fonseca ibrahimovic

Tuttosport: Fonseca’s reality – A negative report card with one phenomenon

AC Milan find themselves in a difficult position once again. They sit five points away from Napoli in the Serie A table, and questions are being asked of Paulo Fonseca.

It seems that the merit of winning the Derby della Madonnina is wearing out for the fans, for the players, and the management are seemingly heading down a similar path. In other words, it is a dangerous position to be in, and with no chance to save himself this weekend, there is a void.

Instead of pre-match talk, we’re left with the memories of the Fiorentina game and the failures from the performance. There is a lack of leadership it seems from Fonseca, as shown with the penalties, and this is reviving an old debate.

Did Zlatan Ibrahimovic make the right decision to choose the Portuguese head coach?

As Tuttosport (via Pianeta Milan) writes, with a five-point gap to the league leaders, Fonseca is still trying to ride the wave of a derby win, other than that, things are ‘very negative’ with the only two other victories being against Lecce and Venezia.

His appointment is not bearing the fruit that was hoped, and Ibrahimovic must look back to Paolo Maldini’s tenure – appointing Marco Giampaolo did not work, making the difficult decision to fire him and then hire Stefano Pioli did work.

If it reaches a point where dismissal is required, the Swede must take an ego hit, admit a mistake, and move forward. His job, and more importantly the Rossoneri require that.

Tags AC Milan Paulo Fonseca Zlatan Ibrahimovic

9 Comments

  1. Milan still has the best team and coach in Serie A. One game doesn’t define a season; it’s a long journey, and consistency will prove their strength in the end.

  2. Conceição is still available and is a MUCH better coach than Fonseca, both tactically and as a disciplinarian who commands respect from the players. He’s also a proven winner, unlike Fonseca.

    Yes, changing coaches now would be VERY disruptive, no doubt. Yes, it might be even unfair, without giving enough time to the current coach.

    But yes, there are good chances that doing it now, sooner rather than later, might actually be positive, and might give to Milan a better chance at recovering, even partially. Maybe the season is already lost and Milan won’t recover from this, but I sill think any chance of recovery starts with a new coach.

    I’ve been saying, it’s not even the fact that we are losing games. It’s HOW we are losing games, and how the coach is giving disastrous declarations to the press, basically shifting blame to the players and throwing them under the bus.

    It’s not like the players haven’t committed several errors… but you say it to the players, not to the press. When you say it publicly, it just makes you lose the locker room even more.

    For me, this is more serious than tactical mistakes. A coach can learn from tactical mistakes and even improve (like we saw when Fonseca outcoached Inzaghi and won the Derby); this can even lead to some good results (see again the said Derby). But when you lose the locker room, regardless of your tactical acumen and your eventual decent results, you don’t win any trophies, because to win trophies in Serie A, Coppa, and Europe, you need happy, united, and motivated players.

    In a competitive league like Serie A which is not a 2-poney race like in some other leagues, you need to be quite perfect to win it, and that includes having a motivated, happy, and united group of players. We had that when we last won the Scudetto. Currently we don’t have it.

    I am quite convinced that by now, Fonseca has lost all possibility of making his players respect him and be motivated, happy, and united. THAT’S why Fonseca needs to go, and the sooner, the better.

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