A number of sources are reporting that Paulo Fonseca could opt to bench some players for the Genoa game that he does not believe are pulling their weight.
Calciomercato.com write how the mood is quite dark heading into the 125th anniversary celebrations on Sunday in the Genoa game, despite the fourth straight win in the Champions League against Red Star two nights ago.
The attention of the media has been on the outburst by Fonseca, whose position is not currently at risk. After the game he criticised the attitude shown on the pitch by certain players, who he accused of not giving their all.
What has emerged is that the club expressed support for the coach’s words when they spoke with him yesterday afternoon at training. The lack of presence of any directors is not a sign of leaving him alone but rather giving him full scope to manage the squad as he sees fit.
It therefore cannot be ruled out that there will be some ‘shock exclusions’ against Genoa, as MilanNews are also reporting. Among the players, there are those who shared Fonseca’s position, such as Rafael Leao and Malick Thiaw, so they should be safe.
Tammy Abraham – who scored the winning goal – also spoke of a mentality issue, so it can be presumed he will start especially given Alvaro Morata’s injury. Aside from those three, the risk of important players being excluded is real.
If the above mentioned players are “safe”, then the only shock exclusion I can think of is one single player: Theo Hernandez. On an individual level, Leao is playing well, Tammy is making an effort, Puli is injured, Fofana and Reijnders are doing well, Gabbia and Thiaw are doing well at CB, and Mike is doing fine. The there are the RBs, Calabria and Royal, but their issue is just not being good as opposed to effort. So that leaves Theo. Unfortunately, after him we have no real options there…
A shock exclusion is Mike, Reinjders or Fofana at this point in time
And even MM16 would be due to resting him as a precaution to an injury. He’s never 100% fit now is he? 🙂
Honestly the article talk about “exclusions” but I don’t see many.
You can’t exclude Leao because he has been doing efforts lately. Granted he was very sloppy against Crvena Zvezda, but he scored a goal only he can score and his overall trend is positive.
Calabria might be on Fonseca’s radar given what happened but Calabria is a bench player in Fonseca’s system.
Same thing for Tomori who became a bench player as of now.
You might exclude Musah but the kid did try. It just happened that he is so bad at football.
That only leaves Theo really.
It’s Theo. Bench his a$$ please. Put in someone who will at least give an effort. When they showed the replay of when Crevena hit the cross bar yesterday, it came from a cross from the right per usual and Theo is just standing flatfooted watching the whole thing. The cross fall to one of their players who shoots it. The shot is blocked and goes back to another player who shoots it again off the crossbar. The entire time Theo is standing about two yards away just watching, never moves
I’m glad someone else noticed this!!! Absolutely shocking lack of effort when he was supposed to closed the man down at least once! Story of our season thus far tbh. Cross from right; Goal from left where Theo ought to have been more aware. Someone earlier said without Tomori at LCB Theo is more exposed. While I partially agree; it’s inexcusable the number of goals conceded. Points to lesser effort both at right back closing down crosses and on the Left.
You’ve either never played football in your life or some kind of special or just full of hate for Theo if you think Theo would have been able to do something about that course of play.
I presume you meant the shot around the 16th minute off the bar right? He’s the left back covering his man (two in fact) just like when ppl accuse him for not closing down the runner the last time when we was covering centrally in a league game. So I guess this time he stuck to his duties.
If you looked at the play properly prior to the build up he covers the run of Mvumpa until it takes him way out of position by which time Gabbia marks him (this was the correct thing to do btw). He then retreated to cover Mimovic upon seeing him take up a spot on the left and upon seeing enough man coverage centrally. It would have been wrong of him to move/stay centrally at the time because it would have left their right wing completely free and there was enough coverage man to man available hence it didn’t need his intervention.
If anything it’s the lack of of midfield doing their jobs once more…but somehow he gets the blame. Unbelievable.
The rest of the play sees the ball go into the box with a man completely unmarked (not Theo’s fault btw just to keep score)…why is that so? This was due to RLC not picking him up/being late to realize what was going on. RLC basically had a brain f.art or is simply not good enough tactically to follow the player’s simple run into the box where hes free to head the ball.
The next problem is the lack of heading ability by Thiaw who has position on his man but gave a poor header which resulted in a dangerous ball in the goal area, and then our fake DM Fofana with an abysmal clearance from the goal box to the penalty spot. Again this has NOTHING to do with Theo. This is just amateur hour by Thiaw and Fofana.
The shot comes, hits the crossbar and cannons off to a place that once more is not in Theo’s area. In fact it’s by Reinjders who is the one closer to the play (both on the shot and the rebound) and the one that’s truly flat footed in all of this. He doesn’t close down the shot from outside. (Btw Deers is just there ball gazing the entire time, marking absolutely no one and is actually one of the players free to help).
Thankfully it’s straight to Mike. Yet for all, you looked at this and thought Theo was to blame! Incredible! No mention of RLC losing his man….on the right…no mention of the poor header by Thiaw ….and poor clearance by Fofana and lack of closing by Deers. It’s all Theo …who is there marking his man on the left for if the ball goes there.
I just want to be clear before ppl think I’m some defender of his as Theo has had his fumbles and is out of sorts this season but this isn’t one for which blame should be as.signed to. He’s not even near the play and there are others who fcked up.
Stop. You are embarrassing yourself, bending over backwards to defend this guy. Tell me if you ever see Theo move at all on that play , If you ever see him look around for someone to mark or to see if someone was running in behind him? He was strictly ball watching, the way he always does. Which is how CDK jumped right over him to score against Atalanta , which is how countless other goals were conceded already this season. He never marks anyone, he never looks for anyone to mark, he just stands still and ball watches.
There is nobody who has cost this team more points this season than Theo.
And fools like you would give him a great big new contract and just hope that maybe if the coach just coddles him a little more, if Zlatan would just go put an arm around his shoulder and tell him how great he is, he will magically start playing better and actually give a good effort. Just stop.
LMAO 🤣🤣 so all three then? You’re special, full of hate for Theo AND don’t know how to play football. Sheesh.
I’m embarrassing myself? Because I called the whole play out in detail and the players who were really at fault defensively? That’s why? Dont make me laugh.
Everything in your comment I have addressed. It’s why ppl can’t have a proper discourse with you on this site. It seems you just completely ignore what people wrote or have a problem reading or fail to admit things so get caught up in emotions.
For the record:
I already said I’m not his defender just to be clear and I do think he’s fumbled alot this season but THAT PARTICULAR PLAY isn’t one of them. Dont get caught up in your personal hate for dude just to try to justify something he didn’t do.
“Tell me if you ever see Theo move at all on that play ,” Of course he does. He tracks Mvumpa’s run and then takes up his position after being pulled out of position and also to track their full back occupying a dangerous position. It’s called positional play. If he moves in he crowds the box and besides, Fofana (and Deers) is closer if you’re talking about Ndaye and Maxi. How many players do you want to defend one guy??? Also if he moves inwards he leaves acres of space on their right flank, which I’ve already mentioned in the first comment. Maxi only gets his shot off because of Thiaw and Fofana’s muck ups.
“If you ever see him look around for someone to mark or to see if someone was running in behind him?” Well if you really want to get into semantics then ABSOLUTELY YES I’ve seen him look around. Timestamp at 16:40-45 he clearly scans around like a proper footballer and even well before that and sees their full back take up a position in his area of the field. This is after he tracks Mvumpa’s run. It’s the very reason he positions himself where he is. He watches ball and man as he’s supposed to. How you didn’t see i cannot help you there with that one. Maybe go and watch my timestamps (can’t wait for the “not gonna watch anything” reply). It’s either you’re willfully blind or lying. So stop lying on dude. He literally did what you said..he looks to “see if someone was running in behind him”…that’s Mimovic
This is when I realized you don’t play football. You’re asking Theo to move and leave Mimovic completely free on the right. And when Mimovic scores…it’s “oh Theo can’t defend”. I realize you can’t please Theo haters. Yes Theo can gamble but it risks a clear goalscoring threat if he moves out of position once more and there are other better suited to help (Deers) or ppl need to do their job better (Thiaw, Fofana, RLC).
No word on RLC losing his man before the ball comes into the goal area, not a peep about Thiaw’s poor header, Fofana’s terrible clearance and the poor closing down on the rebound by flat-footed Reinjders but somehow Theo is to blame. Smh 🤦♂️ y’all are something else in this place. Left the real culprits and gone on hating on another player.
And this is about this play. Don’t try to bring other incidents to conflate what we’re talking about here. The CDK one is a totally different issue which was his fault. That’s weak just defending imo (see how it’s done, I can call players out when it’s reasonable).
I wonder if there’s any truth to Corona’s accusations of Theo at that nightclub debacle…