Paulo Fonseca has explained what to expect when Milan go up against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night, has revealed that there are up to five possible options for the Rossoneri captaincy, and has spoken about the improvements he has seen from his players on a defensive level so far.
The Rossoneri tactictian sat down for his customary pre-match press conference ahead of his side’s match away against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
After a rough start to the 2024-25 campaign, Milan have now picked up three Serie A wins in a row, including against rivals and reigning champions Inter, and have also averaged three goals per game over those matches.
Fonseca says that he wants continuity after a promising run in the league, but can not guarantee that the line-up will stay exactly the same.
“I can’t say that our way of playing will always be the same, but the intentions are almost always the same. We can talk about this more in-depth later on, it’s a bit early to do so now,” Fonseca told the press.
Continuing on the topic of tactics and personnel, Fonseca added: “I don’t think I’ll change, we need to have continuity. We know it’s a different game, I think it will be similar to the one against Liverpool, but we need to have continuity about what we have done so far.
“Defensively, I think the team has come on. It’s a good test to see where our defensive capabilities are at this moment. I’ve told the players that we need to be perfect defensively to beat a team like Leverkusen.”
Fonseca went on to detail why Milan will have a ‘different’ test against Bayer Leverkusen compared to their recent Serie A matches, and also explained why he was slightly frustrated by Xabi Alonso’s comments during his pre-match press conference earlier in the day.
“I am always confident. This is a different game. It’s true that we’ve done well in the league over the last few games, but Serie A is very different from the games we’ll face in the Champions League.
“Today I was made to read what Xabi Alonso said. When we speak about Italian teams, we always say the same thing, that Italian sides are good at defending and playing on the counter-attack. I would like different things to be discussed when we talk about Milan, we have to work because we don’t want to be considered like that.
“Tomorrow we will obviously have to defend, because we’re playing against a strong team, but when we have the ball, we still want to play. I am curious to see the team’s performance in what will be a different game to the ones we’ve had in Serie A.”
Fonseca also explained why Milan will be a different test for Bayer Leverskuen, following their 3-0 loss to Atalanta in last season’s Europa League final.
“Yes, I saw it. It shows how difficult Serie A is. Leverkusen faced a scenario that they don’t really agave in Germany with this type of man-to-man system. Even (Declan) Rice from Arsenal said it was difficult to deal with the one-on-one situations.
“Changing the team to play against a team that goes man-to-man is always difficult. But we are not like Atalanta, we don’t go man-to-man all over the pitch. Tomorrow, watching Milan will not be the same as watching Atalanta when they played against them. Atalanta created a lot of difficulties for Leverkusen, but I am not a man-to-man coach. I can’t just tell my players to go and play like that, it will be completely different.”
Fonseca also explained that the Milan captaincy could be handed to a different player against Leverkusen. Rafael Leao was given that honour last time out, but there are a group of players who could be trusted with the armband.
“When I arrived here, I noticed that the captains were always the ones who played the most games. I want to respect that, but I also want the leadership to be shared, more spread out. We have the possibility to give the captaincy to multiple players. Tomorrow, another player will probably wear the armband, we have five (possible options).”
Fonseca also confirmed that Alvaro Morata is a doubt ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League fixture” “He’s put in a lot of effort to play in the last match. He is a doubt and we will manage him. We’ll see how he is tomorrow, we don’t want to take any risks.”
