Paulo Fonseca’s appointment has been polarising for many AC Milan fans, with many unsure of whether to point the finger at the coach or the management. Today, Franco Ordine has done the latter.
In many ways, it could be argued that Fonseca’s failures so far have been out of his hands. He has taken on a squad with limitations and tried to get them to play an advanced level of football compared to what they previously may have done, after all, that is why he was hired.
Equally, it could be argued that Fonseca should have noticed these limitations and built a squad around them, rather than forcing a system into place with few signs of success.
Then, we look at the management.
Hiring Fonseca was seen as a step sideways when announced, and there was frustration across the board about the lack of ambition shown by the management when other ‘higher profile’ candidates were available.
It is fair to suggest that both sides of the coin have their faults, just as each has its successes. However, Ordine believes the fault mainly lies with those in charge, and in his piece for Corriere dello Sport (via Milan News) he voiced his reasoning.
“Let’s start with the summer choice of Fonseca, ignoring other candidates ridden by critics and fans [Antonio Conte etc.] they knew well at Milan that they were taking a big risk. The eventual flop would have fallen on Fonseca’s shoulders, but it would have involved the very people who chose him, offering him the bench in exchange for a closed-box market, decided and implemented by the club.”
“Fonseca ignored for too many weeks that the group’s number one problem was and remained balanced, as well as the ability to defend better in individuals.
“He has made rare, hiccup-like progress, interspersed with glaring inattentions like the one in Bergamo. It is not the first, nor will it be the last, despite the exponential growth of Gabbia and Thiaw.”
You fire a guy who’s time was up and then hire a nobody with zero real accomplishment and even worse, somebody who already flopped in serie a.
Then did a mercato where the only somewhat logical signing was Morata.
Fofana was a logical signing. But they wasted too much time on that transfer while trying to get discount and Fofana arrived quite late and thus preparations for the season stalled.
Naive sport directing from the club.
No it wasn’t. A logical signing would be a DM and a switch to a 433.
Fofana is b2b. Sure he can play in the pivot but he’s the only midfielder we have that can play in the pivot.
A logical signing would be hjobjerg or that amrabat. Ricci if they wanted to spend a bit more.
Fans were not specific enough when they were demanding a replacement for Pioli so management just handed them Fonseca and be like “here you are, now shut up”.
Please leave Fonseca is not is fought at all we need important signings that’s all.
A sad thing is that we do have several very good players, and our inability to perform well including against clubs that don’t have such a prestigious roster, can ONLY be the fault of the head coach. When the whole is worst than the sum of the parts, you know that the person in charge is failing. When I say it’s the fault of the head coach, well, it is, but the real fault belongs to the clowns who hired him, when so many better options were available and willing.
We need coach who know what he need to do. After 14. rounds we have only 22 points.. Last time when there was Giampaolo it was same and he goes after 9 games… it’s shame because he has no chance to qualify to CL … to many points are out and until the end of season there is still around 23 games , but how many points he lose? After 4 years , next year we are out of CL and maybe even out of EL… shame, shame, shame… everything is Fonseca’s fold and I think fans will be mad on him and also on our great manager trio for what they done ..
You can lose points, you can be out of CL , but when its evident you need to make changes, you need to do it…and this choice will cost our beloved club to many milions €..
I’ve said it since the time when the search for a coach was on: the very worst option of all the available ones was Fonseca, and our amateur and cheap management of course went for the worst one.
Hire a mediocre, mid-table loser, and you get mediocre, mid-table results. It’s as simple as that.
They didn’t invest €200 million then hire Fonseca to save money. There weren’t any good candidates.
Y’all blaming Fonseca for nothing, he beat real Madrid and inter. The problems now are our fullbacks, not Fonseca. He brought leao back, turned reijenders into beast and transformed pulisic into something incredible. Not to forget about players who could be super stars, fofana, Pavlo and musah. Give the man some credit, he is doing better then you guys give him credit for. It’s not all about points but also about players level.
He didn’t do any of that.
Real is shìt this season and inter is also a lvl below what they were in the last 2 seasons.
Besides we won 2 games there.
Lost against parma, lost against fiora, draw with cagliari, that dreadful juve game. That’s also all on fonseca. Needless to say, but I will, he fycked up more than he got right…
Change my mind
you need to realise beating inter and madrid means nothing if he cant get consistent result if he wants credit he could get a lollipop or a candy for that we’re 7th almost 8th and you says “give him credit”
😆 Real Madrid is a weak team this season; a complete Madrid will beat Milan anytime, and mind you, Inter will beat Milan in the 2nd derby meeting this season.
What was Paulo Fonseca’s achievement when he coached AS Roma, where he always belonged in Seria? A table is where Milan belongs now. We’re just fans; if the management listens to the fans, Paulo Fonseca is not the right candidate to coach Milan.
De Zebri could’ve been the ideal, modern coach, he has coached in Seria A and the premier league and now in Marseille. De Zebri could’ve made Milan a title contender.
I know Milan didn’t look great in the 2nd half but surely a lack of quality and depth is at root here.
So Fonseca is blamed for our captain and LB (whom we have no like for like depth for) being outjumped on the first goal. Someone who has been woeful this whole season;
and a RB consistently underperforming at every club he goes to, and goes to sleep on his marking duties with Lookman. His other choice is Calabria. The Milan hierarchy had us waiting and took ALL summer to get this 15-18m transfer across the line despite evident shortcomings…
Yep, it’s all Fonseca’s fault. He’s the man responsible for us being so far off the top of the table.
Please wake up and show some independent thought with what is happening around us Milan fans.
Fonseca takes some of the blame, but you’re correct, this is largely on management. Emerson is and always will be garbage. Theo was below par last season as well. Bonera has been a disaster at Futuro. A halfway competent coach would the team mid-table at least. Abate shouldn’t have been let go. In fact, he’s the best candidate to replace Fonseca. He’d play Barteshagi, Zeroli and Liberali.
Lol, you can’t look at to moments of a game and judge the entire season. We were the weaker side against Atalanta, and even if we made one less error in the box it would only be a draw. But it’s okay to loose away to Atalanta. Better teams will do so. The problem is the entire season so far as a whole.
Emerson Royal, while not an amazing player, is still solid defensively compared to the rest of serie a. Our squad is good enough for top 4, easy. You can argue about Juve and Inter, and maybe Atalanta, but we have a better squad than Napoli, and sure as hell better than Lazio and Fiorentina. Not to mention everyone has been pretty much healthy so far.
Fonseca is the biggest flop of our summer. Give Conte, or even Pioli, this squad (including Emerson) and a top 4 is pretty much a given.
Ultimately it was a gamble which didn’t pay off. Fonseca tried to bring a more attractive attacking style to Milan, an almost anti Italian style, which backfired immediately since defense has been our main problem for more than two years. That coupled with the Leao fiasco, and here we are. Barely fighting for top 4 before half the season is over.
And the funny thing is this the first season in ages were we don’t really have serious injury problems. Fonseca had all he needed for a comfortable top 4 finish, and a decent scudetto challange. But apart from a few brilliant matches here and there, he completely squandered all his credit. And in slightly more than ten games. Complete and utter failure.
These Milan fans are such a dissappintment. One bad game against the best team in Italy and the top 5 in Europe and suddenly it’s all doom and gloom, like seriously?
Making Milan great is a long process that no one can do in a single season, yet Fonseca beats 2 of the best teams in Europe in his first season. We should give him TIME
100% agree, he needs time cos same happend with our dear Mr Pioli