AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca is at work trying to establish the best starting line-up for the game against Parma on Saturday, and that includes picking Alvaro Morata’s replacement.
As Gianluca Di Marzio reports on his website PazziDiFanta, the natural replacement for Morata – who has a muscle issue that will keep him out until after the international break – is Luka Jovic.
The Serbian striker, who started against Torino, confirmed however that he is much more effective when coming off the bench rather than playing from the first minute, when there is less space.
Another solution, perhaps the one that is currently appealing to Fonseca the most, is to deploy Noah Okafor as the striker. The Swiss forward scored the goal to equalise in the 95th minute of the game, and continued his reputation as being a ‘super sub’.
Fonseca is also thinking about a ‘crazy idea’: Rafael Leao could replace Morata at the centre of the attack. In the squad, there are many wingers and the Portuguese could act as a pure centre-forward, with one of either Christian Pulisic or Okafor in his place on the left.
Milan have Francesco Camarda too, but the 16-year-old trained with Milan Futuro today, a sign of how at the moment his ‘promotion’ to the first team is on hold for the time being.
Holy.. Giampaolo 2.0. Marco Giampaolo has resurrected.
Relax, even the article mentioned that for Fonseca, the most appealing solution is to use Okafor as striker.
We had enough of his “crazy ideas” in the first match already and two points went down the drain. Just play Okafor.
I secomd Okafor being the guy we shoukd play up front. Jovic doesn’t have the speed to keep up and Leao lacks the finishing touch to be relied on. He squandered too many good chance even coming right to the box right the middle.
Leao as CF is a terrible idea; been done. didn’t work
Yes multiple times. Can’t someone just show that to Fonseca. Cause maybe he hasn’t seen it. We saw it, it was worthless. Leao is so lost as a striker.
Yes, it has to be Okafor. Leao can’t play CF, Pioli already tried this. The fact is that, even with Morata healthy, we are mediocre at CF. We need Leao (from the wing), Pulisic, Chuck and others to pick up the goal scoring.
oh dear….
If he really does this then it will be the beginning of the end for Fonseca. Sarri and Sergio Conceição are still available.
I cannot take another season of failure and madness at Milan. Give me f*#@ break already. Smh
This right here tells me you weren’t around for the banter era. There are other clues you all leave but this statement tells the world you didn’t support the club when it was truly down.
Marco Giampaolo…
Then obviously Salemakers is gonna play left. (Seems like he just wants to fix Alexis in the starting lineup)
If he wants to go “crazy” go for a 3-4-3 formation.
——————-Maignan——————–
—-Emerson—Tomori—Pavlovic——-
Salad—–Fofana—-Rejnders—-Theo
——Pulisic——Okafor——Leao——
Formation of 3-4-3 is good idea but Tomori isn’t reliable on middle of back three, for this position you need someone playing without panicking, mostly physically strong player. Tomori can maximum player as right of back three in that formation. Still I am not against it but would prefer Gabbia in the middle rather than Tomori. Maybe Emerson instead of Salemaekers if it wouldn’t be so defensive as I heard Emerson isn’t ideal as RWB.. Since the defence is our main problem, I would prefer defensive experiment than Fonseca’s some stupid fantasies..
I really don’t understand the obsession of 4-2-3-1. We don’t have natural AM, and our midfielders are better in 3 midfield..
I would prefer to use 4-3-3.
—————Maignan————-
Royal–Gabbia–Pavlovic–Theo
—————-Fofana—————–
——-Rejinders—RLC————–
Pulisic——-Morata——–Leao
Agree mate, three solid CBs with two flying wingbacks and then In CM a technician and a physical beast.
Royal is not an offensive player. He’s at his best when used defensively. At Spurs he was his best when deployed as a CB in a 3-4-3
Gabbia is the one for the middle of defence in 343. He’s not the fastest but he has good sense for positioning and is strong. Both Tomori and Pavlo like to push up and Gabbia stays behind.
So my pick would be Tomori-Gabbia-Pavlo with Emerson-Thiaw-Bartesaghi as their subs.
Replace Emerson for Gabbia and I think you’re onto something. I’ve always been a big fan of 343
——————-Maignan——————–
—-Tomori—Gabbi—Pavlovic——-
Salad—–Fofana—-Rejnders—-Theo
——Pulisic——Okafor——Leao——
This right here is the most balanced line up and a system for the players we have.
Gabbia for the middle of the defense with Tomori and Pavlo who like to drift higher up. Emerson-Thiaw-Bartesaghi as their subs. Calabria for Saele.
——Kalulu–Pavlovic/Gabbia–Tomori—–
Kalulu- no brainer, decent on the right, good in the center.
Pavlovic- Solid in the air & reads the game well.
Tomori – usually plays as LCB of 2 CBs in a back 4 covers can cover for Theo and recover quickly given his speed and athletism.
Wasn’t kalulu going to rube
We can’t select Juventus players 😉
only crazy if it doesnt work. if it works he will be called a genius or something
It won’t work. Pioli has tried it. The Portugal National Team coach has tried it. It never worked. Rafa is really terrible at Center Forward. Rafa is a pure winger and should never play as a Center Forward. Rafa depends on bursts of speedy running from an area of the field that is less congested like the left wing. He doesn’t do well in congested spaces like the center of the box.
The definition of stupidity is trying something that has been tried and has never worked, expecting a different result.
nah. all he needs to do is stay in line and sprint when we get the ball. forget the center of the box, we never get to it anyway if the torino match is an indication
for me this 343 will suit him well given the list of players he has and then everyone can play to their position. sales will cover well on the right giving the left wing enough balance
At the end only calabria will survive last bad match as always ,he is our untouchable maestro ,king of milan
The crazy idea is… Crazy. Forget about it. It doesn’t work. We’ve seen it.
Ibra needs to sit with Fonseca and tell him: “Buddy, you’re new here; maybe you don’t know these players well enough yet and you haven’t witnessed certain things that have happened in the past. Let me tell you some things:
1. Rafa as CF is a terrible idea. It’s been tried and didn’t work. He sucks at CF.
2. Jovic as the sole CF from minute 1 has been tried and has never worked.
3. Gabbia is way better than Thiaw, who is incredibly gaffe-prone and irregular while Gabbia is consistent and solid.
4. Alexis is most definitely not a LB. Poor kid, he tries hard, but don’t expose him and set him up for failure playing him grossly off-position.
Trust me, buddy, if you believe me regarding these tips, you won’t regret it. If you don’t believe me, you will fail.”
Damn! I certainly hope that these rumors are false but if Fonseca tries to play Rafa as CF after his lineup blunders of last Saturday, I think his tenure at Milan will be a short one.
Of course he’s thinking of different solutions, everyone’s thinking of different solutions. Folks here are also thinking of putting RLC up front considering his nose for goal. But that doesn’t mean anything yet.
I really don’t understand the obsession of 4-2-3-1. We don’t have natural AM, and our midfielders are better in 3 midfield..
I would prefer to use 4-3-3.
—————Maignan————-
Royal–Gabbia–Pavlovic–Theo
—————-Fofana—————–
——-Rejinders—RLC————–
Pulisic——-Morata——–Leao
Hmm, what is more likely? That the first thing the new coaching staff do is leak all their plans to Di Marzio or that the journalist is making things up for clicks? I wonder…
What’s people’s issue with Leao playing as a striker?
Most want Okafor there. Well if Okafor, who is a winger can and is willing to play as a striker, why can’t Leao do it too?
Based on Leao’s (un)willingness to run back he should play as a striker, because as a winger ,not only he isn’t producing goals, he also isn’t helping defensively.
We can criticize Fonseca all we want about his choices but the game vs Torino end up in a draw, and during the game Leao missed 3 great chances to score. He scores one of them, it is a totally different game. For comparison Brescianini who is a midfielder, scored 2 goals vs Lecce in the same situations Leao found himself vs Torino. That changed the game, because Lecce actually played better than Atalanta before Brescianini opening goal.
If he is your best player, he needs to convert those chances or Fonseca needs to play someone who will.
He isn’t producing goals, based on 1 game? By your logic, we should say that everybody not named Morata or Okafor are not producing goals either.
Rafa produced plenty of goals for Milan, and assists. He happened to have a very good game on Saturday but did lack the finishing product in 3 occasions, which happens to players just back from vacations until they can get a bit more calibrated.
Okafor played more as a striker than as a winger, before we bought him and Pioli pigeon-holed him as a winger.
Okafor is more effective than Leao as a striker. We’ve seen Leao trying to play striker, and it wasn’t pretty. Leao needs space to beat his man running, and he doesn’t play well in the congested region of the center of the box. Leao is a classic winger, not a striker. Playing people out of position is stupid; it doesn’t utilize their best characteristics. See Alexis as left back: a disaster.
Oh, Brescianini scored twice? Let’s compare his number of scores and assists with Leao, say, over the last three seasons. Oh, not as good as Leao? There you go.
Yes, Leao needs to convert those chances, sure. It happens that sometimes he doesn’t. But sometimes he does. So, Fonseca needs to play someone who will? Like who? Leão was the most prolific Milan forward of the season before last, and second most prolific forward last season (counting scores + successful assists), only behind Giroud, who is gone. So, what? Bring back Giroud??? By your logic, we’d need to do that, right? With Morata out, only Pulisic had similar number of goals and assists to those of Leão (still below him, though). Yes, I wouldn’t mind trying Puli as CF although I do think that he plays better as RW, but he is versatile. Leão is not. He is a very good LW, but only a LW.
Unbelievable…
Based on 1 game?
Did you start watching Milan last week? Leao has always been an awful finisher.
Last season Leao went almost 6 months without scoring. Were you in hibernation during that time?
Leao finished the serie A season with 9g and 9a. 2 of those goals + 2 of those assists came in the meaningless last 4 games when Milan had nothing to play anymore.
Also, missing the point about the Brescianini comparison. Converting chances is the difference in games. Brescianini convert his, Leao didn’t. Atalanta left that game with 3 points, Milan only got 1, and fans blame the coach but excuse the player. The coach can’t score.
Leao misses chances and doesn’t help defensively as a winger. At least put someone on the wing that will actually help defensively and Leao will only be hurting you by missing chances as a striker.
If you are not an older adult, then I’ve been watching Milan since before you were born. I watch ALL games of the season, every season, including in person at San Siro.
Yes, I’m perfectly aware that Rafa went on a dry spell last season (while producing more assists than his usual average). Still, when you add all competitions, he was the second most prolific Milan player in 2023-2024 after Giroud. You conveniently forget those added goals and assists, don’t you? They matter too.
Yes, you ARE talking about 1 game, when you keep going on and on about what happened in the Torino game. Sure, it would have been nice if Rafa had scored. Sure, maybe Morata wouldn’t have been injured. But what about all the OTHER players who didn’t score? Chuk? Puli? Jovic? Why are you only singling out Rafa?
Sure, Rafa always had some trouble finishing but he still regularly scores and assists (and also gets some very nice finishes), again, being always among the top 3 players with goal participation, if not the very best one like in the Scudetto season.
Look, what you are saying that Rafa doesn’t produce goals is FACTUALLY wrong. Stop being silly by saying stuff that is easily debunked by consulting any site with stats for all players.
There is a segment of the Milan fanbase that hates Rafa. I suspect racism. Beware of what you guys want. Our offense will be MUCH worse if we sell Rafa. I hope the latest Barcelona rumor is just a rumor, just journalists going for clicks (Barça seems to be broke anyway) because if we do sell him, we’re screwed.
Just pure nonsense.
He produced more assists than his usual average?
He had 9 for the whole season. The previous 2 seasons he had 10. Which is more 9 or 10?
And you out here talking about someone being factually wrong.
Don’t care about Copa Italia or Europa league playing vs a team with 10 players where Leao stat padded. Serie A is the most important competition he plays in because he is trash in UCL.
But even if you take into consideration all competitions, leao had less assists than the previous season. So how did he produce more than his usual average in assists?
I’m singling him out because he is the one that missed 3(three) chances, not the names you mentioned. Chukwueze didn’t have easy chances to score, jovic had none because he wasn’t getting the ball.. Pulisic had 1. How is this so hard for you to understand? Did Jovic miss a chance? Did Chukwueze miss a chance?
Also, he is supposedly Milan best player and highest paid player. If he can’t finish chances that’s a problem.
No one hates Leao. Leao isn’t that important for anyone to hate him. We are just talking about his game, not him as a person, but some clown will always come up with a weak and cowardly statement about why they suspect Leao’s game is getting criticized for.
The truth sounds like hate to people that don’t want to hear it. Leao missed chances were just as bad as Thiaw mistakes in defense. Both cost Milan points. If you score you will most likely win if you can’t you will most likely lose points. It is that simple.
Did you miss that he was injured and recovering during quite a lot of those 6 months?
Also, if Leao converts his chances, Morata, who isn’t 100%, doesn’t need to be forced to come in, save Milan and at least salvage a point, ending up being injured.
You see, converting chances matters.
Which one is more, 9 or 10? Haha. Of course you will disregard the other competitions because if you don’t, it will be evident that you are wrong. That is called selective quoting. See, regardless of what competition we are talking about, when Rafa scores and assists, it’s still a piece of skill that he is showing. Let’s see, all competitions stats from FootyStats.
2023-24 16 goals, 13 assists. That’s 29 goal participations. Come again, Leao doesn’t produce goals? LOL. Come again, 13 is not above his assist average? Too funny!
2022-23 18 goals, 12 assists. Oh, he doesn’t score? LOL
2021-22 16 goals, 12 assists
2020-2021 8 goals, 8 assists
2019-2020 6 goals, 2 assists (his first season, fewer matches played)
Kid, you are WRONG. The above are FACTS. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Yes, I don’t know if you are one of those, but yes, a lot of the criticism towards Rafa must be racism because it often includes the word “lazy” which is a stereotypical way to refer to black players (by the way, they keep calling him “lazy” even when he works hard and tries to track back and help the defense; which he isn’t great in doing, but again, players have specific skills: his are those of being an outstanding left winger, not a defender). It is really suspicious that people refer to our most goal-participation prolific player with heavy criticism and the “lazy” adjective. Why don’t we see the same criticism for the various other white players who never had the numbers that Rafa has??? Am I a coward? I think cowards are the ones who keep calling Leão “lazy” out of really suspicious reasons.
See, your kind is ALWAYS complaining about Rafa. If he doesn’t score (which happens to all players including Lionel Messi) he is “lazy.” If he does score, it was just luck.
So, he is very lucky, with 111 goal participations while wearing the Milan jersey. Let this sink in: one hundred and eleven goal participations. Wow! That’s one very lucky fellow, because according to you and your kind, he doesn’t score and assist except when he’s lucky. LOL.
I’m fully aware that you didn’t use this adjective but I’m addressing the general criticism Rafa is a victim of. Just recently in the Pagelle thread for Milan-Torino, some silly guy said Rafa was lazy and kept walking around which is absolutely not true: Rafa worked really hard in that game; just couldn’t finish his chances but tried super hard; still, regardless of what really happened, he collect the criticism of just walking around lazily. The same silly guy said Rafa didn’t care that he didn’t score, when Rafa looked utterly devastated when he missed the chances.
Unbelievable.
Just quit while you’re behind. And by the way, that’s my last response. I won’t come back to your nonsense, on this thread that now is not current any longer. I have no more time to waste with your nonsense, easily debunked by looking at a stats site like I just mentioned. Have a nice day, kid. Go play your FIFA videogames, and leave the real FACTS to us, grown-ups.
If you want to have the last word, be my guest. I won’t be reading it, though. Like I said, I have better things to do than to debate with a nonsensical kid.
Brother hood correct but bro just wrote a whole book of a message
U are a good football analyst
“What’s people’s issue with Leao playing as a striker?”
Maybe the sample of games where Leao actually played as a striker (or second striker for that matters) either for us or Portugal ?
Sure, as a striker he will have less defensive duties, but he will be closer to the opposition’s defense, will be marked more closely, he will have to make decision faster and won’t enjoy the space he likes to dribble, pass,… Overall he will just become an easy target for the opposition’s center backs.
I would like him to be a striker or a SS, because it will allow us to try something other than a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, but he doesn’t seem to have the mental capabities to play as a striker.
Leao who cannot be clinical, as a striker. We want another struggling team
Oh no, not again – II… Come on, I HATE al kinds of ‘doom & gloom’ frame of mind, but this kind of bizarre tactical ‘experiments’, this is sheer nonsense, and abovel all something that has been proven to be dramatically ineffective… it makes it difficult, very difficult to maintain a positive attitude towards the man…
Leao is not a striker, he doesn’t have those characteristics. This is not FIFA. He’s a LW.
Okafor should play striker. But, maybe Fonseca will do anything to keep Saladmaker in the starting 11. Maybe he has a secret crush on him, idk. He’s a decent player, but I view him as an energy guy off the bench.
Fonseca is starting to worry me. He seems like someone who has done no homework on Milan before he got here. Leao has been tried up top by both club and country and it hasn’t worked. Also someone could tell him Saleamakers has been before and there’s a reason we sent him to Bologna, and there is a reason Bologna didn’t want to keep him. Fonseca seems to be easily impressed by some fancy dribbling that leads to nothing, same with Chuku. The end product is not there.
I share your concerns. Plus, keeping Thiaw on for 60 minutes while Pavlovic and Gabbia were sitting on the bench, for me, is proof of bad judgment. I think we might not have conceded either of the two goals to Torino, if Thiaw were not there.
Yes exactly. This is what happens when a new coach makes decisions based on a couple pre-season friendlies rather than the full season of games. If he studied film from last season he would know that Thiaw has a history of ruining games with bad decisions and that Gabbia was the better defender last season.
Pioli had same experiment but did not work out before Giroud came
Ahh…..I love it – pure Theater LOL.
This is the genius plan of management to hire Fonseca with the SAME tactical (or lack thereof) ideas as Pioli – I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry.
Already lost faith is our amazing back up #9 in Jovic after one game??? Ha! Can’t say I blame him. But Leao as a CF? Even more comical. We’ve seen this before. Unreal.
My god. WTF is Zlatan doing? As a world class former striker it is unconscionable to me that he would actually believe we would be set at the striker position with 50+ games to play – one every 3 days in some stretches – with a group consisting of Morata, Jovic and a 16yr old Camrada. I mean really? I guess if the goal is finishing 7th and trying to win the Coppa Italia ok. BUT of you want to win the league and compete in UCL past the knock out stages – your telling me Zlatan feels good about those 3 as our striker options??? So either he is now a company man and has to tow the company line and watch that Net transfer spend and transfer cap – OR he is suddenly blind and doesnt see what many of us already can – that it isn’t enough. Morata with an injury after 20min of game time – total shocker LOL. Inter role out Thuram, Laurato, Taremi, Arnautovic and Correa (still) and we have Morata, Jovic and Carmada?? How can we be a serious club
Good times
bro just put okafor at striker ffs ur stupid ideas already cost us 2 points dumbass
We tried this under Pioli and in case you don’t remember, it was a complete and utter failure …
We do remember. We know. It’s Fonseca who doesn’t.
What is Fonseca couch when he not bring any player from Lille? David is great attacker and his contract glong down and nothing? Fonseca is loser who listen what Ibra and Moncada tell him.
Shame what we will see this year again,poor Milan with lose one more year for title. How our Ibra tell we now at project😂😂😂 What a stupid comment,what we do last 4 years??
We will cry for Maldini and this owners will put us at back.
I am actually curious. Fonseca’s style of play is very mobile in attack. That movement may be able to create spaces for Leao.
Pioli’s attack was very static, easy to mark out.
So I am curious.
Get him the fck of the grill! Why did you believe bro when he said he would cook…
What was Fonseca doing, when he took forever to come to Milano? Couldn’t he study film and understand that Rafa can’t play striker, that Gabbia is much better than Thiaw, and that Alexis is not a left back??? He seems to have no clue about what these players have been showing over previous seasons. You can’t just base your assessment on pre-season friendlies. You need, as a professional coach joining a complex, major club as AC Milan, to study film.
I’m disappointed at Ibra, too. He needs to instruct Fonseca on these things, and it is URGENT. He can’t continue to implement crazy experiments that have been tried before and are known for not working, and thus keep costing us points.
Come on, Ibra, do something!
Not with the Leao in the center. Also it’s freaking Parma ,even Camarda would do the job. I’ll go with Jovic, for him to get a goal and build up his confidence. This may be it before team is back from international break with Morata ready. He wasn’t serviced in the last match.. bet would put the chance away that Morata have had.
Im waiting so badly how if this foncesa madness give us a 3 point, just cant wait how u all react LOL
Lots of better options out there. If Salarmakers starts at LW and Rafa at CF, we will know this isn’t going to end well.
Don’t get too cute. Play Okafor or Jovic in the middle and Rafa on the left. Rafa is a great player on the left. Don’t mess with that. Start from there, best player in best position. Puli would be my 3rd pick after them. He actually played CF quite a bit one year at Chelsea – he was fine on the movement front, not great at finishing. His finishing last year for Milan was great. His finishing wasn’t good last week, but I think he will be good at it this year. I think he was learning about clinical finishing from his big brother OG last year.
If you have to guess what to do, you arent a coach
Mr. Fonseca…do few more experiments , loose points and compromise championship just from the start in the first ten rounds and I assure you, you don’t eat panettone in this Christmas, you wiil be gone by then…
I wonder now…why this Fonseca never really perform at every club he trained…😆😆
Here we go again…on and on…the same bs stories with this invented “injuries” just to form an inconvenient to justify some next poor results or to make the bet market going the way they want.Football and sport is a scam.wake up people!
Can’t really blame coaches for thinking about putting him up top, Leao is a double edged sword on the wing, if he doesn’t score his impact is usually negative. He is extremely lazy, I wouldn’t mind seeing leao up top and okafor on the wing
There we go. The “lazy” stereotype again, despite the FACT that Rafa worked very, very hard in the Milan-Torino game. You guys bash Rafa regardless of what he does, and in a way that is completely divorced from reality. To call his hard work in the Torino game “lazy” is really mind-boggling. You can say “poor finishing” and I would agree, but “lazy” he was not.
leao aint a attacker he cant finish after the pre season i was impressed by fonseca but what i have seen from him and how he put the starting xi he might be worse than pioli