Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Discuss Milan's Managerial Shake-Up: Fonseca's Exit, Player-Coach Rifts, and Conceição's Arrival
Episode Description:
In this week’s episode of Davy & Chin Talk Milan, we dive into the dramatic week at AC Milan. Paulo Fonseca’s tenure ends after a disappointing 1-1 draw against Roma, leaving Milan 8th in Serie A. We analyze the match, discuss what led to Fonseca’s exit, and explore what Sergio Conceição can bring as Milan’s new coach. We also review Milan’s inconsistent first half of the season, highlight standout and underperforming players, and discuss expectations for the second half. Join us as we unpack Milan’s current struggles, Conceição’s challenges, and what lies ahead for the Rossoneri this season!
The Rossoneri Renaissance is complete After 11 years once again, milan are the champions of Italy.
Speaker 2:It's they who wear the crown for the 2021-2022 season. Hello everyone, this is Dave and Chin. Talk, milan, and we are back again. Chin. What's up, man? How you doing bro?
Speaker 1:Dave, I'm good. I'm good. I'm better than you actually think I am, because you know what it seems like all you're crying. Your boy Ibra finally heard your voice. He said let me feel bad for my boy Dave, and give him what he wants. I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay.
Speaker 2:How are you? Anyways, as we're recording this episode, coach Paulo Fonseca has been fired from his job after Milan drew Roma 1-1 at the San Siro. This is pretty much a writing on the wall. Anyways, chin, what's your thought about it? Because are you surprised that it came very sudden? What do you think? Because, to me, honestly speaking, if you ask me, I wasn't even expecting this to happen today. Honestly speaking, because if you look at the way this team is playing right now, in terms of injury issues and everything right, I thought maybe at least you know cutting Milan from slack because of the injury, right, there's going to be anything. It won was fired and the news came up again right away that Sergio Conte is going to be the new Milan manager from tomorrow. It's been a season of, you know, ups and downs for Milan.
Speaker 1:So you're trying to hold your joy. Let me explain, like for those of you that are not aware, you know, I think this is a good thing for Seca, in a way, for all Milan fans, in fact, and I'll tell you why. Because those people that never got over the sacking of Purely can now feel better, that someone else came in and got fired and then they can. Maybe it's now the next coach is once removed from Purely. Because, as far as Dave is concerned, he was never going to be satisfied with Fonseca unless he came in and just basically became the next the prime pep right, unless he came in and just basically became the next the prime pep right. Because that's how this whole thing works. I feel like Fonseca to me. Fonseca to me is like a sacrificial lamb. I said it the other day that if it means him imbibing discipline to this team and then the next coach comes in and demonstrate things that I feel like this squad can demonstrate, Because this team is a very the players are good enough. They shouldn't be. They're not eighth place. You know playing inconsistent football and looking very disorganized. You know caliber of players, right, I know they are injured, but still like, you know what I mean, they just look very disorganized and they don't deserve that. They need a coach, a manager that knows what he's doing and can help them get structured and get organized, and then we'll see the real talent in these guys showing up. Now the next coach will benefit from the circus firing Because, honestly speaking, first of all, there's no place to go but up.
Speaker 1:Pioli was really loved by a lot of Milan fans, yourself included. You're like his number one. If they had a fan club, you'd be president Pioli fan, really loved by a lot of Milan fans, yourself included. He's number one. If they had a fan club, you'd be president Pioli fan club yourself. Therefore, anybody that came after Pioli, anybody that came after Pioli, would be looked upon with a negative. It's like your favorite teacher leaves, your main teacher leaves, and then the substitute teacher comes in, but after a while you get over your teacher. So why am I saying this?
Speaker 1:Fonseca had a horrible time at Milan. He was not the right guy for the job. His attitude was not great. He wasn't. The players never respected him. And why should they? I said this before. They don't respect the guy because he doesn't have anything for them to look at and be respectful of and, and then he actually combines that with a not best attitude. Right, he doesn't have a great attitude in terms of casual players.
Speaker 1:If you're Conte or you're like the peps of this world, you can come in and drop all your championships on the table and people will listen to you. They don't have to, you know they don't have to. You don't have to be their friend. But if you're Paulo Fonseca, who hasn't won much and who basically some people look at as a laughingstock in italy, then what you have for you is to make sure that the players love you and they, they are waiting to go die for you. But he never got that. He never got that from the key players, and you're right. You called it out uh, tomori, leao, teo hernandez. All those guys never really believed in whatever fonseca was selling and he didn't go about trying to convince them the right way, which was his major downfall, if you ask me right. So I think the firing was due. We'd never really got going. It took us 18 games, I think. You and I talked about it and I said he was going to get fired eventually. I'm surprised that it happened at this time.
Speaker 2:The reason being man.
Speaker 1:It took Milan two years to finally get rid of Pioli. You know what I mean. Like this Milan management team, they are very patient, sometimes too patient, and the fact that they pulled the plug so quickly tells a lot about how how should I say how worried they were that Milan was not going to finish fourth and it's looking very likely Anyway. So I'm surprised it happened now At finish fourth and it's looking very likely Anyway. So I'm surprised it happened now. At the same time, I'm not too surprised because they want to salvage the season and make sure that they finish top four, and they know that finishing top four or not finishing top four rather will be detrimental to the entire plan they have for this team going forward in terms of making money and in terms of being able to reinvest in the play in the team. So that's why I'm not too shocked that they did it.
Speaker 2:I think you really hit the nail on the head in all honesty, and let's just completely backtrack a little bit to the end of last season. Right, when you know Milan parted ways with Stefano Pioli. Right, if you look at the way this season ended for Milan, last season, you can if you're a Pioli fan, you can really make hey, you deserve to be given one more year. Right, to finish the end of his contract Because, again, maybe the players are new or there's so much to do with the team. Right. But again, when you take a look at the team itself, right, and you know what you wanted from Milan as a team in terms of you know the level of competitiveness in Italy and also in Europe, right, and it's considering the fact that you see the gap between Milan and Inter, like some of the fans always reiterate when it comes to criticism of Pioli that we finished 18 points behind Inter.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of Milan fans that really supported Pioli were under the impression that Fonseca is going to come in and just change things around. You know right off the bat, right, but I don't think it really worked well like that. Again, I think this has a lot to do with not just the fact that Fonseca has his own way of, you know, managing players right. I think it also has a lot to do with his ability to be able to sit in from a different perspective in terms of how we want to fix this team.
Speaker 2:If we take a look at it right in the preseason, I don't think anybody will ever think of you know Konseka ending his career at Milan in this very short period Because, again, he really gave us a really good impression in the preseason and everybody was really, you know, giving him credit on how he was able to transform his you know his ideas to this team and then get them going right away until the players coming the ideas to this team, and then get them going right away until the players come in. The top players come in, came back from international break, so international duties, and then he began to struggle in the first two, three games of the league. And I think this is where we need to really quickly just talk about change. When you look at Fonseca in preseason, the way he played City, the way he played Real Madrid, the way he played Barcelona, what do you think really went wrong?
Speaker 1:I think what happened to Fonseca is two things. First of all, unnecessarily high expectation. Purely figure this thing out, screw up the preseason and then everyone comes in with no expectation and then all of a sudden it looks like you're doing a great job. So what happened to Fonseca is twofold. He actually played very well in preseason. He got everyone excited, including me. You. All Milan fans were very excited, even though, to be honest, I personally never really thought he was that guy because, based on his history at Roma, based on the fact that he wasn't really one of those guys that if you talk to a lot of people they rate as one of the best coaches out there, right, but what he did in preseason was incredible. But then we forget. It's preseason, right, so everyone is excited. All these players, if you look at it, all the guys that did very well in preseason, were guys that needed to prove a point. They were excited to have a new coaching.
Speaker 1:His problem became when the new, when the big boys showed up right, all the big boys came back from euros. They were all tired, they were not, were not in the mood for you know, listening to whatever he has to say. And then we got. We added a couple more guys. That, to be honest, it made it difficult to build the plane while it was flying. He was trying to build that team and build his identity while it was actually you know what I mean while things were happening in real time, which was difficult for him. Because I say that? Because, if you think about preseason, the people that did very well, the Chukwuzes of this world, the Liberali of this world, those guys, to be honest, were not going to be major starters in the team. And now you know what he started doing. When he started seeing how things were not working out for him with the core players of the team, because they were not really bought into whatever he was doing, then guess what ended up happening? He started relying now on those guys that he used in preseason, right, he started relying more on those players that he felt would listen to him and try to execute, but the problem is those guys don't have the talent right. So everything just went. Really, it's like a perfect mix of, you know, a hurricane of events for him.
Speaker 1:He started with the high preseason expectation with the wrong set of players it wasn't Milan starters and then the only time they showed up was the last preseason game and they played like 65 minutes or 20 minutes, whatever minutes they played, I don't know if you remember Right and it looked okay, but it doesn't take 25 minutes. The preseason and the actual start of the season. Milan added a few more players like Fofana and a few people that were supposed to be integral to what he was doing, and then the season started. You know, then things didn't get off to a great start. That Torino game wasn't a very good advertisement for him and his system.
Speaker 1:And then, all of a sudden, he started having all these issues with Leal and Theo and people not doing what he wants them to do, which again rubbed those guys off the wrong way and led him down that path and the only way he literally started coaching for his job after two or three games into the season. Think about that. So now, all of a sudden, the guy doesn't have that confidence to what's it called to keep trying to push certain agenda. He started doing whatever he could do to, you know, get results, including the Inter Milan game. He really needed that one. Remember, he was going to get fired if he hadn't, if he didn't, win that game, and then he came up with this four, four to four formation and then stuck with that for like three, four games because he worked against in tamiland.
Speaker 1:But that was the guy. He never used that formation in the preseason, right, that's not what he wanted to do. And then slowly he started trying to build back up, but he can't do it because either players are out of form, players don't care about whatever he's saying, or injuries do happen to his team, which just makes it so difficult for him. So he actually said when he was leaving that he tried his best. The truth is, he probably did, but his best is not good enough and Milan is a team where the pressure just comes. It's almost like to your point. You're the guy that always says this coaching or playing at Milan is a different ballgame, because one, two games you go, everything goes wrong. It looks like if Pep was a Milan coach, I'll tell you by now he might have been fired. And it's so crazy to say like, even though I love Pep, I'm just saying that because teams like Milan, madrid, like of losing. The whole world is coming to an end. That's how it feels, like that was exactly what happened to Fonseca.
Speaker 2:It's unfortunate. I have one more question. I know you and I will go back and forth on this particular topic. Did you think Fonseca really handled the situation with Rafaelia Mateo properly? Because, again, like you said, I'm going to reiterate what you said. You said it's a new sheriff in town, right? So everybody needs to understand that things are done differently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I know I was talking about this particular topic in the group today, right, when Liverpool was playing West Ham, and I said I really admire the way Slot is really managing this Liverpool team, because this is what I really expected from Paulo Fonseca, which is basically the respect between the Paulo Fonseca, which is basically the respect between the boss and the player, right, and the top players in the team.
Speaker 2:If you look at players like Arnold, for example, right, the way he's able to ignite his form again and back to top, playing at top level. Right same thing with Virgil van Dijk and all those players. I feel like that's the primary goal of Milan bringing Fonseca to the team is for him to be able to improve the ability of the stop players that will feel like Pioli wasn't really getting the best out of anymore, for example, like Rafael Leal, theo Hernandez you know all those guys Tomori, for example, even Pavlovich that came in this season like that we're talking about, like Pavlovich now is on the chopping bench too, just like Tomori, and you have like Gabby and Malik Chia like being our regulars and stuff, right? Do you think he handled that situation, that man-management situation with Theo and all the top players, and make him believe, like, what's your thoughts on it?
Speaker 1:Well, the result is basically that not win right and I kind of said it one time I said eventually the coach will get fired, right, but the guy will get fired doing what he believes in. And what he believes in is exactly what he ended up doing. So I actually, in a way, respect that, because I'd rather he actually proves his point and then eventually someone like him might actually get vindicated because the new coach might come and then now if they have a problem with r Leal and Teo and those guys, then we know that actually wasn't a Fonseca problem, right? You know what I mean. But now to answer your question, you can't compare him to an slot. And I say that because two things. And a slot was literally unpicked by Liverpool and Klopp. Klopp literally was thinking his name before he even left Liverpool into the whole crowd. Secondly, he has the same, exact same players, right? Nothing really changed. He has the exact same squad from what he had before. All he needed to do was tweak the ideology slightly to give them a little bit more composure or control. But it's the same style of football, but just a little bit more controlled. And then, thirdly, the season started well for the guy man, like they started the season and Liverpool was flying. They were flying. What people don't understand is that when you start the season on a high note, it gives you that momentum and then, especially if you're a new coach, everyone believes in whatever ideology ideology or things you're selling. And they've had a lot of big games this year and they've outperformed almost every single person they've played in. Liverpool is top of every league. They're a part of. That guy like guess what? When he tells you that where you're standing is the wrong spot to stand, guess what you're going to do, listen to him. And then, secondly, he was also very highly touted, coming from the Dutch league and all the things he did. So, from the Dutch League and all the things he did. So what am I trying to get at? It's almost like when you go get I'll use Xabi Alonso, for example, right, you get Xabi Alonso to come coach your team. Or you get Di Gebi, I'll use those guys that everyone basically has this high expectation of, and then those guys come in and then right away, the team gets positive results. You know what will happen. Everyone will believe in those guys and they won't have all these personal problems that Fonseca had.
Speaker 1:Fonseca's problem is again, like I said, no one believed in Fonseca and secondly, he did not get off the boat. Like you know, he didn't get off the whistle, he didn't go Milan. The start did not go well and the start made everyone lose faith in him, or at least most of the key players. And then he started looking to your point. He started looking for who to throw under the bus, which is not ideal if you're that guy where you do not have the championship clout to make sure that people, when you throw people under the bus, they know that it is from a place of experience and what you've like. You're talking from a championship voice. So he lost the battle. Therefore, the approach that he had might wasn't really the best approach for his situation. Does that mean that all these approach that he had wasn't really the best approach for his situation? Does that mean that all these players that he mentioned do not have problems? That's absolutely not true, because you and I know that, to be honest with you, almost every single player that you just talked about, they've had a poor run this season. It wasn't just because of the coach alone. Their performances have not been where they were before and I can tell you that, as a Milan fan, I've been watching all these guys play Tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Pavlovic from day one. I told you about Pavlovic that you liked him. He's aggressive, but the problem is he's always getting caught behind and then he has to chase. I used to have issues with Fofana, but then Fofana now basically added some more elements of passing to his game creativity. Now, all of a sudden, he looks well. Guess who doesn't have a problem with him? The coach.
Speaker 1:So what I'm trying to say is that these guys gave him a reason to have a problem with them. So he didn't just make up a rationale as to why he needed to bench Tomori or bench what's his name, hernandez, and so on and so forth. They gave him a reason. Now, was that reason enough for him to throw everything away and try to build his own thing? Ah, maybe not. By the same time he was the guy in charge. He's paid for it with this by being fired. Now he has to actually go live with himself and try to rehabilitate himself, because I know it's not easy to get fired from a top job like mil. He has to go and look for another deal or something small like that too. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean, yeah, yeah, it's a funny chain. Let's probably just talk about this Roma game today, right, because, again, this game is I don't know if this is Do you think this is the game that really got him sacked from this job? Or because Look at the manner of this game, right, like this team is already depleted with injuries. Right, I think I messaged the group that this is the first time I'm seeing um milan play one of the best football, like the first 20 minutes of the game. Right, like you know, everything was spot on. Like, we're very aggressive. We seem to know what we're doing, you know, even though, like you, look at the team formation, with teresano playing in the midfield again, which which I'm not really cool with. But, again, I can understand the fact that, maybe because Benassi is just back from injury and maybe he's trying to just introduce him gradually into the game. But, in all honesty, like would you say this, this Roma game is more of a missed opportunity or a failed result. What's your point?
Speaker 1:I think it's indicative of where Milan have been this season, right, because you look at them, they are so inconsistent, like whatever they did the first 20, 30 minutes of the game, they couldn't continuously, they couldn't keep that going. Eventually, roma grew into the game and took control and then later on, in the second half, milan came back again and they were pressing I don't know if you remember like when Benacer came on, they were, like you know, choking Roma. Like when Benacer came on, they were like you know, choking Roma, and again they couldn't convert those things into goals, right? So what am I trying to say In this football game? It's a game of. It's funny how, honestly speaking, if Milan genuinely the Milan management has a project in mind, nothing about today was different from any other thing that Milan has done in the past. What I mean by that is all year this has been Milan. The only difference is some days they actually take some of those chances. Some days they struggle on taking some of their chances and then it looks bad because they will concede one or two goals. Right?
Speaker 1:I keep bringing you back to Madrid game. Fonseca beat Madrid, but everyone made it seem like, oh my God, there was something great about there? Wasn't that anything that great about that performance? Because Madrid missed all their chances in most of the ads and Milan took the ads. But again, there's no difference between the Madrid game and the Roma game today.
Speaker 1:What I'm trying to, and there's no difference between that and the other games that we played against other teams this season. You know what I mean. It's basically milan giving chances and getting and getting chances. So when they convert us, it looks like they are having a great result and when they don't, it looks like they they are not. So to fire a guy because the team did not convert their chances today, to me it's just a sign that the milan management doesn't have an idea of what they want to do with the team and what they want to do in terms of plan. There's no plan Because nothing today basically indicates that Fonseca should have been fired. It wasn't like it was a disastrous game where Milan went by the way, it's Roma we're talking about, right it wasn't like it's a disastrous game where Milan went in and then they got blown out of the waters and they couldn't hold their own, whatever. Who?
Speaker 2:they are whatever. Yeah, I completely understand, in all honesty, right, if you look at the way the game really went, honestly speaking, I feel like looking at the formation, you know, with Teresha. I know he came playing in midfield and having, like Jimenez playing in the left wing replacing Rafael Leal injured Rafael Leal, right I feel like we did what we had to do today, in all honesty, and if we drop points in this game, it's because, probably, lack of qualities and again, you can't really, you know, say much because of the fact that we have our key players being injured, right, and that really kind of costs us the result. And don't forget that Roma is doing good under Coach Claudio Ranieri and they're doing better in their battle form now, so was a must-win for them as well, as much as it's important for us. But basically, this goes to my next question now, with the whole situation now, I could see some one or two positive things that Fonseca did during the tenure. In all honesty, if I look at that, for example, the partnership between Ofana and Tijani Reinders I think they're becoming much more solid Again. The same thing with Gabia and Malik Chia as well, right, even though I can see debate on that, even like I did last week in our last episode regarding, like, how effective is this? How is this helping us? The partnership between Gabia and Malik Chia.
Speaker 2:But now, looking at how things are now, I know you know quite a little bit about Sajid Kansasaw. You know, coming from Porto, with his history of, you know, being a winner, being a champion. He's won the league twice, won, you know, several trophies for FC Porto coming in, having the same similar style, you know, with the women, I like to play and again we played Porto, you know, three, four years ago in the Champions League and we know how we do and stuff like that. They have the experience and stuff. To me, I feel like Sajid Kostasar should have been the guy for the job initially. Anyway, he's here now. He's going to be announced tomorrow as Milan coach. Like what do you think?
Speaker 1:is the first key thing he needs to figure out is that midfield. It's funny how that midfield has been in terms of going forward. They've actually been quite good for Fana and Reinders. But, man, when teams go through Milan midfield, it's like hot knife through butter, like there's nothing stopping anything from passing through there right. So to me that's one of the biggest issues Fonseca had, and his counterpart, his Portuguese brother, would have to figure out a way to prevent that from being his own downfall, because it's actually been a problem for the I think I told you this from after Kessie left and then the Tonali, benassir, you know whatever tandem didn't work. And then all of a sudden, pioli figured out oh, if'm actually tossing crunage in there, I will help prevent all this from happening. And then it looked like he helped, but the problem is it's crunage. And then this guy showed up. What's his name? Fonseca.
Speaker 1:And I'm thinking, okay, if fonseca now has three good midfielders, he can actually figure out something with them. But instead he starts playing the two of them, which is for tijani and Fofana, which goes back to what's the difference between Tijani, reinders, fofana and Benacer Tonali? There's no difference to me anyway, because it's the same problem. The midfield is just too porous and too open and people just breeze through like nobody's there. So that's going to be the biggest thing there, because it doesn't matter matter what you do If your midfield is too. Man City is going through the same rubbish right now, where the midfield just looks too porous. People just pass through like nobody exists there and then they all just get, and then, directly, it's basically too much pressure on your centre-backs and what happens? Well, even good centre-backs start looking like they're not good and then your team look very chaotic.
Speaker 2:I know Benassi just came back from Nigeria and I know you both saw a little bit of him today, right Coming in for Tarasiano and partnering with Ofana in the midfield. He played more deeper right today, even though you can tell like it's still very rough. But his impact of sitting in front of the defence, being able to have that sort of stationary discipline that we want from a CDM right. Do you think a midfield of Benacer Fofana and Tijani Reinders will really be effective under Konsei South?
Speaker 1:Yes, I think, in all honesty, the three of them have the perfect mix of things that you need in order to get a very well-balanced midfield. You're going to put, if you ask me, you're going to put Tijani Reinders as a holding midfielder and then you're going to have not Reinders Benassi, and then you're going to have Reinders and Fofana on either side of him. To me that makes sense, but I don't know if that's how Corsese plays because I'm not too familiar with his style and what he does. But I'm just saying, like, if we go back, continue doing this, what's it called? Fofana and Reinders as the midfielders, milan is going to have a big problem Because, trust me, you're not going to get that stability in midfield and you're going to have the same issues.
Speaker 1:They had under what's his name? Paulo Fonseca. It's funny how Fonseca's teams always have the same problems. So there might be something fundamentally wrong with his ideology around football, because the best coaches I've said it the other time in the podcast, I said the best coaches, I know they don't play this kind of two-man midfield kind of thing. They always have a pivot. They always have some, at least in my own head anyways, the whole concept of playing football most times you have to win the midfield battle, otherwise you lose everything. So the more human beings you can toss in the middle like even Konte, when he plays he tries to do four, three, five, whatever the five is so that he can have as many human beings crowding the middle of the field as possible. Most good coaches have figured out that that's where the battle is won. If you want to win, you have to win the midfield battle, otherwise you're not going to go. You're not going far, but go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's my question, though, because since Consistar has been announced as the best minor manager, right, I've been studying him towards the end of last season as well, right, but I had to read most of the stuff. Consistar, you know, pressed much more higher on the pitch than Fonseca does, even than Pioli does. He's a very aggressive, high-intensity, high-press kind of coach, which I feel like will really push players like Malik Chia and Gabriel way forward Again. That would be a big problem, because either way, there would be some points where opponents would still end up even in the press right and trying to attack us and stuff. How do you think this will affect us, though? Or do you think you see players like Ricardo Tamori and Pavlovich coming back into the first level, and if that happens, would you be surprised?
Speaker 1:No, because usually when there's a new coach, the coach comes in. He has his own idea of what he wants to accomplish. Now, you know, I talk about midfield and midfield and pressing. I have no pressing. Well, for you to be able to do that, you need to have the players right, the kind of players Now, like some teams, what they do. I'll use Liverpool, for instance. They may have two what you call like CDMs, if you want to call them that right, what you call like CDMs, if you want to call them that right Two guys in the back, in front of the defense, but then the actual third midfielder that is almost like an attacking mid.
Speaker 1:He's really not like an attacking mid, he's an actual box-to-box midfielder with a lot of legs right. So that guy now is basically they actually have a three-man midfield, but it looks like it isn't. So the point I'm trying to make is it doesn't matter who you are or as a coach, you have to have more physicality or legs in the middle of the park. So if you're going to press high, then you have to make sure that again, you have defenders that are athletic enough to recover to help you cover those gaps which Liverpool has with guys like what's his name? Kunate and Virgil van Dijk. So the closest approximation to that would be your Tomoriz and Pavloviches. Right Now. You still need that leg in midfield and I can tell you as much as I love to Jenny Reinders, it's not that leg. Fofana might be the leg, but he needs help. So that's one of the big things that Milan is missing.
Speaker 2:And do you think, like Benassi, coming in will be of good help? You know, in terms of that sort of services that you're expecting right as a CDM. I feel like, maybe, when I say we'll probably come in, I feel that spot and, in all honesty, even if you look at this team right now, with all the options we have in the midfield, even though if everybody's healthy right look at Moussa, for example Do you think Konsei Sama will be forced to add maybe like one or two midfielders in the January transfer window, based on the way the team looks?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think Milan needs midfield reinforcement, fullback reinforcement as well, I think, because we've seen that we have midfield fullback problems as well. Right, so I think those are the two areas. I knew you were saying in the group that we need attackers. Man, I'm not sure. I'm not sure because we have a lot of them, but maybe they're not doing the job. I don't know if the new coach will help them do the job, because what are you going to do? Keep buying more? And then, who is going to play? Your boy Jovic hasn't kicked the ball this whole year. He hasn't so. And which?
Speaker 2:is one of the reasons why I kind of feel like, when I see him speaking like firing Fonseca. To me, I feel like he's the best option for Milan Because if you look at the expectations right before he was fired, before he was hired, it's basically for him to come and improve. All these players, right? The Jovic that scored 10 goals last season, the Okafor that had his glimpses, you know, the Chukwue that we felt like should be of Messi to Serie A, right, and all those players that were underperforming under Pogli at some point towards the end of last season. I feel like Moussaka not being able to get the best out of them this season is one of the main reasons why he got fired, and I think that's to me, that's the concrete reason. To me, that's enough to come to the fire Now. The thing is right. What do you expect from Kosovo from now to the end of the season? Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's still a chance. We still have that opportunity. I hope that he comes in with his winning, with his pedigree, we can win the Coppa Italia right, or at least make it to the final, and then we can try to push for top five, top five I say top five because you never know, right, like coefficients, they might give you an additional spot, and so on. Top four, top five, right, I think it's doable. This squad is really good. Like when I see some of the players, like sometimes it makes me laugh when you see some of the players the way, like you see their technical abilities, and then you're wondering, like, why does it look like other guys on other teams? You know, look like they're better players. And I keep telling down to coaching and to necessity, now Forgetting that this same set of players won the league four years in a row. What has changed is that the coaching has. If you ask me, pep's coaching level has dropped to not, I don't know if you understand what I mean. He's not doing a good job of coaching this team now because he's not doing what he has done in the past to help them come out of problem. It's funny to say that a great coach can be doing a bad job at a given moment in time. It's possible. You see what I mean, because basically, one guy gets hurt. You haven't coached enough to adjust to that new reality. That is all coaching. Ben Al-Sifar did not forget how to play football. Foden did not forget how to play football. He's Premier League player of the year.
Speaker 1:Trying to get across is all these Milan players are technically gifted, they are very good players. They're all internationals playing for the national teams at high level. So why do you think Inter Milan have a better squad than Milan? Because their coach is way much better than whatever Milan has been putting out there for the last few years. So that's why, all of a sudden, guys like Thuram that when they go to the French national team they barely kick a ball come to Inter Milan and they are world best players. Ball come to Inter Milan and they are world best players. Right Like Lautaro went to the Copa America, he barely even gets minutes and then he shows up oh my God, he's world best player. It's coaching, it is what coaching can do for you. So hopefully Concelsau can help Milan close that gap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my question for you right now is do you think Concelsau coming in January, will this spark the immediate improvement that we want from these players, you know, or will it take time?
Speaker 1:I think the good thing is, the timing of the change is okay, because, if you ask me, anyway, because if you want to rescue the season, giving the guy half a season, you know, and calling it okay like end of whatever. So if Milan can go on and maybe win 60, 70% of the remaining games or at least you know what I mean they may actually end up in the top four. The league is gone. I said this the last time. This is a good opportunity for them. It's a winter break, it's a new, kind of new chapter. Everyone you get to play everyone in the league once again, right, and get to experience all that stuff. I don't know if you know what I mean. So the end of the day, we don't have that much option. There's not much room. We just have to. The team has to do better and improve, so everybody has to basically be on their up and up Now. Some guys that feel like the coach likes them right, those guys now have to reprove themselves to the new coach. The guys that feel like they've been in the doghouse for the last few months, aka to mori, pavlovich and so on and so forth they now have a fresh, fresh slate to go and again, improve, prove themselves to the new coach. So it's it's. You know what I mean. So it's a good opportunity for everybody, so you might see the morale of the squad go up. Then some guys will feel sad, like teo malik, teo who, and then gabia, who this guy really likes, right, they will feel sad, but then they still have an opportunity because they were the guys there. The new coach will have to explain why he needs to put them on the bench all of a sudden so they can still prove themselves. So it's a good timing for everyone. Everyone has a good opportunity to start afresh and see what happens.
Speaker 1:For me, ultimately, all I want is Milan to have a you this long time ago. I invest hours watching this team. I invest my emotion watching this team. The only thing that they give back to me, if you ask me, is entertainment, value, right, and something to be proud of. So, to be honest, I haven't said that in the last few years like, oh, I'm really proud of what I'm watching. That's what I want. I want milan to play an entertaining brand of football that is fun to watch, so that when you put in your two and a half hours of time and your emotion. You know that you're getting something back from it. If you watch a movie and the movie is bad and it's two and a half hours, what do you do? You just under your breath, you're cussing the director and everybody that was involved in making that movie. And yet, week in, week out, every three, four days, milan is giving me bad movie to that, and then we can enjoy watching AC Milan again, right, anyway.
Speaker 2:Shane, if you ask me, and then Dave can stop complaining about Pioli, hallelujah.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited for this new chapter for Milan. Honestly speaking, having Constance come in, I think it has what it takes to take Milan to the next level, because what we need in that dressing room is a coach with a proven resume of winning championships, and I think Contestant really fits that profile. And considering the fact that he has also worked with a lot of high-profile players that I've seen right now, including his son, doing what Contestant doing what a Juventus right? Luis Diaz, all those guys, terame as well at Tinta right, I think he has the profile. He's the profile that really has that sort of resume of managing top players and I feel like he's the right call for Milan at this point.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping he comes in January, transform things and get us back again, you know, to the level that we want to be at in terms of our level of competitiveness. It doesn't look good for us on the league table right now, but hopefully next year we get back and get going. Chin, it's been a pleasure talking to you today about Milan. Yes, I know it's a rough season for us. Hopefully we return in 2025 with good energy, good results and make Milan fans happy again.
Speaker 1:I look forward to the new chapter and Forza Milan. It's been a pleasure talking to you today. Thank you too.
