As Corriere dello Sport recall, since his official appointment on December 30th in place of Paulo Fonseca, Conceicao has experienced a whirlwind of emotions, which however to date draw a more negative than positive balance.
The beginning of his adventure at the Rossoneri was encouraging with the Supercoppa Italiana triumph, then began a rapid decline that led to the Champions League exit with defeats against inferior opponents such as Dinamo Zagreb and then Feyenoord in the play-offs.
The situation has also worsened in the league. In fact, since Conceição took over from Fonseca, the gap from fourth place has increased, leading the Rossoneri to lose almost all hopes of participating in the next Champions League, and the Europa League and Conference League are also at serious risk.
An uphill battle
The management’s decision to fire Fonseca to rely on the former Porto man has not been rewarded with results. There was no turning point that Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada hoped for with the change on the bench and the general situation has even worsened.
With Conceiçao the average points in the league has even dropped to 1.40 points per game , recording a worse trend than his predecessor. However, the alarming data also derives from the clashes with the teams that occupy the top eight positions in the standings.
Specifically, Conceiçao has never won a match against a teams higher in the table. Instead, defeats against Lazio, Bologna and Juventus damaged the top four pursuit, as did the draw with Fiorentina. A 1-1 draw against league-leaders Inter and a defeat away against Napoli complete the picture.
Only two points from six games played against the top eight in the table is not good enough, with the aggravating circumstance of 11 goals conceded and only six scored. Another alarming statistic for the Rossoneri comes from the games in which Milan went behind: 13 times out of 22 under Conceiçao.
The Milan coach, after the game against Fiorentina in which his team were already two goals down after 10 minutes, explained this difficulty as a mental problem that afflicts his players. In addition to the fragilities of the squad though, his approach must be questioned too.
The withdrawal of Yunus Musah after 25 minutes in the last Serie A game for tactical reasons was a glaring one, a way of admitting that he had got it badly wrong regarding the starting eleven. It was not the first time he had taken him off in the first half, either.
Before closing his experience at Milan, Conceiçao still has one card to play and it is called Coppa Italia. With an eventual success, the Rossoneri would win the second trophy of the season and above all would have access to the Europa League.
Therefore, the cup remains the primary objective of the club in this final part of the season, to try to make the year less disappointing. Then the paths between Conceiçao and Milan will divide, and for the club it will be time to make choices for the future.
