Paulo Fonseca’s start as AC Milan head coach has not gone how he would have hoped, but he will continue to work on his version of the team in view of the resumption after the international break.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write that Fonseca needs players that he can count on to build around, and at the moment Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao have not shown themselves to be in the category, but that can and should change.
Instead, the first leader is Alvaro Morata, who will soon come to the rescue. If he does not play against Venezia, a choice possibly dictated by caution due to injury, he will play against Liverpool in the Champions League and then in the derby.
The Champions League is a trophy that the Spaniard won twice with Real Madrid, but without being a protagonist, while if he players against Inter then they will at that point become the opponent he has faced most in his career. Alvaro is ready to bring his goals and his experience.
Emerson Royal is another player that Fonseca intends to count on because he wanted him at Milan and the management got him. He started him over the captain Davide Calabria in the draw with Lazio and Emerson did not reciprocate the confidence with a great performance, far from it.
However, at behest of the coach, he remained more on the defensive and now he is ready to accelerate on the right. He will probably play against Venezia, to regain rhythm, and then hopefully be at 100% for the Liverpool and Inter games.
The rearguard has in the meantime been strengthened with the muscle of Strahinja Pavlovic, who has quickly become irreplaceable. Without him the deficit against Parma could have been even worse and he scored a goal against Lazio too.
Another interesting precedent: Pavlovic has faced Inter twice, and did not buckle against either Lautaro or Thuram. The defensive wall is shaking at the moment, but Pavlovic is the only one who can restore solidity, while waiting for Fikayo Tomori, Malick Thiaw and Matteo Gabbia.
The attack found itself with only one survivor with Morata injured, Luka Jovic on the sidelines, Samuel Chukwueze having a decline since preseason and Leao not yet anywhere near his best. The one who has always been present is Christian Pulisic, who said yes to the coach every time.
He was ready to play against Torino as a central attacking midfielder, then on the right against Parma and Lazio. He reciprocated Fonseca’s trust with his willingness to change roles, but also with a goal and an assist. Thus, he will be the leader of the attack until others step up.
Utter nonsense. Italian sport news at its finest. Moretta said pne of the reason he left spain is the spanish media. Well, welcome to Italy where if you have 1-2 bad games your suddenly terrible and unreliable
Gazzetta at is finest. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Emerson royal at 100% is like a 64 year old Calabria with a meniscus tear. And I’m not a Calabria fan at all.
🤣👏
What exactly does Fonseca think Emerson is capable of down the right…?
I’m still pleading with Fonseca please bench tomori and Loftus cheek so that what happened to us against parma and Lazio will not happen to us against Venezia and inter Milan and Fonseca please give us a capable hand in the attacking midfield like Chaka Traore and benercer/ musah
Like it or not, Alvaro is the closest we have to a leader. He has won many trophies, worked under some great coaches and has learned to adapt to different situations in different leagues. He literally spent a week at Milanello when he said that we need to change our mentality.
Not sure what Gazzetta is on about in regarding to Emerson. I’m pretty sure Calabria will remain the starter, especially in games where we’ll have a lot of defending to do – something Emerson is horrible at.
Overall, Morata, Puli, Pavlovic, Mike, maybe Calabria – these seem to be the players with the right psychological approach even in these awful first rounds. It’s only natural to expect them to lead the others. If it doesn’t work out, we’re in big trouble, because the coach doesn’t seem to be a great motivator and probably isn’t going to finish the season at Milanello, whereas our two stars are thinking about leaving and have completely disconnected themselves from the locker room.
“It’s only natural to expect them to lead the others.”
I thought it was the coaches job?
ohh why mike came into conversation, he is first player to be sold that can be easily replaced with any other decent goalkeeper.
It was not my opinion but experts in sempremilan.
Alvaro have experience but he can never lead the team, he plays max 60/65mins.
He cannot command unless he proves himself every training/match.
you need to be hard if you want to be a leader or atleast there should be 2 or 3 very experienced professionals in starting team so others follow them.
Except morata and mike(29) no one is more than 26 and the new recruits are also young who don’t have experience in winning/mentality for big matches.
Our coach just put every player under the bus for just 1 bad match and if it continues like this no one can save us this year.
Missing Giroud more than I thought I would.
emerson playing against inter and liverpool luiz diaz will eat him alive the same with calabria but calabria is better than emerson there is a reason why brazil just hasnt called him up for the frindles despite not having any great rb he is not good enough emerson has show 2 games that he is worse than calabria
I really want to see the videos of matches when scouts watched Emerson. What did they see and which games did they watch? Guy is horrible, he won’t improve overnight.
The idea of building a team around Emerson might have actually brought back my depression…