Again? How many times are we going to keep doing this? Add another game to Fonseca’s list of underwhelming performances largely driven by squad mismanagement/squad selection. Is time running out on Fonseca???
Warning: I’m going to do my best to keep this from being a broken record but there’s only so much I can do. When you have a flat tire and you don’t fix it, I’m sorry but the story is going to be the flat tire UNTIL you fix it. That’s how it works. You’re not going to start talking about the lovely morning while you’re wobbling and veering into a curb. So until then, let’s keep beating that dead horse!
In this game, Fonseca chose to reduce offensive firepower against the team tied for the fewest goals allowed in the top 5 leagues in Europe to this point in the season. At home. With a healthy and mostly rested squad. Versus a depleted Juventus side. You can’t make this up.
What was the result of this decision? Just 2 shots in the first half, zero on goal, and a total of 6 shots for the game, 1 (weak) on goal. The xG was 0.31 for Milan (Juve tried to match them with a 0.40 xG…exciting stuff). To top it off, Fonseca was quoted as saying the problem was the attack and that the fans were right to boo for a spectacle like that. Dude. You’re the coach! You can actually do something about it. I can’t with this f**king guy.
Speaking to Lisi about this, he pointed to subpar performances from Theo and Leão, which is true. It’s also true they haven’t been good for chunks of the season. Some of it is formation, as both aren’t going to excel in 4-4-2 (or 4-3-3) formations like they would in 4-2-3-1. There’s probably also some unhappiness about the contract, especially with Theo, but I think most of it is that they don’t appear to be invested in the team. Or more specifically, the coach.
Lisi thinks it shouldn’t matter what’s going on between them and Fonseca and I know others feel the same way. They want them to play through it. I mean, they’re professionals, right? They are. But they’re not robots. A coach treating you (or perceived to be treating you) unfairly is not going to get an all-in performance from 95% of players. Not saying I like it but I think that’s what happens most of the time. Throw in all the not-winning and Fonseca is surely losing the rest of the locker room as well.
All of this is putting Milan in a precarious position before the new year. There are a lot of games coming up in a short amount of time and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for error, both in on-the-pitch performance and management decisions regarding a potential in-season coaching change. Gerry, Zlatan, Moncada, and company better be ready depending on how the week goes…
What Happened in Serie A
Napoli (1st) still sit at the top of table with a solid 1-0 win over Roma (12th). A little boring at times but Conte’s men, specifically Lukaku, helped secure all 3 points in Claudio Renieri’s first game in charge at Roma. For those of you keeping track at home, this would be Roma’s 4th coach this season in 17 games across all competitions. Apparently it could be worse, Milan fans…it could be worse…
The next four teams, Atalanta (2nd), Inter (3rd), Fiorentina (4th), and Lazio (5th) all won comfortably over Parma (13th), Hellas Verona (14th), Como (18th), and Bologna (8th), respectively. All four sit just one point behind Napoli for the top spot. With how hot these four teams are, and NOT hot Napoli is, it feels like it’s just a matter of time until one of these teams dethrones Napoli.
Milan (7th) and Juve (6th) obviously drew while Udinese (9th) also drew against Empoli (10th) and Torino (11th) drew with Monza (19th). Lecce (15th) beat Venezia (20th) 1-0 and Cagliari (16th) and Genoa (17th) drew 2-2 and remain in the same spots in the table. A lot of meh with these teams this weekend.
With a ton of games coming up, and how tight things are at the top of the table, the top 6 could look very different before 2025 hits. Exciting stuff in the best league in Europe!
Now onto ratings…
Player Ratings
Goal Keeping
MAIGNAN 7 – No complaints. Juve didn’t muster much and wouldn’t press Mike no matter how far out he came with the ball. Why did they move on from Allegri again???
Goal Keeping Overall 7
Defense
ROYAL 6 – Man, I might lower this because watching Kalulu do a millions things better than him all game made my blood boil. Also, how does a dude with this much speed get toasted as much as Calabria? Oye vay…
Gabbia 7 – Solid in his return game. Definitely the best passer out of all the CBs as he had probably the best pass of the night to Leão across the pitch. Probably needs to start in most circumstances
THIAW 7 – Milan’s most in-form defender? I think so. But I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing
HERNÁNDEZ 6 – I thought he was very meh, both sides of the ball. I chalk it up to the formation but regardless, Milan is at its best when Theo (and Leão) are thriving, and that’s definitely not the case
Defense Overall 6.5
Midfield
FOFANA 6.5 – ALMOST had another poor-touch giveaway. But he didn’t! Otherwise played well and his acuity for the DM position shows compared to when other players on the team occupy the position
REIJNDERS 6.5 – First average game in a while but didn’t play poorly by any means
Midfield Overall 6.5
Forwards
MUSAH 6 – Not his best game but I think part of it was because RLC was next to him. So, I’m not going to put all the blame on him
LOFTUS-CHEEK 6 – That makes 0 goals, 0 assists in 851 minutes across all competitions. Also, starting to see more people complain about him so let me say, welcome! Plenty of space on this train
LEÃO 6.5 – In a game with few opportunities, most of the ones that did come, came from him. And again, I’m not blaming him for his lack of performance this season. That’s mostly on Fonseca
MORATA 6 – He’s been flopping more and more these last 3-4 games and it’s impacting his overall performance and contribution. Stay on your feet and stop looking for and start running through the contact big hombre
Forwards Overall 6
Subs
PULISIC 6.5 – Didn’t come in until the 70th minute but provided a much-needed spark. Ultimately, through no fault of his own, it wasn’t enough
CALABRIA NA – How bad was Royal at times in this game that I actually didn’t care seeing Calabria? And he actually had some decent runs getting forward…if Chukwueze could play a pass to him
PAVLOVIC NA – I honestly didn’t notice him
CHUKWUEZE NA – Didn’t play enough minutes to warrant a rating but man…he wasn’t good
Subs Overall 6.5
Coaching
FONSECA 1 – The lineup sucked and his subs sucked and were all too late. And the formation…Leão had his best game of the season last time out and you go and institute this quasi-hybrid 4-4-2/4-2-3-1 with no attacking threat next to him whatsoever AND effectively crowd him out and place him more centrally?
All 3 points were there for the taking for a team we are chasing in the standings. I don’t get it with this guy. One step forward, eight steps back it seems. This is Milan’s lowest point total in 13 games since 2019-20, before Pioli’s first full season.
Milan is probably going to win tomorrow vs the Slovakian UPS drivers, and that’ll buy him some time until this weekend vs Empoli, as I’m sure Fonseca’s questionable lineup combined with goalkeeper Vasquez’s herculean game-of-his-life against his current-but-soon-to-be-former team will result in more dropped points
Final Thoughts
Ugh.
Forza Milan.
gillis
