Pedulla believes Milan and Fonseca must answer two questions: “There is no one” | OneFootball

Whilst AC Milan are still in the Scudetto race, they must be near-perfect for as long as possible now, otherwise, they risk falling away from the pack. Today, Alfredo Pedulla took stock of the Rossoneri’s position.

We are only seven games into the Serie A season, and so far, questions have been asked of nearly everyone.

Starting with the players, there have been several questioned about their apparent behavioural problems – most recently the penalty incidents in Florence – or just a general question about performances, or lack thereof.

Paulo Fonseca has also been scrutinised for his control of the squad, and ability to manage a top club like Milan with his team lacking identity in places so far this season. These problems have extended to the management as well, and they have not been able to avoid the criticism.

Pedulla, on his YouTube channel, spoke about Milan’s problems and expanded on Fonseca’s mistakes so far, and his words have been relayed by Radio Rossonera.

“I no longer go into the tactical aspects, but I am interested in reiterating two concepts. The two things that Fonseca did not do and should do as he was late.

“These are decisions that are the responsibility of a coach of Serie D, Serie C, Serie Z, you name it… But two things a coach must do among others, then on the field he can be good, less good, for sure he has tactical qualities in the last 30 metres, at the offensive level I don’t discuss. But the two things he didn’t do and the season started on 1 July.

“After four months there is no one who is the captain and another who is the penalty taker, or rather there are but it is as if they were not there,” he stated.

“I believe that the choice of captain is one of order, hierarchy, of sacred laws within the dressing room. There is the captain and the vice-captain, I may be old but they are sacred laws, not that I give the armband to Theo, to Leao, to Calabria, to another and another.

“The armband is sacred, it’s a reiteration of concepts of hierarchy and order. Of course, if you have leadership you can be captain even without the armband, but from my point of view there’s no way that the armband goes from one arm to the other in 2/3/4/5/6 weeks, half a minute or you name it.

“This not deciding makes me think of an insecurity because you don’t want to reward one to make another unhappy and it doesn’t exist, because inside a locker room there must be a plebiscite towards one who represents you. That seems to me to be a rule, and that is what Fonseca should do.

“Then there is the penalty taker: I distanced myself from Fonseca’s statements after Fiorentina-Milan when he said he was angry because the penalty taker was Pulisic. He must not get angry, but he must make sure that his rules are followed by the group. If the group doesn’t follow them it means they don’t follow you, and if they don’t follow you decisions have to be made.

“The penalty draw has been put on the back burner because the decision is cryptic, it’s anarchic, and I repeat: in Serie C, in Serie D these things don’t happen. It’s not enough and you don’t need to say you’re angry, you need to make them follow the rules. An important coach of leadership and charisma gives the rules. full stop.

“There is no fly flying around the locker room that changes the rules. There’s a restoration to be done on two things that until October he still hasn’t done, so good luck with that. For me Milan today is anarchy in its purest state: a very strong team that in my opinion with normal rules would have performed better.”