AC Milan suffered their first competitive defeat of the Paulo Fonseca era on Saturday evening as they were beaten 2-1 by Parma.
The home side took the lead within two minutes as Dennis Man was on hand to tap home a teasing cross by Emanuele Valeri, but Milan levelled when Christian Pulisic equalised from close range in the 66th minute, thinking they could go on and win it.
The issue was that they got caught at the other end on the break when Pontus Almqvist squared for Matteo Cancellieri who put the hosts 2-1 up, and that would be enough to earn them the three points.
It means that Milan are stuck on one point after two games and have not made an ideal start to the 2024-25 season. It is, in fact, the worst start since 2011-12 under Max Allegri in terms of points from the first two games.
Our writer Rohit Rajeev has taken a look at the game from a tactical perspective, and sadly a lot of the same issues cropped up again.
Disjointed press
The first goal came as a result of the press not being completed and co-ordinated properly. When a team loses the ball the striker becomes the first defender and it is rarely the last line of four (or three) that should always be blamed. In the instance below we can see how the Milan press is compromised.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) August 27, 2024
The pressing when one loses the ball (counter-pressing) is equally important in Fonseca’s style. Below is a small example of why it let his side down.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) August 27, 2024
The fitness of the players is an issue that needs to be raised, as Parma were always able to make runs ahead of their opponents as seen in this example with defenders not following their markers.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) August 27, 2024
Missed chances, individual errors
Just like in the game against Torino, Milan created plenty of chances resulting in an xG of 2.36, which means that they wasted these opportunities.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) August 27, 2024
Yunus Musah being way out of position created way too much space in the centre and in the right half space. Musah’s entire game can be called into question for his defensive side where he seemed – as he admitted himself – confused as to what he should have done.
You can see in this sequence of play how a big gap has opened up with the American out of position.
Poor decision making was also a factor in the game. Below Tijjani Reijnders was open but instead Rafael Leao chose to dribble his opponent and crossed it straight to the goalkeeper.
Lastly, there are still individual errors embedded in this team, specifically the defence. In the clip below, Davide Calabria somehow turns what should be a clearance or even obtaining possession into a big chance for Parma.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) August 27, 2024
The athletic data clearly shows what has been speculated in the media and by fans: Parma outran Milan. A coach that wants to press their opponents seeing their team outrun by a side that were in Serie B last season brings serious question marks.
They really looks like clowns on field. And there was many more disgusting errors that arent shown
Fonseca aren’t these problems similar to the ones at Roma when you were their?
I think we’ve kinda analyzed this game to death. A thumping win over Lazio and everything changes….
Yeah, how do you analyze a game where everyone was terrible. You just have to move on.
Sounds crazy to say the third game of a season is a must win game but I think it actually is. I don’t think the coach will recover from another loss to start the season. The negativity will be overwhelming. However a good performance will totally change the atmosphere around the club, except for a few on here who will always be negative no matter what.
@K @Martin – agreed. The thing is Pioli Allegri and Carlo all had bad/mediocre starts as Milan coach and ended up winning the scudetto so anything’s possible 😅.
I’m not saying we can’t win the scudetto any more but to forget this start they simply need to show up consistently for a longer duration of time.
I’m generally pretty positive in regard of the club coaches and players I support and has even on occasions been accused of being far too positive but this really has been a disastrous start to the season and at the very minimum the players should get a win and show some pride in being allowed to wear our shirt. Gattuso is one of my all time favorites and even though he was far from the best player around you always knew he would bleed and make others bleed when he stepped in on the field.
I don’t think Lazio is a must win but more of a must show up game. At least we should see some good play so we can say that there is some hope and that things are improving.
To be fair even if we on Saturday win 3-0 against Lazio then the last thing I want to see is our players getting overconfident and shushing the audience because that would just be 1 win when we basically by then should have 9 points.
It would at least be a good to see them get up in gear but after the first 2 matches I think they have a hell of a lot more to prove than just getting a win.
I’m nevertheless willing to give them some time to gel but its been far from pretty sights we have seen up until now.
I admire the positivity you and the others share here , and I’m also a positive person but there are too many defects in all the department’s for the team to become a unit as we were when we won the Scudetto.
Is Fonseca the one who can get the players to follow him?
Does he have enough time ?
Perhaps he can still turn this around and go on a winning streak but my gut tells me otherwise.
What is for sure is that we will all still be watching whatever happens.
I think we have a team that at least on paper should be a candidate for the scudetto but only time will tell if that is the case but we also need to get up in gear because otherwise it will certainly be and uphill battle.
I’m of the view that the players doesn’t really have a choice not to do so because they should act as professionals as that is at least what they are paid to behave like, If Fonseca can make them play as he wants them to do might be a different matter but anyone refusing to at least give their utmost trying to addapt can leave iof they wants to but I doubt its the case at present.
He might and he might not but at least the season is long so I wouldn’t completely reject the possibility.
A lot of this is hangover from Pioli.
Fonseca’s ideas haven’t stuck yet. BUT Fonseca would be wise to understand that while his theories may take a while to work, he has to stabilize the team in the meanwhile. Whether that’s a formation change or different starting lineups is up to him.
if we’re still plagued by the same problems going into the derby, we’ll get destroyed and Fonseca will get sacked.
In that case they will bring Pioli back since he’s still on the payroll and we will have taken a massive step back. This will be 100% on the management and I’ll be the first to criticize them for this. Fonseca was a hard sell from the very beginning.
It seems the players Fonseca used in the friendlies were quick to learn and adapt as it already looked like a completely new team with actual tactics and good passing. I was surprised to see so much improvement over such a short period of time. And then the season begin and…
So… What changed? Ah yes, the “leaders” came along with their “I don’t need to work/run as much as the others”.
and let’s add the missing “-attitude” word to the end of that last sentence.
Anyone watching Galatasaray vs Young boys 😀
Damn the Turkish fans will run riot if they gets thrown out by the schweiz team.