Jean-Pierre Papin has urged AC Milan to give Paulo Fonseca to build what he is trying to, while he also spoke about the French core of players that are currently at his former club.
Milan had a very positive preseason as they beat Premier League winners Manchester City, the champions of Europe Real Madrid and their El Clasico rivals Barcelona during their preseason tour of the USA, before beating Monza 3-1 to retain the Berlusconi Trophy.
However, things have not continued in the same vain as the Rossoneri had to come from two goals down to rescue a late draw against Torino, then they lost 2-1 away against newly-promoted Parma and most recently let a lead slip against Lazio before rallying back to earn another 2-2 draw.
Milan have just two points from nine available and are five points behind their main rivals Inter and Juventus, teams that Fonseca said his side should be battling for the Scudetto with. With six goals conceded too, the pressure is already on to engineer a turnaround.
France will take on Italy at the Parc des Princes in Paris tonight and Papin – who is the new coach of Marseille’s second team – was interviewed by La Gazzetta dello Sport about his former side Milan, with MilanNews relaying his comments.
Is it right to be patient with ‘your’ Milan?
“They have a strong and complete squad thanks to the market purchases. And then there’s Fonseca, a good coach who I know well. You just have to give him time.”
What did you like about Fonseca’s Lille?
“The attacking football, but also the defensive compactness. It was a balanced team that for two years achieved excellent results and developed the players.”
Will the French players at Milan help him?
“Maignan is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, an absolute certainty, it is no coincidence that he is also a starter in the national team. Fofana is a midfielder that all coaches would like: for years he was a pillar of Monaco and will be for the Rossoneri too.”
And Theo Hernandez, who made headlines against Lazio for the cooling break incident?
“I haven’t seen it (smiles). Theo is one of the best full-backs in the world”.
Who is your favourite for the Scudetto?
“Inter, but the season will be balanced: there’s Juve, Napoli and then… Milan.”
That’s a very rational, reasonable take. There’s no place for that here.
Objectively yea, but how long are we prepared to give him before we start losing our minds?
One would think eventually he’ll get it figured out and turn this thing back on course. But at that point will the season still be relevant?
Would they even sack him and pay two coaches’ salaries to take on a third? Doesn’t seem to fit in with their model.
Have to give him time. With the Euros and the late signings he has had very little time to actually work with the starters on his tactics and instructions. But we saw in the pre-season when he had time to work with those players that were here, the team actually looked good. Problem is most of our starters were not there so he basically has to start over again with the starters. It was definitely not an ideal situation for a new coach. He should be given a month or two with the actual full squad before you make a real judgement.
Yeah, he reminds us of Klopp, waiting for 3 years to achieve first cups at Liverpool
I don’t disagree. But how much damage could have been done by then? Is the management all in on him to the point of being willing to scrap the entire season? And potentially CL games and standings?
Of course the hope is he figures it out sooner than later but I can’t help but wonder what the flip side is.
What choice do they have? There is no better option. It’s not like if they fire him some new coach is going to take over and instantly start winning with no time to work on new tactics. Either he turns it around in the next month or so or the season is lost. But I don’t think bringing in a new coach mid-season is going to save anything.
Unless they were going to bring Pioli back where the team already knows his style. He is still on the payroll…
I can’t exactly remember but one of Juve’s last titles began with a bad first 4/5 games. Then they won like 15 in a row so if you’re going to drop points better early than late haha.
For me the silver lining is the things that are going wrong are all coachable. Attitude, positioning, accountability, responsibility etc. In addition hopefully Fonseca can get these guys to understand the zonal marking scheme quick because I think once Milan get that concept they’ll be quite hard to score on. 4-3-3 is a better fit for our players, RLC is no 10, I like a midfield of Bennacer, Reijnders, Fofana with Musha as the energy sub and RLC off the bench.
The counter will always be the best way to combat an aggressive press, the players must understand this and know any gap they leave will be exploited. They must think as one and cover for each other.
You are correct. 15/16 season.
Juve just got rid of Pirlo, Tevez, Coman, and Vidal that summer too. They brought in some really promising talent, but started their first 10 games as follows:
Loss-Loss-Draw-Win-Draw-Loss-Win-Draw-Win-Loss.
4 Losses and 3 Draws in their first 10 games.
12 points out of 30 earned.
Still won the Scudetto that season.
Fonseca just needs to sort out the defense and things can change quite drastically.
Those teams at that time were bad also. We can’t really depend on another team to get scudetto. Win or at least a draw just to make sure we’re on the right track to get scudetto this season.