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.
Should have sold him over Summer.
Book him a flight to Barcelona, please.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.