Paulo Fonseca reportedly believes that AC Milan can compete for the Scudetto if they sign a new centre-forward, but other pieces are needed to elevate the level of the squad.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, it was Fonseca himself – even if involuntarily, given that the statement was not public, but was leaked anyway – who apparently told the management something along these lines: “With a strong centre-forward, this team is worthy of the title.”
Fonseca didn’t say something absurd because Milan finished second in the standings and not 10th, but they never really fought for first place this season or last season, finishing 20 points behind Napoli and now 19 points behind Inter.
It would be wrong to point at Olivier Giroud and say that he was the reason that Milan did not fight for the Scudetto, just as pointing at his deputies in Noah Okafor and Luka Jovic does not feel entirely accurate.
A change of ownership, farewell to Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, the loss of pillars like Franck Kessie and Sandro Tonali, a decline in performance of older players, questionable choices in the mercato and inconsistent performance levels from stars all played a part.
Therefore, is it really as simple as signing a striker who scores 25 goals per season to fix those things? Again, that does not feel like an accurate assessment of where this club are at because there are too many other issues even on a squad building level.
Looking at the Milan team that won the Scudetto three years ago, it wasn’t that far technically distant from the current team, but it had some men at the height of their footballing maturity, and it was certainly richer in character and personality.
Just think of the comeback in the derby against Inter which started the fight for the title, while this group has lost six derbies in a row. Could it have been all Stefano Pioli’s fault? The hope is that Fonseca is an upgrade in this sense and that he has studied how to make the Rossoneri reclaim the throne.
The club will have to do the rest: by supporting him, showing clarity in choices, narrowing down the list of targets by carefully choosing the profiles needed to bring Milan back to fighting for the title. A central midfielder, a centre-back and a right-back have all been mentioned, and for good reason.
Gotta love all this constant hear say
I believe Milan are doomed for next season
Fonseca really?
Moncada and co will try and buy what?
Fonsucker is not the answer Milan need!
Ask Sacchi or Capello
We fans dream of adding stars to our team; the owners dream of selling our stars.
Unless he wants to playing RLC as a CDM, so that he will play with Reinders, he can, actually, it’s all about changing his training(if Mourinho could do that with Mikel Obi in Chelsea; who originally was CAM, then…).
Next, promote Simic, Jimenez, Bartezaghi, Traore, and Zerolli.
Then he can have just a super CF to compete with Inter,
23/24 – 2nd, 75 points, a whopping 21 points adrift of the winner (96) 4th place: 69 points. (could be 71 if Atalanta won vs Viola)
22/23 – 4th (actually 5th), 70 points, another huge 20 points gap from the winner (90) 4th place : 70 points. (72 points if Juve didn’t get deducted).
21/22 – 1st 86 points, 2 points ahead of Inter in second. 4th place: 70 points.
20/21 – 2nd, 79 points, 22 points adrift of the winner (91). 4th place: 78 points.
I would like to extrapolate the data from Covid seasons to the latest.
From the last 4 seasons, it is evident that around 70-72 points is needed to secure top 4. Season 20/21 was even harsher, since 78 points is needed to get into top 4, with the fifth place coming in at 77 points. A very competitive season, even if Conte-led Inter extremely annihilate every other teams.
Our points for the previous 4 seasons were: 79 – 86 – 70 – 75. And this is where the problem lies. While 75 points might be good enough for securing the second spot this term, but in a ‘competitive’ season, where every other team apart from the Scudetto winner didn’t try to shoot their own feet every other weekend, that might not even be enough to secure top 4.
So, do not lulled into false sense of security that we were actually the second best team in the league, judging by the table. Lazio finished second last season and they imploded this season. It guarantees nothing. This is why, Fonseca would be facing a very difficult task ahead, he would need to instantly manage to find the right formula for his team right away, because matching what Pioli did this season -getting 70 points- might not be enough for top 4 if the season ahead turns competitive.
I just hope that the board is fully behind their choice and gave him every tools he would need to succeed. Because I foresee a very competitive season where Inter, Juve, Atalanta and Napoli to be there or thereabout.
Forza Milan.
Giampaolo Vol. 2
Fonseca has 9 trophies. 3 league titles and 6 cup titles. Pioli only has 1 league title. Giampaolo has absolutely nothing. ZERO titles. So how is Fonseca a Giampaolo 2.0? Smh
Fonseca is a better coach than Pioli tactically and a better man manager. He develops young players and he doesn’t play them out of their best position.
Pioli was putting square pegs in round holes. RLC is not an AM. Musah is not a RW or RB. Okafor is not a winger. He’s a CF. How are these players supposed to adapt to this madness overnight.
RLC was fortunate to score 10 goals due to his height and shooting this season but when he played as an attacking midfielder he looked loss often making the wrong decisions when deciding to pass the ball. Sigh! Smh!
Titles aside, Fonscea feels like a lateral move rather than an upgrade. It will remain to be seen if he can tactically organize this team better than Pioli could.
Where Are the titles? Ukraine of hilf Ukraine today
How about de zerbi then? People always praise when he “almost” get not the league but A CUP there
Need a new forward since Giroud has left. But the real problem is at the back. Milan had no problems scoring goals, but they allowed them like a relegation side.
OWhy always a Right back…. Milan only habe a left back in Theo and it’s not certain he will play at Milan next season while others are converted players. With bout 5 players in the present team that can play the Right back comfortably.
What a clueless management Milan have.
Because Theo ‘leaving” is just media narratives. And of the 5 people capable of playing as a RB, none of them have been good enough or consistent enough.
On the Left we have Theo. Do we have a Theo on the Right? No. And that’s what we should strive to get to – a “Theo” on the RT.
I understand where Fonseca is coming from. When Milan won the Serie A title we had the best defense in Serie A with Kalulu, Tomori, Kjaer and Gabbia.
So how all of sudden Milan is leaking goals? Well, that’s because there is no Kessie or Tonali.
But Milan has Ruben Loftus Cheek who can play that role since he did play there before at Chelsea and I remembered that he got the better of Kessie and Bennacer in that game.
He bullied our midfield at the San Siro and made our midfield look like a joke but yet Pioli decided to play RLC as an attacking midfielder? WTF?
Also, despite Giroud’s 15 goals this season, Milan was vulnerable to counter attacks every time Giroud loss the ball because of his stupid little flicks that didn’t come off and he constantly turned over possession when the ball was played to him with his back to goal.
A proper striker would have hold up the ball to let the midfielders and wingers come into the play to advance the ball forward instead of giving up possession by doing those stupid little flicks and making Milan vulnerable on counter attacks.
This was a problem Pioli and his staff could have coached Giroud into doing instead of allowing him to consistently turn possession every time he tried to do his little flicks to no one that majority of the time didn’t come off.
That was a bad miss by pioli and his staff because they just let Giroud do whatever over and over again even when it wasn’t working most of the time and it was putting the team in a bad situation for counter attacks.
This is the type of madness Fonseca is calling out.
Fonseca also knows that Pioli was not using the players in their position to give the team balance in defense and attack. That is coaching problem and bad tactics. Smh
There are definitely concrete deficiencies for Fonseca to fix. AM position is one of them. Hold up play, as well. But most importantly we need to bring in a DM ASAP and fix our play in transition. That’s where we’ve been getting carved up.
Is Benny staying? Can RLC play deeper? Can Reijnders move up more? Who is the DM? Who can play alongside him?
What’s our preferred CB pairing? Are we bringing another CB in?
There are a LOT of questions that need to be answered this summer.
I think with an upgrade at the CF and a healthy campaign from Tomori, all that’s needed is for one of Thiaw or Gabbia or Kalulu to stay healthy and they can compete for the scudetto. Remember when fully healthy and in form, Milan’s defense looked strong. But Inter will need an injury or regression, they were simply too strong this year. Milan has never scored more than 86 points in a season, Inter had 94 this year. There was no stopping them.
The main problem last summer was that we bought players for 4-3-3 and after 3 games Pioli turned back to 4-2-3-1. I’m not sure who’s fault was that. Was Pioli the one who asked for players for strategy change and then changed his mind or was that the management who brought him players for tactic that he’s not comfortable with.
Anyway, the 3 new classic central midfielders for 4-3-3 tactics are not fit neither for the back 2 roles neither for the upper 3 in the 4-2-3-1. In my opinion, we are lucky to get the 2nd place with these setup of wrong positioned players.
So, this summer we should either switch some of them to DMC or AMC, or get rid of them and get adequate ones.
Also, I think we should get rid of
Pobega, Kalulu, Thiaw and Adli, (no room for improvement, should have sold them when there was still teams who thought they are worthed).
The main problem last summer was that we bought players for 4-3-3 and after 3 games Pioli turned back to 4-2-3-1. I’m not sure who’s fault was that. Was Pioli the one who asked for players for strategy change and then changed his mind or was that the management who brought him players for tactic that he’s not comfortable with.
Anyway, the 3 new classic central midfielders for 4-3-3 tactics are not fit neither for the back 2 roles nor for the upper 3 in the 4-2-3-1. In my opinion, we are lucky to get the 2nd place with these setup of wrong positioned players.
So, this summer we should either switch some of them to DMC or AMC, or get rid of them and get adequate ones.
Also, I think we should get rid of
Pobega, Kalulu, Thiaw and Adli, (no room for improvement, should have sold them when there was still teams who thought they are worthed).
What do you expect him to say? That there is no chance we are challenging for the title?
Of course he will feel confident of improving the team with his tactics both defensively and attack wise, which theoretically should give us a chance at the title.