Rafael Leao has ended up in a rather uncomfortable situation at AC Milan, currently considered the second choice behind Noah Okafor. As a report highlights, Paulo Fonseca refuses to budge, referring to objective data.
Milan will be up against Monza tonight and Leao is expected to be benched for the third consecutive game in the league. This will raise a lot of eyebrows and it’s already being reported that Leao has asked his agents to explore a transfer.
According to today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), Fonseca’s reasoning is clear: he’s not being benched for a lack of goals, assists or accelerations, but rather for his pressing and the sacrifices made in the defensive phase.
Fonseca has had repeated talks with Leao about what he wants in the defensive phase, using video content and individual exercises. Evidently, however, the non-possession work isn’t in Leao’s DNA as things stand.
The commitment is not disputed, seeing as the No.10 is eager to prove himself, but the GPS data also doesn’t lie: his teammates work more and harder in the defensive phase. If Leao were to improve here, then the pecking order would surely change again.
For now, though, Fonseca won’t go back on his words and continues to wait for Leao to adapt to the new tactics. The newspaper describes it as a ‘tug of war’ and it’s easy to understand why the player is frustrated. Having said that, Fonseca losing credibility also wouldn’t be ideal.
Milan is in big crises since april 2023 and lost games against Roma. Since than Milan lost 9 games in all competition and 6 draws with only 6 wins.
Fonseca is not a man who is going to resolve this situation. Okafor is player from bench and not around. Leao needs more freedom like he has it with Pioli.
Eventually, Cardinale will lose money, but that is the only way this club starts going forward.
Okafor is a bench player and leao can do whatever he wants. Can you be more impartial?
Btw where was leao since April 2023? One would assume the best player would step up and “save” his team from losing matches
step out you say, he did stepped out on many occasions during pioli tenure. and he had yet amazing numbers with pioli.
the questions is why did fonseca pick royal over tiago and also tammy over jt 🌚. and also the directors that signed it 😂 just saying is the fault really leao ?
I’m not talking about pioli tenure . I’m talking a about 2024. His average performances started way before fonseca was hired. That’s a cold fact a lot of people just straight out ignore for some reason..
And fonseca had no say on the transfer market. The whole point in hiring him was that he’s a cheap yes man. Anyone who believes otherwise is just a gullable fool.
When the Leao-lovers hype their loved one, they refer to the MPV Leao and ignore completely the last 6-9 months – heck, make it the whole year. He’s a shadow of his former self yet people still treat him as the MVP.
JT? Who’s that?
You just said everything that I think 🤝
Leo lazy player never chaise the ball or help the defence always waiting for pass him the ball his froze himself in left side sometimes most of the game
Do you not want Leao to reserve his energy and utilise it to attack, would that not be beneficial to Milan and would it not worry the other team that if they over commit Leao will rip them to shreds in the counter….
If I am the opposition full back and I know I am facing Okafor rather then Leao I would be relatively happy… why do we want Leao tracking back, what are the other 8/9 players not doing what Leao will, we know Leao can’t tackle, so why do you want him
To track back, could someone please tell me, I have been watching Milan for 30 years plus, I have not seen Savicevic, Van Basten, Boban, Ronaldinho so in and so fourth track back and they are legends
In the modern game where defenders are limited in what they can do let Leao express himself, because if he pulls it off 1 out 10 times we have a goal and that is whole point of football to Score!, that is difference maker in a game of football not tracking back
“To track back, could someone please tell me, I have been watching Milan for 30 years plus, I have not seen Savicevic, Van Basten, Boban, Ronaldinho so in and so fourth track back and they are legends ”
You memory is playing tricks on you. They did their part in defending.
Maybe not Ronaldinho but then again he wasn’t in Milan that long and isn’t considered as a MILAN legend.
You’re living in the modern game. If you’re comparing the legend with the player in this era, the differences in roles will be very visible.
Even if you have a manager whose tactics are low block defense, not high line defense, Leao must know his defensive positioning, at least to cover the area. Let me compare Leao with Messi, the same player with a low tendency in defense and their team play with high line defense. We already know that Messi has an issue with his conditioning and physique, but he has a good awareness of the game; he knows where he must cover the area to block the pass progression or somewhat else. Do you think Leao did the same thing that Messi did?
-Do you not want Leao to reserve his energy and utilise it to attack-
Idk why people keep talking about this. That is not how a human body works.
Plus try this one on for size. He sits on the bench for 60min and then comes on and has all the energy in the world ( which for leao isn’t a lot) to attack..
It does seem he needs 10 minutes to recover after each sprint. That’s easily fixed too but only if he wants it.
Napoli game he comes on and already heavy breathing after 6 minutes on the pitch.. idk is that how he breathes or is he really in that poor a shape.. idk, weird either way.
Yes Turtle. It’s not a video game. Human beings have limited amount of stamina. If you expend a ton of energy tracking back into your own box it’s going to effect how much energy you have to attack going forward. When you ask every player on the pitch to cover the entire pitch and be both attacker and defender what you end up with are tired players that aren’t that good at either.
The problem is Fonseca can not handle players on a man to man basis, he is hopeless and to cover this he drops Leao (cuts his nose to spite his face) to shift the blame on Leao, what has he accomplished with Leao on the bench…nothing so why persist with it, just to show he is not afraid to drop players, really! All it has shown me is that he can’t deal with players not that he is a maverick.
The management went for a yes man but did not realise that they need a strong personality to deal with players, you can’t have both and have to go for the greater good then the management’s selfish attitude to help themselves.
We would have had this problem with Conte, Allegri, Sarri and importantly Sergio C, who should have been our manager, someone charismatic and with the right amount of arrogance
Fax. Although I think with our starting 11 Pulisic on 10 Leao left and Chukwueze right. TJ and Fofana we have a strong team that can win against most teams easy. Problem is we don’t have this starting 11 in half our games
Yeah I totally agree
When Leao came from the bench in the last game he made great tackles and worked in Defence. I don’t get why he wants to bench him tonight again. We would loose a great asset if he would go for a transfer. He just isn’t in goal scoring form but I know for sure it would come if we would have a bit of patience. I mean I’m sure Leao got better in defensive Phase already so Fonseca should chill a bit
There’s some videos solely on Rafa during that game. He made great runs and was energetic. However he didn’t track back. Didn’t press his man, and didn’t go for 50/50 balls. The front line had to shift left to cover for him. That in turn opened up the right side and pushed Emerson to cover two players himself.
Fonseca is holding him accountable. Problem is, Okafor isn’t as dynamic enough to replace Rafa going forward. So defensively he helps but Okafor is mediocre in attack.
True. Okafor aint no spiderman with tricks and all, but what the coach wants is defensive workrate: at least disturb the opponent even if you dont win the ball. Unnerve him, unsettle him, force him to play a wayward pass and decrease his time to pick his spot for a shot, so you can increase you chances of a fast turnover. If you manage to retrieve the ball? Start a counter, in their own half. if they spend their time in their own half, the less their chances of scoring in your half of the pitch.
If leao is a wimp mentally, then he should go help the futuro who seem to be in a slump at the moment too. he could surely be of use to Bonera and be a rallying point for the squad against serie C teams.
Leao caused this all himself. As much as I love him, football isn’t for him because it’s not in his heart, music is. If you don’t want to defend at least all the time, your goal involvements statistics must be unavoidable to bench you. Messi, Ronaldo, Hazard, Neymar, Haaland and Lewa don’t put effort in defense that much but their attacking stats does the talking. But Leao prefers having fun on the pitch rather than scoring or assisting. Let’s be truthful, Leao doesn’t know how to shoot to score, others still has to work their ass off to make his assist fruitful. You can’t score, assist, you are wasteful, yet you don’t want to defend on the left wing where Theo isn’t the best at defending. Let’s be realistic. The coach is right. Every play should work their ass off in their role. Against Madrid, I’m sure Leao will have little impact in the attacking phase, should he also be lost against Madrid’s wingers facing Theo?
bullseye!
Does Leao actually think that he would be allowed to be lazy at another club?
At Barca he is not a top 5 player on that team. Does he actually think that Flick would allow him to walk and stand on the pitch while the rest of the players who are better than him press and track back?
Leao and his fanboys live in LaLa land.
Its a lot of things we dont know. How is he in training? Does he have that careface attitude all the time? Does he energize his teammates? Do he rather talk about rap and fashion? The things we know is about 1% of the whole truth. We must just take a stand, and i stand with Fonseca and his bald choice. We all know what Leao could do on his day, but the problem the last years is that that day comes in 1/5 gameweeks, otherwise he is truly average. When you also add that he is a liability for the team defensively, i can understand Fonseca very well.
If he want to leave after three matches on the bench, well leave, then he dont have the tenacity and motivation to fight back after a setback like this.
Pulisic under Fonseca is even better like he was under Pioli. Just 10 games and he has almost half numbers from what he has last season. If Puli understand what Fonseca want, then it is only in Leao’s hands to trying more ale better. Everyone in Milan know he is our best players, even Leao know it. Just need to go to the next level .
I love him but true is , he sometimes looks like he don’t want to play football. Slow motion, without energy , few time run and all time stay by side and wait for everyone
Using GPS data is actually a really smart way to drill the truth into Leao’s head. People have been trying to explain it to Leao for years but words are just words. Maybe data will get through to him.
We really are in shambles, Fonseca can’t deal with superstars and Leao is not going to develop into the player he wants him to be, this season should be considered over already. I hope we don’t finish in top 4, all management and Fonseca will be released hopefully and Gerry will finally pull out the wallet and stop with bargain bin purchases of which only one paid off (Pulisic)
I don’t think the management cares in the short term. Fonseca seems like a “coach for the time being”. While RedBird ramps up branding and the stadium. Maybe they can’t afford more expensive players and coach with the loan repayment looming.
Maybe they need to repay the loan first. Or build the stadium before being able to really spend on this team.
Otherwise there’s no way they all sat in the room and agreed that Conte would be a worse option than Fonseca to improve and elevate Milan.
I think Milan will remain mediocre for a while unfortunately.
The question is, which of our players will stick around until that moment?
Well, like someone already wrote, we don’t know more about Leao than the coach. If he decides to drop him, then it is fine.
Leao has to push himself, either in Milan or wherever. the coach can only motivate him with all the cards he has in his sleeves. It is up to him to decide to move to the next level.
Look at how Vinicius has shaped up under Ancelloti.
If you ask me, I attribute both Leao improvement and lazy games to Pioli. He gave Leao too much free reign and was adapting towards him, instead of the other way around.
Paulo fonseca have to be replaced he’s not doing anything good for milan the management need to see reason milan should not break down into pieces before realizing that