Hit reset and hope for the best [Newsletter]

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Oct 17, 2024

The game against Udinese is now just two days away and due to the international break, Paulo Fonseca hasn’t been able to work with most of the team in the last week or so. Given the struggles against Fiorentina, he would have needed it, but a few days will have to do the trick instead. At the very least, one of the stars returned earlier than expected.

There’s a reason why managers and fans keep emphasising the final game ahead of an international break as very important. It’s one thing if you lose a game and then have a new opportunity 3-7 days later, but it’s another if you need to wait two weeks before you can get revenge. It’s true that the break could act as a much-needed reset, but ideally you would have the latter as well as time to improve the tactics.

Fonseca hasn’t been able to work with most of his key players during this break, teaming up with Milan Futuro just to have a proper squad at training, and the cons of this are obvious. With the Udinese clash scheduled for Saturday afternoon, more specifically 18:00 CEST, the manager will have just two full days (including today) to try to fix the issues we saw against Fiorentina.

On the other hand, many would agree that just converting the penalties could have got the Rossoneri all three points, so perhaps there isn’t a tactical emergency. Furthermore, the real penalty taker Christian Pulisic - who has been in fantastic form this season - returned early from international duty with the US. In fact, he skipped the friendly against Mexico and has thus been training with Milan in recent days.

The starting XI, at the end of the day, will probably be very similar to what we saw at Stadio Artemio Franchi two weeks ago. Of course, Theo Hernandez is suspended for the next two games and the big question is thus who will start at left-back. Sky Italia suggests that Filippo Terracciano will be the one despite positive indications from Alex Jimenez in training.

Given that Terracciano hasn’t exactly been brilliant this season, as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s words on Jimenez in the summer, another snub of the Spaniard would be strange indeed. Hopefully the Italian will step up and do an okay job, but it just feels like the management (through Fonseca) is constantly highlighting their own error - i.e. not signing a deputy left-back in the last transfer window.

Another point of worry is Milan’s record against Udinese in recent years. Taking a look at the last ten league encounters between the sides (since 2019), the Rossoneri have won four, drawn three and lost three games. This is far from a great record for a club like Milan and they actually haven’t been that strong against the Fruili side at San Siro either, so Saturday is a bigger test than some might think.

News Bulletin

➤ Milan Futuro didn't play a game due to the international break, but Mattia Liberali shone for Italy U19s with goals in both games against Wales. Milan have a clear plan for his future amid the links with a River Plate teenage playmaker, just as they are not worried about Francesco Camarda either.

➤ After a difficult start to the season it would be fair to say that the AC Milan Women are on a bit of a roll as they beat Sampdoria over the weekend to make it three victories on the spin, with Ijeh getting the winner inside the final 20 minutes.

➤ It doesn’t happen often, but Tuesday night saw two Milan team-mates become opponents on international duty as Alvaro Morata’s Spain took on Strahinja Pavlovic’s Serbia. It was full of drama as Morata missed a penalty, scored a lovely goal and Pavlovic saw red. Elsewhere, Yunus Musah scored for the USA from a Christian Pulisic assist, while Rafael Leao's comments with Portugal caused a stir.

➤ Transfer news blitz: Mark van Bommel's son Ruben (a striker for AZ Alkmaar) really wants to join Milan, Domenico Berardi is one of three January targets, Cesare Casadei remains a target, five players could leave before the start of next season and there will be a 'Made in Italy' emphasis when it comes to signings.

➤ One of the main headlines to emerge over the break is how the Milan management have total confidence in Paulo Fonseca. There is absolutely no change being considered at present, with the players being seen as more to blame, while there is also no ultimatum in place.

➤ In terms of features in the past week, we took a look at how Milan's project became an odyssey in autopilot, why the talk of coaches being unstable in their role is just the Rossoneri's version of Groundhog Day, the three options Fonseca has to fix the defence and what we learned from the coach's first 100 days.