AC Milan fell 11 points behind Napoli in the Serie A table after their 2-0 defeat to them at San Siro last night, and the Italian media have sharpened their pens.
Both of the goals came in the first half for the visitors as Romelu Lukaku got the opener with a typical powerful run and finish, before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia doubled the advantage just before the break in a half that Milan otherwise dominated.
Paulo Fonseca claimed after the game that he is ‘more confident than ever’ about his side after what he adjudged to be a positive performance, but in a results business the fans are unlikely to feel the same.
Below are how the front pages of the papers in Italy reacted to the result…
La Gazzetta dello Sport: “Milan, did you see Conte? Napoli beat the Diavolo: +7 at the top. What a lesson from at San Siro from the tactician who was wanted by the Rossoneri supporters. Lukaku and Kvara goals. Fonseca -11.”
Corriere dello Sport: “Rooom! Napoli beat Milan (0-2) and Napoli speed away at the top with Lukaku. Confidence in Conte: +7 on Inter, +8 on Juventus. The Belgian opens the scoring: Sixth goal against the Diavolo. Then Kvaratskhelia lights up San Siro. Fifth win in a row for the Azzurri. Seventh clean sheet in 10 games.”
Tuttosport: “Lukaku-Kvara – what devils. Napoli also top Milan at San Siro: fifth victory in a row. Two goals in the first half and then a great defence. Conte goes +7 over Inter and Juventus. Scudetto? ‘None of us are hiding here’. Fonseca, with his first home defeat, complains about Morata’s disallowed goal (offside).”
I didn’t see a lesson. Napoli was meh.. they played with purpose, I’ll give them that. But spaletis Napoli would’ve wrecked us. Conte was just sitting back and waiting for counters vs a very weakened Milan that isn’t in form even at full strength.. lacks ballz this Napoli
Conte’s Napoli play for the result, full stop. Usually he is successful in this route one football , with deep do or die defending.
That’s exactly what we needed after Pioli, a no nonsense coach who has Pedigree and gets all the basics right to mold a concrete unit.
We once again gave away two cheap goals, especially the first , and that’s not what Conte’s teams do.
True Conte would only last 2 seasons but he still was needed for those two seasons.
Sorry that wasn’t intended as a reply to you just a comment.
I remember his juve and inter had more ballz. Maybe he’s keeping it simple since it’s first season
It’s been the second time we’ve complained about that (after Leverkusen). Stronger teams simply know how to hurt us routinely.
If I’m complaining about anything is the lack of clinical finishing at Milan. Don’t really care how napoli or whoever plays vs us..
Like both goals we conceded was duo to poor decision making in def. First one they failed with the offside. Also Mike shíty pass or whatever he was doing.
Second one was musah or thiaw who didn’t close in on kvara when we was going centrally. Gotta close that angle man.. just gotta
Our soft soft defensive game is our main issue for me. Every game starts with 2-3 clear chances for the opponent. If we can somehow replicate the scudetto season performances, we will be on par with Napoli, Juve, and Inter. At the very least
And they have the three points. Seat in the back or not .[cheapest] management.
Continue to play 1 striker, Milan will continue down the slope. Twin strike force is the way back to the top
And how does playing with 2 strikers help us not conceding goals?
You really are Jon S. You know nothing
The results speak for themselves, Fonseca needs to practically win all serie a games from now on to somehow redeem himself, and I don’t see that happening unfortunately.
Additional random observations:
1. why is there every week some kind of drama between Fonseca and our top players?
2. why do we know the starting lineup (eg no Leao) two days before the match, when Zlatan supposedly fenced off Milanelo to prevent these kind of thongs from leeking oit
3.Didn’t Fonseca himself say he’s first and foremost objective was to fix our defensive game? Can he say what he actually did in that regard, because I can’t see any improvement (the opposite in fact).
better to lose the Derby and fire Fonseca. This is the result after winning the Derby as if Fonseca is worth keeping. If you want to stay in the middle of the table, it is better to keep this coach with minimal achievements.
His arrogance and whatever he has with Leao and other top player will continue to hurt us. This coach cannot take us anywhere
Truth must be told… Zlatan is the main problem of Milan. Can anyone point out any of his signing that is doing well starting from the coach? What criteria did Zlatan used to bring in Fonseca to Milan? Is Morata a good Striker? Can he be compared to Giroud? For crying out loud, Morata has play in Spain, Italy and Premier League has he by any chance won any golden boot? Morata is not better than Jovic. Camada is even a better choice. The go to Emerson, who can he bench between Florenzi and Calabra? It’s an insult to bring in Fonseca to replace Pioli. Zlatan has Attitude problem that’s what he has brought into the Milan scouting crew. He never agreed on Signing Conte because he doesn’t like him in person. How will someone who understand football, a legend of the game left Conte to sign Fonseca??
Man, Morata is 100% not worse than Giroud. He is 100 times more useful and scores about the same. Giroud missed so many chances for Milan that it isn’t normal. Giroud never scored 20 goals in a season. Not even 20. What are you talking about? Please. Main problem is management, not Ibrahimovic only but everyone.
average coach always arrogant to players. He show who is the boss. look what happen to ETH at Man Utd. He is destroying potential player with mismanagement.
Okay, Let say it not easy.
But if you see Don Carlo, Pep, Conte is always giving confidence to their disposal player. Especially their star. And pull of some maximum quality from them. I hope Fonseca can adapt and bring out more success for us.
Another Conte sycophant in the media. Anyone that thinks Milan was outcoached in this game doesn’t know football. Fonseca tactically was better than Conte. Napoli could barely get out of their own end for most of this match. There was 1 defensive error by Pavlovic and 1 moment of brilliance by Kava. Milan controlled the game, possession, created more chances, they just didn’t finish and Napoli did. That is not on the coach.
Not to mention we played without half of our starters. Milan played much better than I expected. I’ll happily take Fonseca over Conte after watching this match.