If Paulo Fonseca is unsuccessful on Sunday, it is difficult to see him managing AC Milan’s next fixture. However, there are suggestions that somebody else’s shadow is already present on his bench.
As positive as pre-season was, there has been no continuance of the football on display. Within a month, Milan have gone from a team that could press, pass, and generally play well, to a team that struggles to do all of the above.
Above all, the Rossoneri look lost under Fonseca’s tactics and there are doubts in place about his ability to change the squad’s tune. To his credit, the Portuguese coach has stated that he knows this, but knowing about things and fixing them are two completely different problems.
There is also the added pressure of him knowing his job is on the line, and against Inter, he must get things spot on if he is to have a chance of keeping his job past Sunday with the Diavolo already evaluating replacements.
One of the managers being considered is Edin Terzic, and the former Borussia Dortmund coach was present for Milan’s loss against Liverpool. With this in mind, Quotidiano Sportive (via Milan News) have reported that his shadow is already present on the bench at San Siro, and contacts have already begun to take place.
Hahahaha
Analysis of Terzic as a coach from a Borussia Dortmund fan.
“Terzic successfully orchestrated an odds-defying run in the UCL that included iconic individual performances from the likes of Mats Hummels & Gregor Kobel.
His system in the UCL was set up to rely on transitional play and concede large amounts of possession.
Domestically, this caused many, many problems. Leading to senior players like Hummels, Reus, and Füllkrug to both internally and publicly criticize Terzics’ inability to set up BVB in anything other than an inferior posture.
Dortmund’s presence in the UCL final masked a lot of issues around the team for those outside of Germany, but we finished in 5th and absolutely looked the part all year. Appearing nowhere near the levels of at least Leverkusen, Bayern, and Stuttgart.
Personally, I don’t see a club like Milan turning to a manager who demonstrated a consistent inability to tactically navigate a domestic campaign with one of the very highest wage bills.
Losing to Leverkusen is one thing, but having no answer to high pressing from Bochum or Werder Bremen is another.
Rumors of him going to a club like West Ham made a bit more sense, but Milan is massive.”
Sounds similar to Milan trip to the UCL semi-final, which just masked how poor that team and coach were that year.
If Terzic was any good, Dortmund would have kept him after going to UCL final, not fire him. Unlike Milan, Borussia wasn’t fooled by their lucky UCL campaign.
OK, so he’s the worst possible option. It is clear and true; I agree with you on this. But you know what that means, right? It means that this clueless management will select him. Not to forget, he is cheap.
So, we got rid of Pioli and got a Pioli 2.0. Then we will get rid of Fonseca and get a Fonseca 2.0.
My preference would be for Sergio Conceição, a proven winner who always made Porto punch higher than its weight. I said so many times when our management was going for a mediocre loser like Fonseca; I called Fonseca the worst possible choice in a time when so many good coaches were available (I primarily wanted Motta; since Juve pounced first, then Conceição). And sure, our management selected the very worst choice.
It will happen again.
I don’t think Terzic is the answer.
I think you’re crazy. Smh
Why? Because we have different opinions?
Man that is so entertaining how everyday you’re trying to diminish the recent great momentum of the club you’re supposed to root for. Also I feel sad that you couldn’t enjoy it. Please continue to spit on the legends and the current players who actually won something with the club.
If there is one thing that the current mess proves, it’s that Maldini was even better than we thought to succeed in that toxic environment surrounded by the same idiots that we have today at the direction.
,,Personally, I don’t see a club like Milan turning to a manager who demonstrated a consistent inability to tactically navigate a domestic campaign with one of the very highest wage bills.,,
I wouldnt be suprised because what you stated is the EXACT situation under which they hired Fonseca. No big trophies, achivements or style of play.
Let me just remind those who will slender me in comments the next thing:
– Under Fonseca Lile&Roma had average of 1.7 points per match. Doesnt really justify Ibra s comments on hiring a coach with winning mentality. Just to compare Piolis record – he had a record of 1.87 PPM so i dont really see how we got an upgrade and on what stats did Ibra, Moncada and co. based their chosing.
– While being appointed as manager, Fonseca had Lile finished in 4&5th place in two consecutive seasons, 10+ points behind even 2nd place(if we take into accounts PSG dominance in that league). So he couldnt even outmatched teams like Lens or Brest and we are here hoping to win against Inter and win the league. Yea, not gonna happen.
– Lastly, while being in charge or Roma, his side got 7&6th place in 2 seasons while having scored least goals and conceaded most goals while comparing top 8 sides in those seasons.
So there u have it guys. Lets hope for the best on Sunday, but i think we are in for another Milan Masterclass
It’s either him tuchel or Sergio conciecao, but I feel deep inside we are going to sign some washed up bum who’s tactics are more outdated than the dinosaurs
Surely even the most ardent Redbird supporters reason that their ownership has NOTHING to do with football
The problem is, Milan had a whole year to find a suitable replacement for Pioli. And they came up with Fonseca, and this has gone spectacularly off the rails. So if they sack Fonseca now, they are basically waving a white flag saying we are incompetent idiots.
I hope they have the balls to admit the mistakes they made and learn from them, like Maldini did with GiamPaolo. I just don’t know who the suitable replacement will be.
The other factor is that Milan have a very tough run of fixtures coming up. If you’re trying to bring a new coach in, one would think you would want the old one to get through all these fixtures, so that the new coach has less pressure to work under. Whether that is Sarri or not, I don’t know.
I have defended this management because I thought there were a lot of things they got right including our financial predicament. But I have always said I will give them the benefit of the doubt until they start making mistakes.
I maintain that Jerry is far removed from actually running this club, focusing on the long-term program gain. However, the people appointed under him, seemed disjointed. There is a lot of confusion structurally, and on the field. Zlatan should not be anywhere in the organizational chart. Moncada and Furlani need to be managed by competent and experienced sporting Director that is going to tie everything together and formulate a viable project moving forward.
One would presume that to be able to purchase a story football club for over 1 billion, you would need intelligence not anyone off the street can walk in and do that. Gerry needs to show his intelligence and re-organize the structure and realize where the mistakes have been made, and how to correct them.
Simply hiring another coach will not solve anything long-term, because like I said, there is a lot of confusion through and through.
Well said. Nobody as a fan has issue with running the club sensibly from a financial perspective. Until that is the club starts to go backwards. Cheap or should I say ‘value’ signings which just haven’t worked. I mean what signing under Redbird has truly been a success other than Pulisic? I like Okafor but he’s not really made a big impact whether that’s coaches fault or not who knows, same with Chukwueze, RLC shows weekly the reasons why Chelsea didn’t want him, Thiaw is erratic…Musah is young and raw and needs time, Fofana looks like a headless chicken at times and none of them are a no6! . So much money been wasted.
Like you say a proper sporting director will actually think from a football perspective. Every decision made is made to spend the least, that doesn’t work in football. They even stated ‘we don’t feel the need for a top coach’…
I don’t believe the funds are being provided to make the changes we need, I don’t know the clubs finances but it seems there is more than being slowed for and this comes back to the moneyball method. Rebuilding the midfield two years in a row because it was a bad job first time round…not acceptable.
I agree that Pulisic was by far the best signing under the management team of RedBird. He’s been consistently good and with great attitude and work rate. But I wouldn’t say he is the only one. I believe that Reijnders, Morata, and Abraham are good players.
However, you are right that others haven’t been as successful, and of course, Morata and Abraham are still a work in progress. I feel like maybe Fofana will end up gelling, recovering match fitness, and delivering some impact, but again, it wasn’t a good start. Pavlovic seemed good, then started to fail as well. We’ll see how Vos turns out once he matures some more.
Okafor has had only limited success. Chuk and Musah so far have been mostly busts. RLC is incredibly irregular; capable of a few good games but also a high number of horrible ones.
Yes, it does feel like the investment existed but not very efficiently; not only signing players who failed to make a consistent impact, but also leaving behind some blatant holes like in the positions of RB, DM, and LB.
By far, by very far, the worst RedBird signing was Fonseca’s, followed closely by Emerson Royal’s, then Terracciano’s.
It’s not like the previous management hasn’t made mistakes either. Origi was an incredible blunder, and the last summer mercato that Maldini and Massara implemented was a full-blown disaster, with all players hired at the time becoming a disappointment (Dest, Vranckx, CDK, Adli, Origi, and Thiaw). At one point I thought that the only one from that batch who wasn’t a bust was Thiaw, but then Thiaw after a promising start turned bad too. Prior to that, there were other bad signings like Ballo-Touré, Bakayoko, and Messias.
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Balancing the books, focusing on building our own stadium, and investing on the creation of a second squad for the youngsters (Milan Futuro) were excellent moves that will have a lasting impact. For this, I command Redbird.
But what Gerry Cardinale (who isn’t familiar with soccer) grossly failed to do, was to surround himself with competent managers who actually understand soccer well and know how to manage a major European soccer club.
Furlani, Moncada, Ibra… these are people who are responsible for how bad things are, presently. Gerry should fire them all and hire competent and experienced staff.
yeah but Maldini sniffed the best fullbacks and cbs like if he was a truffle pig looking for some shrooms…
Dest and Dalot, he signed Theo, Tomori, Thiaw, Kalulu…
Adli and CDK were badly implemented into the team (Pioli fault more), Vranckx still has a lot of people monitoring for him… only actual busts Maldini has was Origi instead of Kolo Muani, missing out on Enzo Fernandez and Ballo-Toure signing
Dude said Maldini sniffed the best fullbacks and CBs and then he named Dest, Dalot, Thiaw, Tomori and Kalulu like it’s some kind of flex.
Thiaw and Tomori are our worst CBs, but you wrote like they were Van Dijk and Ruben Dias.
There isn’t a CB worth a damn at Milan and only Pavlovic is someone who wasn’t signed by Maldini.
I swear people are starting to believe their own lies.
Right on. The moment momcada and furlani took M&M spots, i knew we were going downhill. These two are just inexperienced for such an important role in a big club, not to mention they actually embrace the idea of selling a $50 mil man and replacing him with 3 other players that not only are average at best but they are 3 of the same. Then, bring on a mercenary like ibra was icing on the cake. Whatever coach comes on unless their careers have hit rock bottom, they’ll be on a suicide mission with these players. The one department that brings the whole team together is just stuffed with average players with same characteristics. No team ever looked good with a super weak midfield.
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Terzic is no different from Pioli and Fonseca. This management seems hell bent on hiring mediocre coaches, players and management.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Turzic is the coach the chose to replace Fonseca and if they do I really hope no fans show up at the stadium for any games.
I’m confused. You criticize me when I say Terzic isn’t the answer, yet you criticize him as an option?
Are you confused?
I strongly believe in Sergio Conciecao. He’s consistent and wins every season in his previous managed clubs. Moreso he plays a good attacking football and the defensive phase is quite awesome 👍. Getting Terzic as a replacement for experiment is a no option for me. There are still better manager out there and I think Sergio Conciecao is more decent to manage this squad and bring out the best in each individual players.
I think he was the only coach, that was predominantly approved at least as an okay option by the majority of fans in May-June. And I think they would have chosen him, but probably he wanted more time to decide what to do with Porto. I think at the time we announced Fonseca, his case was he will remain there.
The problem is that Milan doesn’t have a technical director. All this management are controlled by emotions and sentiment which is the major problem of the club. Bring someone like Boban to lead the club and we’ll do well
The problem is the management. I lol when some people pointed Moncada for success rather than Maldini and co. Plenty of great coaches available over summer and they chose Fonseca after months of pondering. Worse is their transfers, probably because of moneyball approach, all players they get, except Pulisic/Morata, are those who are physical and can run but with no football intelligence or technical skills. Unsurprisingly all but Pulisic has been failed so far. Aggressiveness alone can’t win you.
Signing internationals is not evidence of moneyball. Moneyball is what clubs like Parma and Udinese do.
Moneyball based on player stat. Maybe those who run fast and physical stamina probably make high rank on Milan scout list. The recent signing all indicate that. In the match they run like headless chicken with no tactical plan or worse they aren’t even running much as they aren’t motivated as soon as they are behind.
Considering the number of countries currently, any average player in Europe can be an international somewhere. Also an international is a big umbrella term that also includes players that played once or twice or who at most are subs in their NT (like Fofana)
I agree with mr.bone that aside from Pulisic and maybe Morata, all of our new signings (from 2023 or even 2022 onwards) are average or slightly above average at best.