Paulo Fonseca has addressed the anger after AC Milan’s loss to Fiorentina in his pre-Udinese press conference, whilst also discussing the issues within the dressing room.
The game against Udinese must be a statement for Fonseca and the squad, after the noise that has surrounded them during the international break. There have, once again, been questions about the Portuguese head coach’s future, and he must silence them at the first opportunity.
Saturday’s opponents find themselves a spot above Milan, but a loss on Saturday would see the Rossoneri leapfrog them – if not go higher. Given the aims are still firmly on bringing the Scudetto back to the red and black side of Milano, there is no time for mistakes.
It is a vital period of games for the squad, that starts and ends at San Siro with the fixture against Napoli at the end of the month holding significant weight.
Today, Fonseca spoke in a press conference before the Udinese clash, and his words have been relayed by Milan News.
Milan vs. Udinese in recent years has seen both teams win the same amount…
“It’s a statistic I haven’t looked at, I have to be honest. I knew there were big difficulties to win here against Udinese, and tomorrow will be no different. Udinese are a good team who are making a good start to the season, very aggressive, they play well and are very motivated. I’m sure we have to be at our best level to win tomorrow. It will be intense and very difficult.”
What kind of a week did you have?
“The first day was good, I didn’t see anyone. I was angry, after this kind of match I don’t like to see anyone. We didn’t have many players in training, we took advantage of it to train with the youngsters from Milan Futuro. The internationals only arrived yesterday.
“We did what’s normal: we talked about Fiorentina and started preparing for the Udinese game. I know there will be a lot of questions about that. For me it was very important yesterday to talk about the Fiorentina game, today we talked more about Udinese.”
What did you talk about?
“Everything that you think, everything that is normal to talk about after what happened. I don’t close my eyes to the problems, maybe in other teams you know more, I dealt with the problems we had by looking everyone in the eye.”
Is your quiet leadership from the outside misunderstood?
“I don’t flaunt my leadership, I’m not an actor. What I say I say inside the dressing room, face to face. If we have a problem I don’t give a s**t about the name of the player, I confront the team directly or the players who have made mistakes.”
Did you talk about it with Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
“We came back together on the train, we talked after the game as is normal.”
Will those who did wrong in Florence be punished tomorrow?
“We will see tomorrow. For me, no player is more important than the team. You have to take responsibility when you make mistakes. And if someone makes a mistake in this team spirit for me it is difficult. Let’s see tomorrow how it will be.”
The criticism aimed at you is that you don’t have the dressing room under control…
“I don’t need to prove anything, I’m not an actor. In football today there is so much need to be seen, I am like that, from day one. Ask the players this question, whether I have been like that from day one or not.”
Reijnders said that ‘slowly we are putting the coach’s instructions into practice’. At what point is the process?
“I want to tell the truth. It is difficult to change. It is always difficult to change. Are we changing? Yes. I too have been doing this thinking, and I have to realise that it is a big change and I have to be more patient.
“We need more time to change. We are beginning to see things that are significant, we must continue. We don’t have so much time to train, slowly we have to improve in what I believe we have to improve.”
Who will replace Theo?
“I haven’t decided.”
Before the break you said you wouldn’t rotate much. Now, in view of the many games in a short space of time, will you change that?
“Maybe. We have this need right now.”
Musah played as a wing-back for the USA…
“I think I’m lucky enough to have a player who can play in different positions. Playing as an outside player right now doesn’t seem like a possibility to me. He can play in other positions.”
Could Okafor play tomorrow?
“It is a possibility but I don’t know if he will play.”
Calabria and Theo won’t be there tomorrow. Who will be the captain?
“I arrived here and Milan already had three captains. Calabria, Theo and Leao. Because they are the players with the most games in Milan. I may or may not agree with that, but I respected that, I have to respect that. What I think is that this team needs more leadership.
“It’s not important who goes on the pitch and uses the armband, but it is important to have 2-3 players in the dressing room who share this leadership. I think we have other players who can help these players: it’s not only the one who wears the armband who is a leader. We have other players who can help in this.”
Does the scheduled allow Milan that necessary time that you demand?
“I’m working hard to make the team grow and get it to what I want. What we can do we are doing even with the little time we have, the players are responding well. We have to continue, I still believe we will be a different team in the future.”
Between now and the end of October, three Serie A matches and one Champions League match. Is this the real first crucial moment of the season?
“Here all the matches are important, so I don’t think too much about the long term because the most important one is tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a very difficult game, the little time we have is to concentrate on the next game.
“Here at AC Milan all games are crucial, decisive. Maybe for the fans the derby was a decisive moment, for me they are all decisive.”
Is the change difficult on a technical, athletic, tactical or psychological level?
“Everything, they are all interconnected. We can talk about tactics and structure…. Do you think we lost to Fiorentina because there was a technical or tactical problem? For me there is more. I think we didn’t have the ruthlessness, the desire to run more than Fiorentina.
“This is all in the mind. We can work on everything, but what was important for me to see is that we had no aggression. And this is not tactics. We have to run more than the others and we didn’t do that.”
Is it possible to see Pulisic again as a trequartista with Chukwueze wide on the right?
“Yes. Pulisic is not playing open at the moment, he is a trequartista on the right. It is possible.”
Liberali was included by The Guardian in the list of the 50 best players of 2007. After an excellent pre-season, he is now not getting playing time. What is he missing?
“I have always spoken that I believe a lot in the youngsters we have: Jimenez, Bartesaghi, Zeroli, Camarda, Liberali, Cuenca… There are many players with quality. Milan did well to create with Milan Futuro a space for these youngsters, in Italy this transition is not easy for these youngsters: with Milan Futuro they can grow and improve.
“Liberali played pre-season matches against Real Madrid, and Barcelona. Pre-season matches, but for me it was clear that he is a player with a great future if he continues to work humbly, he can be an important player. When? I don’t know.
“What I do know is that he is a guy who works with us, he has worked with us this week, he has great quality and he has to continue on his path of growth. If we have to bring him with us it has to be the right time, otherwise it becomes difficult for this type of player. In any case, he will be with us tomorrow.”
What job do you expect from Emerson Royal?
“At Tottenham we also saw him play as a central defender, he played in many positions. Here he can play fixed full-back, I think that’s his best role. The problem is that we haven’t used this structure now.
“With Pulisic more inside he has the responsibility to attack on the flank. The right role for Emerson is to play full-back, for me. Let’s see if we can play with this structure.”
Pochettino said Pulisic is very tired and needs to be protected…
“I have to thank him for his sensitivity in releasing players for the second game, I really liked Pochettino’s attitude. If we think he is tired now, at the start of the season, what will we think after 20 games?
“Chris is in a great moment, for me he has been the most consistent player at this start of the season. It makes little sense to talk about tiredness at this time of the season.”
Are you enjoying yourself?
“I would like to have more fun. Being a coach, not only here, is not a very fun thing. We have moments. I think at this level it’s difficult to always be with a smile on your face. It’s not easy. But I know one thing: I bring my passion every day.
“I wouldn’t change my job for anyone else. It’s not because I have more money, but because I love what I do. It is difficult, it is also difficult for our families. I try to get home and forget my profession, but it is not easy. I have many difficult moments but also moments that I enjoy.
“I think being a coach at this time doesn’t make you the happiest person in the world every day. Being a coach at this level means that we have problems every day, but when you solve one of them then comes great happiness.”
Let’s gives Kelvin zeroli a playing time him and musah is important
That was a good interview. Fonseca was frank and candid and while he did say that players made mistakes, he didn’t single out anyone so in this interview he isn’t throwing players under the bus. Also, he didn’t disclose what he’ll be doing tomorrow and which players will start, and that’s good because sometimes I think Fonseca gives away too much information that can be used by the opponent coach to prepare.
He doesn’t shy away from cameras and keeps it real. I like that about him.
Goofy coach. Goofy management characters at milan right now.