With just one point from six available and four goals conceded in 180 minutes, it would be fair to say Paulo Fonseca has not got off to the best start as AC Milan head coach.
La Gazzetta dello Sport speaks of a ‘bleak panorama’ at Milan with Fonseca as the main defendant, without forgetting that the new coach was chosen by the management of the club when there were other names available.
Given what happened in the first two games, it is legitimate to ask whether the decision was the right one. The report has highlighted five areas that have been lacking so far.
Pressing: When Fonseca said on Friday that Noah Okafor, and not Luka Jovic, would replace the injured Morata in attack because he was more inclined to press higher, it was a bit perplexing because it is a team more that an individual instruction.
After 70-80 minutes of weak pressing against Torino it is not enough to simply declare that it must happen in the next game, rather it is necessary to create the conditions to do so without risk. If the pressing fails, you must prevent the opponents from slipping away into the spaces behind.
Exposure: Parma head coach Fabio Pecchia’s instruction was clear: let Milan advance and then hit them on the counter-attack. The Rossoneri attacked without coverage, i.e. there was no sign of a preventive marking plan to cushion the negative transitions when the ball was lost.
Every counter-attack by Parma resulted in something dangerous in front of Mike Maignan. The team were stretched, the departments disconnected. Parma wasted a lot of chances and the result would have been humiliating, if the new defender Strahinja Pavlovic had not plugged many of the holes.
Underestimation: The impression is that Fonseca, his staff and many players have somewhat underestimated the young stars of Parma. Man, Sohm, Mihaila and Bonny are four devastating players in the open field, with Bernabé a director of pure technique and great intuition.
In the last two seasons of Serie B, Parma showed the most intense and vertical football, showing they are a team to be faced with caution. Instead, Milan faced them chest out and exposed themselves at the other end.
Rafael Leao: Leao is unable to level up, to go from being a promising player to a mature champion. He is a prisoner of his ‘comfort zone’, the left flank where he dribbles and accelerates. He rarely moves to the centre, and it’s as if he he considers assists more important than goals.
At 25 years old he must take more responsibility for shooting and show more ruthlessness. It is not enough to be good, and Cristiano Ronaldo should be his inspiration. CR7 had an obsession with goals when he was young, Leao does not.
Communication: Fonseca took the blame in the heat of the moment, after the defeat in Parma, with a sad attitude. Heavy words, which already sound definitive, even if we are on the second game. It seems to be weak communication, or rather a manifestation of weakness.
In August it is right to expect something more positive and exhortative towards the team. Taking all the blame is a nice gesture, but it can be used once, maximum twice. On the third occasion, we must draw the consequences, otherwise it becomes an empty rhetorical exercise.
If it doesn’t come out in September… THE SEASON IS OVER🤢🤢🤮🤮🤬🇵🇹
Shoulda hired Motta
“Rafael Leao : It’s as if he he considers assists more important than goals.
At 25 years old he must take more responsibility for shooting and show more ruthlessness. ”
Nah, Leao is shooting, Leao is trying to score, the problem is that his technique is so awful that he can’t hit water if he was shooting from inside a boat in the middle of the ocean.
His shots are way more dangerous for the fans than the Goalkeepers.
6 seasons in, we have the same questions about Leao we had in season 1. It isn’t a problem that needs to be solved, but a reality to be accepted. He is who he is.
I will agree that he seems to be more comfortable making an assist than scoring, however in the game against Torino, he was more like playing as a force 9, and he was doing it perfectly, only the end result was below par, I expected a continuation though he never liked the idea but I repeat a good coach can make a huge difference with Leao and make him a finished product, but I have my doubt with fonseca, he is more like another Pioli 2.0
To be fair assists and goals are equally good as the end result is the same. If I was in the management I for one wouldn’t give better goal bonuses than asssist bonuses as it could create an enviroment where player become more selfish in their choices. If the end result is the same it doesn’t matter. Look at one of the all time greats in Michael Laudrup, he has said himself that he preferred setting up his team mates than scoring goals and it would be dense to question him as a player.
“If I was in the management I for one wouldn’t give better goal bonuses than asssist bonuses as it could create an enviroment where player become more selfish in their choices.”
Does any actually think the players on the pitch making decisions in fractions of a second think about “scoring here would earn me X euros more than if I pass the ball to a teammate with open net in front”??? Are they supposed to be THAT obsessed with money? Candy money? It’s not like they’d get 1.000.000€ for each goals, now do they?
Is money all the players care about? Ask Harry Kane whether he’d swap 10.000.000£ of his salaries for a trophy or two. I know what he’d say.
*Does anyone…
truth be told you never knows and football players often seem greedy to me. Either way the end result is the same so no point in paying one act more than the other and it will also send a signal of team play above individuals.
Css comments not showing again.
Our problem is that our midfielders aren’t the best defensively and our wingers don’t help in the defense phase. Either you change the formation to 4-3-3 or you play Saelemakers on one side to create better balance otherwise we are going to keep conceding
WAKE UP GRANDE !!! Puli doesn”t help on defence ??????????????? If you mean LEAO than say LEAO !!!!!!!!!
100%
Rossi I assume you are referring to the posting to quickly messages we get from the site ? If so then I have taken the consequence and saved my name and email on the website and I doesn’t seem to have as many issues as usual.
The problem with Leao is that he doesn’t do more defensively. As soon as he loses the ball, you see him walking majestically like a king. But in the National team, he helps defensively and offensively. If your wingers doesn’t assist defensively, believe me even you have the best full backs in the whole world, they will underperform. That is one weakness Leao posseses and no one is telling him the truth. It’s as if they are all scared to tell him to mark
The main issue in my opinion is the new management. We had a solid team that needed two or three PROVEN players to complete. Instead, the owners fired a successful management team, sold one of our stars, and followed it up with a poor transfer campaign. Diaz leaving was out of our hands but we planned for that with CDK. Unfortunately, he was let go as well. Krunic was let go amid an injury crisis with no replacement in mind. Reijnders has replaced neither Tonali nor Diaz but at least he has shown improvement. RLC, Musah, and Chukwuezee so far have been busts with very few encouraging signs.
Maldini gets called out for Origi and CDK but he has Mike, Theo, Bennacer, Tomori, Kalulu, Thiaw, Leao, Ibra, Tonali, Kjaer, Giroud…etc. to weigh against those, not to mention a Scudetto and a CL semi-final. All this management can brag about is Pulisic, who is the kind of player Maldini wanted; proven quality, experienced, and hungry.
Even Pulisic had also been targeted by Maldini and Massara long before they’re fired.
100%. Maldini also had to ask for aprove about every transfer by Furlani and Scaroni,guys who doesn’t know a sh*t about football.They rejected many transfers that he wanted to make.These bastards fcked up everything.
I was never happy about us sacking Maldini and still isn’t but to be fair Maldini had also tried to acquire RLC and Pulisic for the past 2 years and even Chukwueze had been mentioned as a possible transfer in the last half a year he was at the club.
The slip. My problem with Leao is he always slipped.
The coach needs to use Fofana , Benacer and Loftus cheek in the midfield. U can’t have three weak players up front and than u used Weak midfield players behind them. The defense will Suffer. If possible that midfielder from the German league should be brought on board . Pls don’t release Benacer.
Leao tried to do too much against Parma, but, his decisions and shooting were really poor. Theo, on the other hand, was really poor. I watched every French game at the European championship, and he played as if his life depended on it. His defending was poor on both goals. While Pavlovic covered his opponent, Theo looked at his man, and moved like there was no need to mark. For me, I like the way the coach is trying players in different positions. We may not get the result now, but, we would be guaranteed that when players are brought in as subs we would not be scared about their impact. Also, I like that the coach speaks his mind, and, he brings something different. We had a good preseason, and, our attack has improved, despite the results in the league. If our so-called “star players” can play like the guys that played the preseason, we would have better results.
The problem isn’t the players or the coach, it’s management. They constantly make questionable decisions by buying mediocre players and going for a mediocre coach when they had an option of bringing a quality coach. I blame Redbird and Ibra period!!!
What I see is that we want to create a team around Leao. Leao as the centre of the project. It’s translated in our playing style as well. To be really too dependent on him. That’s a wrong move I guess. Yes, he’s our highest paid player, our highest valued player. But it’s so clear that he never has this elite mentality.
He’s surely not a type of player who can lead the pack. Nor the one who can immediately raise his level in the time of crisis. We need to start treating him as an ‘extra’. As a support. As a complementer. An icing on the cake. A Ronaldinho in Messi’s Barca (sadly we don’t have our Messi). An unmatched card in the four of a kind.
That way he also can feel less pressure as we all know how he does under pressure.
Well… Making Leao the “leader” in the team has led to the point where Theo & RLC have picked up his attitude towards defending. That “leading by example”. Others will follow.
*That’s
History shows the “best” player not always a great leader. I think thats the issue with Rafa.
The this is we don’t have does midielders shat shield d defends anymore,in our scudeto season,kessie shield d defence,tonali or benacer shield d defence,at any counter attack by opponent dey r both dere covering d defence,u hardly get to our CB without adding tru dis guys,dey r always dere to protect d defence first that’s y we r bearly expose,but not tijani or RLC r defensive minded dats y wen benecer plays d work bcome Too much,play fofona and bencer and tijani or pulisic as am den midfield sorted