Paulo Fonseca is not happy with the current configuration of the AC Milan midfield department, and that is why a January signing will be explored.
According to Corriere dello Sport this morning (via MilanPress), the Milan coach wants two things: greater protection and more rotation. These are the reasons why Milan will be looking for a new midfielder when the mercato reopens.
The strong candidate is Morten Frendrup, observed first hand on Sunday evening at San Siro when Genoa emerged with a 0-0 draw. The Dane confirmed the positive impressions, acting almost as a first shield in front of the defence.
The paper confirms that Frendrup is among the top names on the win list because, in addition to his ability to protect the back line, he stands out for his suffocating pressure on opponents. The fact he leads a lot of defensive stats among midfielders in Serie A shows it.
However, there are obstacles too. Firstly there is competition from Atalanta, and secondly the club have to get rid of one or two players, with Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor being the two main suspects at present.
The other two names for the midfield that the directors are looking into are Warren Bondo of Monza and Reda Belahyane of Hellas Verona, younger in age but equally with high potential.
In addition to a potential new face from the mercato, there remains the hope that Ismael Bennacer will recover before the end of 2024 and look like his old self again after a lengthy injury problem.
Frendrup is excellent defensively, but he plays in a team that literally leaves the ball to the other team and only defends in tight spaces. A very different situation than the one he will find at Milan. We also need a player that is able to help the build up from the back and find passing lanes. Fofana is not exactly that type of player. A player like Rovella would be perfect. If we need a rotation player Frendrup is fine. But I think we need a starter that can play with Fofana and Rejnders.
Pretty good points actually.
I think Frendrup is a good idea (at least more proven than Belahyane or Bondo) but given how shallow our midfield is, we will probably need more than one player anyways.
IMO between now and the summer, all the senior midfielders not named Reijnders and Fofana should go. If we’re lucky, maybe we can get back Adli and we should try to get both of Frendrup and Ricci. Ricci is more creative and has good passing accuracy as well as defensive skills.
“If we’re lucky, maybe we can get back Adli ”
We? Lucky? Adli? Back? Naaah, wishful thinking. And speaking of Adli… Elsewhere saw a list of TOP20 players in Serie A so far this season (based on average match reviews). Guess who was the highest Milan player. Adli. Number 7. Then there was Pulisic (14th) and followed by CDK (15th). Although CDK might be an Atalanta player 100% already, I can’t remember what the deal was.
And also worth noting, that out of the TOP-5, 3 were Inter-players. And funnily enough, Milan was the only team with representatives in the WORST-20 list from the top-10 teams. And we all know the name of the Brazilian on that list, now don’t we? 🙂
Interesting.
Can you share the name of this list, I’d like to have a look at it.
www[.]milannews[.]it/news/la-flop-20-di-serie-a-per-media-voto-c-e-anche-un-giocatore-del-milan-560121
www[.]milannews[.]it/news/la-top-20-di-serie-a-per-media-voto-c-e-un-milanista-in-graduatoria-560120
Thanks !
Don’t let k or Maldini heir or acm1899 see this.
They think Adli and CDK are trash or Tonali 2.0
“We also need a player that is able to help the build up from the back and find passing lanes.”
Who needs a player like that when we have a striker who will drop deep into own half to get the ball and do the midfielders’ job for them? 🙂
And we’ve been without a proper playmaker since Pirlo left and we’ve achieved soooooooooo much since that. I mean, we won a scudetto, right? 😀
No, you don’t need a player to build from the back when you have Fofana and Reijnders. What you need is a guy that is a top defensive midfielder who can pass to ball to Fofana, after recovering it. That is it. He can even stay back and defend.
If we had a player with a passing capacity like that, we’d solve our 10 problem moving Reijnders up.
Reijnders is a midfielder that needs to build the attack with Fofana. What you need is someone to cover their back. Not ANOTHER playmaker. Fendrups passing is more than good enough for that positions and at the same time he is 10 times better than Rovella as an actual DM.
And did you even watch Fofana, ever? Try putting someone to cover his back and watch him play.
Highly unlikely purchase as Moncada’s notes are all from 2010-2020 and they don’t have any comments on players from Serie A.
Good Evening from Lagos Nigeria, please can milan scout go to South America and africa to scout for young talented players to sign for reasonable figure and bring down. We need sharp minded and stronger youth players with Coach like fonseca to succeed not going for weak player from England and other European countries pls.