AC Milan added key figures to the squad in the mercato. However, there are already suggestions that not enough was done during the summer, and Paulo Fonseca’s squad is showing this.
When you look at the best football clubs in the world, the ones that are successful consistently, you often see a bench that could compete with some starting elevens – take a look at Manchester City, for example.
Unfortunately, Milan cannot say the same at present, and following the loss to Leverkusen, this has not been more clear. Whilst there may be some quality on the sidelines for Fonseca, there are not enough players who can play in his system, causing suggestions that his hands are tied, and this is showing.
As Gazzetta dello Sport write, the Rossoneri have used only 14 different starting players so far this season – for comparison, Inter have named 20 different starters, City 20, and Napoli 22. Whilst this has positives, it also has very clear negatives.
So far, the Diavolo’s starting eleven have played 280 more minutes, if not more, than those playing for Inter and Juventus. Playing such a busy schedule and having few rotation options can be hugely impactful, and injuries can throw Milan into a vicious cycle – where the depth does not work for the system and so on.
It can also mean that certain players lose their rhythm and confidence, which means when they are eventually called upon, they do not perform to the level required because they have been absent for so long.
The guy is trying to save his job and his room in Casa Milan. If your life depends of Musah or Chukwueze you’re just fcked.
You can’t blame him lol but I think the team will also start rotating with easier games on the schedule.
He’s the same stubborn ox as Pioli. Doesn’t want to adapt to the players he has but wants the players to adapt to his (so vastly successful in his career) style..
By December half of the starting 11 will be already operating on 20% of ability
So either management bought wrong players for the formation and playstyle Fonseca wants to enforce and more than half of them are just not suited for that, or management brought the wrong coach because his playstyle doesn’t match the players we have. Or management doesn’t have the clear idea or a plan of what they want and club, coach and players are victims of their incompetence.
There may be a pattern there, but I’m just not seeing it.
Yes we are. And I don’t like being a victim. It makes me angry.
We should be building on what was built before yet all we do is go in circles since redbird took over.
Another thing I don’t like. Stagnation.
I say it’s the third. Our buying strategy resembles more an opportunistic one rather than a targeted one. In other words, we get the players who represents the best opportunity available on the market without a focus on what is Milan’s playing style and scheme.
In summer 2023, we brought a bunch of mezzalas for a 4-3-3 but no CDM which was crucial for that. We ended up using Krunic as our deepest midfielder than selling him because he couldn’t do it (surprise, surpise,…) and reverting back to a 4-2-3-1 but this time around with no CAM and double pivots.
Most Milan players are better suited for a press+counter or low block+counter style, yet we brought a coach who uses possession and 4-2-3-1. You’d think we’d bring possession type of players in 2024 and players suited for a 4-2-3-1 but nope, still no CAM, a striker who played all his career in teams who play with a low-block, a player who is working hard to become a DM, a left footed CB who can’t distinguish friend from foe and Royal.
Why is he stubborn?
Why do we need to constantly rotate?
Why are modern footballers the least fit sportspeople on the planet?
Not constantly..tactically. comprende?
And why are you so obsessed with comparing football to sports that have no common points with it ? Why are you obssessed with using as few players as possible (or I should say impossible) ?
Where were you since 2020 ? Didn’t you witness the sheer horror of having players from every positions being injured ? Don’t you remember us having to rely on Theo as a freaking center back ? Do you think the solution to all of these problems is to keep starting the same players 3 games per week ?
Because it shows football is an outlier….
And Serie A is an outlier for football.
Barca, Real, Man City and Bayern all play with smaller squads.
Bur sure why question anything. Serie A and Milan are clearly doing so well.
Man City starts with new players almost every now and then. I remember when Mahrez was there, he scores a brace then he doesn’t play the next game. Real Madrid have players that can start in every position (Camavinga, Vasquez and Valverde), so the rotation sometimes implies starting a player in another position. All the teams you named rotate in one way or another.
I think the lack of rotation is a bit of a testimony of the lack of depth this team currently has. We have to admit, most of our non-starting players are more like a liability rather than assests to be used. So also have to remember that Bennacer and Florenzi are injured, Adli and Pobega no longer here and that Jovic wasn’t registered in Europe, so in reality our options for rotation are more limited than we think.
We also have to admit that since the last international break, we were a bit pinned against the wall and it wasn’t really the time to try and rotate since we had to deal with Liverpool, Inter, Leverkusen and we still have to deal with La Viola.
Nevertheless, it seems that Fonseca has, perhaps to quickly, decided that some players are just not good enough to be given some minutes. Also for a coach who was known to rely on youngsters, he certaintly didn’t make a lot of use of our Futuro players and primavera players.
I hope that for the next games, we will see Vos, Liberalli, Camarda and Zerolli enjoying more minutes.
He wouldn’t have saved his job with those
He needs more time for his system to be widely understood( even some first team players don’t understand yet) before integrating the younger players more
Or we just don’t need to rotate that much?
What does Djokovic do if he needs a rest?
What do you do if Theo, Pulisic or Fofana are injured ?
I’ll wait for your response
First if we are getting injuries to key players we’re not winning anything.
Second Milan managers have rotated for the past 10 years and Milan have had numerous injuries. Pioli rotated last season and look what happened.
Third rotation increases injuries because players are stop, starting. Look at the great Barca and Juve sides where players played 40-50 games per season without injuries.
Fourth the ideal set up is to have 1 player covering 2-3 positions: 3 x FBs with (heaven forbid) a right sided FB playing LB; 3 CBs for 2 positions, 3 CMs for 3 positions, 3 Wingers for 2 positions etc
The great sides all did this. Chelsea rotated Cole, Robben and Duff; Juve Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba and Marchisio; Barca rotated Messi, Neymar, and Iniesta (who also rotated with Fabregas in midfield).
Why are you so against questioning things?
Especially things that haven’t worked for decades.
Are you actually happy with the current standard at Milan and in Serie A?
To answer the last question first: No, I’m not happy with the current standing of AC Milan. As for serie A, if Milan manages to win the UCL again, I don’t really care about the standing of the league.
As for rotation, all the teams you named rotate in some way or another, either by starting one sub or 2 in easy games, or by subbing out key players as early as possible (like what we did against Lecce). Ideally you’d want to have players that can start in many positions to make rotations even easier.
I’m not saying you’ll need 2 full squads, but a plan B is necessary.
As for Pioli, it’s not that he rotates too much, he doesn’t know how to. He never starts either Chukwueze, Jovic and Okafor alongside the rest of the team to give them time to adapt, then comes games where he starts them together, while they never played neither together nor with the rest of team. That costed us many points.
First of all that’s a one player sport and secondly Djokovic ain’t running a 10k every other day. Not saying tennis isn’t gruelling on the body but it’s two different sports. And out of all the sports I’ve played soccer is by far the worse on my body.
First Djokovic has to manage the mental and physical strain of an individual sport playing every few days.
Second there are many examples in football especially the great sides of recent times. Look at the number of games the Barca, Real and Juve players played per season: 40-50.
Top teams need to be almost robotic in their approach and this can only happen if the teams know each other.
Besides it’s not like my ideas are that whacky since I’m defending what Fonseca is actually doing – in real life!
I find it hilarious Fonseca’s lack of rotation is upsetting fans. Part of me feels it’s because fans love their big squads with their big transfers (and then criticise players who never play).
“As Gazzetta dello Sport write, the Rossoneri have used only 14 different starting players so far this season – for comparison, Inter have named 20 different starters, City 20, and Napoli 22.”
Italian isn’t my native tongue but I think the GDS article talks about Milan using only 14 starters since the International break, not only 14 starters so far this season.
Maignan, Calabria, Emerson, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo, Terraciano, Saelemaekers, RLC, Reijndeers, Fofana, Musah, Bennacer, Pulisic, Chukwueze, Leao, Okafor, Morata, Abraham, Jovic have all been starters so far this season. That’s more than 14 players.
Before the break the complaint was Fonseca is changing the starting 11 too much, not the complaint is he doesn’t change it. Some want just to complain.
One of the most annoying things about Pioli was his insane rotations.
Fonseca is a vast improvement on that.
just use your brain for once maldini today football play over 50 games a season rotation is a must compared to 20 years ago player toadya play almost duble the games with the new ucl format and nations league it is much more games and the player wont be fit for the more important games
Why are you so angry???
And why do you think you know more than Fonseca!
This lack of rotation is really annoying people!
Mr Fonseca is a big fool for not winning two matches from the champions league he is mad he is very stupid for not knowing that Acmilan problem is not defense he is so stupid for not knowing that Acmilan problem is nothing but attacking midfield and Acmilan are more deadly and penetrative with attacking midfield what stop Fonseca from promoting liberali, Chaka Traore and vos this are the players Acmilan need to achieve champions league that’s why we find it difficult to win tough matches Loftus cheek is not Good at all then you said your formation is 4-2-3-1 Good but we’re is the attacking midfield were is liberali and Chaka to play attacking midfield Very well and make it compactive remember Juventus are playing 4-2-3-1 like us go and see their records against Leipzig they won why because they have about two attacking midfield like Luiz and koopimeners now if Acmilan meet Leipzig I tell you for sure they will destroy us with much time wasting and Fonseca Said his a coach let him get out him and Pioli no difference let him see other coach of his kind like pep Guardiola of course pep can’t use player that cannot deliver he will bench you but in Acmilan is a different senerio that’s why we always get a poor results .
For Kelechi and others who see the young talent in the family as the current solution, please keep in mind that Milan Futuro is struggling to win games in Serie C. The youngsters are not ready for Serie A yet.
Because it’s an entire team of kids against, not just grown men, bitter grown men who didn’t make and are even more motivated.
This is why Futuro is a terrible idea. We’d be better integrating the players slowly with the senior players.
What probably matters most are results. But my guess is too that he didn’t have a preseason with some of the starters in the team so the first few games were like the preseason with the full team 🤷♂️
Or he knows more about player conditioning than randomers on here?
It’s hilarious that everyone is so annoyed about this!
I reckon it’s because we’re all played those computer games like Football Manager where we get these percentages and conditioning and we now all think we’re experts!
Plus there’s always that tendency to play squad players when you get bored or for novelty.
It is just start of the season.
Fonseca did use Chukwueze Saelemaekers Pavlovic Musah in the beginning and the result was disaster.
Now he found players who can play What Milan needs and it takes some time for first team members to get full knowledge on the pitch.
Probably even for Fiorentina he will swap some players but after next game there is a national competing break. So rotation will be necessary after national break finish…and definitely not now.
Given our rocky start, continuity has been very important from the Derby on. I understand why he’s stuck to the core he’s been using.
But he should start rotating more bit by bit. Rest Leao, give OK4 minutes. Puli didn’t look sharp against Leverkusen – let Chuk get some minutes.
Let Reijnders rest – Start Musah and RLC. Pavlo for Tomori.
Not all at once of course.
If he’s able to get by with less rotation then he has my backing all day long.
It’s hilarious how much people are concerned about this.
There’s people jumping down my throat for suggesting we mightn’t need to rotate as much. Oh the humanity!