AC Milan fell to a defeat last night against Fiorentina, but what is dominating the headlines above all is the penalty chaos that occurred in the second half.
La Gazzetta dello Sport write how after the infamous cooling break incident during the Lazio game, another bad impression was made by this Milan side because seeing team-mates stealing the ball from each other’s hands to take a penalty does not convey the image of a club with total harmony.
There is another aggravating factor too: if those penalties are then not scored, it becomes a problem. First incident: in the 44th minute Ranieri fouls Tijjani Reijnders, Pairetto whistles for a penalty, Alvaro Morata takes the ball and Theo Hernandez takes it from him. De Gea guesses right and saves.
Second incident: 54th minute, Kean kicks Gabbia’s foot, Pairetto awards another penalty, Fikayo Tomori takes possession of the ball and delivers it into the hands of Tammy Abraham who – approached by Christian Pulisic, the designated taker – pushed his team-mate away in a rather brusque manner.
The paper claims that Abraham is not one of the designated penalty takers, the names of those who should go and shoot from 12 yards are those of Pulisic, Hernandez and Morata. Murphy’s law comes into play and De Gea also stopped Abraham’s shot.
The questions that followed are obvious: why did Pulisic not take either? Why did Abraham take one? Why did the players steal the ball from each other like in a park or school playground? Why didn’t Fonseca intervene? Why didn’t Pulisic impose himself? Why didn’t the captain intervene on the field?
For the last question the answer is clear: the captain is precisely one of those who decided autonomously to take a penalty in place of Pulisic, who is the team’s first penalty taker. There is no doubt about this, since Fonseca made it very clear after the match.
“I’m p*ssed off, the taker is Pulisic, I don’t know why the lads changed. I already told them that it must never happen again,” he said. A final question arises, which is very complicated to answer: why didn’t the coach say ‘It must never happen again’ bluntly already at half-time, after the first penalty?
Theo is no leader, we all get on Leao but Theo plays for himself,
JAJAJAJJA QUIEN ACÁ APOYA A ÉSTE PERDEDOR (FONSECA)? 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🇵🇹🤡
Big ego to go and take it away. But Maldini’s heir doesn’t think so because he’s a scudetto champion…
Make Morata or Gabbia the captain from here on out. Leave Tomori and Abraham out of the squad next game. Fonseca has to make strong choices or it’s just going to get worse. Looks like many players don’t respect him.
I agree with Gabbia being the captain. It would send a message and Fonseca has to stop hoping that naming players as captains will make them grow into leaders. If you’re not a leader you cannot be captain, period.
I agree, he’s got a bit of tenure and from what I can see doesn’t mind dictating to his teammates, I dare say flashbacks of Baresi with how he’s instrumentally organized the back line. I’m so glad to see the team using an offside trap for the first time in years all thanks to Gabbia.
Theo, Tomori and Abraham should be fined. That’s disrespectful towards the team especially the coach and their teammate Pulisic.
Theo especially should be even more sanctioned as he is supposedly the senior player, captain and it’s not the first time he gets a stupid red card.
100% agree
I would honestly boo them if they set foot on the field in the next game
Why didnt Pulicic stand up for himself? If he is designated he had the right. Look at how Cole Palmer dealt with two Chelsea teammates. He stood his ground.
Agree. Now that’s a leader right there. I was almost thinking to suggest Pulisic as a captain option, but it doesn’t look like the other players respect him.
I would set Maignan or Gabbia as captain.
True, but it’s still Theo, Tomori and Abraham’s mistake. Plus we should deal with the issues we can control (discipline) rather the ones we can’t (a player being shy).
Plus, I don’t know how could Pulisic stand to Theo who is his captain and senior.
Imagine what Burlusconi would have done with these guys?
There would be horses heads everywhere
Haha, good one.
I so miss having an owner that actively cared about the team. At times he did intervene and usurp the coach, but that can’t be worse than the current owner who seemingly only cares about the bottom line.
I can understand why Pulisic didn’t react. I mean, it would look even
worse if two or three players are fighting each other for the ball.
Tomori, Tammy and Theo,……. it’s so disappointing. Perhaps if this was an isolated incident, it wouldn’t look so bad, but we’ve seen do much evidence that this team is disjointed and that it lacks leadership.
Pulisic has too much class to start grabbing and fighting over the ball like a bunch of kids. It should never come to that. This is just terrible leadership where certain players think they can do whatever they want. Theo as captain set a terrible example, and Abraham followed. Fonseca should have screamed at these guys after the first one. Theo should never wear the armband again. Make Pulisic the captain. I get what Fonseca was trying to do. He thought that by giving Leao and Theo the armband that they might actually step up and behave like leaders, but not Theo, he just uses the armband for his own selfish purposes. Shameful.
Abraham should publicly apologize. His act was caught on cam and it’s bad. Don’t act stupid and making excuses like Theo and Leao did. You made mistake. Own it. Learn from it. Move on.
We don’t need to win every game to appreciate this. I’m just enjoying watching this great team in action.