AC Milan have been left with more uncertainties than certainties after a difficult start to the season, and they are obligated to hit the ground running after the international break.
La Gazzetta dello Sport talk about the sensational exclusions of Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao from the starting line-up, then the goal from the Portuguese winger and the cooling break straight after where the pair were far away from Paulo Fonseca.
The image of the two stars on one side of the field while the Milan squad – having just got level and still confident in getting the victory – gathered together around the dugout for a water break seemed like a sign of a resounding split.
Tammy Abraham – who has just arrived, without perceiving the mood of the group – called them to join their team-mates, a normal gesture in a situation like that, and yet they ignored him. Theo and Fonseca’s words at the end of the match tried to calm things, but there is a reason it is being talked about.
The problem, in short, is not just about the embarrassing defensive phase and it is not just about historically bad results. Instead, balances, dynamics and hierarchies must be clarified, before the fire spreads out of control.
The fact is that after the third round Milan risk having to recover from seven points behind Juve (if the Bianconeri beat Roma tonight) and are five points behind Inter. In three weeks, after the break for national teams and the home game against Venezia, the derby looms. It is a game that often is worth a final verdict.
All of this started last season. The dismissal of a successful management and the sale of one of our stars made no sense. We had a solid team that was missing four players; a defensive midfielder, a right winger, an attacking midfielder to replace Diaz (although CDK may have filled that gap), and a striker. We addressed one of those with Pulisic but instead of addressing the rest, we created extra voids getting rid of Tonali, CDK, and later Krunic. RLC, Chuk, and Musah have been complete busts and despite improving, Reijnders is still not at the level needed. What are the owners trying to do? Win titles? Clearly not. Make profit off player slaes? How? With the exception of Pulisic, all of the post Maldini & Massara signings have gone down in value.
I fear we are heading into another banter era in this state of chaos with the stars of Milan Futoro our only beacon of hope.
Bro was spot on with everything, right now what we need is manager who can actually get us trophy’s and keep consistency which pioli could never do, I think sergio conceicao would be a good option
Would you guys lose this season if it means we get rid of furlani, Moncada and get an experienced sporting director and ceo?
Idk but I’d still like sergio conceicao, he’s won 12 trophies in the last 14 years which is really good, and he was manager of the year in Portugal in 21/22 season, and for Porto he had 2.29 PPG (points per game) in the time frame of 7 years. If you ask me I would really like that
Furlani can’t be fired, he is from eliot who are still partly owning this club.
Yes, and Maldini back.
Anyone who has been watching football for 5 minutes could see that the biggest problems last season were balance from front to back, and with it, our complete ineptitude in defensive transition.
Here we are 3 games into the new campaign and the two things we needed to fix are the two things that have somehow got distinctly worse.
We have been beaten up (beaten up!) by 2 mid-table (at best) sides, and scraped a draw (with a good old ‘moment of brilliance’ no less) against the one team that seems to have bigger problems than we do. It’s by no means unsalvageable, but right now, it’s a complete mess.
Pavlovic, Fofana and Tammy all look like they can be useful players once they are up to speed, so there are some positives. After that – we only signed Morata for his price and Emerson isn’t just bad, he’s Kevin Constant bad.
RedBird have done some wonderful things to our bottom line, and whether you like it or not, that matters in the modern game. But they have got the football decisions so badly wrong, and that matters a whole lot more.
If they want us to be ‘brand Milan’ they need to look around – the other football ‘brand superpowers’ also happen to have good sides. The most ‘Tic-Tok-able’ thing a football team can do is play good football. Being 8th at Christmas with fans baying for blood won’t sell collaborative shirts.
What did Redbird do? Milan Futuro ok let’s see if it’s different from loaning the youngsters to Serie C teams. Milan always produced pro players through its academy, there is no certainty that Camarda and the kids will be better than Paloschi, Cutrone, Maldini, Colombo, etc.
The brand was already growing a lot thanks to Gazidis, before Redbird, and thanks to the unexpected performances under the previous management and Pioli. I’m not sure that Jeannie Buss tequila deal will be gamechanger. They just did good by recruiting Pulisic for the US market because this market is huge ($69B a year) but they’re obsessed now.
If you balance this with all the things they did wrong, the record is clearly not positive. And it seems to get worse and worse.
Can we fire fonsesca and get sergio conceicao, he’s won 12 trophies in the last 14 years which is really good, and he was manager of the year in Portugal in 21/22 season, and for Porto he had 2.29 PPG (points per game) in the time frame of 7 years. If you ask me I would really like that
What’s the point? Even if they fire him which is not going to happen because they will look like clowns who have no idea what they are doing, but let’s say they fire him… no coach will take Milan now, the transfer window is closed, wrong players have been bought and the new coach won’t have time to prepare the team properly.
They had the chance to bring Flick an amazing coach who has experience or someone younger and hungry like Motta or De Zerbi. The management f*** it up big times and this season failure is on them first and after Fonseca
I think we could still get a good coach to join. About the wrong players being bought, it’s not entirely true. Yes, bringing Emerson Royal was a colossal mistake. But Morata, Fofana, Pavlovic, and Vos are good players. Abraham had a good start and if he stays healthy he will be an asset. We also rescued Jimenez from loan to permanent and he is a good young player with potential. So out of the 7 incoming players this mercato, 6 are good; the one exception is Emerson. Yes, we haven’t filled all the holes (DM, LB, CAM) but we have a good group of players; the problem is to make them play like a team, and to teach them a good tactical system.
We have 12 (13 if Morata were not injured) players called up for their national teams during the current international break. So it’s not like we don’t have good players that might entice a coach to want to work with them. And we are a prestigious team. We aren’t currently as good as our past indicates, but there is no doubt that we are an internationally recognized team, and one of the main teams in Italy, which has one of the top 3 leagues in Europe. I think most coaches would be honored to coach AC Milan, even in a crisis situation like this one, and even coming in after the season has (badly) started.
If we refuse to play the game against Inter we will lose only 3-0… this is something we should consider
We still lack ideas in the final 3rd the whole idea was to be an attacking team that defends successfully as a whole unit , and trust me we don’t need more games to evaluate foncesca sack him now or it’ll end in regret he had pre season to prepare and time to do everything right , but with six goals in 3 games it can only get worse trust me , we won’t just have a good defensive setup out of the blue now we will need time to have a good team the way it is now , especially defensively , so just sack foncesca now because we don’t have time ..he lacks ideas we are worse than the Pirlo era as it stands now I don’t care who you hire but a try is better than a no try we could end as low and 8th come the end of the season with Foncesca ..
We all knew that Fonseca was mediocre and the worst choice among several other better options that were available when we were looking for a new coach. By they way, even though Pioli was faltering, he is still less bad than Fonseca.
Let’s see what Fonseca did:
1) Did not study film in preparation for his new job. This is evident in the fact that he had several “crazy” ideas that had been tried before and had not worked, showing that he didn’t know the players: Rafa as center forward. RLC as attacking midfielder. Saelemaekers as left back. Jovic and/or Okafor as sole center forwards. Inappropriate players in the double pivot.
2) Even before he was hired, Fonseca had manifested that we needed another RB and his preference was for Emerson Royal. Well, Emerson is a horrible player. That shows bad judgment.
3) Fonseca doesn’t adapt to what is going on and seems oblivious to players who are underperforming. RLC has played all 270 minutes as CAM and has been ineffective in this role but Fonseca keeps starting him there. Terracciano is a horrible player and Fonseca keeps playing him, left him in for 90 minutes against Lazio. He left Thiaw in for 60 minutes against Torino (one of the main reasons why we almost lost that game).
4) Fonseca gave post-game press conferences blaming our own players (that’s despicable; it’s what Mourinho does, and it is not what Pioli did) and then scapegoated out two best players by benching them in a petty revenge, maybe to divert attention from his own failures. Regardless of the fact that Rafa and Theo didn’t have a good start to the season in the first two games, they are still way better than most other players and without them our offense underperforms. It predictably backfired. And then, it alienated the players, too. Fonseca is losing the locker room.
5) Employed suicidal tactics that were similar to a 2-0-8: everybody presses forward and leaves Tomori and Pavlovic to fend for their lives, against Parma. That’s worse than the alleged 5-0-5 with Pioli.
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I predict that we will draw with Venezia (the #19 team on the table) and will lose by large scores to Inter and Liverpool.
If it happens, I hope that Fonseca gets immediately sacked.
Maybe we can get Conceição to join. He is a much better coach than Fonseca.
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We have had 12 players called up to their national teams this international break – if not injured, Morata would have been the 13th one.
So, we have several players (more than enough for a full team) who are good enough to play for some of the most prominent national teams (and at times they play much better there than here – e.g., Theo and Reijnders).
Why don’t they play as well for Milan? Well, that’s on the coach. If Theo and Reijnders do wonders under better coaches in their national teams and can’t repeat the same performances for Milan, that’s obviously on Milan’s coach.
nice post! most importantly, who hired Fonseca and polished him up as the next Don Carlo? those guys should share part of the blame too.
If the “stars” of the team refuse to exert themselves under a new coach, he has 2 options:
1. call their bluff and bench them. he must be prepared to lose even if the stars don’t play.
2. put the rest of the players in such positions to pick up the slack that the 2 renegades leave behind.
Fonseca folded halfway into his disciplinary measures and the players won. they called his bluff instead. it was all wind and smoke, no substance. could they have tried this stunt or “lazy” display with Conte or Van Gaal or Mou? I doubt that.
The bottom line is Milan is in worse conditions due to the lack of direction from management & coaches. Musah’s last interview was an indictment of the coaching team. Except Fonseca can pull off a sheer miracle after the break, management might have to swallow their own spittle then.
Maybe Fonseca was brought in to smoke Calabria & Gabbia out? Then Moncada’s dream of non-italian Milan would (almost) be complete.