AC Milan have made the decision to part ways with Paulo Fonseca as their head coach, and it is Sergio Conceicao that they have turned to.
La Gazzetta dello Sport begin a report by noting a key similarity between the two: both are Portuguese, and strong characters. However, Conceiçao is a different coach than Fonseca because he cares less about possession and is more pragmatic.
He often plays a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 system and seeks more vertical movement of the ball. His teams – more than being beautiful on the eye – are tough, physical and intense. It is no coincidence that Conceiçao asks a lot physically from his players and loves to have a group of physical players.
The results are encouraging: in seven years at Porto he won three league titles, twice reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and three more times lost in the quarter-finals. He knows Europe, and his CV had some Milan fans preferring him in the summer.
Conceiçao had a very complicated adolescence, born into a family that was certainly not rich. At 16 he lost his father in a motorbike accident, the day after he went with him to sign for. Two years later his mother also passed away and football became his everything.
As a player, Conceicao was a winger who spent time at Porto in Portugal before moving to Italy to play for Lazio, Parma and Inter. He returned to Lazio, and then to Porto, before playing abroad again. He has over 50 caps for Portugal too, with 12 goals.
The statistics he cares about most are probably two: firstly the 10 trophies he won with Porto, which make him the coach with the most trophies in the club’s history. And the record for points in a single Portuguese league season: 91, which is not a small number in a league with 18 teams.
He developed many players while with Porto, who were then sold at high prices as per the club’s modus operandi. Vitinha was sold to PSG, Luis Diaz to Liverpool, Eder Militao to Real Madrid, Otavio to Al Nassr and Diogo Dalot to Manchester United are just a few.
What about the person? Sergio has five children, he is religious, as a boy he was called Twister or Tornado because of his temper. Six months ago he left Porto when Pinto da Costa – the old president with whom he had signed the renewal – lost the elections against André Villas Boas.
Conceiçao did not spare a poisonous comment: “I deserved more respect for what I gave to this club.” He may have to be a bit calmer on January 3 when he will be in Riyadh, ready to face his son Francisco and Juventus in the Supercoppa.
he will need quality signings or he will fail like Fonseca (although he is better than Fonseca)… this team isn’t built properly
I wonder what he’s been promised regarding the squad, keeping the big names and potential signings in Jan?
I doubt he would have taken the relatively low salary and the 6 month stint, it’s more likely he wants to build a multi year project but did Redbird lie/exaggerate or will they back his requests in Jan or June
What squad?
Compare Milan to Atalanta
Need more?
we need at least 3-4 players and I’m underplaying that number. We need 2 midfielder (at least 1), ST and RB…
Morata and Tammy for sub is fine and Camarda, but we need quality pairing with Leao. Since Fonseca also used 4-4-2 with Leao, I think that will be the way to go. Tiji played LM to cover Leao and Puli is just all-rounder.
his LM and RM need to have play-making quality, which the Dutch and the Yank can pull it off. Fofana’s partner in the center and RB are also a huge holes that need to be plugged.
with quality 11 we can still salvage top 4 finish, the management just needs to wake the f up…
Absolutely, that’s why Fonseca shouldn’t be the scapegoat. Moncada, Furlani should be fired too.
Furlani deals with contracts, Moncada is responsible for building the team.
What happened to “they make all the mistak…, ehm, decisions together”? They all have said it many, many times but here comes überhulk flexing his (non-existing) muscles and claiming it’s all Moncada. 😀 😀 😀
What’s your source? 🙂
I feel like he accepted the job knowing that he can either work with the players he has or more likely, be able to purchase the players he wants in January. He would be stupid to take control of a sinking ship with no way out of the storm
Clubs rarely sign players in January. Milan can’t spend €100 million every year. Some players will have to leave and there’s a lot of garbage.
Most of the current garbage here at Milan was brought in by Moncada. RLC, Chuk, Morata, Abraham, Emerson, and Musah. Holy shtt look at the roster of garbage we got on hand.
I feel you
I can almost foresee we’ll see a resurrection of RLC. We may get a “Pulisic” out of him. The same beast in midfield that uses his strength which is his literal strength to his advantage
I think the offer is like this:
Here is team for six months. If you manage to reach Champions League spot next year, you are hired. And Conceicao accepted. He accepted because many coaches today want to be a manager of big name club.
What Milan calculated and we fans do not know, is what decisions are going to be from next summer if Conceicao doesn’t manage to bring champions league spot.
They will definitely sack Conceicao but who are going to bring new and what players are they going to sell….
Still probably they think first they can overturn this Milan position. In my opinion is very difficult to do that.
Hopefully we can still turn some of that garbage into something useful. Like the players that leave and then perform better. Cdk etc.
You can’t compare CDK with the others. CDK was the best player in a weak championship. Musah, RLC, Chukuwueze, Emerson, Abraham and Morata weren’t even the best players in their teams.
He likes physical players so Musah and Fofana already fall into category, RLC maybe but he’s slow and prone. Reijnders could well be put in trequartista role in 4231 which would be good.
Maignan
Calabria Thiaw Gabbia Theo
Musah(?) Fofana
Pulisic Reijnders Leao
Morata
i do not dislike this. He did wonders at porto nurturing talent. Luis Diaz comes to mind. If he can nurture Musah, Thiaw, Jimenez (remember this guys are quite young) and continue letting Reijnders and Fofana grow, he should be ok. I mean who knows, RLC is big and strong, Sergio likes physical teams, who knows, maybe there is hope to rescue something out of that. one can only hope.
Isn’t this basically the lineup Fonseca would have used if he’d had all his players available? We’ve already seen Tijji transitioning to AM. The only disagreement I have between this suggested lineup and what it will probably be under Conceicao is Musah. I think Benny will start over Musah. Meanwhile, I think RB if a complete question mark. Conceicao could well still choose him over Calabria, particularly when it’s obvious Calabria won’t be renewed.
He might get the best out of RLC tbh
Finally someone who talks sense , fairplay.
I can’t see a great reason why this will work out better than Fonseca. They both wanted the team to play high intensity defensively, counter-pressing to win the ball back, demanding forwards play hard. Which Leao has been unwilling to do under Fonseca. I said earlier this season that either the team would be leading the league or Leao or Fonseca or both would be gone by January. So… Fonseca is out. And we still have a fundamental problem that we keep hiring coaches who want to counterpress, while our most talented player refuses to do it. Fonseca is out because he couldn’t connect and get Leao or Theo to play his style.
I agree with that, if Leao will not change his playing style, then the problem will still there. We can sell him, and we can buy Conceicao from juve, abd Jimenez was quite good in that position! He fast, good at dribblings, and what a shot in his legs!