Fabio Capello has joined the crowd of those criticising Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez for the way they behaved during AC Milan’s 2-2 draw with Lazio.
The ‘cooling break saga’ has been dominating the media headlines and the social media feeds of Milan fans since Saturday night’s game in the capital. It would be fair to say that it has generated a mixed reaction, with some viewing the incident as being more serious than others.
For example, Paolo Di Canio branded Theo and Leao ‘a disgrace’ for the way they conducted themselves during the incident, suggesting that they disrespected the coach and their team-mates by remaining on that side of the field.
Capello spoke on the Sky Calcio Club broadcast alongside Di Canio and he gave his thoughts on the incident, which have been relayed by MilanNews.
“Above all, it is a lack of respect for others, because it means that you consider others unworthy of playing and therefore you are disrespectful,” he said.
“We always talk about the group and the team, but if you do this, it means ‘I always have to play and you always have to be a reserve.’ That’s not good. They don’t want to be replaced, that’s the point. They may be important players, but they have to show it.”
The former Milan boss was asked whether he would have also dropped Leao and Theo if he felt that they were responsible for some of the problems from the previous game.
“No, never done it. I solved the problems before. In this way you blamed them for the negative results. I ask for more but I don’t blame them.
“They are the best, in Parma and also in Rome the goals come from them. You have to know the value of the player and how to recover him. Then they threw a tantrum.”
Capello then compared the Portuguese and the Frenchman by mimicking one, and he also had something to say about Milan’s defensive performance against Lazio.
“With all the goals they conceded last year, this year their attitude is even worse. They are on the pitch to be on the pitch, they don’t want to suffer. They only play when they have the ball at their feet.
“They are badly positioned on the pitch, they are too far forward, they are too exposed. There is not one who makes a move, but I died for my team-mates. The situation seems a bit like the one at the European Championships with Italy.”
👶 Fabio Capello imita i "bambini" Theo e Leao
pic.twitter.com/T3lqjiaH3b— erclab_ilritorno (@erclab_tweet) September 1, 2024
Fonseca has already loss control of the dressing room and we have only played 3 games. That is bad and it will only go down hill from here.
Milan management needed to show courage and ambition to the fans and players by signing a high profile coach but instead they made the cowardly decision to hire a coach who is similar or worse to Pioli and the players know it and that’s why they are already showing a lack of respect.
Ibra, Furlani and Moncada all need to be replaced along with Fonseca. Amateurs leading the sporting side of a top club. Unbelievable
no he hasnt.. stop making stuff up
He will have by the time Inter and Liverpool get through with us, unless he changes the formation and plays with more balance.
Hyper-offensive football does’t bode well in Italy.
i agree with you zion he hisnt good enough trainer for milan he is more of a 15-10 place side in serie a yes pioli wasnt the best of coaches but he is better
i disagree that you compared someone who is way worse with Pioli.
We never had public problems like this, when there is Pioli is more mature enough atleast to speak with players, resolve problems.
I think the way Fonseca wants us to attack and defend at the same time is reminiscent of how roman legions fought. As a collective they stood strong but if one stepped out of line of the formation it completely ruined the strength of the of the group so In my view there isn’t any room for players acting like prima donnas at all.
I simply doesn’t buy the premise that the players should be catered to as they should act like professionals as they certainly are better paid than most people on the globe. Neither do I buy the premise that a player like for example Leao doesn’t have it in him to defend or somehow is above such tasks as he probably is the most athletic and fast player with Theo in the squad so if these players refuse to track back there simply is no excuses for them to not do so unless they are actually badly injured.
The greater collective comes first not the individuals ahead of the greater good of the group. If players for various reasons wont understand that then they have no future with us and that should also be the case even in the event that Fonseca is sacked down the road.
I’m not saying that they per se should be sold but they have to step into line.
Well the fact that football players are so much paid is another debate I think. We have to compare apples with apples. Football is a massive business now, it’s normal that they have their share, especially when you consider how much money big clubs and institutions like FIFA or UEFA earn.
The fact is that Théo is underpaid for his status and performances. He’s my favorite player but I have to say that every time he’s rolling on the ground I hate that. But he has always been a true professional, just look at the picture of him, Giroud and Leao last summer when they came back from holidays ripped af. Always smiling, giving his best, 90 minutes twice a week, now he’s also a key starter for a top nation. He’s a warrior and he deserves that pay rise or we’re going to lose him like Kessié, and we know how Milan missed Kessié since his departure. Now it might even be too late to keep him.
As for Leao, he received his contract extension last year so I don’t understand. Maybe he didn’t like Scaroni saying “I’ll pack Leao’s bags”. That’s a disgrace from a top executive. Now he has been benched for no reason. Maybe he’s lazy, maybe Fonseca doesn’t know how to use him efficiently. The fact is that he was Milan’s top offensive player for years and the last game evidenced, if needed, that Milan is still Leao dependent.
There is something rotten in this club and I don’t think that the players are the ones we should blame.
I’m not against paying Theo the same as Leao in fact i consider him our most difficult player to replace but even if he deserves a bigger salary he is not in a position where he can just say to himself I don’t wanna track back or i don’t wanna huddle up with the group and coach and therefore sends a horrible signal to both players and the fans.
That is simply not ok to any extent.
I agree that comment was out of place but players still need to show professionalism and if they cant do that then they simply doesn’t deserve to wear our shirt. I dont think its about fonseca not using Leao effectively its about demanding a hell of lot more from him than he got aquainted to under Pioli and that is to keep pressing relentlessly.
Nobody is above criticism in my view, neither is the players who should get some chest hair and man up.
when it’s evident in parma match, Leao and theo were not substituted at half time but rather the coach blame them.
Fonseca knows he is coaching 2players who came just 10/15days before without playing some practice matches. He expect them run 90mins up and down especially for Theo, he should come back to back line when he way further and there was no midfield who covers them.
Even with all this issues still Leao/theo are the ones who made 2goals in parma and lazio.
It’s unfair to treat them like that, then you will see reaction from players also. Yeah it’s not good from players but do they deserve the punishment alone.
I can point out the mistakes clearly but they are also Milan players like Theo/Leao
And the new clown Zlatan took vacation at this moment who should speak/compromise players and manager.
now they will come back and play 3games in 7days not sure they will resolve this issue before venezia as there is no one to work
Well I did say nobody is above criticism so that also includes some part put on Fonseca’s shoulders.
Again I clearly said nobody is above criticism.
And again… 😀 Same goes for Zlatan and the rest of the management.
Well i certainly expects us to win the match against Venezia and hopefully with some margin. The then following two games I’m quite worried about but its not like I believe that the season is already over but we can definitely expect a lot more from all parts involved.
you say he is underpaid yet he has the second higest pay of all Lb in serie a and is 5th highest paid defender in serie a. Basically only Bastoni, Bremer, Pavard and dimarco earn more.
Now, should he get a raise? Yes, i think he should.
Is he underpaid? No F*cking way.
If money is all he cares for he can go to PSG this winter for all i care. 50-60M and bye bye
Very romantic. Please Théo play for the love of the game. Meanwhile the ownership is an investment funds which only purpose is to generate money. This team is far from competing for the UCL win or even Serie A so what can he expect besides money?
And he’s underpaid. As the second best player of the team. He’s paid less than Mendy his backup for France haha but let’s expect our players to play for glory, it worked well with Donnarumma, Kessié, Calhanoglu, or even Thuram who has already scored 4 goals in 3 games. Instead of burning cash on Musah, Chukwueze or Emerson Royal so Moncada can have his commission, just pay the best players of the team to keep them.
I think you can make the argument that Théo is the best player on the team when he’s giving 100%. I’d say Théo, then Leao, then Pulisic.
You’re just clueless all around. Mendy gets 5M, Theo gets 4M. Mendy plays for real, Theo plays for Milan. Mendy signed his contract in 2019, Theo his in 2022.
He is getting an extension. Which will include a pay raise if he wants to stay. If not, im sure real will offer him 5M a season..
But if you think Milan will just start giving epl salaries, then you are totally clueless and should just stfu about it.. We already done this song and dance and you’re still wrong about all of it.
Mike gets paid even less and he has no problem being motivated to give 100%.
Underpaid players are those who get paid like a mil or two and play at this lvls. Tijjani Reijnders, 1.7M net gross. Fair? Not fair? Underpaid?
He gets less than Musah btw (2M net).
As usual here it’s your opinion vs my opinion. I don’t think I’m wrong because you said so. And as usual here you’re using polarizing examples. I didn’t say that Théo needs a PL salary. Inter, Juventus, Roma pay their players but Milan with its “500M fans around the world” and the fastest growing brand in football can’t. But yeah I know, give 1 or 2 millions more each year to Théo and the club goes back to banter era and Serie C2…
I just told you that only dimarco gets paid more as a fullback then theo. And that is by 700k.
And only 4 defenders altogether get paid more than him.. and you’re here saying how inter,juve, roma pay their players more..
What is it then? You want theo to get paid more or do you want Milan to triple their wages so they’ll be the club who pays the highest wages in serie a?
And sure my opinion is that theo isn’t underpaid. And I’ve backed that up with actual salaries from SERIE A. You just whine how a handful of lb get paid more than theo and that is making him unhappy for some bizarre reason. He told you that over lunch? Or just vivid speculation from someone who has nothing better to do?
I think it’s more of a thing like theo and leao are trying to assert their authority like “hey we run this club” type stuff and fonseca isn’t having any of it. They’re both flexing their muscles but once the tension wears it will all go back to normal.
I rewatched the Lazio game Nd I must say that was our best game so far, so there is improvement. The first 45 minutes the double pivot helped the defence out and stayed in the position and we didn’t suffer anything. Although it wasn’t perfect. Second half came along and in a spurt of 5 minutes we fell off into the old ways and suffered but then came back into it.
The problem is that everyone including myself thought that we were serious scudetto contenders right from the beginning (we still can be) but this is going to take time where the players, the media and the management are all going into panic mode and these next few games couldn’t come in a worse time. They must beat venezia to build some kind of confidence. The good thing is the Lazio game was an improvement and these players all need to come together and know its time to suffer for the team if they want to bring results.
Respect is earned.
goes both ways in that case
Capello makes a good point. You have to manage the message you want to send and dropping these 2 gives the impression that they are responsible for the poor performance. And unfortunately the team is so disorganized that we can’t move ahead without them. The coach needs to handle the situation without creating a bigger problem than already is. Call it rotation for crying out loud or something…
I don’t pretend to know better, BUT if you’re trying to make a point, keep them on the bench for the first half, then bring them in at the second.
No matter what you’re trying to prove, you have to know these are difference makers. Throwing them in at 70 minutes is idiotic. What has the team done before that? They lost the plot.
You bring in key players, you get key results. 2-2 Saved your behind. You want them motivated? Great, balance your team and help them win.
Milan looks confused. No attacking strategy. Keeping possession up front a lot supresses Leao’s efficiency. It’s no coincidence that the second goal was scored on a break – because that’s what both Theo and Leao need to excel.
Round pegs in Round holes.
Yep. I’m glad he benched them whether it was because they were exhausted or because they didn’t try hard enough the game before but it should have been for only the first half. We played a good enough first half but it was pretty obvious at 55 mins that Lazio were controlling the game so that’s the latest he should have waited.
our best trait is speed and we havent been using it for 2 years. F*ck possession football when you have fast dudes on the wings.
Like the goal vs lazio. did it came from a slow possession attack or was it a dash towards the goals?
We gotta dash man
They were being penalized for a collective poor performance against Parma and that’s not the way you show your star players who’s the boss. Especially not after only your second official match in charge in this club. You didn’t like their performance and attitude? You talk to them after the match and try to find the root cause for it. Fonseca seemed like he did it because of media pressure after Parma match because he wants to be a likable dude.
I mean I don’t have an issue with “showing your players who’s the boss” but your resume has to warrant it. Fonseca has no brass to show anyone who’s boss because he hasn’t done anything to command that respect …
If Ancelotti or Klopp do that, fine …
Again with the f**king “posting too quickly” garbage. Posting here is more frustrating than Milan’s current season, I SWEAR …
ACM1899 I’ve recently added my name and mail permanently in the name and email parts in the comment section and I seem to have less “posting too quickly” messages from what I can judge,
maybe he did do that.He is a coach and thats what they do.