AC Milan have a tough run of games coming up and Paulo Fonseca knows how important it will be to fix the defensive phase, which could mean opportunities for other players.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes that Fonseca is preparing his Milan side for a week which sees them face Venezia, Liverpool and Inter. The first commandment is very clear: take care of the defensive phase.
Milan cannot continue to let in two goals per game, to concede so many chances and to make mistakes. During the international break the coach has been able to work with Davide Calabria, Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia and Fikayo Tomori, all not called up to their national teams.
Who will play? The starting centre-back pairing is clear: Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic. Tomori was considered the leader of the defence even with Pioli meaning that when he was available, he played, while Pavlovic arrived in the summer to offer a left-footed solution to the department.
Not only that, but he is a physical, aggressive defender who often takes risks: he is second for duels among Serie A defenders, second for recovered balls, sixth for dribbles and fifth for progressive passes.
Pavlovic takes risks, he has been decisive several times and in Parma he was Milan’s best player. In Rome against Lazio he scored early on but also made mistakes more than once, so against Venezia – after passing the test against Lamine Yamal over the break – he must get back on track.
Tomori and Pavlovic, however, cannot be recharged by the sun and must be managed in terms of workload. In the middle of next week Milan will meet Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Liverpool, then Lautaro-Thuram a few days later.
It is natural that Fonseca will have to use Matteo Gabbia, the other available central defender, who has not yet made his debut this season. Gabbia is less quick than Tomori, less physical than Pavlovic, but he has the footing to build and in the first five months of 2024 he made very few mistakes.
In fact, he was concentrated, precise and even dangerous in the other area. He may get some playing time against Venezia or Liverpool: it will depend on how Pavlovic returns from the break and how Fonseca sees his three central defenders in the middle of the week. Malick Thiaw, meanwhile, a still recovering.
I don’t think constantly changing the two CBs will fix the problems, but it defitintely may increase them since there’s not titular pairing and the lack of chemistry is evident anytime these random decision are being made, because of “tight schedules”. It’s not like the two central defenders are running 90 mintues per game. Not to mention we have bigger problems when it comes to concedeing, like 1) lack of support from the midfielders, 2) no sync in the pressing, especially the four attackers, 3) the two fullbacks’ strange positioning even in situation where we’re leading and there is no urgency for them to go this high in the pitch. How about work on that more properly before all the random rotations?
There is so nonsense in this article…
First Tomori has been shaky for some time and certainly wasn’t a leader.
Second Pavlovic’s not been our best player and in fact was central to the goals we conceded, and nearly gave away a penalty.
Third those random stats are random and meaningless, and the words ‘takes risks’ should never be used in relation to a CB.
Fourth a team doesn’t need to have left footed CB on the left hand side (or even right footed CB on the right hand side) and most CB partnerships in history have consisted of two right footed CBs!
Fifth why do CBs need to be rested or rotated? They do the least running of the outfield players (unless they’re ‘risk taking’) and they benefit from consistency and familiarity. Most successful CB pairings have played together for hundreds of games over a few seasons regularly hitting 40-50 plus games a season.
This is all just about promoting the transfer market.
Tomori and Pavlovic must be assumed to be amazing because they’re signings meanwhile Gabbia is a youth player so can never be considered more than a back up.
Randomly pigeon holing players to create problems that need solving (on the transfer market of course!).
I mean when did the left handed CB become a thing?
Before or after Baresi and Costacurta or Cannavaro and Nesta or Ramos and Pepe???
And the DEPTH, the endless rotation, that requires a massive squad and lots of new signings!
And, yes, in the middle of this a player gets lost. Gabbia. Our player of the season last season now relegated to DEPTH.
There’s nothing like playing once a month to really help you achieve your potential!
Left-footed center backs have become a thing because they are game changers in modern football. Why do you think these defenders are in such high demand? An average defender will cost more today for simply being left-footed. They are not there because it makes it easier to defend. Left-footed center backs are there because it gives the team an advantage going forward. The build up play becomes sooo much easier when you have both CBs “unlocked”
Furthermore, some defenders find it difficult to play on their weaker side and Tomori is one of them. You want him to be less shaky? Then he needs to play more games on the right side of the defense while Pavlovic takes care of the left
Gabbia is depth, not THE answer. The answer is proper coverage from the mids and NOT pressing so high up leaving gaps in defense and a formation that makes sense.
Pavlo and Tomori ARE the best CB’s we have and need to continue together.