Journalist Carlo Pellegatti has voiced his concerns about the current state of affairs at AC Milan, questioning whether Paulo Fonseca might have been undermined by not only his players but the management above him.
After starting the season with one win in five games, Fonseca’s position was being scrutinised before the last international break given that the same issues appeared unfixed. A loss against Liverpool in the Champions League then looked damning, but he pulled off a 2-1 win in the derby with some bold tactics.
When a victory against Lecce followed, the Rossoneri seemed to have found their feet and confidence, to the point where a 1-0 loss against Bayer Leverkusen was not a worry. However, a 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina has ignited fears about Fonseca’s control over the team again, especially after the penalty debacle.
Pellegatti published his weekly column for MilanNews rather strongly titled ‘Fonseca seems delegitimised. What is the reason? Today everything depends on the management. It is time for decisions’. He explained his viewpoint in more detail.
“I never remember situations so ‘strange’, so embarrassing, like those of the last few weeks, especially on the pitch. Not worthy of a club like Milan which, it is worth underlining every now and then, has been for decades, and I want it to be so in the future too, a point of reference for not only European but global football. Even before the enlightened presidency of Silvio Berlusconi,” he began.
“I don’t give up, on the contrary I rebel against the fact that ‘our’ Milan is now in the pages of newspapers all over the world for similar episodes. The protagonists are the same players who had never created such spectacularly surprising problems, especially towards the ‘sacred’ leadership of a team, the coach.
“I don’t know what’s happening but today Paulo Fonseca seems to be incredibly delegitimised by his players. Maybe it’s not easy to understand what the reasons are a matter of work, due to the technical-tactical requests of the coach.
“Perhaps due to a colder approach from the Portuguese compared to the ‘warmer’ Stefano Pioli, however, these seem to me to be such strong reasons for such a total lack of respect decisions of the coach, who, here’s the sensational factor, had already raised his voice during the interval for the choice of the penalty taker, without being in the slightest considered on the occasion of the second penalty.
“Perhaps the reasons come from further back. When the rumours came out, never denied either off or on record, about a speech to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s team to the players both before Milan-Torino and Milan-Liverpool without the presence of Paulo Fonseca, many had commented that, if the indiscretion had been true, the risk of delegitimising the coach would have been high, very high.
“Well, considering what is happening, the fears are materialising. Now only the ownership, even if physically distant, and the management can intervene to help the Portuguese by speaking clearly, very clearly, to the players.
“Fines are palliatives if we do not intervene in the heart of the problem, even if this situation seems sad for all the protagonists of the story, but above all for the spectators of this farce that could turn into a tragedy… always sporting, of course.
“Even in terms of communication, Paulo Fonseca needs a stronger closeness. It seemed clear that the questions, in the post-match, would have concerned the penalty episode. Perhaps ‘preparing’ him and perhaps calming him down, curbing his righteous indignation, would have allowed everything to be resolved inside Milanello, without public derision.
“It all depends, I repeat, on the management. Their intervention, perhaps even media, with some television or paper presence, would appear fundamental and significant. We then expect their daily presence from Wednesday until the match against Udinese, with private and group-wide talks to express the strong thoughts of the club or, unfortunately, to understand if there is room to resolve this explosive and unbearable situation. Otherwise, cut the coach. But, be careful, by changing the type of technical figure.”
NADIE LE CREE!!! COMO EN 2015/16….GAME OVER!!! 🤷🏻♂️🙎🏻♂️🤮🇵🇹🤡👍🏻
“Milan is now in the pages of newspapers all over the world for similar episodes. The protagonists are the same players who had never created such spectacularly surprising problems, especially towards the ‘sacred’ leadership of a team, the coach.”
The problem isn’t that Theo, Leao, Tomori are all of a sudden behaving differently, but that they are acting the same.
Theo is still the same hot head, Leao is still the same lazy guy moping around the pitch, Tomori is the same guy that is a calamity in defense and overreacts towards refs and teammates. Same guys from the last 4,5, years.
During that time their behavior was brushed off as them being young and immature because the team had other players, grown men, who were the leaders in the locker room. Men like Zlatan, Giroud, Kjaer, Florenzi, Kessie, Romagnoli, Donnarumma (Yes Donnarumma as a teenager was more mature than Theo, Leao, Tomori are today). Nothing was asked from those 3 besides to play.
With before mentioned leaders leaving the club, Theo, Leao, Bennacer, Maignan, Calabria, Tomori, as the longest tenured Milan players and senators, naturally should have taken over their roles as the leaders of the team.
The club empowered them as leaders and some of them self proclaimed themselves as such.
The problem is that even though they are the leaders now, they still act like those young and immature players that were led by grown men the last 5 years.
We are busy here criticizing the low hanging fruits like Emerson, Thiaw, Musah, Jovic, Pobega and Krunic before, but Milan is let down by their supposed leaders and most talented players. By their longest tenured players and not by the new guys. Theo literally lost Milan both games this season, but the daily conversation is about Emerson or Kalulu. No team will go far, if their best players are the reason why the team losses games.
We keep reading about Fonseca not having control over the locker room. Locker rooms in the most successful clubs are policed by the players or the leaders and captains of the squad, not by the coach.
Who really believes that Pioli was the leader in Milan’s locker room? Pioli couldn’t bench Theo because there was no backup, Pioli benched Leao just like Fonseca.
You think Ancelotti had to lead the locker room during Maldini, Costacurta, Shevchenko, Seedorf time?
The players that Milan has as the leaders are not worthy of that designation. Theo Hernández, with his actions is literally sabotaging Milan’s season. And I don’t think he does that on purpose, he is doing inadvertently because he doesn’t have the qualities to be a leader and that role is overwhelming to him. It doesn’t matter if he is 27 or 37 he doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader, same goes for Leao and Tomori.
Leadership needs to shift towards Maignan, Morata and Pulisic, while Theo, Leao, Tomori need to fall in line behind.
The players have no respect for Fonseca. He is a mediocre coach. Fonseca has to go otherwise our top players will leave. Ibra has not been helping, he has been acting like a buffoon.