AC Milan are a work in progress under Paulo Fonseca, and a report has claimed that he wants to turn his side into one that emulates the Spain team which just won the European Championship.
Milan were held to a 2-2 draw by Torino in the first game of the season on Saturday night and they had to come from two goals down in order to get it, but the feeling is that the team that started that game could drastically change soon.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Fonseca’s ‘dream’ – one that is not so hidden – is to shape Milan based on the model seen from Spain at the European Championship, a tournament that they won and played by far the best football in doing so.
The insistence on Christian Pulisic as a trequartista also comes from this, because La Roja use either Pedri or Dani Olmo behind the striker, players who offer quality and creativity with goals and assists rather than worrying about defensive work.
These are strengths certainly more suited to the American and even to Mattia Liberali from Milan Futuro – who was used in the preseason tour of the USA – than to Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the playmaker from the Pioli era.
To turned into a well-oiled 4-2-3-1 machine like Spain showed in Germany it will take time, something the coach explained after the game against Torino: “I don’t expect to be perfect in August… We have to keep working, there is a lot to improve.”
Regardless of your opinion of how worthy of a manager he is to take Milan’s job, give Fonseca at least two months to start talking about his football style.
It is not fair to criticize him nor the players now, they are trying to adapt and it will take some time.
Meanwhile, we can all criticize the management specially for not working on offloading extra players again like last year, again again like the year before again again again like ……
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Play like Spain with this coach and not to mention players at his disposal.
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Look what happened to Napoli over the weekend it’s far to early to criticise to much yes the performance was dismissal and we didn’t deserve the point but COME ON.
Now I’m not saying I think this season is going to be successful far from it I mean to me after watching Ac milan for around 35 years it’s clear and obvious what Elliot /Redbird are doing in terms of recruitment AIN’T GONNA WORK not to mention the rest of the club they are neglecting HOWEVER I hope I’m wrong going foward so please give it more time especially Fonseca it’s not his fault he was appointed head coach.
He need time to prove. Excellent in pre season doesn’t mean that will win in the first league match.
What is this nonsense……
Why play like a national team, when national teams play that way due to having limited time together – Spain would get walloped by a good club side, they just adapted best to an international setup trying to mimic a club side better than the other nations.
And ‘not worrying about defensive work’ – clearly they haven’t seen Pedro or Olmo; they’re pretty important defensive players for Spain in executing the only cohesive-looking press in the whole Euros.
Lol if they wanna emulate Spain they’ll need to buy a Rodri. Lets say Fofana is our Ruiz and Puli makes it on AM, we still lack that crucial factor, something that even Pep cant do without. A madafaking Rodri.
So right now we need to fina some u23 player, a pure DM, that has the potential to become, not Rodri lvl but close. For 20-25M..
If that’s the case then we don’t need players like Loftus Cheek, Pobega and Adli. Spain midfielders are quick, good with the ball at their feet and they cover a lot of space on the pitch.
That means they run a lot to move into spaces and close off passing lanes. Something RLC doesn’t do.
In my opinion the midfielders we have are best suited for a 433 formation. I don’t understand why Pioli allowed management to sign some many mezzalas knowing he favored the 4231 formation.
Players like RLC doesn’t fit in this system. Leon Goretzka is not wanted at Bayern Munich and if Milan management is smart we should get him also in addition to Kone and sell RLC, Bennacer and Adli.
Loftus Cheek, Adli, Pobega, Calabria, Teraciano, Thiaw, Tomori. We Need to get rid of this Players and to replace them with good prospects and some with die trying Mentality and Experience. Later on if Chukwueze fails again this seasson he needs to be sold, cause he can‘t do it in Seria A it‘s to physical and the area‘s of play are to small for this kind of player cause in Spain or Germany they play open wide Football and it‘s eazier in a tactical point of view.
Fonseca is wise. After moratta, please add more spanish blood. Sell italian like gabbia, calabria and pogeba. We need more spanish.
Milan is an Italian team, not Spanish, milan fan ??
Not with this set of midfielders sir.
As far as I am concerned, we drew in our last game, and so are other big Serie A teams – Inter, Bologna, Roma, etc. My prediction is Juventus to lose also draw their game tonight
Of all 10 teams that finished the last Serie A season in the top 10 spots, 7 dropped either 2 or 3 points in the first round. Two others, one didn’t, but played against a newly-promoted team, and the other one, Juve, is at this time leading 1-0 another newly-promoted team.
The only one of the top 10 teams that earned all 3 points against a non-newly-promoted team was Atalanta; but then, they played Lecce which is much worse than tough Torino.
So, we don’t need to panic yet. We are not ready but apparently 7 other top 10 teams are not ready either. This is explained by the Euro championship. The top teams had players who were part of their national teams. The bottom teams didn’t. So the pre-season started later for the top teams, who may be less ready than the bottom teams.
If we keep drawing or losing after the first 4 games, then I will panic. But not yet.
It does concern me that Fonseca didn’t show good judgment by keeping Thiaw on the pitch for 60 minutes instead of playing Pavlovic who did seem to be in quite good form – including good physical form – in the pre-season (maybe we wouldn’t have conceded either goal if Pavlovic was there instead of horrible Thiaw), and by playing Saelemaekers as left back.
Still, I hope that Fonseca has learned from his mistakes.
It’s OK to make mistakes, especially as a new coach who has been working with these players for only 5 weeks and doesn’t necessarily know them very well, yet. It’s not OK to persist in making the same mistakes over and over like Pioli used to do. If Fonseca shows capacity to learn from his mistakes, then we should be fine.
how that prediction trating you?