It would be fair to say that Paulo Fonseca spoke his mind after AC Milan’s win against Red Star, producing perhaps his most honest interview yet.
Fonseca took issue with the attitude that he saw from his team, especially in a second half which saw them surrender a lead and find it difficult to establish dominance against – with respect – an inferior team on paper.
“I’m tired of struggling with these things, I’m not satisfied with the team’s performance. The problem is that our team is a roller coaster. Today we are fine, tomorrow I don’t know. It’s like tossing a coin and waiting to see what happens. It’s almost impressive.
“I know that I work every day to prepare the team, to do well. I don’t know if everyone in the team can say the same. We had the obligation to arrive today and do everything to win the match. And we didn’t do it.”
Those were the post-match words from the Portuguese coach, who – without naming names – made it abundantly clear that he will never be accepting of a performance at that level. From that, we can try to understand who he was referring to.
There are several players who could be accused of not giving their all on the pitch, but we can exclude a few fairly easily. Rafael Leao and Tammy Abraham were the goal scorers, Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders endeavoured in midfield, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Alvaro Morata went off injured.
Fonseca’s targets
Among the outfield players, Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Matteo Gabbia and Theo Hernandez remain from the defence, then Yunus Musah and the substitutes Samuel Chukwueze and Emerson Royal.
None of them really shone last night but to say that they didn’t try would not be accurate for most of the aforementioned. To narrow the target circle even more, let’s try to analyse the other words pronounced by Fonseca.
“If there is a need to call-up the Primavera or Milan Futuro boys, I will do it. Without problems,” he said. From this phrase, we can deduce that it is likely that Fonseca is aiming at Theo Hernandez and the idea of Alex Jimenez being summoned.
Even in the summer when he joined permanently from Real Madrid, Zlatan Ibrahimovic declared Jimenez as Theo’s deputy. Fonseca, however, disagreed and he remained with the Futuro, with Filippo Terracciano instead playing as the back-up to the Frenchman.
The main culprit
It is no secret that the performances and attitudes shown on the pitch by Theo in recent weeks, if not months, have been mostly insufficient. He appears to be only a shadow of the ‘best left-back in the world’ admired in past seasons.
The reasons are many, starting with the accusations that surfaced through Fabrizio Corona about an incident in a night club (currently unfounded), plus a relationship that has not really blossomed with Fonseca and the negotiations for the renewal that are increasingly complicated.
Theo is attached to Milan but he is also eager to earn more or test himself in other contexts. In his homeland there is his brother who calls from Paris (Saint-Germain), but there is no shortage of admirers in Germany where Bayern Munich tested the waters in the summer.
These are dreams and ambitions that clash with the insufficient performances in the first half of the season. The problems are many, but none of these are an alibi even for Fonseca who now tries to provoke him – as he did with Leao – to question him.
The 27-year-old’s future remains uncertain today, with the club evaluating the idea of a transfer – perhaps even with a renewal first – to make everyone happy by pocketing a figure as close as possible to 60 million.
A question of heart
The phrase about calling on Primavera and Futuro players can also be interpreted in another way. Last night, the one who actually made the difference for Milan was a 16-year-old, namely Francesco Camarda.
He came off the bench and showed a burst of heart and desire in the middle of four opponents, leaping like a salmon as he did for the disallowed goal against Club Brugge, this time hitting the crossbar before Abraham buried the rebound.
The phenomenon of the Azzurrini saw his dream of becoming the youngest scorer in the history of the Champions League shattered for the second time in a month and do you know how he reacted? By celebrating with the man who scored.
For him, the team comes before himself and the attachment he feels for the red and black shirt is obvious through actions rather than empty words. That is what Fonseca believes is missing from the team: someone who will fight in every minute, aware of the opportunity they have.
There could therefore be some rather unexpected opportunities in the coming weeks for younger talents like Jimenez, Davide Bartesaghi, Adam Bakoune, Kevin Zeroli, Dariusz Stalmach, Chaka Traore and more. After all, if you have heart then you tick the first box on Fonseca’s list.
Bench Theo and start Jiminez. The biggest problem with the team right now is their attitude and that comes from Theo. He is supposed to be our leader and when others see his poor effort and poor attitude, they follow. Just like Tomori and Abraham did in the Fiorentina game. Following the “captain’s” example and it cost us points. His defense has always been below standard and his offense no longer makes up for it. Sell him and we can bring in a good LB and RB. Problem solved.
Pero si no puedes sacar lo mejor de uno de los mejores laterales del MUNDO!!!! ERES UN MEDIOCRE 🤢🤮🤡🇵🇹
Pero si no puedes sacar lo mejor de uno de los mejores laterales del MUNDO!!!! ERES UN MEDIOCRE 🤮🤡🇵🇹
Theo is a limited defender and a far better attacker. Fonseca has him defending and not going forward at all basically. Of course he’s frustrated. He can’t do the one thing he’s really good at…
It’s a waste of Theo’s skillset. There are plenty of better defending LB’s than Theo. If you don’t have your LB attacking then you don’t need Theo.
With all due respect, I don’t see Fonseca having done anything to shackle Theo’s offensive efforts. He frequently drifts upfield and remains there while Milan has the ball, leaving a three person back line. He has made few box to box runs this year, possibly because in fairness to him and Milan, opponents have focused shutting down the passing lanes to Leao. Theo seems disinterested when he doesn’t have the ball and doesn’t hustle back in the way that Calabria (by complete contrast) does.
Tiji is always blocking Theo’s running lane.
It’s super genius tho. Everyone expects our left side to be the main atk force. So by having theo stay back and having the Emerson and musah the main attacking force we completely sabotage ourselves and win games.
Wait no, that’s not right..
We win games?
Time and time again:
Theo pass to Leao. Leao holds it. Theo continues to make the run past him. Instead of passing it to him in stride Leao either comes centrally or passes the ball back.
Where’s the Left flank threat?
I agree.
Correct,mid season couple years ago when Theo was with the French N’atl. team, DesChamp recognized the best use of Theo, even Pioli gave him the freedom to attack ,he runs like a Gazelle, He scored a ton but more importantly assisted Leao and keep him from being marked by two. Move him higher up to midfield, if he is supposidly a defender no harm in doing so the watch our goals go up. Otherwise we will lose him then a double waste when Fonseca gets the boot. You need 11 horses to win ,you cannot have a racehorse puling a milk wagon.
Obviously the pressure of coaching a club like Milan got the better of him. Just resign after holidays and spare us all this misery for the rest of the season. Bring in a proper DM and Sarri for his 433.
Good luck with convincing Ibrahimovic to bring in Sarri. Never forget who brought in Fonseca in the first place.
Exactly. Fan expect this management to sign a “better coach”, when they were cheapa$$es to sign Fonseca in the first place.
The next coach up will be Ibra’s good friend Igor Tudor.
You can bet your bottom dolllar.
This is the guy who got rid of Youth League Finalist Coach Abate, because he refused to play Maximilian Ibrahimovic in the Primavera.
No one’s expecting anything from this management. I sure haven’t since they took over and made their first moves. I’m clearly just stating my opinion.
I just watched the Dortmund v Barca replay. Watching Ryerson play RB before he was injured was a reminder of what RB should look like. Also, some of the incisive 1st touch passing from Reyna is what we are missing in the midfield to really open the game. While Reyna can’t dribble like Pulisic, I think he actually might be better than Pulisic as a CAM.
We’ve had some good games and some very bad ones. The problem now is that we’re way too inconsistent and you can tell something is off with the team.
If Infact the team is against fonseca then I see no reason in keeping him. The longer this goes on the more damaging it is to the team. It’s not like we’re playing phenomenal and it’s a couple of bad apples. The whole team has had its problems on or off the pitch and these statements from fonseca keep getting worse and worse.
If you are to get a new manager who could it possibly be? The only one I can think of is getting sarri and bringing in a new midfielder to play a 4 3 3.
Some players are against the coach, but not all of them.
I think that’s the issue. Thiaw’s latest interview after the Red Star Game also agreed with Fonseca’s call out of his teammates lack of effort.
It would be much easier if the entire squad all hated Fonseca, then it would be easy to go to management and oust him.
This locker room as a whole is divided and not pulling in the same direction. It’s pretty obvious.
Jimenez is literally smaller Theo.
They both got discarded by Real Madrid because of their behavior and attitude, they both can’t defend a lamp post.
Play Terracciano in these next few games and then in January sign a midfielder, right back and a left back. Get rid of both Theo and Fonseca and bring a coach suited for the players you have. Milan doesn’t have players to play a possession style football, almost all are counter attacking players, almost all are useless when there is no acres of space to run with the ball.
Hire a sporting director who has a plan and is proactive instead of reactive.
You kept a coach whose time was done at the club for extra year and allowed him to spend money on players that fitted his style of football but then you hire a coach with totally opposite style and you gave him Pioli players.
Call Bologna, call Atalanta for their sporting directors and pay them money for a competent person to run your project not dudes learning on the job.
Terror Squad that is Terraciano looks like he’s on skates every time he plays. Having said this, Fonseca doesn’t have the LB/RB go far past the halfway line and help in attack. If their function is to defend Terraciano is probably as effective as Theo defensively without the offensive output.
We have no depth.
I fear we might need to break apart the squad trim the fat but at the cost of a rest
Theo has certainly been below standard, everyone knows that. But Fonseca trying to pass the buck for his worthless tactics and lineups is hilarious. He very clearly has no respect from any ifbthe key players in the locker room, and understandably so. This job was far too big for him, and our lazy owners are now paying the price for their cheap incompetence
The only reason I don’t feel sorry for Fonseka is because he didn’t keep his words. After a perfect preseason and an almost ideal pressing that he relied on with Salemekers, Chukwueze and Colombo, the guys who were the best in the preseason, he pushed out two of them and immediately stuck the third one on the bench, after he talked about how impressed he was with them, he kept Jovic and pushed out Colombo, and then he pushed out Salemekers to bring in a replacement for that same Jovic.not to mention liberalli with whome he was amazed as he said and played him in 1st lineup vs City and Real,now we dont know what did happened anyway with that guy,he started forcing loftus on his position as soon as season started, I can’t guaranty that we would be better with them but he certanly changed everything that he was preparing this team for ,somehow he deserve this disrespect and sabotage from players
What was behind it? A desperate coach who seems too small for the role.
Agree. (We’re pretty far afoot from Milan, but all good 🙂 ). Reyna plays much better centrally and is more effective in tighter spaces. Pulisic should always be out wide in more open spaces.
I think the #10 experiment for Pulisic has been frustrating for all sides.
Hadn’t thought about Reyna as a potential #10 for Milan – Morata also deserves a whack at the #10, he plays better as a withdrawn striker.