Theo Hernandez has ended up at the centre of scrutiny after he failed to keep pace for Parma’s two goals on Saturday, and a report has claimed he is a symbol for AC Milan’s start to the season.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, for the first Parma goal Theo saw the run from Dennis Man but did not change pace. When he tries to do so, Man was already ahead of him and he scored with ease. Second goal: Parma countered three on two, Theo failed to catch up with Cancellieri who got the winner.
The questions that followed pertained to a lack or energy and potentially underestimating the danger, but either way as a vice captain it is difficult to accept. The issue is not knowing how to defend, because Theo certainly does.
The left-back started training at Milanello on August 3 and wasn’t on the USA tour because he had a vacation after the European Championship, which means that he will not yet be 100% and his condition will improve.
The rest, however, depends on him. Alessandro Costacurta’s words come to mind: “Pavlovic’s ability to want to stop the opponent was excellent. An attitude that, it seems, Theo Hernandez doesn’t have.”
The mercato talk may have had an impact. Theo uttered a worrying phrase during the European Championship: “Whether I will stay at Milan or not, we will see later.” Bayern Munich’s interest was real, but conditional on Alphonso Davies leaving for Real Madrid which he did not.
Thus, Theo Hernandez from Marseille is the perfect symbol of Milan’s season. He has more talent than almost all his opponents, he started badly, he has lost some of the pillars of continuity such as his friend Brahim Diaz and coach Stefano Pioli, but there are margins for growth.
The next few months will depend more on his head than on his legs. The doubts that apply to Theo also apply to the team.
Theo should be moved upper as a LW
And the management is a symbol of success. Let’s play Jerry at striker, Furlani can hold his pocket as usual in the 10 position, they can’t be worse at shooting on target than any of our current midfielders and strikers.
Doesn’t matter what the article is about, huh B?
Always revert back to the management 🙂
Articles that were saying one week ago that Milan is going in the right direction after winning the almighty US Galaxy Champion Tour in Baltimore and Chiraq. The comment section is made for our opinions.
About the management, are they not in charge of the team? Why was Théo so sharp and motivated with France two months ago and now looks like the new Taye Taiwo? Is he responsible for Milan having its worse start in Serie A in 16 years even if he barely played in the first game and despite being 1/11 of the team against Parma?
Bart again making excuses for millionaire professional players jogging back on defense just so he can blame management. You know it’s Zlatan’s fault that Theo didn’t run hard of course. Same as that other crazy guy who said “Leao hasn’t smiled since Maldini left”. Between that and Bart’s crystal ball that let’s him know everything that ownership is thinking and planning on doing in the future, it’s bodering on mental illness at this point.
K again making excuses for billionaire speculative vultures addicted to money and hence destroying what has been a solid project until last summer. Poor Jerry crying in his private jet that the fans don’t love him, that’s a good thing that you’re here to dodge the bullets.
Again the craziness on full display. Somehow they are “destroying a solid project” by finishing better last season than they did the previous season. From 4th (really 5th) to 2nd place. If they continue to destroy at that rate, we will the Scudetto this season.
But Bart and his crystal ball already have this entire season figured out after 2 games. It takes a special kind of idiocy or delusion to make a judgement like that 2 games into a season with a new coach and we haven’t even got our real starting XI on to the pitch together yet, but that’s Bart for you.
Yea, but B, what does Theo not playing well have anything to do with the management? You fault them for what? Not having cheerleaders and mental health coaches on standby?
Mental health/fitness coach may be a great idea with this young Milan that has no leaders to step up in difficult times.
But players underperforming is not on the management, man 🙂
I like you ACM1899. I think we’re proving that we can disagree and remain courteous.
As for the management, they’re in charge of everything. I wouldn’t say they’re lost, they’re just focused on business. The rest is a bonus as would say Scaroni. I just don’t understand how Théo was the best left back in the world at the Euro and suddenly he’s a donkey. There’s something wrong with this club for a while and I guess we can see it in plain sight now. Théo is not the reason why Milan has 1 point in two games against Torino and Parma.
Bart is like a broken record. Keeps on looping the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…
As much as I detest players not tracking back or just not giving their utmost I think one factor that should be considered is mental fatigue due to the French International team crashing out in the semi finals. Its often seen that players from respective international teams has a dip of form after disapointing championship experiences. It could be part of the equation in my view combined with not being 100% yet as already mentioned in the article.
100%.
He’s been awful yes but he shouldn’t even be playing so the blame doesn’t squarely lie with him.
He and Giroud were the same after the World Cup final loss. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he is mentally and physically drained.
Clearly he still wanted to be on vacation (as he should) and definitely shouldn’t have been starting or playing.
Considering the extra matches in the CL and need to go deeper in the Coppa he and some others should have been granted extra time off and some time to learn the “system”.
We’d be in the exact same position except he’d be well rested.
The braids he had tell the whole story. Vacation mode.
😀 To be fair Theo and a lot of modern day players deserves to be lambasted for their hairdo’s. Im cleaned shaved due to getting older and more balled and I wouldn’t want my hair back if I had to showcase pink hair or braids.
Yeah these things can affect players as they are humans as all of us. I do nevertheless expect them to give their best,
Yeah in hindsight it probably would have been for the best.
Whaaaat??? Martin, you usually have good posts, but whoa, what does Theo’s hair have to do with his ability to play as a footballer??? Is it so long that he trips on it and falls? Is it so thick that he can’t head the ball (not that Theo is a great header). I find that Theo’s hair is just a bit of funny personal expression and I find it entertaining; it has nothing to do with how Theo plays. Bizarre comment, unless you’re just being sarcastic.
Haha 😀 I was just kidding about his bad choices in hairdo’s nothing more nothing less as I replied to EAP’s final comment at first in my reply. Theo is one of my favorite players at the club and I’ve been saying for years that he is the one that is the most difficult to replace at the club so not really trying to bash him as a player. I do nevertheless hate his experimental hairdo’s and stand by what i said even though it was said in jest.
Last time I was at the barber’s I showed him a picture of Théo as a model of haircut and I had to precise “same haircut but without the pink colour” haha
Well he actually has a nice hair when not coloring it and braiding it but as I said to Luigi I was also just kidding a bit and in the end if he or anyone else is happy about it then fine with me but I do think there is a lot of weird hairdo’s in modern day football.
Guess I’m just getting old 😀
We make a lot of fun about football players’ haircuts in France, most French players are infamous for their ugly hair style haha
😀 To be fair it isn’t really endemic as its all around the sport nowadays.
Like after WC, theo and Mike both very sluggish at the start of the season
Yeah they were.
Why would Maignan be sluggish after the world cup when he wasn’t at the world cup?
People grasping at straws looking for excuses.
Giroud was at least but bad memory from me and flyingturtle in regard of Maignan, nothing about grasping at straws.
You simply can’t disregard that players returns from international championships with a hangover for the lack of better word. Happens nowadays and happened 30 years ago and will happen in the future as well.
then it was the national league. i dont even know which is when anymore, seems like there are games all the time
There are no excuses for Theo.
Coming back from the Euro late isn’t an excuse.
Reijnders played as many minutes as Theo last season, he also got to the semi-final of the Euro and they both came back to milanello on the same day. Reijnders doesn’t look fat and out of shape like Theo.
Whats worse, Milan has a new coach, starting a new cycle and Theo as a co captain shows up to milanello fat and out of shape.
For the children in here that wanna say he is mad about his contract. If he is mad than he should be a man and go to management and asks to get sold to a team that will pay him the salary he wants, not be unprofessional.
He isn’t failing management but the other 10 players that are on the pitch with him. You can be mad at management, you can be mad at your coach but you shouldn’t let your teammates and brothers down who you supposed to be the leader of.
Either shape up or get shipped out. He isn’t irreplaceable. No one is.
It might not be an excuse but its nevertheless a fact that these things happens from time to time, nothing new under the sun there. Add to that France was a favorite tow win the tournament, Netherlands wasn’t, hence why I mentioned mental fatigue in regard of the Euros.
It’s simple, if he is unfit and having a mental breakdown, bench him and start someone else.
Sure and I’m not saying otherwise either even though I’m of the view that he is the player who is the most difficult to replace in the entire squad. If its a question of either bad form or mental fatigue it should already have happened in the first matches though as I suspect that Lazio will be more of a handful than both Parma and Torino.
You love to bash Milan’s players. Are you really a Milan fan? Sometimes I wonder.
Theo is an excellent, world-class left back who is currently out of shape. He will recover.
Selling Theo would be a huge mistake. By the way, we don’t even have a suitable deputy for Theo; the problem would be an extinction event if we were to sell Theo without a good replacement, and there is no affordable world class replacement for a world class player who is already ours.
If we listen to you, we will sell all our best players because supposedly they are “lazy.” Jesus.
By the way, yes, players do come back from long international duty with problems. We’ve seen it happening over and over. Give Theo some time, he will recover his form.
cmon, the symbol on unsuccess is pioli…. sry fonseca. who is waste of time and potential… who chose him? ibrakadabra?
Feels like scapegoating, but sadly if Theo is knackered (and wouldn’t be surprised, he’s been running non-stop for years for club and country with minimal breaks) then we have a severe problem as he was the biggest attacking threat for the past couple of seasons
Feels like you didn’t watch him play. Theo’s lack of effort has played a leading role in 3 of the 4 goals scored this season. I’m sorry but no mercy for someone who’s paid millions to show up for work. He’s literally paid more than 7 billion ppl to do a job and he should show more enthusiasm for that job than an average fry cook (all due respect to the fry cooks out there).
If Theo is not fit enough, then the coach should figure out how to replace him ,otherwise, Serie A teams will be using his wing as a gateway to goals.
Theo not playing well is management’s fault not the coach, dive deep into Theo from last season we will know better, I think the issue is contract disagreement n Milan acting like all is well, he is not happy u can tell, use is social media as a case study no excitement about the new season, nothing about milan apart from a repost on his story about Leao, the midfield is cold, fonseca’s fault, and as for the defensive issues is due to tactical errors, Tomori is yet to marinate the right central unlike he did with the left, with Kalulu doing justice to the Right central then, in today’s football play Gabbia with Tomori, u would see chemistry that notwithstanding the amazing performance of Pavlovic meanwhile we need attacking midfielder in the class of Diaz, someone who can make something out of the ordinary not this low budget RLC, yes big ups to him last season, but he’s amongst the few players who enjoyed maximum holiday yet he is behaving like he played the euros with England, looking all burned out n confuse, a team where there is no creativity surely there won’t be goals!!!
“Theo not playing well is management’s fault ”
I love these comments 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Reminds me of the Flat-Earthers.