Journalist Franco Ordine has stressed his frustration regarding the lack of consistency that AC Milan are showing, suggesting that the issues go beyond the coach.
Saturday night’s defeat against Juventus was indeed tough to swallow, because the Bianconeri admittedly played very well and deserved to win, but Milan seemed to be totally swallowed up in the second half having made a decent start in the first.
Top four is now seriously at risk with an eight-point gap having opened up to Lazio, albeit with a game in hand which is against a Bologna side who jumped above the Rossoneri in the table again anyway.
Ordine published his thoughts in this morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) and he gave his assessments on the defeat to Juventus and the wider issues at Milan.
“If first Paulo Fonseca (‘with this Milan it seems like we’re on a roller coaster’) and now Sergio Conceiçao (‘I’m worried and I’m thinking about what to do to change the atmosphere inside and outside the dressing room’) find themselves in perfect harmony in judging the dark evil of Milan , then there is little to discuss,” he began.
“The problem is no longer the doctor but the patient. And in our case the characteristics of Milan that document the continuous oscillation between ‘bold descents and climbs’, without ever tracing a constant trajectory lasting several weeks.
“The exception to this rule was on the occasion of the final sprint in the 2022 Scudetto season with Pioli as coach and Maldini-Massara in charge of the technical area. Since then, especially the two leading figures, Theo Hernandez and Leao (plus Maignan due to physical problems), have always lived on the swing.
“Ibra and Kjaer, arrived in January 2020, were the key during the first Pioli to increase the intensity of training by introducing two recognised and respected leaders, not elected. Morata was a timid attempt to remedy the situation, the upcoming arrival of Walker from City is the confirmation that that void must be filled.
“Now all the spotlight is on the market to capture the effective will – of ownership and technical area – to remedy the mistakes made. Walker is the first ‘patch’: he alone cannot be enough.”
As a reminder, Lorenzo and Stefano sat down for a fiery edition of pub chat yesterday morning to discuss what has been a troubling season for Milan so far, branding the management ‘clueless’. Top four is at serious risk and nothing has happened on the mercato so far.
Maybe they both aren’t/weren’t good enough tacticians for Serie A 🤷♂️. Serie A is alot more difficult than meets the eye
In the last few days it became quite obvious that our problem has nothing to do with tactics. If that was the case, you wouldn’t hear Conceicao speak so bluntly about the lack of desire. It’s badly built team of mid-table players with mid-table mentality + a few star players who miss Maldini and don’t give a damn. And there’s Pulisic, fighting for the cause all alone.
Fair points. We also miss a true leader in the team. Back in the day there were like at least 5 or 6 players who could have also been leaders in addition to Paolo. Now we’ve lost two of them …Maldini and Ibra himself..the player that is.
I also was saying my original post in regards to Fonseca knowing very well he was terrible at Roma but we still hired him. Conceicao has a better resume on paper but the transition to Serie A isn’t straightforward. Note, it puzzles me that Pioli was able to coach said team into respectable spots each year…..so it either means he’s underrated in terms of coaching, underrated in terms of coaching THIS team, the team still has his influence, the new coaches are inadequate or maybe some combo of those things
I also feel bad for Puli (and Reinjders before he got burnt out) seeing as we can’t match his form/ambitions
It is about tactics as well. Milan couldn’t even get the ball out of their own end against Juventus, and that is a tactical problem. Conceicao would like to make it all about the players effort to cover up the fact that his tactics have been awful so far. The fact that the team made big comebacks against Juve (supercoppa), Inter and Como show that they had desire and heart.
The fact they we have fallen behind in 4 out of the five games shows that the tactics have not been working.
i’m not sure why you have it out against Conceicao as that’s clearly how your posts come through.
It’s not tactical when the midfield os overrun, players aren’t physically fit enough to keep up because they can’t rest and there’s no quality on the bench good enough to keep up.
What you get is a midfield void that Juve took advantage of and overran our mids. So the CB’s just had to hoof the ball out and we couldn’t string 2-3 passes together…
I just think he should be held to the same standards and the the same scrutiny as Fonseca was. The performances have been bad to put it nicely. And to just throw the entire team under the bus and not take any responsibility for the tactics which have not been working is not a good look.
I didn’t hear anyone preaching patience under Fonseca. People were calling for his head after 3 games. At least the team put in some impressive performances under Fonseca even if the results weren’t always good.
Impressive performances ? We only had 2 good games under Fonseca, the one against Inter and the one against Real Madrid, all the others “good performances” were against sitting ducks. Conceição already had one good game against Inter so far. Fonseca started to work with the team in July, which is about the same time every new coach took their team and had fresh players and most of the players who played in the US tour are still available. To say that both coaches aren’t held to the same standards while completely ignoring the fact that the new one hasn’t had the luxury of a preseason and took the team in a middle of an injury crisis with both starting midfielders already exhausted is pretty unfair to put it nicely.
@ Giga
Conceico had a good result against Inter. Not really a good performance. We were down 2 -0 and if not for a few brilliant saves from Maignan Inter easily could have had 4 or 5.
In contrast under Fonseca, he outcoached Inzaghi, we outplayed them the entire match and doubled their amount of shots on target.
I would argue he also outcoached Conte in the Napoli game even tho we lost, we dominated possession, had more shots on goal and Napoli could barely get out of their own end for most of the match. They hit on their few chances and we did not take our chances. There were many games like that under Fonseca where we created the better chances but didn’t get the result. I don’t always put that on the coach.
Also, as far as Fonseca having more time, that’s not totally accurate because withe Euros a lot of our starters were not here over the summer and came back right before the season started, so he didn’t really have time to work with our starting squad.
@K But in the end Conceicao is right – its the results that matter. Not who outcoached who. Who won the game? Who got the points? Fonseca’s did not, often.
Conceicao hasn’t had the preseason like Paulo. He’s thrown into the frying pan. “Cook, motherf*cker!” LOL!!!
The jury is out on him ’till the end of the season. Same timeline that Fonseca got.
@K
Conceição took the team a month or so ago and will play tomorrow his 6th game.
2 monthes after Fonseca first came, we had no official game yet, that’s hugely different.
Conceição wasn’t “outcoached” by Inzaghi, the first half was roughly even until Emerson’s horrible blunder and since we took another goal and Leao came it we were better. Don’t also forget that injuries ravaged our squad, that we had to use Jimenez as a winger, that Pulisic just barely came back and that Fofana and Reijnders already started showing fatigue since december.
In Fonseca’s best games, we had a healthy squad.
You can’t just compare 2 coaches in a vaccuum, if you want to compare them, you have to make sure the situations are similar, otherwise it will be biaised towards or against one of them.
Just Chang formation
Tomori gabbia. Pevlovic
Walker. benacer. Fofana. Riljdnad. Theo
Jovic loea
Morata. Okofor
Abraham. Camada
Or 3 4 3
Or 3 4 2 1
Or 3 4 1 2
This team is balanced
We need an Italian coach who can rotate this players and still play them on there comfort zone tactically