AC Milan technical director Geoffrey Moncada has revealed the reasons that drew the club towards hiring Paulo Fonseca as their new head coach.
When the decision was made to sack Stefano Pioli at the end of last season, many believed that Milan would be in the market for names like Antonio Conte and Roberto De Zerbi, managers with a high stock.
However, after strongly flirting with Julen Lopetegui – who is currently under fire at West Ham – the decision was made to go for Fonseca who had just left Lille after a couple of positive seasons.
Moncada gave a long interview to MilanNews about a number of topics from the signings made to renewals and also Rafael Leao’s form, which you can read in full.
As part of it, he was asked by the website about what drew the club to Fonseca, who perhaps was not the most glamorous name available for the job in the summer.
“Paulo has a style of football that we believe Milan ought to have. We play at San Siro, we should control the game and the ball. We should be solid on these matters,” he said.
“Paulo is a good worker, he has interesting training sessions, working both individually and with the collective. For example, I’ve seen him take four or five midfielders after a regular session and do some specific work just with them.
“It is only November, I am sure that we will see many players have made enormous progress by the end of the season with him.
“The top five in Europe are sides like Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, etc. We want to at least get closer to that, but it is not easy. Liverpool took eight years to reach this level, as it wasn’t like that before.
“They required a strategy and a coach with a very precise methodology. We want to do the same with a coach who has clear ideas and can develop the players.”
Philosophy over trophies, playing pretty over winning. We’ll be begging for a new banter era before RedBird sells.
RB: Tomiyasu, Dodo, Vanderson, Dedic, Kayode
LB: Parisi (more than good enough for Theo sub, also can play as RB. Jimenez and Terracciano need exp, both would be better loaned out.)
CM/CDM: Fagioli, Joey Veerman, Ivan Illic; (versatile)
Timber, Caqueret; (N8)
Ricci, Guerra, Rovella; (regista)
Schouten, Morten Frendrup, Florentino. (defensive)
*(recent rumors say Juve need money for CB and LB, rumored amount for Fagioli was 25M)
we need 2 midfielders (preferably a regista and a defensive player; “versatiles” are also interchangable), Parisi and 1 RB is all we need…
but Gerry and the clown crew won’t do anything productive…
“Paulo has a style of football that we believe Milan ought to have. We play at San Siro, we should control the game and the ball. We should be solid on these matters,”
There is probably a dozen or more coaches who can do that with a better pedigree than Fonseca. Actually, to take this a step further, under Pioli we looked like we could control games in San Siro and our style of play was somewhat enjoyable to watch. So how exactly is Fonseca an upgrade over Pioli ?
“The top five in Europe are sides like Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, etc. We want to at least get closer to that, but it is not easy. Liverpool took eight years to reach this level, as it wasn’t like that before.”
And the best way to getting closer to that is to get a coach with 0 big titles and average or sub-average players ? Does Moncada think Europe is a joke ? Does he think we can keep up with ambitious teams by paying as few as possible per player and by hiring a subpar coach ?
On the “Liverpool took eight years to reach this level”: We were Italian champions, right now not only we seem further and further away from winning it, but we also seem further away from a fourth place and it can be catastrophic if we don’t make it to UCL next year.
I think the management took for granted that we can make it to the UCL every year and provided the minium amount of ressources to do it which is their primary objective anyhow. Unfortunately for them and for us, many serie A teams would like to play in the UCL and we ready to spend as much as it take to make it a viable objective.
“Liverpool took eight years to reach this level, as it wasn’t like that before.
“They required a strategy and a coach with a very precise methodology. We want to do the same with a coach who has clear ideas and can develop the players.”
The data showed them Fonzy is the new Klopp. Lmao I’d demand a refund on the data analysis software.
But anyway, we all know Fonseca was the cheapest option who also works with kids, out there. That’s the whole philosophy behind hiring him. So stop selling us this cringy and cheap bs goodnight story.
Trust me fonseca is by far a downgrade to pioli ,we shud have left pioli instead in the dugout ,fonseca has nothing to offer rather he will creat more disorganization in the locker room
Pioli was just on his final ideas (after UCL quarter-final, we weren’t playing well at all)… the base skill that these players have is embarrassing, most can’t receive or pass properly…
Pioli rugby game and modern football are not the same… coach imo, isn’t the real issue (since so many teams also stepped up this season), but the lack of management and proper team-building project is. you can’t make a team with 40M… even more when you don’t have actual RB, subs for Theo and the double-pivots… a lot of deadwood or questionable reliance on few players that just aren’t ready (Terracianno and Jimenez…)
What Pioli team lack and would have help his style pf play this season is a proper DM in Fofana to do the filter job a proper CF to rotate with , rather than playing Giroud week in week out cuz of juvic and Okafor incapable.
Pretty sure that whatever algo’s they are running would have shown them that Fonseca wouldn’t have an immediate effect on the team. NO matter how inexperienced The Trio is, they are smart to understand that there were better options available for the immediate impact.
I’ve said it before, this whole thing feels like it’s geared towards a long term growth for the club. Not sure why, they are playing it that way. But even if that is the plan, they could have prepared for it better.
For example, for long term growth, Sarri would have been a great option on the bench. IN addition a Sporting Director could have been brought in, shown the plan, and could have been allowed to build a team with signings that would work in synergy with the team and the growth plan.
But hey, what do I know? Just trying to make sense of it all.
But what’s long term growth if we regressed and can’t make fourth?. And all the things that come with that which can spiral the team. Long term would have mean sticking with Pioli…guaranteed top 4 and just have to clinch our teeth in the UCL. Fonsy isn’t a guarantee. And it isn’t a clear upgrade. They were hopeful on him when we were at a stage where we could build upon. Kinda like our player signings now that I look at it
It’s always wise to make judgements not even a third of the way through the season…
I liked Pioli but he is not a guaranteed anything as the previous year we only squeezed into top 4 because Juventus was penalized 10 points. pioli had his good points but tactically Fonseca is an upgrade. His wins against Real MAdrid and Inter have shown that and even the match against Napoli where they could barely get out of their own end for most of the match. I think we’ll make top 4 easily this season. So get in all your complaining now while you still can.
“It’s always wise to make judgements not even a third of the way through the season…”
It is then wiser to wait for almost the end of the season to make a judgement if by then we’re guarantee out of top 4 ?
Giving our current ranking and the performances we’ve witnessed, I think we have the right to be worried about the future of this team. It’s nice to have a long term project, but this same long term project is dependant on us making having a minimum of some short term success, which according to the management was defined as making top 4 each year.
This is purely speculative, but if we fail to qualify to the UCL, we might not be able to keep some of our best players, let alone target good ones.
As for Fonseca, I was quite euphoric to see us winning against inter and especially Real Madrid, but then we wasted some of those points against the likes of Cagliari, so what’s the point really ? Beat inter then lose to a small team ? Under pioli we will lose to inter but win against that small team, so it’s 3 points in any case.
Also, even average teams can pull deserved upsets against heavy favourites, but great teams are great because of consistency. And so far, we look exactly like an average team which manage to upset heavy favourites from time to time.
Dropping points against bottom table teams is not new under Fonseca. Had the same problem under Pioli. Look it up. It’s a motivational problem with some players where they don’t think they have to give a full effort against “smaller teams”. When you have your “captain” Theo setting the bad example, what do you expect?
For the last few years, a third way through has been my yardstick and it has worked out that way in the final table. It’s a good point in time to as.sses where we are at. How many games are you waiting for to see that this isn’t working? And also if you read what I wrote it’s not even a complaint, It’s simply an as.ssessment of our current situation and there’s legit concern there too. It’s fine to be confident that we’ll make top 4 at the end of the season but I doubt it would be with Fonseca as the head coach. I don’t think he’ll last the entire season tbh. So in some weird round about way u might be correct…just not with the current coach lol 😂
Firstly, I’m thinking they are trying to get to a better financial foundation, perhaps through the stadium route, which at this point isn’t getting done any time soon.
Secondly, they are focusing on the youth/futuro which should be our pipeline for the coming years, perhaps with a 3-4 year window of return. Camarda at 19, Zeroli at what, 20? And so on.
Thirdly long term growth to actually be able to challenge for the Scudetto in the next 3 years or something like that.
If they had come out and said something along these lines, it would have been a lot easier to process and understand that for example with Conte this project wouldn’t work because he would want immediate signings and returns. You know what I mean?
Instead the fan base feels that the club has no vision or is selling us short of expectations.
I agree with your firstly and secondly (I’m for good finances, commercial and getting our own stadium …always like that they really press for that). I also agree with their communication being poor, I’ve said this in the past too like when they fired M&M and didn’t say anything. The “thirdly” point is where we diverge because we were closer to being built for a Scudetto run a couple years ago. I don’t see how these moves now from a sporting pov are making us gear up for a Scudetto run in many years down the line. Remember we had a 5yr plan with Elliot that went ahead of its target by 2 years. Would have been great to build on it rather than tear it down. The phases are different, we aren’t coming out of banter anymore
Didnt Pool buy Alison for like 60/70mil and Salah for 40m? There’s no way we’re spending that kind of money And besides they took 5 years to win the UCL and for a title to come. That and the Prem and a few domestics titles in 10 years under Klopp. Ok…
The Liverpool reference from Moncada was a fail. EPL clubs have a far stronger financial backing. So an 8 year project for them would be like a 16 year for us. And secondly the strategy under Elliott and the current one aren’t vastly different so Milan has been at it for a minute actually with limited results outside of the Scudetto.
Unless you want to compare it to the about the 8 year span before Elliott took over with no Scudetto and no Champions League play at all. The it looks a lot better. Everyone who criticizes always likes to skip over that period and pretend Milan went from winning Champions League and Scudettos constantly to now. The club is in better shape now than it was 5- 10 years ago both financially and result wise. Give credit where credit is due.
Agreed here too
When a scout tries to sound like sporting director lol Pioli was far better than Fonseca