AC Milan will play their second official game under Paulo Fonseca today, and the coach sent a message to his side on the eve of the trip to Parma.
As Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) write this morning, the season debut against Torino provided some lessons to Fonseca. After a questionable line-up was named, he has decided to redesign Milan for the first away game, one where they cannot afford any further missteps.
Fonseca has retraced his steps, opting for a decidedly more balanced Milan side that will once again rely on some of its main pillars, such as Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders at left-back and in midfield respectively.
The real news is that the ex-Lille boss has chosen Noah Okafor rather than Luka Jovic to replace the injured Alvaro Morata, justifying this decision yesterday in a press conference by saying: “Okafor will play against Parma. He has given good responses during the week, and the characteristics of the match are good for his qualities.”
However, Fonseca made it clear that Jovic is far from out of his plans, and he will still be able to come on during the game – especially given Morata is absent – and potentially continue his trend of important contributions off the bench.
The Milan coach has warned his team that against Parma – a team that has shown that they can compete with practically anyone despite still being newly promoted – there will be no room for mistakes and complacency.
This is why Fonseca will show up at the Tardini with a more cautious formation with Yunus Musah together with Tijjani Reijnders in the middle of the field, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek returning to playing as an attacking midfielder with the task of falling back to help the midfield.