The long-awaited announcement of Paulo Fonseca as the club’s new head coach arrived yesterday, and a report has outlined how AC Milan might play under him.
As Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) recalls this morning, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the man who broke the news on stage during the press conference held at Milanello yesterday, and he outlined some of the reasoning behind the decision.
“For us he is a top coach otherwise he wouldn’t be the Milan coach. Something new arrives, with a different kick than before. A dominant, attacking football arrives, with the balance of defending which is important,” he said.
“It will be another energy, another face on the bench, the other is bald and he has more hair (laughs). Both of them are always classy.”
How will Fonseca’s Milan play? The paper believes that Milan will mostly use a 4-3-3 system under the Portuguese, which can change to a 4-2-3-1 in the right situation, two formations that are very familiar to the squad already.
Fonseca was also chosen so as not to tactically disturb the squad, whereas hiring someone like Antonio Conte would have required an overhaul given he plays with a three-man defence.
Fonseca would move Ruben Loftus-Cheek back into a mezzala role alongside Tijjani Reijnders and Ismaël Bennacer would sit a bit deeper, while waiting for the mercato to give the new coach a midfielder with more defensive characteristics.
In attack, Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão will play closer to the striker, which could well be Joshua Zirkzee while waiting to see how negotiations develop on that particular front.
However, Fonseca’s first mission as Milan coach will be to give balance to the team after a season with 49 goals conceded in the league, and 69 across all competitions. Again, help from the directors might well be needed.
Acmilan is playing 4-2-3-1 nothing like 4-3-3
yes and no. Start of the season Pioli wanted a 4-3-3 to be more attacking. Hence our purchases of RLC, Reijnders and to some extend bring back Pobega etc. They are box to box. We started that way but when things got tough Pioli went back to 4-2-3-1 and has played a few guys out of position. Problem is, for a 4-3-3 you kinda need a strong DM. Our best Defensive guy in Bennie was injured, Pioli said Krunic will do it and the rest is history.
If we get a solid DM and Bennie comes back to his best, 4-3-3 would fit a lot of our players.
why is everyone acting like they never seen this guy before. his roma team were very unimpressive.
So was piolis every team he coached before Milan.. give the dude a chance
And Capello had literally done nothing before turning Milan into the greatest team in the history of football.
Don Fabio was a managerial machine. Respect
Am coming for your ass bro 🗿🔪
Impossible child. You don’t know where I live.
Now fúck off, adults are talking
Wow there are some weirdo’s on here!
Agreed. He might just pull a rabbit out of a hat. 6 months will tell.
You will be located in the mirror 🪞 wireless.
Fonseca’s system is similar to Pioli’s except he has theRB/LB’s join up front and link up with the wingers in attack (instead of invert inside), which opens us up to counters and getting sliced up in transition.
So unless he finds a way to balance the defense and the transitional phase, we’re gonna keep getting carved up.
A lot of course also depends on DM/CB/RB reinforcements.
Regular fullbacks instead of inverted fullbacks will already be a huge improvment.
I think we will be more direct in our play with fonseca.
We will look like a team with a plan. Lets give him a chance.
Some are nailing the coach before he starts his job, we have to accept the reality, Milan management can’t afford big coaches, but at the same time Fonseca is not a bad one, the team won’t be rotating too much, few renforcement and new tactical approach, let support him, we can’t do nothing at the moment, his Roma spell may be bad but if you truly watch and follow his playing style recently you will observe a lot has changed.