Following the 2-2 draw against Lazio, Paulo Fonseca spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on what AC Milan could have done better. Heading into the international break with just two points, the manager has a lot of work to do.
This is the worst start to a season since 1938/1939 and 1930/1931 for Milan, when they registered just one point in the first three games. In other words, the situation is far from ideal and tough evaluations will be needed during the break.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, as cited by MilanNews, Fonseca shared his thoughts on the performance and what Milan could have done better. He was also asked about Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao remaining (understandably so) on the left flank during the cooling break.
On the cooling break ‘incident’…
“There is no problem and I think Theo already explained it (his interview). This week, I spoke to the players who accepted my decision. There is no problem, I was focused and I did not see that they were there but I think Theo has explained why. The response of the players has been good and we shouldn’t create problems when there are none.”
On the match…
“I think the team did well because we controlled the match with the ball. In the second half, it went differently, we let them play. I understand that it’s a moment that isn’t positive, maybe in their heads the players want to try not to concede. We have to manage the match with the ball but in the second half, we didn’t want to play.”
Was there a man missing in midfield?
“For me, no player was missing in the middle of the field. We didn’t take any risks, that was the problem. When other teams press higher it should be easier for us.”
On the responsibility of the players…
“I didn’t talk about a lack of responsibility but about the team’s intention to play. I think we made a mistake, we know what the team’s intention is but in the second half we played a different game.”
Milan will take on Venezia after the break and then it will be time for Liverpool as well as Inter. This means that the Rossoneri must get things in order by then to avoid further embarrassment.
The starting team and Fonseca performed well, and this starting 11 plus Abraham will be the core for Milan going forward. However, they need a strong leader (neither Leão nor Theo) who can handle pressure effectively.
I think morata has those leadership qualities. The opener he had more fire than anyone in the team.
Emerson is the worst RB Milan has ever had. Pavlovic was great first half and second half he was worse than Thiaw ever was. Even a Serie C team can score against us easily. In regards to the midfield I don’t know if it’s a tactical problem but something needs to change. I also believe that even if we get Guardiola this squad is just a disgrace and wouldn’t compete for top 4.
Emerson makes you pray for Kevin Constant,
Need I say more
Need some miracle to finish in TOP 4 this season.
Gabbia should start every match and try to integrate Zeroli in the midfield….
Why not try a Gabbia Pavlovic partnership
The defence is so porous
I never thought it would be possible we’d get a worse RB than Constant was but… Miracles happen. In a bad way apparently.
Dest was worse. Don’t like Emerson all that much but we need at least give him time to accumulate before we put him on the chopping block.
You mean acclimatize? 😀 He didn’t acclimatize to anywhere since he left Brazil, a trash player that only Milan wanted. He would end up in Turkey or Azerbaijan if Milan didn’t buy him.
Yes we meant acclimatise
You can’t play like this with Pavlovic, Tomori, Royal / Terracciano as back 3. They don’t take a risk because they can’t. Every time Tomori or Pavlovic tried a more complex pass, it was off 20-30 meters. Tomori especially needs to touch as few balls as possible, he is a disaster with the ball in his feet.
We do not have the defenders to play like this. Inter had Bastioni, Acerbi, Pavard yesterday. The technical difference is enormous.
Terricano!!!, how can a guy who plays for AC Milan, be scared to get the ball, it beggars belief
Yes, you are right.after watching both inter & ac Milan games , it’s sure that there is a huge technical difference,inter are superior in quality compared to Milan starting from defenders..inter defenders create moves with good passes to the midfielders and forward line splitting the opposition defense, while Milan are so static & predictable most times, there were no much movements into the opponent half & always fail to escape the opponent high press with too many back passes..
We don’t know what might be the results after the international break ..I love Milan hoping for positive turn around
Yeah the build up today was horrific. The play at the back was sooo slow. Even Maignan looked fumbly. Terraciano musn’t ever play again, playing with him is like having another opponent. His passing accuracy beyond 3 meters must have been 0 %. Noone at the back could break through the press and create even the tiniest bit of space. In this game Abraham was needed much earlier to throw some long balls to ask some questions to the defence at least and maybe get a couple of seconds away from our defence. But I guess Fonseca ball isn’t supposed to play long balls. Which is no good since our players can’t handle short passing game… This season will not end well if we keep playing like this. I feel we are in for another massive defeat against Inter…
If Fonseca wants to try to continue to play like this he will have to make bold choices. Tomori in the bench for Thiaw or Gabbia (both techically a bit better). Maybe play Theo in a back 3. Recover Benaccer and use him in the buld up. I don’t know. I struggle to see how it can work.
Fvxk outta here Fonseca 👎
The problem is now that Rafa and Theo are revolting against Fonseca. That will not end well for ACM unfortunately. Egos never before the clubs name. Everyone must go, coach, these players and ofc the board. Terrible performance overall so far.
Fondeva does not have the respect of the players, he is a mediocre coach, he needs to go.
The problem is no Italian 7 player more in starting eleven and 6 on the.bench. specially in defence must Italian player .this means DNA of milan. Management dont understant, milan is uniq clubs very different to toher clubs. The need good Italian coch
RLC was useless… that was the missing player in midfield… put Bennacer-Fofana double pivot with Reijnders as CAM
you are right, lets try them and see, I have never seen any single right thing done by RLC
Scores some goals last season….
The further we can put reijnders from our backline the better. Dude offers nothing going back, not even man marking, he just hoovers 1m away from his mark
Reijnders needs to play a bit forward in the left half space. But with Theo and Leao on the left there is simply no space. He played a great match in Florence last year there, but Theo was not there. He played greatly the first games of last season when he played there.
My line up would be up:
Thiaw (Tomori) Pavlovic Theo
Fofana Benaccer
Emerson Pulisic Reijnders Leao
Morata
More offensive version you can put Pulisic on the right and maybe RLC or Liberali.
We need to use Theo differently to help in the build up and free Reijenders.
Theo>reijnders any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
We need to let theo and leao do their thing and have a midfielder there to pick up their slack. Unfortunately none of our midfielders is the slack picking type. That’s why we’re struggling and been struggling for 2 years.
Reijnders is one of the reasons why this team is so slow in possession and also almost always the pre-assist or assist comes from the player he didn’t mark. People often talk how Leao is not defending, but Reijnders is the worse in the team at that. By far, even if he is following the player back he isn’t doin anything but watching them do their thing. Also Fofana looks bad, but let’s give him time to adapt a bit. Emerson should have never played for Milan and everyone that agreed on signing him should be fired.
Reijnders and Fofana were also nearly useless. Milan midfield is trash to be honest. They need to sell all the players and buy good players. Fofana, Reijnders, those are average players, 6 out of 10 at best. What is incredible is that one Mkhitaryan at 35 is better than both of them. And Milan keeps getting these mediocre players without character.
When MILAN with not local coach mostly unsuccsess, since BERLUSSCONI era…oscar washington tabarez,marco gianpaolo did you know them? After take by abroad investmen, they journey not progress well…oh my poor MILAN…
Allegri on standby, watchout Fonseca. The management have to do something or Milan get ready for banter era 2.0. this is not lille who it’s oke with 4th or 5th place. This is Milan. Difference pressure…
Think Milan will hire allegri with his big díck salary? I’m not even gonna mention his garbage gameplay. Oh just did.
Think again.
Someone like Tudor or van bommel who’s available is more realistic
The team only looked to play slightly better as Lazio played so so much worse. Once Lazio put the regular play, our level was directly exposed.
Milan had huge problem to take one point from Lazio, probably the weakness Lazio in history. no perspective for any success this season. Ibra approved that disgrace and misery? ashame.
The problem is not Fonsesca, our biggest problem is our incompetent management.
80 millions spent already and se can’t see a single good player bought, Pavlovic has his good moments and I think he is a good defender if he has the right teammates, where the money went to? Emerson, a worse RB than Calabria, Morata who can’t even play , Fofana who so far is just another Bakayoko.
Oshimen wants to leave Napoli, if you want to make a statement and take the club to the next level like Gerry keep saying you pay 70 mil for him. Look at Juventus, they got a very good coach and a competent management, this summer they spent around 80-90 mil for some amazing transfers, Douglas, Louis, Thruam, Grigorio, Koop just a few players bought… Mocanda and Furlani should be fired at the end of the season this is a worse management than Mirabelli and Marota
Exactly, that is why you have Giuntoli or someone like that running the transfers. Not Ibra the old player that thinks he knows how to do it and Furlani the banker. Juventus transfer window is like an example that will be taught at schools.
Mùa này chúng ta chiến đấu cho cuộc chiến trụ hạng.
Milan’s build-up was annoyingly static…no clever movement off the ball…it’s almost as if players were scared to make themselves available. We struggled with Lazio’s press and spent more time doing back passes then breaking the press…no ideas, no creativity…our middle of the park play is non existent…if it doesn’t go down the flank we are clueless. More questions and fewer answers…shall we send an sos to Sarri?
That’s it “our players were scared to make themselves available” we might throw this season away before it is even started if we’re not careful.
We need to sack fonsesca and get conceiceo while we still can
Yah! hold my beer broo,only Reijnders as CAM Milan have.
‘Doing well up until the second half’ is akin to saying that a solider did well up until reaching the enemy positions. Pathetic!
Get rid of Fonseca asap! Why do we need to wait for humiliation against Inter and Liverpool to dismiss him??? This guy doesn’t know much about game. Just bring back Pioli or even no coach is better than Fonseca!
I am beginning to have my doubt about this coach.
However, if he really knows what he’s doing, then my advice for him is to 1st eat his words about going for the scudetto. And 2nd to be humble to start from ground zero hammer into the heads of his players his ideal style of playing until they get it even if they have to lose many more matches and star players.
If not like this, he will only end up worse than Pioli
First problem is motivation and second defence.. maybe we should try another formation … 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 and play more defensive football for counterattacks.. I still think we have good players , stronger then Juve or Napoli.. but when they don’t know what to do it is hard to fight for the 1st or 2th place…
I defend Fonseca in first and second game, but now I don’t know if he is prepared for this level of football… Milan is not a Lille and Seria A is much harder then Ligue one…
Most appropriate solution I read in this comments section.
4-3-3 ✅
The players are not worse than that of parma, Torino and lazio in terms of quality. Yet we played so bad against them. Has anyone notice
* RLC in attacking position is a waste, he crates nothing
* Tijjani struggles on the break
* Tomori is better as the left center half
* Chukwueze always miss ball and add nothing defensively.
* Pulisic always pass the ball back and couldn’t take any risk to create something
* The coach is clueless, have no pattern of play, he made the players confused and afraid to play.
I bet bennercer is needed so badly to pair fofona, Tijjani should play the AM,(even adli would have been more commanding in that position than RLC)
Calabria, Gabbia/Chiaw, pavlovic, Theo at back
I have no words again, have nothing to say to the players but mostly because it is not their fault.
The fault starts with management, which I believe is a mess?
We have no sporting directors and the players we fave gone for are based on how much can we spend, but in some cases even that doesn’t help as for example the RB situation? Royal came for 15m but why did we go for him when we hav Kalulu, or if so badly was needed one why not go for Bellanova who was also a product of la primavera??? Why sight a new extension to Jovic if you don’t want him, I think he is a great addition with experience and he provides goals too.
I am so tired to even think all the wrong decisions that they have done.
Just sad as the team now is weak and we won’t go far this season😔
So funny to see you guys panic like this.