they do it only to us, when they play against clubs with a large number of elite players??? Could it be because of the main rivals, our coach is the weakest one? Well, duh, yeah!
A good coach is supposed to make the whole be bigger than the sum of its parts… but our coach has more than a full dozen and a half worth of players who do or did well elsewhere with their national teams and former clubs, but don’t perform as well for Milan under him, for the most part. So, it seems like the whole is smaller than the sum of its parts, which is the opposite of what a good coach should be fostering.
When one puts it this way, one further understands how mediocre Fonseca is (not that we didn’t know it; it’s just another rather convincing piece of evidence). I mean, he’s the guy who placed 8th and 5th in Serie A with Roma, and 4th in League 1 with Lille (the latter are doing so much better once they got rid of him!). His list of honors is much smaller and much less prestigious than those of his own players at Milan (no wonder why he’s not very respected by some of the players). Hey, he won the Ukrainian league. LOL.
You might have forgot a couple. What has Musah won? And who won the AFCON from our team? But I know thats besides your larger point .
On the one hand yes we have several winners but you can’t just pile them all in one bunch. You have even shown above that there are different levels to winning. Same point you’ve made for the coach (winning in lesser leagues puts him at a lower level) can be said for the players. Our starting XI has some winners, many greater than the coach, but there’s a considerable drop off. In our last game, 5 out of the XI I would argue never won anything major (Camarda, Tijji, Fof, Emerson, Pavlovic). Worse yet, 7 never won in Italy. And that’s who we send out in battle game after game.
The players as well as coach we’ve been recruiting past two years aren’t bonafide winners (huge exception is Morata who is head and shoulders above everyone in the team for winning). Modric would have been a good acquisition a few years ago with experience and winning as a protagonist. Those are the types of players we need. Instead we went with this growth and young policy and it hasn’t paid off, partly because you also need experience to win things.
The majority of our leadership is front heavy (Puli, Morata, Leao as well can be argued). Our midfield has no one with real leadership skills, same for the backline though Gabbia was an up and comer in that regard. That leaves Mike who can only do so much at his position. In prior years we had Ibra and Giroud up top leading. Kessie, Hakan (who now marshalls Inter’s midfield, and lesser extent Benny, all capable of leading the middle..then we had Kjaer at the back, a certified veteran. So yes we used to have real champion level players. Right now we have a vacuum across 2 out of the 3 departments
every game that he’s started next to reijnders in the double pivot…ok fine they tied 0-0 at Dortmund, but they beat psg, Newcastle, Rennes, Cagliari 5-1….miss those days…
Musah won the CONCACAF Nations League with Pulisic
The new giant ads on the mobile website are HORRIBLE! Theyvtake 80 %?of the screen and can’t be closed down…
Well Pep Guardiola and Man City just got beat by Bournmouth, Sporting CP and Brighton in their last 3 games. I don’t think he suddenly forgot how to coach.
We are not even a third of the way thru the season with a new coach and a number of new players, so it’s really kind of harsh to make a judgement just yet.
But he does have some impressive wins under his belt already. You could argue that he tactically outcoached Ancelloti, Inzagi and Conte already this season. Yes, Napoli won the game but we were without half our starters and Napoli could barely get out of their own half for most of the game. And the struggles against weaker teams is disappointing but it’s not new under Fonseca, they had this problem under Pioli as well. It’s more of a problem getting the players to have the same intensity than it is about tactics. I think tactically Fonseca is an upgrade on Pioli, I will reserve judgement on him until at least midway through the season.
I hope that you are right and I’m wrong.
💯 – that Cagliari game but it just about summed up how we draw and lose these Serie A games – lack of effort “No worries it’s only Cagliari” with a dose of referee clowning.