There are several worrying signs that emerged from AC Milan’s 2-0 defeat to Napoli last night, and one of them is once again Rafael Leao.
Calciomercato.com write how the first ‘postcard’ from the defeat to Napoli is the fact that Antonio Conte showed up to San Siro and won with relative ease, a coach Milan chose not to hire. The second is that the Rossoneri are now 11 points behind the leaders in the table.
The third, no less important, is the second benching in 10 days days for Leão, despite the last-minute unavailability of a player who is crucial for the attacking exploits of the team in Christian Pulisic.
In both his post-match interview after the Udinese game and last night against Napoli, Fonseca tried to downplay Leão’s situation by talking about it not being a saga.
Paradoxically, this is ‘the breaking point’ because for the first time in six years at Milan, the winger is considered a player equal to the others and no longer someone to lean on in times of difficulty.
Fonseca has made it clear that in his eyes Leao is now of the same importance as Okafor and Chukwueze, and a player who can go to the bench without it being an issue.
There are no reports of heated arguments between the compatriots, and the dialogue between the two has always been direct and fair.
However, there were several signs that led to what seems to be something ‘very close to a breaking point’ such as the indolence shown in the away match in Parma and the benching against Lazio plus the cooling break saga.
It was a discussion before the Udinese game about the use of Leao with Portugal during the October international break that led to this new method of ‘management’ of the last 10 days.
What do the leadership think? At this moment the club are not taking a position in favour of Leao or Fonseca and hope this approach can stimulate the former Lille man. After all, he remains the highest-paid player and the real difference-maker.
Milan need to sell this lacklustre and nonchalant leao who does care about the team, before his market value goes down. He has a childish attitude. Get rid of him and invest asap.
Attitude reflects leadership!
Both Leao and Fonseca are unworthy of Milan
Should have sold him over Summer.
Absolutely
Book him a flight to Barcelona, please.
At least he will play with a real coach, a coach who wants to win unlike the loser we have at Milan!
He didn’t set the world alight when he came on – same old same old..
We played worse when he came on, one dimensional once again.
Put the For Sale signs up
Sorry but it’s not entirely on Leao. Fonseca told the media when he took over he sees Leao as someone who needs to play more offensive and closer to goal. He also visited Leao in Euros to explain him how pivotal he is to his system.
Then Fonzy did same as Pioli after first few games. He panicked when things didn’t go his way and scrapped his plan. So now he punishes Leao because he’s not reverting to Fonzy’s panic mode. That’s a big go f yourself from coach who spit superlatives about him in the beginning.
Expecting Leao to play like Pulisic is not realistic. He’s not that type of player. Pulisic used to play same role in Dortmund, even a deeper one than he is now so he’s suited for the system.
Moreover, Leao’s stats are not even bad considering all the fuss around him and change in his role.
It’s simple, Fonzy is a mediocre coach who never achieved anything worthy and everywhere he went he had a fallout with certain players. Just goes to show his quality as he’s not able to bring the best out of the best in the team.
I gotta agree with you.
Leao is co-dependant on Theo. Pioli towards the end started playing Theo like Dechamps does, without Theo being “free” to attack at will, Leao will remain marked by two. Fonseca cannot stand it when Theo takes off on his own ,thus the friction.
To be fair, Deschamps started playing Théo like Pioli did. Maybe you don’t remember but Théo struggled to be called by Deschamps to play for France for almost a year despite being already famous as an offensive threat. Then he was only a bench player until he was thrown in the World Cup after his brother’s injury.
Yeah sure, sell him instead of hiring a coach able to unleash the talent and potential of the former 22 yo Serie A MVP. And the money could be reinvested in 3 or 4 rejects and unknown players from Belgium or Switzerland to compete with Verona and Genoa.
Gotta agree with your point too.
Pls sell Leao and Theo, so we speed up the process of making milan mid table team. Keep Fonseca and Ibra to make sure we not need Adli and Kalulu.
Ngl, it’s not entirely leao’s fault. Leão is the type of player that needs to be free and in Fonseca’s system that is not possible
Free of what?
Responsibly?
Accountability?
Free of giving more than half a$s effort?
Free of conducting himself as a professional and a grown man?
Milan should free themselves of BOTH Leao and Fonseca. That’s the freedom that is needed.
I’d rather get rid Fonseca first and see how a new coach handles Leao rather than getting rid of both of them at the same time.
We have already seen Leao under 2 coaches, zero difference .
He did won Serie A MVP under the previous coach. Did you by zero difference mean that he will MVP this year?
Clownseca vs clown
when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object
Thanks for making us an mid table team
Leao is not the issue of the team. Forseca is not a good coach. Milan situation will be worst under forseca if not sack. Leao and polusic are suppose to start against Napoli. RLC and Okafor, no matter the situation you are suppose to start those two.
I know Tomori is not good, but is suppose to start the game cos of expirence. Milan might not make top 4 this season if forseca is not sack. He lack tactics and the formation is of old. Bring in molden football.
leao has 5 g+a this season and you guys still want to sell him we know how good leao can be and this might not be a very great season he hasnt played that bad fonseca is just a mediocre coach
100% believe its pulisics fault
Honestly speaking you right Leo has no problem the only problem is this stupid idiot coach who dnt have any clue in what he’s doing and he wants to put blame on Leo and Stil now this cooling brakes issues it’s not only Leo why always Leo as said his heart is pure for Milan the management needs to sack this man before it will be too late a coach who dnt have first 11 to start a game every game he change his defense line and rotating the captain arm ban like no man ever does
Contrary to what many people here think, and while I acknowledge that Leão is not a mature individual and that he is prone to sulking and to dealing poorly with criticism to the point that he misbehaves regarding his teammates which is deeply regretful (as in, not celebrating with them), I believe that the main issue here is not Leão, but rather, Fonseca’s inability to get the best out of his players and to relate to his players in constructive ways.
A big symptom of that is how Fonseca often in press conferences releases declarations that seem to throw his own players under the bus, and that’s never good for morale and for the relationship between coach and players. That’s what José Mourinho used to do, and that’s one of the reasons why the Roma players got fed up with him and pretty much quit on him, and started to play horribly under him.
Another symptom of it was the PK saga; clearly at least some players in the squad were not willing to obey Fonseca’s instructions and although these players were in the wrong (and should have been punished; it’s regrettable that they really weren’t, in any significant way), it is another symptom of how little control Fonseca has of the locker room, and how little respect he commands. Players, especially a loan player, would never have shown similar disrespect to a good and strong coach like, yes, like Conte, the one we passed on hiring even though Conte did want to come and coach Milan.
Sure, Pioli did have many shortcomings, but being a jerk regarding his own players wasn’t one of these shortcomings. Pioli was beloved by the players.
You can say whatever you want about Leão; all him immature, call him lazy (that’s a favorite, right?), say we need to sell him… but REGARDLESS of Leão’s shortcomings, some of which are real, and some are exaggerated by his detractors, the Leão-Fonseca situation is STILL a symptom of how bad Fonseca is.
I mean, Leão under Pioli, shortcomings and all, warts and all, had a smile on his face and consistently scored + assisted 28 to 30 times in the last 3 seasons. Yep, before you all say it’s not true (some people had the gall to dispute this FACT, which is available on Footystats dot org for all to see), Leão had 28, 29, and 30 goal participations (scores + assists) in the last 3 seasons under Pioli.
Change to Leão under Fonseca, and he’s got 1 goal and 4 assists in one fourth of the season, so he’s on track for a significant lower number (if he continues with the same production, he’ll have around 20 at season end, not around 30). However I think that this will become even lower, because Leão is the kind of guy who gets distracted by criticism, and the more he’s criticized, the worse he plays. Not to forget, he’s getting fewer minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised if by season end, Rafa achieves not more than 14 to 15 goal participations, that is, half of what he used to achieve under Pioli.
How on Earth is this effective management???
Maybe it won’t even come to that, because it is not excluded that Leão, like I said not the most mature of individuals, will get fed up and will ask to leave during the winter mercato window in January.
Then, all the people here who want his head on a platter will be happy, but ultimately, I believe that Milan will be worse off without him, given that there is no way that our cheap management will hire a replacement for Leão who can also consistently add 28 to 30 goal participations per season. The kind of player who can do that typically costs a lot more than the maximum of 20 to 25M Euro our cheap managers are willing to spend.
That is, we’re already doing terribly under Fonseca, who has 7 fewer points than Pioli had at this point last season. We sit in 8th place (compare that to Pioli’s 2nd place) and we are officially a mid-table team, now.
Get rid of Leão, and we will fall even lower. That’s as simple as that, because when you subtract a player who can add 28 to 30 goal participations to our tally, with some joe nobody who costs not more than 20M and then you pass on those scores, you achieve even fewer points; you conceded more draws and defeats.
Is that what you all want? Because it does seem like you are not thinking of this the right way.
Excellent post Luigi. I hope, though do not expect, that management will take your advice.
If we don’t sack the coach we will not finish top 4
Leao hasn’t been effective on the field, and while it’s understandable that Fonseca, as a new coach, needs time to settle in, Leao should be stepping up now. This is the moment for him to take on responsibility and show his commitment. We moved on from Pioli, but we’re still dealing with inconsistency from players like Leao. He needs to get serious—now more than ever.
How will he step up on the bench? In actual fact he hasn’t really played badly either as a substitute or a starter in the last couple of games, he is a threat anyway, Fonseca doesn’t know what he is doing
No matter what we think of the coach, Leao has been ‘off and on’ for seasons. The new coach wants to do something different from Pioli, and our “dear” Leao wants to keep strolling on the pitch, leaving the defensive work to his teammates. Regardless of his contributions, goals, in a game, Pulisic still runs back to help the midfield, and the defense. A lot of teams understand how we play, so, even if we score, if we don’t defend well, we concede goals easily. Leao’s ego and laziness are his problems. Even if we bring in Conte or Guardiola, he would still have issues with them, playing like this. See how napoli’s best player was helping to defend last night. Our Leao came in, and after one or two runs, he was strolling while we were under attack. I like to see Leao play, but, I am tired of seeing Milan play in one direction. Things have changed, and everyone has to accept that, including Leao.
What have changed, we getting beat by Fiorentina, Napoli, even Parma outplayed us.
As for Pulisic tracking back, most goal conceded came from the right side of Milan, where Pulisic tracks back 2, of what difference is tracking back?
However I am not in support of a player strolling when the team is under attack, but he is gradually getting it, but I will rather have leao on the counter with less defensive duty than tracking back with no result. Morata workaholic but forgot his primary duty
Get rid of Fonseca now, I repeat his with Leao will keep affecting Milan as a whole, Pioli couldn’t do it for a reason, cos Leao is the undisputed game changer, that kept Pioli on that seat for that long
Many have been calling for someone to come in and “transform” Leao into a complete player. If that is in fact what Fonseca is trying to do, then it will take a lot of time.
Personally, I think it’s a waste of effort and of Leao’s skill set. He needs to be allowed to improvise in the final third and in the build up – he will never be a system player like Fonseca wants him to be.
Build around his strengths and plan around his liabilities, like a left sided midfielder who can clean up if Leao loses possession going forward.
Exactly. You are one of the few posters here who understand it. And now, it seems like Arsenal, Manchester United, and Barcelona (again) are getting interested in Rafa. While Barça has money issues, Arsenal and ManU do not, and of these, I think Arsenal is the more likely one to get serious about it, as they want to have an alternative to Martinelli (by the way, I’m also an Arsenal fan). The difference is that Arsenal actually do have a good coach unlike Milan, so if Rafa goes to them, he will likely flourish a lot more than under Fonseca, because he will be utilized the best way, rather than what is currently going on at Milan, with Fonseca trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
You just hit the nail on the head, you left your best player on the bench, Napoli was packing the bus, this is where you need your talisman but Fon-foolish decided otherwise
He left his best player on the bench because he had the flu.
That kinda worked when we had benacer or krunic there. Worked very well when kessie was there.
Now it’s reijnders there. It doesn’t work. And that’s why we needed and still need a proper fúcking DM. To play on the left side of the midfield. To pick up slack and share his elbows with the world.
Fonseca needs to go. The longer he remains as coach the more players are going to underperform. The players don’t like him, don’t respect him, and don’t want to play for him.. He is not only a mediocre coach but he is also st*pid. He needs to be fired immediately.
While I agree with you in everything that you said, unfortunately our management will not fire Fonseca. To do that, they would have to acknowledge the huge mistake they made, and they are not the kind of people who do that. Besides, they don’t really care for trophies but rather for the financial bottom line, so Fonseca is convenient for them, because he is a yes-man who doesn’t pressure the management for more resources.
There is one and only one way we will get rid of Fonseca: when he fails to qualify us for the next UCL (and that, of course, is going to happen). At that point, the managers will notice that Fonseca will have prevented Milan from earning north of 100 M Euro from the UCL revenue. THEN and only then, since it affects the financial bottom line, they will get rid of Fonseca. Not a minute before. So, we’re stuck with him until the end of the season, or until we get mathematically eliminated from the UCL spots.
Now, even if the managers/owner had a drop of athletic ambition and good sense in their blood (which they obviously don’t; their only ambition is to make money), and against all odds, decided to fire Fonseca right now, what decent coach would want to walk into this mess?
If I were a coach and Milan at this point contacted me for a job, I’d say, thanks, but no, thanks. A club without a sporting director, with the clown named Ibrahimovic undermining the coach and making stupid comments, with a management that won’t invest in top players and don’t want someone who would, you know, manage the team in addition to coaching the team, instead of being just a yes-man humble coach? What top level coach would want that???
And also, regardless of top coaches likely turning us down at this point in view of the train wreck we have become, most likely if they fired Fonseca, they would go AGAIN for some cheap mediocre yes-man loser, so, it would be no guarantee that we’d be better off.
No, my friend, we’re stuck with Fonseca or else we’ll get an equally bad replacement, because the much bigger problem resides with the idiots who hired Fonseca in the first place, and THEY are not going anywhere since they are the bosses who own the club.
If a Saudi sovereign fund sends to RedBird an irrefutable offer and they purchase the club, then maybe we’ll get a way out. But short of that, while we are owned by RedBird, we’ll be a mid-table team at best.
All of you blaming Leao are blind and you all are kids when it comes to Milan history. So all you are saying is that Leao should go while we keep this garbage dull coach? Most of you don’t even know how we became the Milan we were before these few mediocre management came to buy the club after Berlusconi era. Did you ask yourself if the management is serious in making the club great again or just mouth?
Who’s this present coach and what’s his pedigree as a great coach for Milan? Roma standard is very low to Milan and this coach couldn’t upgrade his level when he was coaching Roma and they sacked him yet Milan who is greater than Roma hired him as our coach and you guys sees nothing wrong in that and expect Leao to turn to a super man who can score 5goals every week?
How on earth would he bench Leao yesterday? Okafor came in and made a pass that Milan scored and because of that he started and your star player was on the bench? Don’t you know that LEAO PRESENCE ALONE IS ENOUGH THREAT TO THE OPPONENT DEFENDERS?. Let me tell you something guys Leicester didn’t have great known players when they won the EPL And same thing with Greece when they won the Euro cup in 2004 or so but they had a experience coach who could read every minute of football.
I said it here after our 3rd game that the season was over but some guys were cursing me. The Milan most of you are supporting these days were not the same in 1982 when I started supporting Milan.
Leao is not our problem and everyone should just leave him to concentrate and bounce back. Was it Leao that told management to sell CDK who later won a cup Milan never won in his career? Sell Leao and keep this bullshit coach
This season is over
White knight in simp mode again.
Sack Fonseca he is a mistake. Leao and Theo are difference makers and they would start for any team in the world. The coach has to build the team around leao to bring the most out of him. On his day leao is easily the best player in serie a. Fonseca has failed so far in everything. The big problem at end under pioli was the defense. The new coach needs to find balance for the team to improve defensively. Fonsecas 4-2-4 system will never work for Milan it just does not fit the team and exposes them even more defensively. I have watched pavlovic play for Salzburg and Serbia, he is a top center back but he was thrown into the fire at Milan. He needs time to settle and this system Milan currently play leaves the center backs very exposed. Fonseca out
One side of me says – I think Leão needs a change of scenery. You see how dynamite he usually is for Portugal. It’s not working for him at Milan.
The other side of me says – he was amongst the league leaders in goals + assists last season and has clearly been one of the best serie A players the last three years, despite all the criticism.
” After all, he remains the highest-paid player and the real difference-maker.”
The REAL difference-maker? Ehhh, when was the last time HE made the difference? One goal this season isn’t “making the difference”.
Leao reminds me of icons Rivera and Valderrama.
Except they were more immensely talented than him, played different times, BUT while they were given free roam by Nereo Rocco and Peire Mosca respectively they never stopped working hard and proved the trust given to them.
It MIGHT be unwise to sell Leao, but perhaps it’s time to let go. Because he does not seem to be adapting to this new system. And there is no more Pioli to shield him.
Great Post Chima !! Agree 100 percent . Dummighty just does not get it , you need to play both sides of the ball.