Inside AC Milan: Fonseca’s Tactics, Transfer Window and Best Players

AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca made a promise to all the journalists in attendance: “If we beat Liverpool and Inter, I’ll bring you pastel de nata!”

Fonseca’s promise to hand out pastries, native to his homeland Portugal, perhaps illustrates that many, including the man himself, don’t expect Milan to win both games inside the space of five days. There was a time when the Rossoneri would’ve been comfortable favourites to do both, but those days are long gone.

Several days later, Milan were thoroughly beaten by Liverpool at San Siro in a game that demonstrated the sheer gulf between the two European aristocrats, and thus no pastel de nata for journalists.

Milan’s start to the season has been mixed, to say the least. Fonseca arrived as a replacement for Stefano Pioli, who’d guided the club to yet another top-four finish, but after four-and-a-half years at Milan — the club’s longest serving manager since Carlo Ancelotti — the decision was made to move the Italian on.

Hiring Fonseca was somewhat of a questionable choice, considering his relative lack of success in Italy, and lack of trophies anywhere else. Fonseca was at Roma for two seasons and led the club to the semi-final of the Europa League in 2020-21. Yet he didn’t exactly pull up trees.

His return to Serie A hasn’t been without its difficulties. Milan have only won one of their opening four league matches, and that came in the 4-0 win against a very poor Venezia side that are almost certainly set to be relegated. 

Moreover, Fonseca has had issues with his two star men — Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez —already. The Portuguese benched both for the 2-2 draw with Lazio, yet had to resort to calling on both of them to turn the game around after Lazio went 2-1 up with 25 minutes remaining.

Milan still look defensively fragile at the back, with the summer signing of Emerson Royal looking a regret even at this early stage. Fonseca will need time to mould Milan in his image, but he may not get time, with speculation in Italy suggesting that should results not go as planned in the games against Liverpool and Inter, he may be replaced.

Given their patchy form, it’s highly debatable whether Italian journalists will be chomping down on any pastel de nata anytime soon. 

Transfers: Milan spent around €74m last summer, with the Rossoneri keeping hold of their best players in the process. Alvaro Morata was signed from Atletico Madrid for €13m as a replacement for the USA-bound Olivier Giroud. Alex Jimenez was signed from Real Madrid’s youth system for €5m, Strahinja Pavlovic arrived from Red Bull Salzburg for €18m, while Emerson Royal came from Tottenham for €15m and Youssouf Fofana was brought in from Monaco for €20m. 

Best performers: None of Milan’s new signings have majorly impressed thus far. Morata scored on his debut in the 2-2 draw with Torino. Pavlovic, meanwhile, scored in draw with Lazio and has somewhat impressed on an individual level. While Fofana and Jimenez haven’t had that much game time. Royal has been a disaster. 

Tactics: Fonseca has employed a 4-2-3-1 formation in the opening rounds of the season, but has chopped and changed personnel in nearly every match. His one major tactical shift is to push Tijjani Reijnders further forward. Under Pioli, the Dutchman played further back, however Fonseca has used him as one of the three attacking midfielders just behind a central striker. 

The 51-year-old has also started a different striker in each of his four games, hardly lending itself to gaining consistency from his forwards. The feeling is Fonseca is still trying to figure out his best team, and so we may see more changes made before he finally settles on a concrete XI.

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