Multiple AC Milan players admitted to mentality issues after the defeat to Feyenoord last night, and Paulo Fonseca’s warnings are still ringing in the ears.
As MilanNews write, after a month and a half of work, we can already have some indications of Sergio Conceiçao’s impact as the head coach and – despite the Supercoppa Italiana win – the difficulties that were encountered by Fonseca have remained.
In 12 games under the former Porto boss the team are yet to win three in a row. The longest streak is two, snapped by the the home draw against Cagliari after the Supercoppa, the horrific performance in Zagreb and then last night’s game in Rotterdam.
Against Empoli, it must be said that the situation was unlocked in the second half and after Luca Marianucci’s red card. In the first half Lorenzo Colombo had hit the post and who knows how it would have gone if the ball had gone in.
In Holland, however, the team sank at the first unfortunate circumstance, with Mike Maignan’s blunder on Igor Paixao’s shot. A reaction never came, and the symbol was Rafael Leao’s getting one-on-one with Wellenreuther, then falling over.
Milan once again displayed the wrong attitude. The poor first halves with Conceiçao are countless: Juventus, Inter (both in Saudi Arabia), Cagliari, Como, Dinamo Zagreb and now Feyenoord. If the alarm goes off, it is at half-time and no sooner.
Many have spoken of an aggression problem, starting with the coach himself, but the reality is that this is an issue that has been dragging on since the days of Fonseca. After the victory against Red Star, the desperate appeal of the current Lyon boss was clear.
“The problem is that our team is a roller coaster. Today we are doing well, tomorrow I don’t know. It’s like tossing a coin and waiting to see what happens. It’s impressive,” he said after the win, back on December 11th.
Nothing has changed since then as Reijnders admitted to Dutch TV: “It’s always up and down. We have to be much more consistent. This week we win in Empoli and then we lose here today against Feyenoord. That shouldn’t happen if you want to compete in the competition and in the Champions League.”
Luckily the situation with Feyenoord is not yet compromised, but at this rate with this lack of consistency, it is really difficult to think of qualifying for the next Champions League, even if the top five get in. Conceiçao’s anger in the post-match press conference, in this respect, says a lot.
