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Official: Lazio vs. AC Milan starting XIs – Hernandez and Leao benched

By Isak Möller -

The game between AC Milan and Lazio is just over an hour away and Paulo Fonseca has named his starting XI. As expected, the manager has decided to exclude the likes of Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, sending a message to them and the rest of the team. 

The news about the starting XI broke last night as Sky Italia revealed that Fonseca was thinking about benching his star duo. This was then confirmed by Gazzetta dello Sport this morning and now, the matter is official.

It should also be noted that Davide Calabria, the captain of the team, is on the bench and this means Fikayo Tomori is the captain for the night. As a result of Leao being on the bench, Christian Pulisic starts on the left and Samuel Chukwueze on the right.

Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Tomori (C), Pavlovic, Terracciano; Reijnders, Fofana; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Pulisic; Okafor.

Bench: Raveyre, Torriani; Bartesaghi, Calabria, Gabbia, Hernández; Musah, Zeroli; Abraham, Camarda, Cuenca, Leão.

Official Lazio XI (4-2-3-1): Provedel; Lazzari, Patric, Romagnoli, Tavares; Guendouzi, Rovella; Tchaouna, Dia, Zaccagni; Castellanos.

Bench: Furlanetto, Mandas; Hysaj, Marušić; Castrovilli, Dele-Bashiru, Vecino; Isaksen, Noslin, Pedro.

Tags AC Milan Lazio Paulo Fonseca Rafael Leao Theo Hernandez

76 Comments

      1. That would be great! I’m hoping it works, but I don’t think it will.

        Pulisic’s hard work and desire to get better supplanting Leao’s talent on the LW would be pretty funny.

        1. its more about team defense…if you have someone in every position moving together…everyone plays better. Desire is 100% more important than talent for defending…and if you defend high up the pitch, you do so to get turnovers that are much easier to convert…

      2. This is surprising, justified but surprising. Is Theo ready to go a full 90 and will he come on at half time? Leao needs to pick up his defense. He is not so great that he can be absent on defense or not chase down balls.

      2. Its to bad we didnt get De Zerbi he would be great, and Greenwood was innocent. They found evidence that the key witness and the girl was laiyng so they drop the charges

    3. They might have some physical issues for all we know. But if not, this is madness. Especially Leao who wasn’t that bad in the last couple of matches.

      Hope Fonseca knows what he’s doing

      1. I’m nervous. I’m all about effort, but this could also be the beginning of a rift with our two best players on paper. This could end up being a looong season.

  2. That is a very good statement, who won’t work for the team will be on the bench, though Terracciano was awful in the last game he played, I hope he can do well at defense.

    1. Completely agree. Love Theo and Leao, but modern football requires all players to run and work for the team. If they are willing, great, if not, they can continue to stroll on the pitch somewhere in Arabia.
      After all, they are the next in line for capitancy after Calabria. What example are they setting when behave like they did against Parma?

    2. He is a Right back and still haven’t succeeded in that position talkless of playing him on the left side. He is not Zambrotta or Antonelli

      After the likes of Maldini Serghino the only right footed left back Milan had and was successful is jankuluski and Theo Hernadez. Emmanuelson was awful in defensive phase

  3. Fonseca will be gone before Christmas. That’s all I hope. And I hope this management eye’s open to the realization that cheap managers = cheap results.

    Go and get allegri, conceicao or Xavi

    1. Conceicao or Allegri. These are coaches with philosophy and game plan. They can easily alternate during a match and bring results

      From what I have seen so far Fonseca is more rigid than Pioli

    2. Gone by tomorrow. Each game he has someone out of position starting with a natural on the banch. Theo even for the second time.

  4. Now the task would be not to concede in the first half, bring them right after the break and hope they play with full energy and boom boom..2 goals atleast

  6. Good for Fonseca.
    Holding players accountable no matter who they think they are. Everyone has to earn their spot in the lineup.
    Also, a lot of fans who said that they don’t want a Yes Man as a coach now they are attacking and criticizing Fonseca for having cojones to bench the lazy players after only 2 games into the season.
    What do these fans think would have happened if Milan hired Conte? Leao and Theo would have been benched in week 1 and one or both sold by the end of the transfer window.
    Kudos to Fonseca. Even if he fails, it’s better to fail with players that give their all and follow instructions, than lazy players.
    Forza Milan

      1. Because he tried his best and failed due to technical limitations. When did you see him jogging on the pitch while his opponent runs by?
        So many people here don’t understand that Theo and Leao were left out due to their attitude. Can’t compare them to players who are actually trying their best.

    2. Milan is so much in the right direction that the cheapest coach available this summer is now congratulated for benching the two best players that this team had for the past three seasons haha

      People will say nobody is bigger than the club but will bend to this ugly management. Théo and Leao are here for longer than Jerry or Fonseca.

  7. Lol this is gonna end up very bad for us… Terraciano is worse than Alexis as LB, Loftus again? Seriously… that guy produces absolutely nothing on attack, we needed Samardzic but I guess 20 mil was too much to pay for him, unless of course is Musah and is american.

    1. Take wages and agent fees into account, the fee is just part of the picture.

      Musah is a very talented player, he’s just made some bad errors and been put in some bad spots. Give him time.

      1. How can he be a good player if he made bad errors? Just be honest and say he is an average player with subpar decision making. Hopefully we’ll coach those out of him , if not he’ll be sold eventually

  8. Milan 3 – 1

    Leao, Reinjders and Ok4 score
    Assists Puli and Chuk

    But we don’t play a suicidal high line.

    Goal comes off the right and Calabria comes in for Royal.

  9. I hope Fonseca last till October ending ….. I think banner will start to fly soon from the cover surd #FonsecaOut

    The management could have retain Pioli upgrade and build the team around and let him finish his tenor.

    You provide Fonseca what the team lack and need under Pioli … a
    Proper DM and defence quality was missing last season due to injuries at the back line with lack out quality center forward which make Pioli rotate poorly.

    Having this squad I believe he will perform better but the management chose to start from scratch with Fonseca and paying for it big time. I pray things start better as soon as possible with a convincing win against Lazio or else.

    And the decision made to bench Leao and Theo might be a negative impact in his contract renewal. Theo is here but the management cant find him a proper backup if he chose to leave tell me will they be able to find a replacement that can fill the gap he will leave behind? …. Terraciano, Jimenez are all far away from it.

    Milan made mistake selling Kerkaz

  11. Bravo Fonseca. You are couch and im happy you put lazy players at bench. I hope we win tonight and we sell soon calabria,leao and teo. Bring new team and move cancer from us.

  14. Theo and Leao can get fit in peace. Better to play players that aren’t as tired.

    Good decision but we need to bounce back tonight!

  16. I’ve got a good and a bad feeling about this at the same time..weird.

    One thing. If or when things go bad and we need goals the bench is stacked. Rafa coming off the bench on the tired lazio def could turn the tide

  17. cant wait to see the game and i dont care about the result at all, just want to see a good performance. now i guess this move is why Fonseca was chosen. Piolis biggest issue was always playing his stars, no matter if they were performing bad or if they’ve been overplayed already. this created mentality issue with Theo and Leao and now Fonseca got the balls not only to trying fix it but also to do that asap. not being afraid of losing a game. he sees an issue and wants to fix it, wants to improve the team, then the success will come anyway.

  19. If Fonseca wants to teach Leao and Theo a lesson, he needs to win this game with the chosen eleven. Otherwise he’s as good as gone.

    But Emerson instead of Calabria when there’s already unreliable Terracciano on the opposite flank… Idk

    1. I think this true. I think he figures he has nothing to lose because he will get fired after Inter should we not win these games in between and lose that game.

  20. That’s a pretty leftfield starting XI – let’s hope Fonseca knows what he’s doing. If Milan don’t win tonight, it’ll be a long international break….

  21. I get dropping Theo and Leap, especially Theo looks like he needs a rest and then some fitness build up – but I don’t trust either of those fullbacks at all! Scary

  25. If this works, then it only goes to prove why we should’ve cashed in on the so-called top stars a while back and moved on already, that includes Tomori and i dare say Maignan too btw.

    Team looking good so far. Everyone is moving well. The only part I fear is the two fullbacks, but so far everyone is working

  28. We are playing better than the two previous games so far, however it feels like we have 10 players against 11 cause RCL to me has been Mr. Invisible. I’m trying to wrap my head what the coach sees in practice to keep playing him.

  29. Chuk is having another bad game smh, he wastedba really good cross by pulisic and still cant go past his opponent..RLC was so invisible on the first half I only noticed hin when he got fouled at 39″ smh..pavlo so far is doing great

  30. many saying RLC was invisible. he definitely wasnt when he almost scored on that Pulisic cross. and he won one tackle very high up the pitch, which could have led to a very dangerous oportunity.

  31. Ima say this tho. Milan is play well, but parma was a much harder team to crack than lazio is. They’re all over the place

  32. Shambolic second half so far.

    Question ?
    Is Royal really an upgrade to Calabria?
    From what I’ve seen Calabria seems to me as the better of the two. Begs the question, why let Kalulu go ?

  40. Honestly, people can blame fonseca, leao, theo all they want ( and they should when they underperform) but the truth is most of our squad is average at best. Not a single build’up so far from the center of midfield, all from the wings. 0 creativity just push and kick, scrappy. The real culprits are our managers. They “reinforced” the squad by buying players based on their discount not on what will they add to the team. Instead of doing targeted purchases they went on black friday deals. They simply don’t know how to build a team. As if they don’t understand the game. Cardinale has spent the money but his a$s%s kissers ( ibra, furlani and co) have wasted his cash.

  43. We’re conceding from the left flank for two matches in the row. All of Lazio’s chances tonight came from their left flank. It’s becoming a pattern all teams will exploit. Emerson should be named Lazio’s MVP tonight.

    And we’re on a good way to break Pioli’s last season record for goals conceded. 6 goals in 3 matches by now.

  44. Defense is still nowhere good enough. Conceding on elementary marking errors. Terra nowhere good enough to start, let alone play 90mns. Emerson raises more questions than answers. RLC still nowhere near a 10.

    Overall, still a lot of questions. 3games 2pts is awful …

  46. Thoughts on terracianos performance? Might need to be our right back… abraham wasnt too bad for having no training with the team. Got an assist. Worried already pavlovic is going to be overplayed. Good signing

  48. Sorry acm 1899 didnt see yer comment slating terraciano. I think hes getting better. Plays for the team. Still overall milan shouldnt be conceding that easy. And dindudre. Pavlovic saved our ass on many occasions again

    1. Yeah bro I wasn’t bashing him or anything. I was just trying to explain how most fans jump to conclusion based on one or two mistakes. We just have to give some of the players some grace. Especially Thiaw and Terra

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