The Derby della Madonnina is scheduled for Sunday evening and AC Milan are desperate for a big win, having struggled at the start of this season. According to a report, Paulo Fonseca is set to make a pretty significant change to the starting XI.
Milan have won just one of their first five games and the loss against Liverpool last time out sent the fans into fury. Therefore, the derby is Fonseca’s chance to prove that he should remain the coach of the Rossoneri, but it will be far from easy against Inter.
According to Sky Italia (see photo below), the manager is set to deploy a 4-4-2 formation with Tammy Abraham and Alvaro Morata starting up front. Both have impressed so far and the hope is that they can do more good together. Furthermore, this means Ruben Loftus-Cheek is expected to be on the bench.
At the back, Matteo Gabbia has done enough to convince the manager and should start next to Fikayo Tomori, with Strahinja Pavlovic getting some rest after two games from start to finish. Speaking of the defence, Emerson Royal will replace the injured Davide Calabria at right-back.
It remains to be seen if the formation change will be enough to get a result tomorrow, but Fonseca must feel confident that it’s the right move.
Predicted Milan XI (4-4-2): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Pulisic, Fofana, Reijnders, Leao; Morata, Abraham.
Formazione probabile Milan (Sky) #InterMilan pic.twitter.com/2QKHizlRDp
— FMCR (@FMCROfficial) September 21, 2024
This is better so Pulisic and leao can cover for full backs
Leao isn’t covering fir anybody, he can’t even cover for himself.
Tammy will press the left and Morata the right. It will force Inter down the middle where they meet a block of Tijani and Fofana. They can alternate which striker plays further up and behnd because both players can distribute. This will be more effective than hoping Loftus and Leao cover higher up the pitch and create as well. Neither can do so. He is playing his best players. 442 is a simple system everyone and their mom inows how to play, it offers an adaptable approach too.
Ce 4-4-2 proposé peut se transformer en un 4-4-2 en losange avec Leao en MG, CP11 en MD, Reijnders en MO et Fofana en MDF. Dans l’idée c’est pas mal mais ça pourrait manquer d’équilibre en transition. Il faudra pour les ailiers faire les essuies glaces pour être compact et meilleurs défensivement
Misfield needs to be more defensive. In this setup Reijnders doesn’t fit. There are plenty of players with pace to bomb forward.
I’d rather see RLC in there with his physicality rather than Reijnders. Honestly I don’t really know what people see in Reijnders.
Juventus just played their 3rd straight 0-0 game in serie A.
Another proof that a new coach needs time to change the way the team plays after replacing a long standing coach, especially during an International tournaments summer.
Watching Juventus play under Motta so far I see zero difference than Juventus under Allegri. Solid, very compact defensively. Toothless, no chances created offensively.
Still playing under Allegri’s principles. I thought Allegri was holding Vlahovic back, but Vlahovic has been ass under Motta too. He got subbed at halftime today, and it wasn’t because of an injury.
Just like Milan is still playing under Pioli’s principles. Poor defensively and try to go 1v1 offensively.
Simone Inzaghi is considered top 5 coach in Europe today, but he was all set to be fired by inter in his 22/23, but a lucky draw in UCL allowed him to go to the final ans saved his job. Inter that season only had 2 more points than Milan in Serie A and finished 4th, with 12 losses in 38 games. Milan only had 8 losses that season.
It takes time, just like it took Pioli time after he took over from Giampaolo. Some act like Pioli came in and change everything from day one. It got a lot worse under him after Giampaolo, before it started to get better.
Should we understand from your comment that Fonseca is a good coach with credible ideas that should be kept around for longer regardless of tomorrow’s result ?
I’m not in the locker room to know if Fonseca’s ideas are credible or not, are you?
What I can see is that Milan plays the same way like they did under Pioli. The same players whose efforts we criticized under Pioli are putting the same lazy effort today and we hear from the coach that the players are not following instructions during games.
If you fire Fonseca and hire Sarri, or another coach, and the players are still behaving the same way, are you going to fire him and bring another coach, and then another? When are we going to point the finger at the supposed best players on the team?
Look what happened at Napoli last season. The media and certain players (Osimhen) were against Garcia since the beginning, and were creating toxic environment. Napoli was 4th on the table when they fired Garcia with 21 points after 12 games. Move praised by the media. They finished 10th with total of 53 points, missing UCL and European competitions. They earned 32 points in the next 26 games post Garcia. Was it a good move to fire the foreign coach that the media was against?
The player who caused the coach to be fired was trash the rest of the season and he isn’t on the team anymore. Conte only has 2 more points so far this season than what Rudi Garcia had after 5 games, even though Rudi also played in the UCL. Rudi was criticized, Conte is praised.
Roma spent more money than Milan this summer and have less points than Milan. The media wants Fonseca fired, while they criticize Roma’s management for firing De Rossi.
Do you notice a pattern?
I wasn’t neither agreeing nor disagreeing, I was just making sure I got your point.
Honestly, wether we keep Fonseca or not, I don’t see the situation improving anytime soon. If he [Fonseca] was unable to get his ideas across despite having the whole summer (albeit a short one), I don’t see what Allegri or Sarri or Conceiçao can do better with a limited amount of time.
If we’re lucky, we might get a Zidane like situation, but that will be a fluke.
Idk both Juve and Napoli sit in top 5 4th and 3rd respectively. Juve has exactly 1 goal conceded in 6 games this season – 0 in Serie A. I prefer this plus the draws rather than being sh8t on with goals every game. These coaches had the same amount of time to work with the players – A player we practically made him leave is a starter now for this DRAWING team so bad omg
Nah bro, you can’t judge inzaghi by that stat. He went bad that season not because he need time. Its because injury storm and a lot of player contract drama wich he finally found the solution by him self (thats why inter bounce back and beat milan in UCL).
He already transform inter in the first season joining inter. he even almost claim his first scudetto that season.
The easiest way to compare inzaghi first season with fonseca is inzagii win against Liverpool in anfield while foseca get beaten by Liverpool in san siro.
Great point and I totally agree. I don’t get why there is any rumors of firing Fonseca because what did the management expect him to do after 5 games especially since he didn’t have ALL the players during preseason?
No coach is going to be able to change a team overnight. A lot of players came back late and started the season out of shape and lacking match fitness.
It takes time and patience. There’s no guarantee that a new coach will be able to do anything different.
This is why an EXPERIENCED SPORTING DIRECTOR is needed because Marotta didn’t sack Inzaghi after a bad start to his career at Inter and Inzaghi had an Inter that won the scudetto under Conte.
Unfortunately, Milan fans and management will have to give Fonseca TIME. I don’t believe he should be sacked before December but if he gets sacked after the Inter game then Ibra, Furlani and Moncada should be sacked along with him. It is unfair to a coach to put in a position where change is needed and not give him time.
Maybe the 442 is the best solution for Milan and if he wins the derby or get a positive result then there’s no need to rush to appoint another coach until December if the bad results continue.
A very smart and reasonable comment Z. Remember in the preseason how good the team looked when he had time to work with those players. He hasn’t really had time to work with the starters because they weren’t there during the preseason, they were at the Euros. I would like to see him be given a little time but unless they win tomorrow it looks like he’s gone. Let’s hope we win. If we do win tomorrow we will be in a very good position in the league despite the rough start.
Honestly (I hope I’m wrong) this smells like disaster. We have teams, including inter, that have been going through our midfield like a knife through butter and the solution is to empty the midfield even more ?
I don’t see a front 4 overloading their defense (already tried and failed). Having Leao+Theo on Dumfries and Pulisic+Royal on Dimarco should work but it was already the case with a 4-2-3-1, and you can’t count on Leao for the defensive duties required in such a setup.
This leaves Fofana+Reijnders against Çalhanoğlu+Barella+Mkhitaryan which doesn’t look pretty at all.
But who knows, if he puts this, maybe he’ll also use a sit and counter approach that might work.
In any case, I really hope I’m wrong.
The idea is Tammy and Morata can cover more ground than Giroud did or Jovic as ST.cThey are more mobile and effective at a high press. They can Alternate roles as distributors or strikers, Leao and Pulisic can switch flanks as well depending on how Inter transition. The overload will be on a higher block and give their midfield less time and space to garner steam or momentum in the middle. We were ran through because Leao and Giroud or Jovic couldn’t press quick enough if their life depended on it. I’d believe Fofana will insulate Royal with Pulisic in transition and defense. Permitting quicker interchange and faster build up with Tijani, Theo, Leao on the left to keep Dumpries pinned. Then the middle we have a taller striker to attack the ball in the air and another to convert chances on the ground. He is better on Tammy and Morata being quicker than Leao and Loftus on top. Which makes sense. You actually close the central lanes further up the pitch this way and have more pliability. With an AM, that lacks speed and distribution skills, you shoot yourself in the foot.
He is better betting on Tammy and Morata*
Yes this 4-4-2 is Good but second half like 70th minutes foncesca should switch to 4-2-3-1 so 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 can go together
Tomori over Pavlovic? Make it make sense fonseca 💀🙏😭🤣
The challenge is to get the rapper leào to understand that defending is also part of the game! He needs to track back always to help the team, it is a team sport not an individual sport!!!
Sure, sure. That’s the one challenge. It’s all the LAAAAAAZY rapper Leão’s fault! If we had sold Rafa, by now we’d have 12 points in Serie A in four games, would have beaten Liverpool 4-0 and would win tomorrow against Inter 6-0. I mean, without such a LAAAAAAZY rapper we’d be gold, right?
Let’s just ignore the fact that while, sure, Rafa is not a good defender, he is one of our 2 best scoring chances (together with Puli), and has CONSISTENTLY had for the last 3 seasons the highest total of scores + assists or at worst the second highest, among all players in our team.
I’m sick and tired of the “Leão-is-lazy” crowd. When will you all understand that it is just player characteristic? Some players defend well and track back well. Others don’t. If the latter are forwards and they produce an assist or a score per game, they will have helped the team; others more adapt at defending and tracking back could be doing efficient defending so that those productive forwards’ scores/assists would count (to win, you need to score more goals than the goals you concede, and forwards can’t do it all).
So, the fact that we have a mediocre coach (with a predilection for throwing his own players under the bus), a clown posing as sporting director when he is anything but, a scout who thinks that Terracciano and Emerson Royal were worthy pursuits, two lousy players at right back who keep allowing teams to score at will from that side, no deputy for our otherwise good left back, no good defensive midfielder, a goalkeeper made of glass, rather uncreative players trying to play offensive midfielder, no players who are adapt at doing a double pivot competently, low impact right wing and left wing subs, older and injury-prone strikers, and ownership that doesn’t feel like we should spend more than 20-25M on any player and should take forever low-balling prospects until other teams snatch them; an owner who has no clue about what soccer consists of, a bloated squad with bums like Origi still earning millions for doing nothing, and so on and so on and so on and so forth, of course none of it has ANYTHING to do with how badly we’ve been playing and how unmotivated we are.
It’s just the LAAAAAAZY rapper’s fault. Sure. (Insert rolling eyes here)
Please keep treating him like that coz i hope he can be hakan 2.0.
E Royal doesn’t even belong in the Milan Glorie lineup.
This screams 424. We’ll get run over easily like this. It should be Musah as RM and Puli as LM in 442
Its not 442. Its 424 again. Or 425 with theo going up too
Soz Ted just seen u said the same above. Musah would be ripped apart by inter tho. Maybe later on tho.
If he’s good enjoy to outplay psg and dortmund and Newcastle midfields last season I don’t see the evidence that inter are that much better than those teams…
Fofana? why? there is nothing he does better than musah…against both good and bad teams…if he’s injured or if this is how he plays, either way…it doesn’t make much sense.