GdS: Fonseca meets Theo face-to-face – what was said and what happens now

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·13 December 2024

GdS: Fonseca meets Theo face-to-face – what was said and what happens now

Paulo Fonseca spoke with Theo Hernandez at Milanello yesterday, a report claims, beginning his mission to get the best version of him back.

This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the coach’s outburst on Wednesday night, after the victory against Red Star, was aimed at the team’s attitude but also at the performance of some individuals.

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One of these is Theo, with whom the coach had a one-to-one meeting yesterday at Milanello. The aim was to explain the mistakes he made and invite him to react, as the champion he is, by focusing only on Milan.

Today the Portuguese will have new face-to-face discussions, probably with Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori and the other players who – in his eyes – are performing below their standards. The aim is to rejuvenate players he believes are fundamental to the project.

He behaved in the same way with Rafael Leao, even benching him for a few games. The result to this point is that he has emerged from it as a better player more willing to give everything for the cause.

Reflections to be made

Hernandez at the start of this season has not been at his best and he probably knows it. Fonseca showed him on video the mistakes he made in the defensive phase, while the Frenchman is also looking to get back to the best physical condition too.

The coach asked him to react, to isolate himself from everything and to think only about the pitch. It remains to be seen whether he will give him a break against Genoa, to let him reset his head, but Paulo certainly expects a reaction soon.

Ditto from Calabria and Tomori, two starters from the year of the Scudetto. The captain, who left the pitch very angry (and was jeered by the crowd), confided to those closest to him that he is not angry with the coach for the substitution, but that he is only annoyed for the moment on a personal level.

The English defender, who received a yellow card for protesting while warming up and will be suspended in the Champions League game against Girona, is playing very little. At the start of the season he was considered irreplaceable, so something must change.

Beyond the anger

Fonseca’s dissatisfaction is also due to how the team as a whole approached the match against Red Star, an inferior opponent that should have been beaten more easily. He was very disappointed, after days of warnings and work on the pitch, to see the mistakes made especially in the second half.

On Wednesday evening he let off steam in the room that the management share with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada, then he reiterated the same concepts in an animated manner to the players and the media.

Without accusing individuals, he spoke of the wrong attitude and wanted to reiterate those concepts publicly to provoke a reaction. Fonseca knows full well that Milan has performed worse in the league so far than last season and is looking for a way to turn things around.

He has done and will do the rest of the work with individual discussions, a practice that is anything but unusual since he has been at Milanello. Yesterday morning the Portuguese coach entered the gates of the training complex at 09:15 and left at 14:40, accompanied by a man from his staff.

Then, the former Lille boss went to Casa Milan where he took stock of the situation with the club who reiterated their full support for the chosen approach. The fact that no director was at Milanello yesterday morning should not be interpreted as a lack of commitment by the club.

Instead, it is the result of the precise desire not to weaken the coach’s work with speeches to the group. He is the only one who has to manage the technical issues, knowing that he has Ibrahimovic and the other managers at his side.