GdS: Cooling break saga develops – the background involving Leao and Theo | OneFootball

The ‘cooling break saga’ has been dominating the media headlines and the social media feeds of Milan fans since last night’s game against Lazio.

La Gazzetta dello Sport talk about an image that sums up the crazy week of Theo Hernandez and Rafa Leao. There was the cooling break in the second half, with all the Lazio and Milan players around their coaches but Theo and Rafa were not.

Instead they stayed on the other side of the pitch, drinking from water battles and watch from afar. The simple interpretation: they dissociate themselves from the coach Paulo Fonseca. However, the full-back had a different explanation.

“We had been on the pitch for two minutes, we didn’t need the cooling break. It was nothing against the team and the coach. Now we have to continue working to win all together,” he said.

“We had been on the pitch for two minutes. We didn’t need it. Then people talk, they say things that aren’t true. Rafa and I are always with the team to help, and that’s what’s important.”

Then Fonseca added his thoughts: “There is no problem and I think Theo has already explained. We must not create any problems, this week I spoke with the players who accepted the choice.

“The response from the players was good and we must not create problems when they are not there. I do not run away with excuses and at this moment there is no problem.”

More Stories / The Match

GdS: Cooling break saga develops – the background involving Leao and Theo

1 September 2024, 10:19

Fonseca says Milan ‘did well’ up until the second half: “We played a different game”

31 August 2024, 23:41

Theo reflects on Lazio draw and absence from Fonseca team talk: “People talk”

31 August 2024, 23:37

Despite the explanations, the climate around Fonseca’s Milan is already tense and to understand it we need to reconstruct the last week. Last Saturday Theo and Leao play very badly in the defeat against Parma.

What was especially striking is the lack of application, with Theo running at limited speed, responsible for the two goals by Man and Cancellieri. A few days passed and then on Thursday Fonseca tried the team with Filippo Terracciano and Christian Pulisic on the left.

What happened at the Olimpico, for this reason, is making noise. Theo and Leao were at the centre of the day even without what happened just after the equalising goal. Milan went behind, conceded two goals in five minutes and Fonseca pushed the button for plan B. In came Leao and Theo, with Musah and Abraham.

A minute or so later, Rafa scored the 2-2 goal, something Theo also had a hand in. He didn’t celebrate – that’s normal – and immediately afterwards, in the 73rd minute, he and Theo went to the other side of the pitch to talk to each other during the cooling break.

The post-match words will serve to defuse the situation, but the scene suggests a tense relationship with the coach, in the eyes of La Gazzetta. Theo Hernandez is the vice-captain of this team, Leao is the number 10 and the symbol of the new Milan era, the front-page man, the highest paid player.