AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has claimed that his side did not follow what they were told to do during their Champions League defeat against Liverpool.
There is no doubting that the pressure on Fonseca and his team is mounting after just five games of the new season, given that they have so far yielded just one win and nine goals conceded in total.
The latest disappointment came tonight in front of a crowd of less than 60,000 at San Siro, something which was partly due to the high ticket prices but also because the beginning of the campaign has not gone to plan.
The fans who did show up needed reassuring and they did not get many positives barring Christian Pulisic’s goal three minutes into the game. Ibrahima Konate and Virgin Van Dijk each scored from corners, and Dominik Szoboszlai netted in the second half.
Fonseca spoke to Skyafter the game to assess what was another difficult night for his team, with his comments relayed by Football Italia.
How do you judge the game?
“We played against Liverpool, who are a huge team. We started well, both attacking and defending, but then we conceded two goals from set plays that changed the game.
“We lost our mental balance, because when the team lacks confidence, we develop problems and don’t do what we prepared in training. I told the players, you cannot make those mistakes in this kind of game.
“At the same time, I have to admit Liverpool are more of a team right now than we are, we need to keep working to have not 20 good minutes, but 70, 80, 90 minutes playing our football. After we conceded the second goal, the team stopped playing, and it becomes difficult after that.”
Did your side follow the plan, considering the goals conceded from set-pieces?
“The first goal was individual marking, we prepared that on their central defenders. That was the plan anyway. It was something we prepared in the little time that we had, try to put Leao against their right-back. We did it once or twice in the match. What we prepared was to send Rafa one-on-one against him and we hardly did it.”
Do you have any further response to Boban, who thinks you should play a 4-3-3?
“I respect everyone’s opinion. I think we can play with a few different formations, but we are too weak defensively, poor in individual duels and making the wrong decisions.
“I am trying to find the best characteristics of our midfielders. Loftus can be a 10 or an 8, Reijnders is not someone who can play next to Fofana. We are not playing 4-3-3, there are always three including Pulisic who cut inside.
“I think we had three or four good situations in the first half with Loftus and Pulisic, but we got the final ball wrong. This is a structure that I like with two in midfield, with Reijnders, Loftus and Pulisic combining, that is where we created the most dangerous situations.”
Mediocre owner
And average coach
Well said.
An owner who invests over €200 million, including over €20 million on a youth team and is barrelling ahead with a new stadium isn’t mediocre.
The main problem is the owner surrounded not with the right personals. Investing heavily (although the amount is debatable in this football era) is entirely different than investing effectively and efficiently.
Surely the owner is not the one who made the call about Fonseca. The ones who made the call are the main problem. It’s clear that Cardinale is a ‘noob’ in this football business. He really needs to surround himself with several heavily experienced and competent individuals.
Yep. As you say, he’s a noob, so criticism of him is ridiculous. He has taken steps to ensure the long-term future of the club – Futuro and a new stadium. He deserves credit for that. Understanding how to put a good team around him is more challenging because he’s not a football man.
Dude we are trying for a new stadium since 2018 and we are so close to have a stadium as we were in 2018. And 200 million invested – maybe 20 million came out of his pocket everything else is swlf made from Milan . I don’t wanna even start about the quality bought with this 200 million. So yeah Gerry is in with the rest of the rats on this sinking ship
A weak, shaky defence, Milan should have thought of it during the transfers window!
Useless players
So basically he is throwing his players under the bus again. Like it’s their fault, not his (well, it partially is their fault, but it’s not elegant to bash one’s own players; Pioli with all his faults never did that, which is one of the reasons why Pioli was beloved by his players). Fonseca seems to be a good student at the José Mourinho Blame The Players School.
Mediocre loser.
Bro because of Pioli, team Milan looking so static on the field, wish Milan have more players like Abraham and Morata
Very true.
Perhaps he should realise that Liverpool have a new manager, so why are they “more of a team”
They are still playing Klopp’s system, which Slot has changed little of. Their system is already in place. Their players know where to run, what to do, and where to position themselves.
Whereas Milan have to change up the way they play because Pioli has instilled too many bad habits into the team.
Tearing down bad habits and rebuilding new, good ones take time.
Fonseca out!!!
Pavlovic and fofana weren’t there at pioli’s caoaching time but they both lacked in passing and fofana was so terrible defensively. This match was way worst than last year ucl matches. The problem is not pioli’s bad habits still in team problem is fonseca doesn’t know what to with this team. Very poor coach
They keep same team as ladt year and added players.. = mor solid team…..liverpool is like 5 years head
What a weak criticism. Someone needs to call them out. This team since the Pioli days struggles with tactics, sounds like Fonseca had a plan but the players did their usual static, unresponsive, play. The coach can only come up with the tactics it’s the players failure to mark, defend, pick up their head and pass the freaking ball that gets Milan in trouble.
This.
If Conte does it, he is a great coach.
If Fonseca calls out players because they are not following his instructions it’s throwing them under the bus.
Some of our fans are more weak minded than our players.
Because Fonseca is 4 Scudetto and 1 EPL away from Conte.
It is the coach’s responsibility to communicate efficiently with the players and get them to follow his plans. For a coach to say “they are not following my plan” is a confession of mediocrity.
A manager needs to manage. That’s what Fonseca is being paid to do. He should not be blaming the players if he is so weak that he can’t get them to respect him and do what he wants.
Look at Napoli. Basically the same players did terribly with Garcia and are doing wonders with Conte. That’s because Conte is a real manager, unlike Garcia and Fonseca.
“It is the coach’s responsibility to communicate efficiently with the players and get them to follow his plans. For a coach to say “they are not following my plan” is a confession of mediocrity.”
What??? “For a coach to say “they are not following my plan” is a confession of mediocrity.””
WHAT?! You are making zero sense. Again.
“A manager needs to manage. That’s what Fonseca is being paid to do. He should not be blaming the players if he is so weak that he can’t get them to respect him and do what he wants.”
Actually, Fonseca isn’t a manager. He’s a coach. There’s a difference.
English is not my native language. OK, I incorrectly used the word “manager.” I meant allenatore.
Yes, it’s the responsibility of the allenatore to clearly tell his players what to do. Musah declared he didn’t know if he should press up or stay back. That’s a failure of the coach.
Of course it makes sense to say that it’s the coach’s responsibility if his players don’t know how to follow his plans.
Conte is a real allenatore. Fonseca is not.
I’m currently working as a supervisor at my work place. They was a time when things started getting bad for me. My boss was always on me. Production very poor till I got suspended. After that I got myself into thinking. Started to see what really went wrong and boom 💥 God I found the problem worked on it,got my team both as family as well as workmates. Things ve changed the point I’m trying to put it is that Forseca needs to own up and take responsibility otherwise he will be fired sooner than later. Things got worse in the first seria A game from that time all has not been good. The Theo and Leaô incident really cast a bad ear. The team is playing for the coach to be fired. Pioli was very unfortunate last season we started well till the injuries did us badly.
I still hope to see the Milan winning days back San Siro. Because now it’s hell wonder what Inter will do to us next game.
Yeah call them out yet these players play even worse than they used to with Pioli. And it’s already 2 month of “coaching”. What does that tell you?
Yes coach fonseca. It is the players who are wrong.
Fonceca doesn’t have charisma and if players refuse to listen then thats on him to enforce and if he cannot, then he’s gone. We need a coach cus we don’t have one. And I’d say it again, cashout on Leao and Theo next mercato they ain’t serious anymore we need players with hunger and that hunger is what’s missing.
Gid bless you
Fonseca genuinely believes that he can coach this team but he does not have the Authority needed to get these players to become a real team unit.
He has tried and was at times very courageous but he is not the profile to construct a winning compact side.
After Pioli a coach like Conte, Motta or
DeZerbi was needed.
This guy might be cheap but he’s massively overpaid. 10th in Serie A. 33rd/36 in Champions League. Now the derby. And no backup for our injury prone goalkeeper. And with the idiots paying for Pioli and him, even if he’s fired they won’t hire someone so we might see Krusty the clown/Zlatan or some random dude on the sideline. Patience. No panic. Vergogna…
Pioli already done deal to al nassr. So ACM will only pay fonseca & new coach if sacked him after derby. But their choice also bad , it is alegri
No wonder the team morale didn’t get better when this piece of sh*t keeps blaming his players like a loser.
Agree. He has 0 chance to win any players that will play for him. Its an emotional game – players know he is way more likely to be ousted before they are.
-Reijnders is not someone who can play next to Fofana.-
Why the fúck did we buy him then? It was probably clear to everyone but the most dense fans and moncada that Fofana is just another brick in the wall. And our midfield was full of bricks already
Something wrong about this coach , looks like 50-70% player dont want to follow his instruction. His request player already done by management but the result are poor. Better hire italian coach
The players they brought are not showing their worth and it is responsibility from moncada and ibra I don’t see how emerson is better than jimenes the players are not folowing the coach and something its not working only morata is giving Some positive komments but our main players are not delivering and we could not make 3 Passes yesterday I thought thats why we bought fofana and rejinders.. theres to many things to say they need all to up their game it can’t be just defence defence why dont then leao scores 2 goal and it would be 3 3..
FONSECAOUT!!!!!!!! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🇵🇹
the moment i saw the lineup I was like yea we’re gonna lose. gabbia was excellent this last game but he chose to go with tomori who has been very poor lately, then he decided to go with calabria instead of emerson….fofana is good, reindeer is good, loftus is too slow and show be a bench player, somebody else or even liberali should be playing in place of loftus…
I disagree gabia should have played instead of pavlovic He is way better in the air and also in passing for build up play somply pavlovic had no impact in this game. Tomori wasn’t that bad tbh he had some nice interceptions. Also Fofana was terrible in every way possible and we don’t have good replacement because Adli and pobega are gone. Tbh with these midfielders it’s difficult to compete against top or even mediocre seria A teams let alone top ucl teams.
If they do not do what they are told, its high time to resign.
Once upon a time, Liverpool were in a situation we found ourselves in a couple years ago.
Clinging to history and an image of the past.
Not winning anything, filled with 2nd rate players and just the butt of many jokes.
Now, the difference in what they did is what? They started from the top down and got who? JURGEN KLOPP! Gave him the keys, and that man worked his magic for 8 years, and passed over a club that’s well oiled!
American owners as well. So maybe Gerry can take a page out of that manual and see the value of a top manager!!!!!
Madrid tried with Lopetegui and those likes.. papa P saw his mistake and bought back who? We all know.
Bayern attempted with Tuchel and we’ll see with Kompany.
Us hiring the likes of Fonseca breeds exactly how we started the season.
Of course De Zerbi wasn’t guaranteed to do better, but it looked and felt right on so many levels.
Hell, even Manuel Pellegrini would be perfect for this team… losing is one thing, but the performance speaks volumes.
I keep mentioning it, and it could be a moot point, but I blaty hate those jackets, these collaborations🥲I absolutely hate them! Always always, we release a new line of off white clothing for champions league, and we leave angry having to cry on these forums!
Yeses! I’m usually calm and try to let a situation play out, but here… we’re going nowhere slowly
Forza Milan
and after another compromitation in derby we will end season. no doubts. it’s no even hope.
I am really not clear what the instructions are.
What were his instructions for dealing with the overloads on the flanks?
Every. Singe. Full. Back. Who has played under Fonseca has struggled so we have a bit of pattern here.
Either the CM’s cover or the wingers come back or both but that never happens regardless of who plays in CM or wing. Even the CBs (of which he’s used 4) don’t seem to know what to do.
That’s a lot of confused players.
Continue with the rubbish 4231 or 433. You get into more trouble. Revert back to Milan DNA 4312. This coach cannot make it, it’s clear he has lost it
Fonseca has to go. The players don’t respect him. Ibra must follow Fonseca out of the door. We need new owners who understand soccer or new owners who hire a manager who understands soccer.
Fonseca is like villas boas in chelsea. No player respect him. Its time to pack
Fonseca has lost the clubhouse,right or wrong he is the captain of the ship. He is the one responsible for directing the players what to do and not to do. It will take more than an act of God to win the Derby now. He will be gone by next Monday. Pioli was not at all perfect but because we finished second he is gone. Sometimes it is better to dance with the devil you know.
Interesting what the players reaction will be in the derby.. are they going to hammer nail into coaches coffin?
Fonseca is done. He’s already got a bad relationship with the players. I’d love to see Allegri back. At least we’d stop conceeding goals.
We are embarrassing. The coach has to leave. The players dont want to play for this guy and frankly they dont know what to play. The team looks embarrassing.
What a shambles of a match!!!!! What a disaster!!!!
What kind of gameplan is that to play the ball back and back again and back again every single moment. It is the same style of play as Pioli – dull, boring, unimaginative, dangerous …..
Milan’s decline started when maldini was dumped and incompetent clowns and idiots took over.
Sack fonseca straightaway and kick aside ibra and his bloated ego and furlani and moncada.
Also see if there is some stupid team wanting that other lazy clown leao.
Get more Italian players in the team and a coach that the players fear. unless AC dig deep in the pocket and sign top quality players then no should be relying on miracles.
AC plays a boring style of football by keeping the ball in their defensive third. Up front hardly any player takes shots at goal. These two actions will definitely ensure no goals. Hello !! Wake up and take note of the public comments.
Fonseca
5 matches: 2 draws, 2 loses, 1 win
Giampaolo
5 matches: 3 loses, 2 wins
Truth be told, I can’t Fonseca will be sacked in this near future. Even Giampaolo wouldn’t be sacked if this management was in charge back then. This current management tends to dwell on their decision making, and only seek for a safer option.
* I can’t see Fonseca will be sacked
And now the other American just fired De Rossi. After just 4 matches. Damn that side of America don’t wait.
Well, he has spoken. But I believe this coach doesn’t have a charisma and tactics to lead Milan. If players don’t follow your instructions, when we were 2:1 down you should have made changes, but you didn’t until we were 3:1 down. He is not proactive and always lacks the technical ideas of what to do in time
I don’t want to hear him anymore! Just replace him and bring in a COMPETENT coach, who has WON something meaningful in his career and has a great track record!
The problem is a competent coach as you said, will sell half of the player to replace them by calciatori able to tackle, press and pass
This team is a cut&paste of Pioli’s team with the same weaknesses … but without their strengths.
The simple fact that Foncesa admits that his players don’t give a damn about his tactics is quite a bad omen for his future
In situations like these I always remember Aston Villa. With Gerrard as coach, they were in relagation battle. Sacked him, got Emery, excellent coach, same players, they are in CL. It just shows how much great coach can do. We have good players, but none of them play to their ability. It makes me laugh then Foncesca says that Reijnders cannot plau with Fofana. Brother, you knew that you have Reijnders on your team, so why Fofana was main target?
Problem is that team does not have leaders. If leaders are not on pitch, we need them in management. Maldini was leader. Sure, he made mistakes, not a lot of experience afterall. But he k ows what Milan is and players knew that Maldini is Milan.
Main concerns about him was that he was not able to sell players but then you look at managements now, they do not do good job at that either.
Ibra is joke, not leader and it shows in team. No one trusts coach, everyone seems afraid to play, looks like they get behind Liverpool players so no one passes them a ball.
Hopefully we realize that soon and get new coach.
We can’t afford to pay a good coach €7 million or €10 million a year so he goes to Napoli who can afford to pay Conte €6.5 million plus €2 million in bonuses.. we buy cheap players or who are close to the finish of their career…I miss berlusconi era when he liked a player we bought it over no matter what… champions League time is so far away from us…7 UCL trophies is what I will die with.,..
You miss 90s/00s Berlusconi.
Late career Berlusconi, started this mess.
We went from “inter didn’t touch the ball for 4 minutes”, “we were great until we conceided the third goal”, “we had more possession than PSG” to “ain’t my fault, it’s the players’ fault”.
Also I feel like since Boban suggested the 4-3-3, Fonseca will never try it.
5 games in and he’s resorted to calling out the players. That’s what managers do when they are in self preservation mode because they know they will be doing new job interviews soon.
How are we here already?
Our biggest problem last season was how bad we were in defensive transition. We bring in a new manager and we are somehow even worse at it!!!
But worse than that, it’s now not even our biggest problem! There is never, ever a good pass on from the back. Liverpool must have been laughing to themselves last night. They simply covered half spaces and we didn’t know what to do.
So painful to watch.
What’s Fofana’s job? I saw him play a fair bit the 2 previous seasons and he was a menace. He’s a France international. He looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
If the plan was to get the ball to Leao but they’ve pinned him deep and wide, what’s the new plan?
Sorry for replying to myself but I’m furious 😀
I think one of our biggest problems is our superstar. That guy is more worried about fotoshoots, music and clothing than he is on futbol. Come on LEAO, we need you to react and shine!
fonseca this is your fault the players dosent want you they dont like your tacticts and he wanted abraham so much which has been a good choice but he wanted emerson? he is trash