Fonseca: ‘Milan stopped playing, but no problem with Theo and Leao’

Paulo Fonseca tried to dampen down the controversy over Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez steering clear of his team talk, but slammed Milan for their 2-2 draw with Lazio. ‘We just stopped playing.’

The coach took a huge gamble and a bold stance when dropping Rafael Leao, Theo Hernandez and captain Davide Calabria to the bench at the Stadio Olimpico after one point from the opening two games.

It paid off to begin with, as Strahinja Pavlovic had given them the lead, but when Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia turned the game around within four minutes, he had to bring on his star men.

They made an immediate impact, as within 30 seconds Theo Hernandez and Tammy Abraham had combined to set up the Rafael Leao equaliser.

What will no doubt cause a great deal of controversy is that moments after that goal, there was a cooling break with everyone gathering around Fonseca to hear his instructions – all except for Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, who stood on the other side of the pitch.

“There is no problem. I think Theo already explained to the media after the game. We must not try to create problems, because this week I spoke to the players, explained my decisions, they accepted it and were always with the team. I was honestly not even looking at them being there, I concentrated on other things,” Fonseca told DAZN.

“They had only come on two minutes earlier, so did not need a cooling break. It’s not a problem, they gave a good reaction when coming on. I do not hide behind excuses, when we have a problem, I am the first to admit it, but the truth is there is nothing.”

Fonseca critical of Milan attitude after break

Curiously, both Lazio goals were essentially identical from Nuno Tavares assists from the left flank and came during a period of pressure from the Aquile.

“I thought we had a good first half because we controlled the ball. The second half was totally different. We allowed Lazio to play because we stopped trying to play ourselves. What we did in the second half was totally different. We always lost the ball down the left, that was the trend,” continued Fonseca.

“When a team no longer presses high and does not have the courage to keep playing, we don’t create those spaces. I realise this is not a positive moment and in the minds of the players they want to avoid conceding goals, but defending does not make us more comfortable. We have to control the match.”

Youssouf Fofana made his full debut for Milan in midfield, but are they still lacking another player in that area of the pitch?

“I am not missing a player in midfield. I am missing any play from the midfield. We stopped playing in the second half. We tried to build out from the back with Pavlovic and lost it 90 per cent of the time because there was no connection with the midfielders,” insisted Fonseca.

“Look, I realise the players feel that by defending they are being safe, but they are doing the opposite. It is not about a lack of character or responsibility, it is the intention of the team, which was not to play with the midfielders. It was a totally different match in the second half, not what we had planned.”