Fabio Capello has taken stock of AC Milan’s present situation, and today, he has criticised Theo Hernandez for a dismal performance, whilst also questioning Paulo Fonseca’s decision to have five captains.
Once again Milan are experiencing a similar situation. They enter the international break in a near-meltdown situation. The Fonseca decision is once again being questioned by the fans, and the management are reconsidering his position. Questions are once again being asked of key players after another controversy. In other words, things are the opposite of positive.
It is then worsened by the fact that this feeling will only stew in the days that pass without action. Of course, there can be no sign of change when the involved players depart for a short period, and Fonseca does not have a chance to show his strengths.
Speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, Capello offered his opinion on several matters affecting the Rossoneri currently, and his words have been relayed by Radio Rossonera.
Does Fonseca’s decision to rotate the captains convince you?
“Well, not too much. Is it possible that in a class there are 4-5 students with a 9 on their report card? Well, in a squad it works a bit the same way. For me the captaincy is a serious thing, in fact, I left the England coach’s role because they took the armband off John Terry against my advice.”
Theo Hernandez and the final expulsion…
“Another behaviour not worthy of Milan. Whoever wears the armband must be a leader, the symbol of the team. We remember Baresi and Maldini, don’t we? Hernandez, instead, brought only negativity to the group with his attitude.”
Leao’s substitution caused some discussion…
“It is undeniable that Leao was doing some interesting things in the second half. He was in the game, unlike at other times. Fonseca, however, explained the reasons for the change to Okafor. He wanted more depth and certainly, the Swiss guaranteed more than Rafa.
I will never criticise a coach for a technical or tactical choice: he played an extra card, then it may have gone wrong, but it is his duty to make decisions.”
John Terry!
Now there’s a captain (who shags his team/best mates wife).
😀 and Giggs his brothers wife 😛
Kidding aside regardless whoever is coach there are some minimum demands of professionals and even amateurs and clearly some of our players has no idea of these simple things or just doesn’t care.
I seriously dislike the idea of rotating captain armband and for me Calabria is still our captain and certainly a miles better one than Theo, Leao or Tomorri.
Capello is fully correct in his assessments.
Certainly took his role seriously..
When Fonseca arrived he asked for a RB to replace the club captain and a CB to replace last season’s hero.
No wonder the players don’t respect him.
Of course most people on here openly mock the club captain so it seems the club is going nowhere regardless of who is in charge.
I don’t think players were disrespecting him because he wanted to get rid of Calabria.
Our players were at their best when surrounded by leaders like Ibrahimovic (the player, not Gerry’s mouthpiece), Tonali, Kjaer, Giroud and Maldini in the management.
Once all of those were gone one by one it started becoming a mayhem.
Under Pioli, Theo always had those occasional stupid cards and Leao was always absent in certain games, but it’s just that he never adressed that aspect. He decided (or he understood ?) that it’s better to have them do as they please if they can produce from time to time, rather than risk creating tensions with them. Also under Pioli, Pulisic was not the designated penalty taker, it was Ibrahimovic, then Kessié, then Giroud or Theo.
Fonseca decided he’s not having players who don’t help in the defense or who don’t follow his instructions, but his lack of prestige, combined with the absence of management and our players’ teenager like behaviour lead to all of this.
We can only speculate but in real life when the new boss joins a business and tries to force out the line manager things generally don’t work out too well…
Back in la la of modern football sure just keeping swapping it all around and see what happens!
But I agree there were others who were fired or sold or retired and not properly replaced.
And instead the club focused on trying to sign a RB (when we had 5) and a CB (when we had 5).
Had the club focused on a midfield general then it would’ve addressed the massive hole in the middle of the park.
As for Theo and Leao they have their strengths which mainly involve producing match winning moments. Since such a talent is a rarity of course they need to be given leeway.
In our Scudetto winning season that leeway involved having a more defensive right hand side. Pulisic’ signing unbalanced the side but generally been positive.
The kicker was we unbalanced the flanks and replaced the middle with not very much.
As for Fonseca having players who don’t help with defence, how do you explain his use of Reijnders and the fact that Pulsiic doesn’t track back which is why our RBs are exposed?
Deflection and nothing to do with the subject.
Our transfer window, holes in the midfield and tactical liabilities have nothing to do and certainly do not excuse what Theo, Tomori and Abraham did sunday night.
I can’t think of a good reason for a player to disrespect his teammate and shout at the referee, but maybe that’s just me.
Not sure what deflection or subject you’re talking about but I addressed your comments above (remember I started this thread talking about how undermining the captain set Fonseca up for failure and that is my central point).
I don’t get into all the drama from the other night and who was dissin’ who. It’s all media sensationalism. We don’t know what the real story is so I won’t speculate on that.
Pulisic is one of our hardest workers so I tend to disagree if you mean in general that he doesn’t track back as he is an example for all to follow.
I really like Pulisic but it is a fact that our RBs have been exposed 2v1 on multiple occasions this season.
Now whether that is Fonseca’s instructions or not I can’t even begin to know but he seems to HATE full backs.