Francesco Totti believes that Paulo Fonseca is a ‘great coach’ who will continue to prove exactly why the AC Milan management strongly wanted him in the summer.
Fonseca arrived amid a mixed reaction from the Milan fanbase as some believed he can be the right coach to carry on the youth-driven project while others wanted a bigger and more proven name.
The start that the Portuguese coach had did not help. The Rossoneri won one of their first five games, and the 3-1 defeat against Liverpool in the Champions League brought stories that he could be sacked.
A 2-1 derby victory against Inter and a 3-0 win over Lecce have calmed that talk for now, while waiting to see how Milan get on against Bayer Leverkusen’s attacking might tonight.
Totti spoke during an interview with Sky outside the Bruno Conti event and while he avoided questions about the dismissal of his big friend Daniele De Rossi, he was happy to talk about Fonseca.
“For me we’re talking about a great coach. Of course, Milan doesn’t give you many chances: if you make a mistake you don’t have any other chances, but he has turned the situation around and put everything in line. They’re on a good path,” he said (via Calciomercato.com).
Ok let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The derby is a particular game and could have gone either way. Then we played bottom of table team (even against Lecce we had alot of individual quality and not much from a team build up on offense). Let’s take it one step at a time..I’m not fully convinced we really did anything to get out of where we were but the 2 wins esp the derby are great to build upon from a psychological aspect.
Yeah he’s an immense coach. That’s why he coached at many football top clubs, coached many legendary players and won so much trophies. If you ask random football fans who is a great coach, stats show that they would reply “Paulo Fonseca” 97% of the time.
I agree with IKWYDLS, but the good point is at least during interviews he seems to have a realistic view of our weaknesses. I like what he wants to make out of the players and the game, but it remains to be seen if they can step up to the task and do what they need to.
My worries are that he is fixated on a certain style and will try to play the same way no matter the players he has available and the opponent we play against.
Bartholomeu, very few coaches manage to get in a quality project at an early stage in their coaching career. That doesn’t necessarily mean they lack quality. Even their bad runs are much needed experience. Also, club results do not revolve around the manager alone, so let’s give him some time – once our play is more consistent (be it good or bad) we can assess.
Only if you’re fine with constant rebuild and endless “wait and see”. The most financially sustainable football club in Italy and most growing brand in the world should be at the stage of hiring top names at coach and players. But no, it’s gambling and waiting all the time.
Thanks. I agree somewhat but also disagree to an extent. The coach did say we concede too many when he was hired and that we would defend better but the first 3 games were totally opposite. That being said we do hope to pick up on the momentum in the last few games but it feels like I need to see a few more games against decent opposition to really see if we turned a corner and cement a system of play. I don’t mind having a system of play but adjust for some game with thinking outside the box tactics like against Inter. For now we’re playing a formation we didn’t really intend to play at the beginning and the personnel aren’t completely suited/built for any of the formations we’d like to play (433,4231 and even the 442). But I’d say the good part is he’s getting results through HIS choices.
I just want us to focus on the league, get better there, get that part right and then the rest will follow even in Europe. Even if we lose to Bayer today I wouldn’t see it as a knock as I’m not expecting much in that competition (btw I think we can win and by quite a few goals too such is the optimism). What I want to see is that we go out to play, show spirit!