Youssouf Fofana has been virtually undroppable for AC Milan all season, that is until the last couple of games against Feyenoord and Torino.
As Il Giornale (via MilanNews) recalls this morning, Fofana started on the bench for the game in the Champions League last Tuesday night and the Serie A fixture on Saturday. In both cases he then came on in the second half.
What is behind these choices by Sergio Conceiçao? There have been rumours of a possible argument between the midfielder and the Rossoneri coach, but that is not the case and there has been no kind of heated debate.
The paper goes on to explain that what is behind these couple of games started on the bench is the fact that the Frenchman has played practically every match so far and is now struggling in terms of his physical condition.
The numbers do show that the former Monaco man – in addition to his midfield partner Tijjani Reijnders, who is also playing too much – is not as effective as he was earlier in the campaign.
Ultimately, it is something that points towards poor squad construction as there is no natural deputy to Fofana. Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek play further forward, while Warren Bondo arrived injured.
Absolutely no one saw this coming, right? 😀 😀 😀 😀
None of the players are defensively as good as Kessie was.
None of them are that kind of players.
The management need to bring in a proper Kante type of player.
Very well spoken. We miss kessi. So stong and can guard the ball all day
More rifts please next stop ELLIOT / REDBIRD 😤
I wonder come the end of the season if the rifts will be the perfect excuse to not extend the coach beyond six months nothing to do with the fact the players ain’t good enough along with many more things.
“The numbers do show that the former Monaco man – in addition to his midfield partner Tijjani Reijnders, who is also playing too much – is not as effective as he was earlier in the campaign.”
We have to make up our minds, are they tired or are they not? Reindeer soon badly needs a break. And I’m sure he’ll start the next game because our midfield is so poor
This where Adli would have been needed for depth and replacement for Mr Tijj so he can rest.
But our big brained management and many brain dead fans here, sorry I meant big brained boot lockers, sorry I meant shorted sighted fans,
My keyboard is acting up today. I meant goodwill fans thought he was not good enough and agreed he was trash and average and should leave. And now surprise surprise Reijnders needs rest and has no good back up🤷♂️🤷♀️
Musah has been better, the coach should play the guy who is in better form. Fofana was never required to win the job, he was placed in a 1-1 game vs Parma. Stood and argued with Theo while the winning goal was scored and given every minute their after despite the cracks that showed up in games like Monza where maldini got in behind him several times but couldn’t finish. He has had good games but more bad…defensively and offensively musah has been more reliable with less turnovers and better timing on his challenges this season. Musah is not a winger he is an incredible man defender and he is good at anticipating turnovers and recycling the ball to the offense. Regardless I don’t think that defending has been an issue…giving up a goal to caligori last season just meant that they won 5-1 instead of 5-0…this team scored on counters a lot last season and you don’t get that with fofana because he’s not a ball winner….the best chance against a low block is pressure and taking the ball and scoring before they can settle and it just doesn’t happen with this squad…leao especially is a counter attacking player…it’s weird but makes sense that they have had more success against a Madrid than a team that will sit back all game.
Why wasn’t my comment about the ways in which musah has outplayed fofana this season accepted? It was based on stats. Turnovers. Passing. Defending. Maybe it was flagged because I used the name of the Monza player who beat fofana a few times in a game earlier in the season when expressing his defensive issues and positioning?