AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has given some insight into his preparations for the game against Real Madrid, which started with his selections against Monza.
Fonseca chose to make four changes to the starting line-up from the team that beat Monza on Saturday, with the most notable being the inclusion of Yunus Musah.
There was doubt about whether he would be a right winger or a wing-back, but the coach mentioned a five-man defensive line in his pre-match comments.
The game could hardly have gone any better and it was a plan executed to near-perfection. Malick Thiaw, Alvaro Morata and Tijjani Reijnders all scored in an eventual 3-1 win.
Fonseca spoke in the press conference room at the Santiago Bernabeu after what was a famous European win for Milan, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.
Was that your Milan?
“I have to be honest: these games are totally different from the ones we have in Serie A. It’s the Milan that I want, but we can’t always be the same team in Serie A. Only those who are in Italy understand this.
“Here there is no man-to-man team across the entire pitch and for this reason I have to be careful when making these comparisons. In Europe we can be this type of team, but often in Italy there is no possibility of playing this type of game.”
Why did you choose Musah?
“We tried to stop Vinicius who is very strong in one-on-one situations.”
Morata did well…
“It’s not about the goal but how he works for the team, how he creates doubts in the opposing teams, that is important.”
When did this idea come to you?
“In Monza I didn’t play Royal, Musah, Tomori, Leao, because I had already studied Real Madrid and I had this match in mind.”
Did you like the midfield?
“Fofana, Reijnders and Pulisic and Morata were decisive in how they controlled the game with and without the ball. I like the courage the midfielders showed.”
The best performances have come against Inter and Real Madrid, is it a good thing to start as underdogs?
“No, it’s the characteristics of the matches. We are growing in many things. This match was more open, in which we could have played differently. There are many matches in Italy against teams that close up well.
“It’s not the same playing against Monza or Cagliari, who mark man-to-man all over the pitch, or against teams that play like Real Madrid. It’s more difficult for us to play against Italian teams.”
-It’s the Milan that I want, but we can’t always be the same team in Serie A.-
He is very right about this. Serie A is difficult. Very difficult.
We beat real but it’s a very real possibility we get a landmine situation vs cagliari. They won’t play like real would and we gotta 180 our approach
Did he just call Morata a midfielder lol 😂
He is more of a b2b then a ST.
Look at his movements on the pitch. Based on that he’s really not a striker.
I know but I wasn’t expecting it from the actual coach himself
this game has probaly saved fonsecas job and given him more time
He’s right – Saturday will be another battle, no doubt. We wont get that space in Serie A, so we have to adapt. Inter struggled to beat Venezia the other night and were saved from an embarrassing draw by a dodgy handball VAR decision. It’s not easy, but if it was, we’d have nothing to moan about..
Serie A might be slow but it’s a tactical headache and what works elsewhere doesn’t necessarly work there. In a way, you have to force teams to come out of their shells and play against you. Teams like Inter and Napoli will try and go for the wins, but many others will gladly take a draw while trying to make use of our mistakes. So Fonseca isn’t completely wrong here.
I’m not a coach, but I think against some of weaker teams it might be better to give players more freedom to make use of their individualities.
Calabria, RLC, Bennacer, Tammy, Jovic upgrades next season and we should be golden. So close yet due to owners so far…
FOUR THREE THREE IS THE WAY.
Stay compact and counter with pace. I mean even Musah looks like a different player in that set up. What other indicator of success do you need? SO much more balance in midfield overall…
Carry this blueprint forward.
That was 433 in attack. We were 532 in defense. Musah and Royal locked down the right side. Theo and Tomorri did the job on the left.
The other thing to factor in is just how press resistant Musah is. Defn needs to improve passing and decisions. But we are seeing that he can and that he is doing just that.
I also dont think Fofana is getting enough credit. He is the screen our defense needed. As he continues to adapt we see more aspects to his game.
To your point, we looked dangerous going forward in that 433. Passes we positive. Players new where to expect each other to be.
Has anyone realized that we don’t need a 30 goal striker when we have so many others who can put the ball in the net? So instead of calling for Gykores, or Jimenez, maybe we look at RB and some depth?
I’ll say one thing about fonseca that pioli never did and that is he studies his opponent well and changes tactics to exploit them best. Where as with pioli it was always the exact same formation and the exact same tactics of playing side to side putting in a cross to nobody or after all the work done passing it back.
Fonseca has now outsmarted both inzaghi and ancelotti but its the games against cagliari that we need to see a dominant performance. I truly hope this was the game to finally make milan players believe in the project and get behind fonseca and hopefully brought him and leao closer together. We need these kind of displays from now on to make us a top team. Was happy to see it
I disagree slightly. All we _need_ is a win.
I would defn _like_ to see a dominant performance.
The fact that we can win ugly should be seen as a feature, not a bug. We lacked it under Pioli and are lacking it now.
The diff – as you point out – is that Fonzy clearly comes to each opponent with a plan. As our players adapt to … Well … The need to adapt to the game plan for each opponent, we should continue to see more consistent results.
I’m shocked at how we won against Real. I’m gratifies that we did.
I’ll forgo the shock and take a win, no injuries and no red cards at Cagliari.