AC Milan’s summer friendly wins against Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Monza have quickly been forgotten after the bad start under Paulo Fonseca.
As Calciomercato.com report, those games in the USA perhaps deluded some into thinking that Milan were ahead of schedule in the development of the new era under Fonseca. The Portuguese coach was the first to understand that something was not going in the right direction.
These signs were perhaps perceived in the training sessions that preceded the match against Parma, which led the Portuguese coach to change plans after using Christian Pulisic as an attacking midfielder and Samuel Chukwueze on the right for a month.
Instead, Fonseca opted to use Ruben Loftus-Cheek as an attacking midfielder in a side that seemed to have been made by his predecessor Stefano Pioli, a move aimed at rediscovering some uncertainties but with results on the field even worse than one could have imagined.
After the game in the dressing room Zlatan Ibrahimovic held a meeting with the team and while there was no shouting or berating, he urged the team to give more in terms of sacrifice. He sees the players as being primarily responsible, net of some controversial choices by Fonseca.
Talking about a dismissal after the second game seems really disrespectful towards a coach in Fonseca who signed a three-year contract. Everyone must do more, and the game against Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico must provide a turning point. Only with the results on the field will trust in the new era build.
Gerry Cardinale was at Milanello yesterday to speak directly with all the members of the management. He spoke with Fonseca, reiterating his support and taking stock of things, and hoping for a better result this coming weekend.
The performance and result of the derby will determine his fate
Use 3 MF pls, whether 433 or 4312
Of course they will say that. After all, they hired the guy. But I’m afraid it will become clear in a few weeks that Fonseca is a mediocre manager, and from mediocre people we can only expect mediocre results.
During the search I wanted Thiago Motta; then when Juve got him, I thought that Conceição would be a much better option than Fonseca. At the time I thought that Fonseca was the very worst option of all the available managers, and we went for him.
I did get fooled with the good pre-season results but I should have known better that friendlies against teams that used mostly their youth players weren’t a good gauge of Fonseca’s capacity.
I hope not; Forza Milan; but I’m afraid that while we should be able to beat Venezia (or not even; we have lost to another newly-promoted team), we may lose to Lazio (we rarely play well against them at the Olimpico) and Inter (likely by a large score), thus precipitating a real crisis.
It was a cheap sideways move, the management even came out and said words to the effect of ‘we don’t see the need for an elite coach’.
You Reap what you sow…..
They reiterated their support for Pioli time and time and again, we saw how that ended. Let’s not fool ourselves, Fonseca was a downgrade from Pioli – at the level of Giampaolo in my opinion. We had opportunity to sign a real coach like Motta or De Zerbi and we literally passed on the opportunity. Another waste of a season…
They will wait for the fans to be completely crazy and Jerry the saviour will arrive on his white horse, I mean private jet, to deliver the fans from Dr. Evil Fonseca. We saw that before.
We are already 5 points behind and there have been no encouraging signs in terms of performance. A new coach needs time but there have already been some red flags. Saelemaekers at left back was crazy and from what I’ve seen last season, I can’t believe RLC and Musah are starting for Milan. The loyalty to last season’s signings is bizarre. Apart from Pulisic, none of the new boys have proven themselves. Yet, the rumors are always about getting rid of Bennacer and Calabria, like Krunic before them. Management created a huge unnecessary void by selling Tonali and couldn’t fill it with three signings so far. Maybe Fofana will be the one. I want the best for Milan so I hope things come together sooner rather than later.
3 YEARS!!!NOOOOO!!!! 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤬🇵🇹
3 years + 1 optional. And several of members here said that he’s just an interim coach before we sign a bigger name such Klopp. Lol.
Just remember this is not the coach that they wanted to sign. When they did their homework and talked to other coaches they had someone else that they thought would be the best option for Milan. Then Curva Sud and and other fans threw a tantrum because they didn’t like that guy and the owner caved and backed out. This is why you don’t listen to the fans when it comes to making club decisions.
Did you mean Lopetegui who fans called him “Nopetegui”, he’s doing so-so in EPL with squad like Paqueta, Fullkrug, Kudus, Alvares, Bissaka, Todibo.
I don’t the the Fans who cried nopetegui including myself wanted Fonseca instead. Can’t speak for others but I had De Zerbi or Motta in mind
Surely they didn’t beg for Fonseca. Majority of the fans were calling Conte. You can say what you what about his personality or method, but you just can’t put him and Fonseca under the same basket.
And even De Zerbi was in the picture too, when by miracle he divorced with Brighton. The rumor was that there’s still a signing fee for him. You know our we never see eye to eye with something called commission.
So from pretending they heard the fans input by pulling the plug from Lopetegui and went to sign someone that’s even not in the wildest mind of the fans. It’s like a prank that’s not even funny.
Conte would have been ten times worse. It won’t last a year at Napoli. He’s already complaining about the team. The game has passed him by.
I’m saying the ownership should’ve trusted the people they pay to make those decisions rather than listening to the fans. We’ll never know what Lopetegui would have done here, but caving to the fans is never a wise decision.
Well they trusted the directors when they hired Fonseca. If they’re really listening to the fans, they’d never sign Fonseca at the first place.
For Conte, we’ll see. Not a big fan of him, but we know some of our players can use a bit of his mentality. He did complain (to be fair, how Napoli handle Osimhen is pure disaster), and now he got Lukaku. Don’t forget that Fonseca complained too (about our players, of course, can’t see him bold enough to complain his superior), and let’s see what he’ll get.
Talk to me about crystal ball bro haha