Paulo Fonseca has so far used quite a restricted group of starters during his time at AC Milan so far, leading to suggestions that there is a clear split on the squad between those players and the reserved.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via MilanNews) has a segment with the headline: ‘Fonseca’s forgotten. Milan split’. It explains how in this first part of the season Fonseca has almost always focused on the same players, especially in the last few weeks when he has practically always fielded the same line-up.
Among those who have momentarily disappeared from the Portuguese coach’s radar are for example Strahinja Pavlovic and Yunus Musah, who are seeing very little in the way of playing time despite the defensive rotations in the first few games and the lack of rest for both Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders.
In the pre-Fiorentina-Milan press conference, Fonseca commented on the possibility of rotating players and suggested that what is more important at the moment is to build cohesion through continuity.
“Continuity is important at this time, when we have more days to recover the players. If the team is doing well, it is important to keep the maximum number of players we can, but it is not that I do not have faith in the others: Loftus and Chukwueze for example have come in well and are working well,” he said.
“For me it is important at this time to have this base that supports the growth of the team. Let’s see how the team and the players are doing. At this time I thought it was important to have this continuity.
“Let’s see, I have faith in all the players. We will have many games, we will need everyone. At this time I think it is important for the team to play with the same players.”
