Fonseca: “È un passo indietro, dobbiamo migliorare in difesa, abbiamo perso il 69% dei duelli aerei, Theo può fare meglio, questo è il Leão che vogliamo, bene Camarda”

Fonseca: “It’s a step back, we need to improve defensively, we lost 69% of the aerial duels, Theo can do better, this is the Leão we want, Camarda did well”

Paulo Fonseca saw a Milan which was not aggressive enough, as they dropped points at Cagliari.

Fonseca said after the win over Real Madrid that playing in Serie A is harder than in the Champions League, and tonight’s match against Cagliari showed exactly what the coach meant by it.

Nadir Zortea (2′) scored after less than 90 seconds on the clock, but then Rafael Leão (15′, 40′) got a brace. However, Gabriele Zappa, who tormented a terrible Theo Hernández all night, equalized (53′). Fonseca made changes and substitute Tammy Abraham, who replaced 16-year-old Francesco Camarda, got a tap-in to make it 3-2 (69′). However, Zappa then found the net again with a brilliant volley (89′).

The Rossoneri struggled a great deal against Davide Nicola’s side, looked incredibly fragile in defense and conceded chances left and right. Despite leading for most of the match, Milan can consider themselves lucky to have left Sardegna Arena with a point.

“The problem for Milan today was not offensive, but defensive,” Fonseca told DAZN. “We had major difficulties with Cagliari’s crosses. Aggression is lacking at the moment. It’s impossible to win a game against a team that only crosses and lose aerial duels. Even with a five-man backline, we lost aerial duels – we lost 69% of them. We had trouble with direct play and crosses.”

Was it a step back, and if so in what way?
“Mainly in terms of the result. Offensively, we did good things. We scored 3 goals here; we shouldn’t be drawing this game. It’s a step back – we can’t concede 3 goals if we want to win.”

Is Milan’s future with a three-man midfield?
“We always play with a three-man midfielder. Today we played with Reijnders, Fofana and Pulisic. That wasn’t the issue. The problem was the way we suffered. We conceded the first goal, which we shouldn’t have… yes, it was offside, but we shouldn’t have allowed it. The second goal was crazy… This is a team that crosses constantly and we weren’t aggressive enough individually and not as a unit.”