Ruben Loftus-Cheek of AC Milan

GdS: From Loftus-Cheek to Theo – the big disappointments of Milan’s season so far

If the management have absolved Paulo Fonseca of exclusive blame for now, they have instead turned their attentions to a squad they believe is underperforming.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, there some players within the squad that are ‘in the dock’ at the moment because they are performing at a much lower level than expected. It is easy to point the finger at the big names, starting with Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez.

The Frenchman in particular is having his worst season since he arrived in Milan, symbolised by the two-match ban that he got after the full-time whistle in the Fiorentina. This became a ‘significant aggravating factor’ given that he had to miss the big match against Napoli following the Bologna postponement.

Theo is averaging a rating of 5.71 per game in the league as per Gazzetta, the result of constant ups and downs. He scored against Venezia and Lecce at home, but was decidedly less productive away or in big matches, with the exception of the 2-1 derby win.

The former Real Madrid man will be available again against Monza on Saturday to try make up for his absence straight away. Filippo Terracciano will sit on the bench again, who certainly didn’t shine in the occasions he had to step in: a 5.5 average rating, without a single score of 6.

gazzetta dello sport 31 october

Fikayo Tomori meanwhile was supposed to be one of the key players in the defence. Instead, the English centre-back has often been among those responsible for the defence’s fluctuating form, with some more obvious blunders such as Fiorentina’s 2-1 goal.

Tomori has an average rating of 5.66, among the centre-backs only Malick Thiaw has done worse with 5.38, but it must also be said that the German has only played four games, one of which for a handful of minutes.

One player who has often and willingly been a starter (seven out of nine in the league), but without enchanting, is Emerson Royal, one of the most divisive summer signings. The Brazilian has an average rating of 5.44 and has only gone above 6 in one game, in the derby against Inter (6.5).

Emerson was signed from Tottenham for €14m with the aim of providing a reliable alternative to Davide Calabria, who has spent a good part of the season so far in the treatment. The Milan captain only played in the first two games, but he certainly hasn’t done better: a 5 against Torino, a 4 in the disaster vs. Parma.

Among the midfielders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is not making an impact like last season. He has a 5.72 average rating, but above all no goals or assists so far after scoring 10 last season.

Tags AC Milan Emerson Royal Fikayo Tomori Filippo Terracciano Malick Thiaw Ruben Loftus-Cheek Theo Hernandez

12 Comments

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  1. The only players who were there last season or before that didn’t see their performances drop are Pulisic, Gabbia, Chukwueze, Okafor and Maignan.
    Maignan is a goalkeeper so his form is a bit irrelevant to what the coach does.
    Chukwueze and Okafor are subs and were mostly productive against tomato cans. In the end they couldn’t elevate the team when needed.
    Pulisic and Gabbia are the only key onfield players who are still doing good, but I think it has more to do with their mentality, terrific work ethic and composure rather than a merit of Fonseca.
    I’m not saying we should sack Fonseca right here right now, and I don’t think he was wrong in everything he did since the poor performing players have to shoulder part of the blame, but we should seriously adress him.
    Now I don’t know if we should wait until he officially gets us out of the races to get a coach to prepare the team for the next season or is it better to sack him ASAP and try to salvage the current season while risking making it even worse.

    1. Well, same logic could be applied to Pulisic, though it was always obvious at least he had a great potential.

      RLC is a good bench option and has physique that helps against certain teams, so if you consider him as sub, you can give him a pass. Yes, 20M is too much for a substitute, but IMO he gets more hate than he deserves. 100% for keeping him more on the bench and giving chances to the futuro guys though..

  2. I don’t think anyone was expecting a different performance from Royal and RLC. Agree about Theo, while Thiaw and Tomori have been in the heart of our leaky defence for quite some time. Yes, Fonseca can’s solve the defensive problems in any meaningful way and it’s a big issue for the whole team. Just look at the last three games – Udinese player shot from range after 30 seconds, because of silly mistake by Chuck, Brugges had THREE great opportunities within the first 10 minutes and Napoli had one good chance before scoring… in the 5-th minute. What the hell is that? Are we sleepwalking into the games? That’s all on Fonseca.

  3. I don’t think RLC has been as bad as people think. I do think that Theo has been off and I think that Leao isn’t that different from the Leao of last season, but his weaknesses show up more in Fonseca-ball.

    The key problem with the Fonseca hire from the beginning was how would players (especially Leao) integrate into a counterpressing system that requires focus and effort 100% of the time. He hasn’t gotten Leao to buy in fully and it turns out that Theo also hasn’t bought in fully, which I didn’t see coming. I said from the beginning that Leao vs Fonseca would be resolved by November and only one would make it through January. Right now, fans are calling for the departure of both.

    It was interesting to hear Fonseca say that the team played well against Napoli. They did do better with the counterpress – they were organized and delivered multiple turnovers in the opponent’s half that just didn’t turn into goals. I think if Gabbia had been on the field to battle Lukaku, Milan would not have given up the early goal and probably would have wound up winning a closely fought game. They are not a team yet, but I see signs of improvement.

    The good news from a Milan perspective is that I don’t think anybody in Serie A is that great this year. I fully expect Napoli to fall apart at some point, but if they win it will be because they don’t have European football to contend with. Inter looks worse, not better. Juventus is still a mess. So I urge folks to have more patience, give it another month to see what happens. I still expect that we see one of three outcomes:
    1. Leao and the rest of the team buys in and the team starts rolling.
    2. Leao doesn’t buy in and the team starts rolling with him potentially stuck to bench or even banished from the first team.
    3. Leao doesn’t buy in, Fonseca sticks him to the bench and the team struggles (basically outcome like Napoli game).

    #3 is probably most likely, but I want to be sure of it before we blow up the team again. The teams that change coaches every year don’t typically succeed much.

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