The controversies, the tactics and the man: What we learned from Fonseca’s first 100 days

It is now 100 days exactly since Paulo Fonseca took to the helm as the head coach of AC Milan, and there has been no shortage of drama during his tenure so far.

Back on July 8 Milan’s preseason officially began with the raduno, and 100 days technically takes us to October 15, but a century of completed days takes us to now. The basic stats are as follows: nine games, three victories, two draws, four defeats, 16 goals scored and 13 conceded.

Beyond that though, there is a story to tell already which includes a cooling break saga in the capital, a penalty debacle in Florence and some derby heroics to fight back from the brink of an early sacking. So, what exactly have we learned about Fonseca thus far?

The words

Fonseca was also chosen for his predisposition to work within the structure of the club, with accusations that he is a ‘yes man’ not being a million miles away from the truth, but there have been some interesting media comments.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, it was on the eve of the match against Torino in round one that Fonseca said that the ‘mercato is closed’, but then Zlatan Ibrahimovic was asked about those comments at Youssouf Fofana’s presentation and went against him.

“The coach is the coach, the club does the rest. We don’t need other purchases. These four purchases were already objectives even before choosing the coach. The market closes when I say it closes. We are on day 6 of 7,” he said.

Fonseca did not like such a public show of contrarianism and he let the club know, which showed early on that he will not be walked all over. From that, rumours spread of a potentially difficult relationship with the Swede, even if what has filtered officially is denial.

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Then there was the post-match interview after the defeat against Parma in which he called out his players for the first time, in just his second game in charge.

“I have to say that I am always the main responsible for what happens with the team, I take responsibility. However, it seems clear to me that there is a collective problem of defensive attitude and aggression,” he said.

“When we recover position we are a passive team. There are many things, for me it’s a problem of attitude, energy and a lack of desire to defend as a team.

“The truth is that we had a good pre-season but we are here now, in our reality […] During the week, when we prepare our strategies, the team does well. The match arrives and we start like this, it is difficult to explain.”

However, Fonseca will also stick up for his players. After the defeat to Leverkusen he was keen to pick out the positives in a losing effort, and he also criticised the referees for missing penalty calls that influenced the outcome.

The controveries 

In the three months he has been with the Rossoneri, Fonseca has made at least a couple of strong decisions. The first came in the third game of the season when he decided to put Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao on the bench, as the pair guilty of absent-mindedness in the defeat to Parma.

The message was clear: this is not how things can and will be done, regardless of their status as the two most important players. What happened after was the now infamous cooling break saga which many took to be a show of defiance, and that saw headlines erupt over the international break.

Fonseca had to manage things carefully but his plan was probably to weather some short-term difficulties in the hopes of setting high standards in the long-term, yet the penalty mutiny in Florence suggests he is not yet reaping any rewards.

If he repeats this over the weekend by sending Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham to the bench – the men responsible for the stealing of the penalty from Christian Pulisic – he would send another signal. He almost has to, or he will be accused of double standards.

The tactics

So far Fonseca’s Milan have shown ups and downs on the field, and the challenge now is to consolidate his ideas in order to breed a bit more familiarity and chemistry in what he is trying to achieve.

The former Lille boss began working in July with the idea of ​​constructing a Milan that dominate games through possession and high pressing, but he soon had to make compromises. Terrible spells in the games against Parma and Lazio – with goals conceded in frighteningly similar ways – convinced him to take a more cautious approach.

From there Fonseca reduced the aggression and limited the risks being taken, which some might call a more Italian approach. Position and possession-based football remains his brand in words (he often talks about it in press conferences), and the derby win over Inter was the catalyst for another big change.

There was some surprise when it emerged that Fonseca was going to play Alvaro Morata and Tammy Abraham together in what many presumed would be a 4-4-2 (and even more shock when it worked so well, but it has now settled as 4-2-3-1 with Morata as an atypical attacking midfielder.

If he hadn’t invented that solution after the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool he may not have even made it to 100 days. The big dilemma now is whether to continue with a set-up that he never really planned for, or whether to revert back and risk the old cracks emerging.

The key individuals

In the ever-changing stock market that is the Milan squad, Christian Pulisic has certainly been soaring for a while now given he has carried on his excellent form from last season and is irreplaceable on the right. The fact the USA international is still doing so well is at least partially Fonseca’s merit.

Then there is Matteo Gabbia, who convinced the Portuguese to change his mind and to shift him from reserve to starter. Tijjani Reijnders is also immovable, but Youssouf Fofana has already shown his tactical importance to the team as the balancer in the middle.

The Borsa is not so kind to Theo, who is being questioned much more than in the past in terms of his role but mainly his attitude, while Loftus-Cheek has lost the certainty of his place and the spark that led to double digits goals last season.

Fikayo Tomori is still making errors which may be impacted by the constantly changing defence around him, within which Emerson Royal – someone Fonseca is believed to have endorsed the signing of – is very much failing to convince everyone so far.

Luka Jovic has been excluded from the Champions League list and appears ostracised after Tammy Abraham’s arrival, then there are players who remain in the balance like Leao, who is struggling for goals yet remains the game-breaker in the team.

The man

Fonseca has already shown himself to be quite transparent in interviews and press conferences. He explains his concepts with surprising openness, and he is not frightening to let it be known when he thinks his players could have done better.

In short he does not wear a mask like other coaches, but net of words he already seems quite different to Stefano Pioli contrary to the notion that he was hired to simply continue along the same lines as they Italians.

As La Gazzetta report, Fonseca lives on Lake Como (Pioli used to live in the centre of Milan), he has chosen a base starting XI and has carried on with it (his predecessor tended to rotate a lot, especially in his last two seasons) and he has developed the theory of a rotating captaincy (Pioli stuck with Alessio Romagnoli then Davide Calabria firmly).

What does the overall picture look like? So far we can define the new Milan coach as a quiet revolutionary, who does not shout in public but rather establishes key concepts clearly and holds firm on those. The next 100 days will tell us a lot about how the journey will develop, if, of course, he gets that far.