Journalist Pietro Mazzara has urged the AC Milan leadership to consider making a tough decision when it comes to Paulo Fonseca’s future, given what we have seen so far this season.
It would be fair to say that the jury was out on the hiring of Fonseca as the new head coach during the summer as some felt he was a good fit for the project while others wanted a ‘bigger’ name such as Antonio Conte or someone more glamorous like Roberto De Zerbi or Thiago Motta.
The results this season paint a worrying picture: Milan have won just three of their opening seven games in Serie A after starting badly, while they have also lost both of their first two games in the Champions League against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen.
Mazzara published his weekly column for MilanNews and he was very critical of the performance against Fiorentina last night, raising doubts about whether the team are buying into Fonseca’s ideas fully.
“From Fonseca’s words to Milan TV in the post-match on the penalty takers issue, an objective difficulty in imposing oneself emerges because if Christian Pulisic is the designated penalty taker, how is it possible that a Theo Hernandez who is clearly out of phase and a Tammy Abraham who hasn’t had a single ball in the entire match go to the spot?” he began.
“It is also in these moments that the coach lacks control, that he lacks personality, who last night went haywire even in the substitutions, because taking Leao and Pulisic off when you have to go hunting for the equaliser is almost self-destructive.
“It is a Milan divided even on the pitch, understood as identity and continuity of performances. There is no uniformity when the level rises compared to Lecce and Venezia, the derby seems to have been a game in itself, as if there had been a surplus of motivation to avoid the seventh consecutive defeat.
“Leverkusen and Fiorentina have said that that game there is, to date, a unicum. The dust from under the carpet is emerging, the summer choice that had left so many doubts in everyone is proving not to be fruitful and Milan cannot continue to live in this limbo of little credibility and little trust, in terms of the environment, around Fonseca and his ideas of football.
“Because he should have put his own into it, but the team does not take on what he wants or would like. Furthermore, if questionable choices are also included such as removing Leao and Pulisic, then the omelette is done.
“Furlani and Ibrahimovic must have the courage to make a strong decision, as Maldini and Boban did when they fired Giampaolo to take Pioli (let’s always remember that the first choice was Spalletti, who however decided to remain attached to the contract he had with Inter).
“Even Matteo Gabbia, in the post-match, analysed the defeat in a very honest way and, in fact, certified the state of the players, who too many times made the wrong approach to the game. Maybe because they don’t believe in what is proposed to them? A question that will remain unanswered, but we can’t go on like this.”
Absolutely correct. It’s a disaster. Fonseca needs to be fired.
Like I’ve been saying, the one thing that Mazzara didn’t stress, and shows that the problem is even bigger, is that the two PKs we missed happened in different halves of the game.
So, Fonseca had the opportunity to address it during the halftime break, and make sure it wouldn’t happen again in the second half.
After what he said to the press in post-game declarations, leaves only two possibilities:
1. He did NOT address it during the halftime break. If that’s the case, what he said to the press is self-serving, and an obvious attempt to shift the blame to the players for something that it was his duty to address.
2. He DID address it during the halftime beak. If that’s the case, then the players disobeyed him AGAIN in second half, showing that they don’t respect him, don’t trust him, and he has lost control over them.
Either one is very bad so it doesn’t even matter which one happened. Coupled with the bad results, tactical confusion, and bad line-up and sub decisions, the verdict can only be one: Fonseca must go.
Good point!
Cohesion is sometimes more important than the individual players. A team should be greater than the sum of its individual players, otherwise we will be a bit like PSG (and perhaps United) where talent is certainly present, but something is always missing and it’s not a “better player”.
Too often this season, we saw examples of this squad becoming a mayhem. Leadership is clearly lacking and we need to adress this right now.
I think for starters, we now know who should be (or rather shouldn’t be) captain. Give it to Maignan for all I care, never give it back to Theo and Leao.
Some behaviours should be fined (like stealing a penalty, shouting at the referee) even if we win. Players need to understand that this is not a circus.
And finally, and least importantly, Fonseca should stop exposing our dirty laundry to the media. The people who can do something about it do need to know through media, and I don’t think it the players will be more willing to listen that way.
Milan wasn’t chasing for the equalizer when Leao was taken off. It was 1-1.
They scored immediately after he came off – Tomori presumably still trying to work out why his lazy arse was subbed, when he misjudged the long ball. Pulisic being subbed defies explanation…
Well… Fonseca said he took Puli off because he had physical issues all week. But Pulisic even with a broken leg would be more useful in attack than others on the pitch at that time though.
He is clearly not equipped to coach Milan, but the worst part is that everyone, literally everyone knew that when he was hired in what was the most apparent appointment of a Yes Man I’ve ever seen in a (supposedly) top football club. That can only mean one thing – the management doesn’t have any sporting ambition and choosing a scapegoat to defelct some of the negativity in itself proves that they expected everything that is happening. What’s even the project at this point? Sell every player, brought by Maldini, keep trashing money chaotically without any concept of building a balanced team, avoid winning trophies and rely on attendance and merch revenue? Why even hire a coach? Everyone is doing whatever they want (including Zlatan) and the owners are completely ok with that.
I’m hoping, probably against logic, that Maldini is somewhere, trying to get the cash to buy these jokers out and get Milan back on the straight and narrow…