AC Milan’s hopes of a top four finish were effectively ended last night by Napoli as they lost 2-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, and Sergio Conceicao has ended up in the dock.
Calciomercato.com write that the defeat against Napoli ‘has the flavour of a surrender by Milan’. Bologna are the team that are currently in fourth place and they are nine points away, yet the most worrying thing is that the Rossoneri are languishing down in ninth place.
Milan are thus currently divided between aiming for the Conference League and the hope of winning the Coppa Italia to at least secure a pass for the Europa League. This Milan, however, starts as a clear underdog against an Inter launched towards the 21st Scudetto in its history.
With eight games to go, the excuses have run out and all the components, from the highest to the lowest point of the pyramid, must assume their responsibilities. Conceicao actually tried to cling to some of these at the end of Napoli-Milan.
In his post-match comments he spoke about the absence of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the more minor problems of Malick Thiaw and Rafael Leao. The English midfielder, in reality, has never really been available even under Paulo Fonseca, constantly struggling with muscular problems.
Thiaw ended up in the middle of the inconceivable and crazy carousal of centre-back pairings, while Leao has started on the bench on average one game in every three since Conceicao has been at the helm.
Joao Felix has often found space in place of the Portuguese winger. The former Benfica prodigy was requested by the coach in the winter window but so far he has just the good half hour played in his debut in the Coppa Italia against Roma.
Conceicao is certainly not the only one responsible for this awful season, but his faults are all too evident and have contributed to the decline of some of the most representative players in the squad, Christian Pulisic first and foremost.
To these must be added some wrong strategic choices, the lack of a recognisable style of play and the flop in the Champions League. The pitch is issuing a clear verdict: this Milan does not seem to be made for him, for his way of playing football and for his methods.
Since he took over from Fonseca, the Diavolo have had to contend with a consistent factor: going behind in games. It is a constant that denotes an evident difficulty in knowing how to best motivate the team in addition to insufficient tactical preparation.
If until the day before yesterday Conceicao still had some chance of earning a stay, the widespread feeling is that he set Milan up badly. The new sporting director will be given the final decision on the management, with a change almost certain.
Fonseca destroyed our season, everything else came after his horrible preseason. While Conte was making his players run like crazy, we had preseason where kids played in games and NOTHING WAS prepared. Incredible some people still defend him. Conceicao wasn’t the right choice, obviously, but who would manage to turn around what that coward Fonseca set up for Milan?
If Milan go to conte. Prepare are the laziest players. They will make you like crazy pitbull. Haha. Run and run with heavy training. And the clown management, prepare to conte when he wants the heavy budget for mercato. I think he won’t go to Milan.
I suggest for better Milan future, reset / sell all the players who not adding nothing on the pitch. Level up all the good primavera players to the first team. I think this is good but Milan must have more patiently and don’t forget slimming the wage budget. This is good for RedBird / the American.
Stop lying. Fonesca has left Milan in December. We now in April
Fonsecas milan was better honestly
Yes, 8th in Serie A. This whole season is 90% his fault.
This team is made for a three man defense
3-4-3 or 3-5-2.. Go to training grounds and work on it. Tomori gives striker a lots to think about when he is playing
He keeps playing 4-2-3-1 which is not working and also Reijnders play better in double pivot position with fofana..
Absolutely agree with you
Fonseca is the past and so should Conceicao. Rid of him and put a caretaker in place. We will not be relegated anyway.
We talk about Conceicao comebacks often, but not about the giant holes Milan dig themselves into to then have the need to make a comeback…
So far that’s the only palpable Conceicao effect. He doesn’t seem to have the locker room any more than Fonseca did.
I keep wondering why Tomori stays on the bench, with a leaky defence. Like Capello said, this conceicao selection and the team spirit is poor ..Milan should forget about this season and prepare for the next
This ACM team isn’t made for anyone. Until a new owner takes over from the parsimonious Cardinale and totally overhauls the management team and the playing squad, our once-great club will continue to wallow in mediocrity.
ACM’s problem isn’t the jockey, but the lame horse the owner has assigned the jockey to ride. No top coach (e.g. Conte, Klopp) will accept the poisoned chalice of helming ACM under its current owner, who is clearly out of his depth.