Paulo Fonseca understood that his side seemed to be a bit cautious during the 0-0 draw with Juventus, admitting that the results are not good enough.
Milan went into the match against their big rivals essentially needing to win to immediately re-establish themselves in the Scudetto discussions, and yet the game that played out was a contender for the most boring in recent San Siro history.
The two sides combined for just three shots on target and the Rossoneri’s first came in the 95th minute. Juve fielded a patched up team due to various injuries, but Milan were unable to break them down.
The Diavolo could end the weekend 10 points off top spot and at present it looks like even a Champions League place will be a struggle, let along a fight for the title.
Fonseca reflected on what was a difficult night for his side during his post-match press conference, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.
What do you say about the jeers?
“If I were a fan, I would have done the same, because the game was one of the most boring games of my career. I understand the fans perfectly. The best word I can use is boring. Too much respect on both sides.”
What was your intention at the beginning of the match?
“I always want to have the initiative and attack. Defensively, we had no problems, just like Juve. We can’t forget that we’re coming off a game where we conceded three goals, so I understand that the team’s conscience was to defend well, and that we faced the team that concedes fewest chances.
“To have chances, you had to be perfect. We have players to take risks. The chances we had to come out quickly, we always missed the final pass.”
Why didn’t you bring Tammy Abraham on?
“Juve created a lot of superiority in midfield without any forwards and we needed Morata’s work. They forced us to do this.”
Can courage be coached?
“We always prepare the game to attack, to face a team that defends well like Juve. I’m the first one who wants an attacking team, but it’s difficult to explain why we didn’t take risks.”
Why didn’t you try fight against the boredom by making the changes a little earlier?
“Pulisic arrived with a problem, I couldn’t use him for a long time. The player wasn’t feeling well and I couldn’t let him play for a long time, I even took the risk that he had a problem. Regarding the others it didn’t seem like much could be changed about what was happening.”
Did the line-up send a message to the team to defend more?
“I would field the same line-up. This was the team in Madrid, except Pulisic. The same structure, the same team.”
Milan could drop to ninth by the end of the weekend…
“We are not satisfied, obviously. We have already spoken about the growth of the team, but the results are not what we want. The problem is not today’s result, but the draw in Cagliari or the defeat in Parma.
“With two wins in these two games we are higher. We are not satisfied, but we are confident for the continuation of the team.”
The lineup shows what to expect and we were not disappointed. Fonseca is far for ideal coach for Milan
This interview is as sad as that jacket they made him wear for the match.
Fonseca is on course to finish in 8th on the league table.
If musah has to “help out” Emerson Royal every time then you can simply give musah the role in a 3-4-3 while keeping pulisic upfront with Leao & Theo leading the attack together on the left.
About the post match comment; you can’t claim the team “defended well” when they didn’t create anything against a weakened juventus (0.26XG with the only attempt on target at 95th minute) after a 3-3 draw against Cagliari where they didn’t “defend well”.
Fast foward, now Clownseca thinks he deserves a trophy for defending well (0-0) against a team that obviosly played to get a draw.
Simply unacceptable.
defending phase looked like 4-4-2 (with Morata and Leao up on top) when defending and 3-4-1-2 during counter-attacks where Tiji (this should be fixed with Puli since RLC is not a midfielder we should have) would go more centrally and Theo would move up as LM.
now the question is who can play RM role other than Musah? and also what he can contribute in attack/possession? currently his stamina, sprints, 1on1 defending are his key strengths but he’s not ready to be a starter. Also this makes more sense for Puli be CAM, since he’ll be LM basically most of the game and joining counter-attack as CAM (Liberalli would be a perfect sub for him)
Also, why can’t we have the same fire-power anymore? we either score or defend well (neither both), and if you consider Vlahovic was injured and they played with CM as ST, we got a bit lucky as well.
and Kalulu would have been so much better than Emerson Royal… overspent compared to our boy Pierre and can’t even do anything
When u benched chukwueze and pulisic for musah and luftus cheek.. against Juventus..what did u expect..u are not a Milan coach…no standing 11 rotation every match
Il never watch Milan match ever again untill this Fonseca is sacked .. This match was desert on the plate and Fonseca came up with musa and Loftus up front and now expecting this game to be interesting. Milan could easily have won it if chuku , pulisic and Abraham had started the game along with leao and Abraham up front .. this Fonseca is a disaster for Milan . He no not a thing about managing a football club
JAJAJAJJA JAJAJAJA JAJAJAJJA JAJAJAJA JAJAJAJJA JAJAJAJA JAJAJAJJA 😂🤣🪦🤡🤡🤡🤡🤢🤮🤡🇵🇹🇺🇲👍🏻
Foncesa, pls who cooked and serve the boredom match????
Foncesa time in Milan is becoming embarrassing.
When the fans demanded that Pioli time is up, we expected am upgrade in the new Coach not this.
That was such a rough watch….. Especially for the management. This keeps up it will be tough for even them to stand behind Fonseca… True madness would be to stand by him unto the summer.
He is getting paid millions (not a lot of millions) to figure out how to break teams down and he comes up with that display against Juve without forwards. At times I couldn’t tell which team was missing forwards.
Hope Sarri is on stand by.
Lol 😂😂 he talks as if he’s not the one coaching the team..wtf hahaha 🤣
Bro you directly have something to do with the performance..