Fonseca answers questions on Milan future, tactical approach and relations with Zlatan | OneFootball

AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has claimed that he is not thinking about his future, while insisting that he feels the trust from the club in the work he is trying to do.

Fonseca is under serious pressure to produce a positive result and several reliable sources are suggesting that he needs one in order to keep his job, after a start to the season which has seen Milan win just one of five games.

The latest blow came in midweek as Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners in the first round of the Champions League, a scoreline that in truth could have been even more damaging on the balance of play, and it completely evaporated all momentum from the 4-0 win over Venezia four days prior.

To make things worse, the one-sided nature of the derby in the past couple of seasons and how strong Inter are at the moment means that this is not the kind of game that should yield a win on paper, as unpredictable as the Derby della Madonnina can be.

Fonseca spoke to the reporters who gathered at Milanello for his pre-match press conference on the eve of the game, and his comments were relayed by MilanNews.

After the defeat against Liverpool, we saw photos that showed unity and compactness…

“Yes. There is great frustration on everyone’s part, but awareness that we are united to get out of this situation. The team understands the moment and we work together to try to do better. The solution now is to work to learn and try to do better.”

Is the derby the biggest occasion or the most complicated match?

“We are going to play a very strong team, it could be an important match for me. We have a lot to gain in this match because I think we have to think positively. If we win it could be an important thing for us at this moment.”

How do you feel about your future?

“I don’t think about that. There’s the match against Inter, I’m concentrating on my work and being ready for tomorrow’s match. The team and the match are the most important things.”

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What did you and Ibra talk about? Did he reiterate his trust in you?

“I’ve always felt the trust in my work from the club. I understand the curiosity when Zlatan comes here, but I don’t talk about what we say to each other. It’s always positive, it’s normal: Zlatan was here as he was the other times.”

Your idea of ​​football has rarely been seen so far. What’s the problem?

“I can have many reasons to explain it, but I don’t want to find excuses. I want to address what’s happening with work, talking to my players to understand what we have to do. We have good moments but we don’t have consistency.

“What I have to say, what I feel, is that the team is growing every day. We need to have continuity to get where I want. If we need time, yes. It’s true that Abraham has arrived now, we haven’t had the whole team for a long time, but I don’t want to find excuses. I want to focus on work.”

Is there anything you wouldn’t do again?

“No. I do what I believe in. I can’t do what I don’t believe in. I continue to believe in what I think a team should be and I continue to work in what I believe in.”

Is there anything you saw this week after Liverpool that makes you say the derby will be the turning point in the players’ attitude?

“I’m not lying. We were talking about this now. Today I arrive here, derby, difficult match… But I arrive here with confidence. It’s one thing if we feel that the players are sad, not at ease. I would have liked to show you this week of work, but I can’t arrive here and not convey confidence.

“The truth is that these three days of work have been fantastic. And so I go to the match with confidence, I can’t do otherwise. And that’s why I have confidence in the future, I can’t say any different because this is the truth.”

Will this confidence lead you to have an aggressive tactical attitude?

“Obviously for each match we have different strategies. We know that we are facing a very strong team, we have prepared the match based on the opponents who are very strong. There is one thing I don’t know how to do: give the ball to the other teams.

“We want to play, we want to have the initiative, we want to dominate when we can, we want to defend well because the team has done well collectively. We want to prepare the match based on the opponent we have tomorrow.”

Are you convinced that the club have given you a good team or an excellent team?

“I received what we expected to form a very strong team. Are we already a very strong team? No.”

We have seen two Milans: the one in Parma and the one in the first half against Lazio. Is a third version possible that does both phases well?

“Why do you think we didn’t concede anything against Lazio in the first half? Because we had the ball, and when we have the ball we don’t defend. That’s the truth, that’s the difference. We were close, compact, but we had the ball.”

At the moment Milan doesn’t seem to have heart, mentality and organisation… How can you win the derby?

“By scoring more goals than Inter, that’s how you win a match.”

Your idea is to dominate the game through possession…

“I believe in a way of winning. I think it’s common to many great teams. I know that in Italy the value is not the game but the result. But they brought me here because they wanted to change.

“I think that when a team has the ball I will continue to believe in this, and with the quality we have we need to have the ball much more and create much more. I will continue to believe in this. I don’t think football is better when we give the ball to the opponents, I will continue to believe in this.”

After Liverpool, Pulisic said you couldn’t keep the ball in the opponent’s half. Isn’t that worrying after three months?

“I agree. I want to have the ball to create the conditions to attack at the right time. Creating against Liverpool doesn’t seem easy for any team. I’ve seen all their games, it’s not easy to create against them.

“But we had 4-5 situations where we could have done better by making better decisions at the last minute. The problem is not how many times we attacked, but when we didn’t make the last choice well. It’s a question of last choices.

“Salah was the player who touched the ball the least times, but when he touched it the first few times he took two shots and hit the crossbar twice. It’s a question of choices and decisions.”

It is said that you and Ibra do not get along and that regardless of tomorrow Fonseca will no longer be the coach of Milan. It seems impossible to me that these rumours have not reached here too…

“Not to me. It’s the truth. I’m 51 years old, if I hear what you’re talking about I can’t work. So, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s not important to me what people are talking about. It’s not that everything they’re talking about is true.

“And for me it’s not important, otherwise how could I have the peace of mind to work. Look, if I follow all these things how can I work peacefully? For me it’s not important. What’s important is what I feel here, what the people who work with me make me feel.”

Can Inter’s match against City be an inspiration for Milan for tomorrow’s game in terms of attitude?

“Is this a question to get me to speak well of Inter? But I don’t want to.”

Morata spoke of an extra boost on a mental level after the Torino games. Did the same problems reoccur in the Champions League? How do you heal mentally in three days?

“That’s what I did this week. I showed what we did well. Salah hit the crossbar in the 23rd minute, before that we did well in defence and I showed it to the players, to make them believe that we can do better, they have the ability and they must have confidence.

“Liverpool are a great example of a team, they conceded after 3 minutes but they always played the same way, they played with the same confidence. The moment is different, they have had this team for many years and it’s a process that started with Klopp, I want our players to have the same confidence.

“It’s not that because of a goal conceded or the crossbar our game has to change, we must no longer take risks and we must no longer play. Nothing must change, Liverpool are a great example of a team that plays very well.”

Who are the leaders of this team who can lead the group?

“I don’t want to talk about individuals. When you don’t win, the easiest thing is to try to find excuses. When you don’t win, there are no leaders, this or that. I think we have players who are leaders and who do this role of being leaders well. The moment is what it is, but there is no lack of leadership in the group.”

You talk a lot about ball possession, but without the ball do you think it’s right to be aggressive against Inter?

“I think we can’t separate these moments. Even against Inter, when we don’t have the ball we have to recover it quickly. We are not playing against a weak team, there will be moments when we will be forced to be low and defend.

“Against Liverpool in the first 20 minutes we had this thing, all united and a compact team. Rafa was also there to defend. Inter are a great team, there will be moments when we will have to be compact and low. If we don’t want to have these moments then we mustn’t lose the ball easily.”

Do you feel like a lion or a kitten?

“Always a lion (laughs).”

The first five games have told us that Tomori and Pavlovic are the best centre-back pairing since they are the ones who have played the most…

“I managed the three games. It’s true that we didn’t concede a goal against Venezia, but it was a different game. It was different against Liverpool, we conceded goals from set pieces. I have faith in all my central defenders. I have the ability to choose based on the moment and the opponent, and that’s what I’ll do.”