MN: 15 games, five pairings – the numbers as Fonseca persists with centre-back rotation | OneFootball

We are now over three months into the season, but Paulo Fonseca is still searching for the right formula when it comes to the defence.

As MilanNews recall, Fonseca has used five different centre-back pairings this season, both due to coaching choice but also because of problems related to injury (Malick Thiaw and Matteo Gabbia above all).

In fact, the one combination that has not yet been used yet is Thiaw-Gabbia. Even still, this is mainly down to the fact that generally when one was available, the other was in the treatment room. Otherwise it is likely we would have seen the German and Italian together too.

One month ago we highlighted how this lack of consistency in the defence will be harming any attempts to build cohesion. Below are the statistics of each pairing used in Serie A and the Champions League.

Tomori-Gabbia: 5 matches: 9 points (out of 15 available) – 3W 0D 2L Pavlovic-Thiaw: 4 matches: 7 points (out of 12 available) – 2W 1D 1L Pavlovic-Tomori: 3 matches: 1 point (out of 9 available) – 0W 1D 2L Tomori-Thiaw: 2 matches: 4 points (out of 6 available) – 1W 1D 0L Pavlovic-Gabbia: 1 match: 3 points (out of 3 available) – 1W 0D 0L

At the moment Fonseca wants ‘calm, coolness and absolutely no recklessness’ from his centre-backs. That is why Pavlovic is paying the price at the moment: the Serbian, after a promising start, has been benched continuously.

Tomori meanwhile has been a key player in the past seasons, but has been on the bench a few times more than usual. Thiaw and Gabbia have been used more frequently, with the latter about to return from a troublesome calf issue.