Pierre Kalulu has struggled to replicate his performances in the Scudetto season over the last two years, moving further down the pecking order at AC Milan. However, as a report claims, Paulo Fonseca is convinced of his qualities.
Fonseca is expected to take over from Stefano Pioli ahead of next season, having reached an agreement with the club. Only the official announcement is missing and the Portuguese manager is already planning for the future, Gazzetta dello Sport report (see photo below).
The 51-year-old has made it clear that Milan currently have a very good squad, with many players that could be crucial in the 2024-25 season. Pierre Kalulu, despite struggling in the last two seasons, is one of the players Fonseca believes in a lot.
The Frenchman had his breakthrough with the Rossoneri in the 2021-22 season (Scudetto season), playing as a centre-back alongside Fikayo Tomori. Since then, however, he has struggled to replicate those performances and injuries have also made life very difficult.
Fonseca believes that Kalulu is a perfect example of a player who can be revitalised, thus strengthening the team without making a signing. He will work a lot on this front as Milan’s confidence has been very up and down in recent years, affecting the induvial performance significantly.
It’s a good sign if he prioritises young player development. Playing Kalulu instead of Calabria, utilising Bertesaghi more in the left flank, and focusing on Simic and Zeroli in the centre back and midfield, respectively, could be great investments. Strengthening the squad with one quality CB (Biongiorno) DM (Fofana) and ST (Gimienez or Guirassy) could be enough for the next season. Le
fofana is not a dm
Agree with this.
I do agree with you
Primavera players will be playing at the U23 team, not First Team. That’s a reality. Kalulu needs to rediscover his Scudetto form, we need to understand wether he’s better as a RB or CB.
This prompts an interesting question!
If Simic, etc are registered in Serie C can they be called up to the first team with no friction as they can from the you teams?!
If they cannot it has some interesting ramifications.
1. We lose access to a big pool of talent when injuries inevitably pile up.
2. If I am Simic etc, I don’t want to be stuck playing 3rd tier football until Jan.
Anyone know how c2a2c mobility would work?
It will be considered a completely new club/team. So the proceedings are gonna be the same as we would buy a player from any other serie C club. We wont be enlist a player till the transfer window opens. The value will be zero or a token sum
If that’s the case, then there is no need to buy a RB or perhaps even a CB (unless perhaps Hummels for free). We could/should use our budget (100M is not as much as you think) to strengthen the attack and the midfield.
The problem is that our CBs are almost all right-footed players.
Having CB with dominant left foot will be nice, but not a must. A good, dominant CB, with enough quality and tactical awareness will be able to put the shift just fine.
For example, Van Dijk is right footed but he almost always play as LCB of Liverpool.
We have Tomori-Kalulu/Kjaer pairing in Scudetto season and all have dominant right foot.
And many more example, the truth is most of the best CB are right footed and they can play LCB just fine.
In modern soccer, build-up from CB is considered important, which is why CB’s dominant foot has become more important these days. The importance is highly influenced by the team’s tactics. Klopp’s tactic is to counter attack rather than build up from a low position, similar to Pioli’s tactics on that note. On the other hand, left-handed CB are important in tactics like those of Pep and Motta. In Fonseca’s tactics, CB’s dominant foot would be important.
Left footed CB is rare, let a lone a good one. Thats make them expesive, even the young one.
Fonseca being talked about like he’s already here