Following AC Milan’s friendly against Real Madrid, Paulo Fonseca has taken a chance to reflect on his team’s performances, with certain players being highlighted for their performances, in a positive and negative light.
Friendlies are not the be-all and end-all of a season, and by May next year, there will be very little remembered from the grand scheme of the fixtures. Instead, it is a chance for Fonseca to implement his ideas into a match setting, and allow players to raise their fitness levels after time away from football’s relentless calendar.
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With that being said, it also offers coaches a chance to evaluate how certain players will fit into certain systems and what role others can play in the season to come, as reports have suggested with Mattia Liberali this morning.
As Tuttosport (via Pianeta Milan) reports, Fonseca has begun to evaluate some players, and there have been some notable performances from the Real Madrid fixture.
On a positive note, Samuel Chukwueze impressed once again, and the upcoming season could be a chance for him to show the real him after a disappointing campaign last season, elsewhere, Liberali, Lorenzo Torriani, Fikayo Tomori and Alexis Saelemaekers impressed.
For Bennacer, the notes are not positive, and he looks a notable distance away from his former self, and the reports read similarly for Marco Nasti.
Fonseca will get the sack quickly without protection in front of the defense. Currently only Bennacer is capable of playing in the double pivot with any kind of efficacy.
The rest of the midfield are mezzali or “playmakers” with zero interest in defending or winning the ball back or are just not good enough.
Asking Reijnders to defend? HA! Free comedy.
Musah cant pass, tackle, or make up his mind. and his final ball is atrocious.
Pobega, not enough quality
RLC maybe if paired with the right person but not his natural or favored position.
The Adli experiment was not successful, he should probably be used as a #10.
In reality 2 holding midfielders are needed and the dead weight needs to be shifted. Its not rocket science.
Musah in the starting XI over Bennacer spells doom for Fonseca and not having the right personnel is completely avoidable and unacceptable.
Teams with clear attacking ideas and a small amount of quality will continue to cause us problems.
Not saying all hope is lost but without the right profiles this will be exactly the same as last year.
Not good enough and 100% avoidable.
that’s why fofana is coming
Your take on Musah is hilarious and 100 % correct.
Only Gabbiah and Tomori won more of their tackles than Musah last season and he started regularly putting Leao through on 1v1s with his ball winning. This quick move from defense to attack fits well within the system they are now working. Regardless, they play too many games to have a set starting 11…they can’t start the same midfielders over and over.
The double pivot in the scudetto season: Kessie (played most of his career as an 8 including with Milan) and Tonali (currently playing as an 8). They are not playmakers or defenders. They do both. They also balance out each other’s strengths and weaknesses and cover a lot of ground.