GdS: Leao excluded from the ‘big ones’ again – Fonseca’s ‘strange’ management | OneFootball

Rafael Leao is set to be named among the substitutes this evening against Slovan Bratislava, and the AC Milan star is the only ‘big one’ to be missing.

There are several occasions this season where things have seemed odd at Milan. From the cooling break incident to the general direction of the club. However, the most intriguing situation has probably been Paulo Fonseca’s handling of Leao.

The Portuguese winger has spent more time sidelined than anyone else of the club’s stars, and he is expected to be on the bench once again this evening for the game against Slovan Bratislava, causing Gazzetta dello Sport to look into the situation.

As the paper writes, there was talk by Fonseca about rotation, and realistically Leao is the only player to be moved without reasoning – which has been the case on several occasions this season. A case made more interesting by the Portuguese’s refusal to rotate any of the other stars regularly.

You spoke about rotation, can this also concern a player like Leao? Or do you think Leao needs to play right now?

“I honestly don’t know, let’s see tomorrow. Rafa is an important player in our team, he’s really in a good moment. But I have confidence in everyone: if Rafa doesn’t play then someone else will play. We want so much to win here: it’s not that he will play a team not to win, he will play a team to win. There is the possibility that Leao won’t be there as well as that he will be there. Abraham will play.”

Against Juventus, yes, Leao was not at his best, but the same can be said for a handful of his other teammates, a selection of the other stars.

The decision comes at a time when the club must be a unit, and even though he received a knock in the game against the Bianconeri, he should have recovered.