Milan 0, Napoli 2: Misery

Reading Stephen King's Misery is far more terrifying than the movie could ever be. But I am beginning to feel like we are all the writer in the story, Paul Sheldon, and Fonseca is our Annie. He says he is our "biggest fan," that he is benching our best players "for tactical reasons," but in actuality, he is holding us hostage and torturing us and making both our players and us fans suffer unbearable amounts of pain until he gets his way. Even if his way means only five wins in 12 matches, or losing 2-0 to a team that we absolutely owned, even in the Champions League,  just over a year ago. Fonseca's man management tactics are a source of pure misery.

When you are compared to the protagonist in a psychological thriller, you may be the problem.

Let's just start with the fact that Fonseca is definitely no former nurse in real life. He is barely passable for a current football manager. But, like Annie, perhaps not entirely mentally stable, based on his press conferences. And Milan were struggling with Pioli, but it's not like we had been in a serious car accident. We just needed some new ideas. Not to have our entire book manuscript burned and be physically tortured and maimed. In fact, sticking with Pioli would have been so much better than all this. But our management are incompetent, and the Italian press is addicted to bashing Leão like Paul was addicted to painkillers, so Fonseca is our nightmare. 

Hobbled on the bench by a deranged manager.

Those were some of the red flags for this match, Fonseca's issues with many of our players, particularly Leão. He would like you to believe that it was the five players out injured, the two players who were suspended and who should have been suspended vs. Bologna instead, or maybe even that Pulisic was actively sick with the flu. Obviously, those factors impacted the performance, but it didn't change reality. The reality is that Conte, also linked with the Milan job this summer, has now won ten of his 12 matches played with Napoli, or that Fonseca has won only five of his 12 matches played with Milan. Or that Conte took last year's 10th place team into first place, while Fonseca took last year's second place team into eighth. That is the brutal reality, and the final scoreline accurately reflects it.

That brutal reality hit almost immediately when Lukaku scored in just the fifth minute. 1-0 Napoli. I think we all felt a little like Pavlović on that one. Milan managed to regain possession and get some shots off, but Napoli's counters were largely more threatening. According to Annie Fonseca, we played well, but no one in their right mind would have left Leão on the bench while missing eight other players. Or Calabria, either, who has memorably been one of Kvaratskhelia's worst nightmares. So it was particularly notable that finally, in his third season at Napoli, Calabria had to helplessly watch Kvaratskhelia score his first goal against Milan from the bench. 2-0 Napoli. Talk about torture.

Head referee Colombo explains to Morata that VAR is checking his goal for offside.

We thought maybe things were changing when Morata scored from a nice Chukwueze assist right after halftime, but the goal was called back for offside after a VAR review, using SAOT. I don't know what kind of sick idea Fonseca has about "normalizing" the benching of Leão, especially after the Lazio debacle, or about bringing him on after we were down 2-0, but in the 62nd minute, he replaced his "tactical choice" Okafor, who did nothing of note, with the disgraced Portuguese winger. Worse still, he brought on Pulisic, who was definitely contagious, having reportedly had fever and flu symptoms within hours of kickoff. I'm not even sure Annie would have done that.

By keeping Pulisic in the squad instead of sending him home when he was known to be ill, Fonseca not only risked Pulisic's health, but also the health of the entire team. Obviously, the rest of the team were likely already exposed, but a normal human being limits exposure once a virus has been detected. Instead, Fonseca replaced Emerson Royal with the ill player, further humiliating our captain, Calabria, who should have replaced the right back when our defense was struggling so much. But he, too, has been undeservedly benched this season. Jović has been "injured" basically since the end of the transfer window, despite playing for Serbia in both international breaks. Like I genuinely do not understand how so many people in the industry and the media are supporting this abusive behavior from Fonseca, because he's not even getting results. And it's not the first time he's tried to push players out by benching them, as Florenzi well knows.

Pulisic should have been resting, and could be patient zero for a flu outbreak ahead of a busy schedule.

Pulisic did not look well, and he clearly did his best. However, he did not belong on the pitch. Leão, however, did belong, but one player could not overturn 60 minutes of Fonseca ball singlehandedly. Although he did have Milan's most dangerous shot in the 83rd, which required Meret's best save, forcing him to tip it over the bar. The one player Annie Fonseca was "not punishing" was more dangerous in 30 minutes by himself than the rest of the team was for the first hour. Milan had a total of 13 shots, five on target, and I think several of those shots came from Leão and Pulisic in that last 30 minutes. So clearly, Fonseca's "tactical ideas" and concept of "good football" is "successful." That might be more believable if he could actually win without the help of the referees.

His last act of desperation this time was throwing Camarda on for Loftus-Cheek in the 87th minute. Which also did not work, obviously, and was also only his third sub, despite having other young players called up and capable bench players available. This also raises another question: Why is this clear psychological (pathological?) nightmare overseeing our entire project, including these very promising young players? In Stephen King's epic psychological thriller, Annie was able to continue her horrors because she was completely secluded. But. Fonseca is doing this to our team in the media and on internationally televised matches. Milan has 500 million fans worldwide, and an incredible history and brand to protect.

Why is a psychological (pathological?) nightmare overseeing our talented young players?

Too many Italian pundits support his "tough love" treatment of Leão, who has done nothing wrong, but in fact, by Fonseca's own confession, did extra training sessions to improve where Annie Fonseca thought he was lacking. At the same time, the Italian media has completely overlooked the fact that Fonseca never really "punished" the players who actually overtly defied him (which we only knew because he personally made that knowledge public, while cursing them out in the media.) Because their agenda is actually to criticize Leão, they don't actually care about what Fonseca is doing. They have bought into his "Milan has many leaders" line, which he used to undermine the captaincy and all the actual leaders, then claimed that Milan lacks leadership. Like they are working with him to gaslight the fans and the players and help him keep his job, it's so twisted.

But at least one pundit has seen through his gaslighting and mindgames. Former defender Federico Balzaretti (politely) said that benching Leão is never a technical choice. "You have to understand how he trained and various other things, but for me having Leão out is never a technical choice, because technically he is one of the strongest. You are missing Theo and Reijnders, who are two players essential for quality and strength, and therefore it is a choice that would have left me a little less perplexed with everyone available, because Okafor is doing well, but without these players I would not have deprived myself of him." 

Not even Okafor would have chosen Okafor over Leão.

Exactly. No one in their right mind would. When someone tells you they are trying to "normalize" something, there is something not normal about what they are doing. And you should pay extra attention to it. Some people may actually be exposing a problem. But when the team played more cohesively, had less tension, more understanding of their roles, better relationships with Pioli, and most importantly, had much better results, then what are we even doing here? Pioli even managed to do more with less than Conte. Fonseca could never.

Now the roles are reversed, as Conte pointed out, Fonseca inherited much more stability. So this isn't about giving Annie Fonseca time to "implement his ideas." Thirteen Serie A clubs changed managers this summer, then Roma also sacked De Rossi early in the season. So a total of 14 clubs have managers trying to "implement their ideas," but only one club has the third highest wage bill and sits in eighth place, with a delusional manager who could pass as a character from a Stephen King novel making their team worse both mentally and in terms of results. I mean why is an Italian team with such a legacy of incredible defenders being managed by a foreign manager who retired early from his playing career, because he was such a mid defender? What does he know about improving our defense?

How are our young defenders supposed to learn about defending from a charlatan?

One of those former Milan defenders, Mauro Tassotti, who also spent nearly 20 years in various coaching positions at Milan (as well as being a champion of the single haircut,) went much further than Balzaretti, discussing in detail his thoughts about the relationship between Leão and Fonseca from the perspective of his many years of coaching experience. In fact, he used the word "masochism" to describe the point that Fonseca is reaching with Leão. "If you have a great player in your squad, you have to put him in a position to express himself at his best. Sometimes you need to use turnover to spur him on, but without reaching masochism."

Some fans try to deflect from this nightmare by saying "look at our owner and management, they are the real problem." Duh. I was skeptical of Cardinale from day one, and have been more than vocal about his crimes against football all along. Reportedly giving the power to Ibrahimović, who signed off on Fonseca, was another crime. But Cardinale is not letting go of the club any time soon, and Leão, the player we have with the highest market value, is unlikely to leave any time soon, either. Realistically, getting Annie Fonseca the hell away from our players, especially our young players, is the most crucial thing we can do right now. Both to save this season and the futures of these players.

These are the guys that brought this horror show to our beloved club.

However, if this management actually had the spine to do anything about this ordeal, they would have already done so. They had a "long meeting" after the Champions League loss to Liverpool, but winning the Derby apparently gave Fonseca immunity, or at least the right to plead insanity for any charges against him. I don't mean to fearmonger here, but it is Halloween, and I truly do fear for this season and our players, not to mention the lack of renewal of both Theo and Calabria, for example, two other players whose quality we definitely need. They say that misery loves company, but that was not the point of Stephen King's novel. His message was when you know you're dealing with a crazy person, you do everything you can to save your life... or in this case, your team. But with this management, who knows how long we will have to live in misery?

Milan Primavera Conquer Fiorentina Primavera 3-1

When you score a late goal to guarantee a defeat of the league leaders

After the draw in the UEFA Youth League, Guidi's Primavera side came back with an impressive 3-1 win in the league on Monday vs. league leaders Fiorentina. Tartaglia opened the scoring in just the seventh minute, on his debut. In the second half, Milan conceded an equalizer, but fought back with goals from subs Victor Eletu in the 81st minute and a stoppage time goal from Perrucci to put the nail in the coffin. Some brief highlights are available. This match sees Milan Primavera in third place in the league, just two points behind both Fiorentina and Lazio.

Another Loss for Milan Futuro, Defeated 2-0 at Home by Pineto

Not sure if Bonera has been using Liberali in the best way...

After earning only their second win in the league on Sunday, Bonera's side tasted defeat yet again with a 2-0 loss to Pineto at home at the Chinetti. Raveyre conceded a penalty just before halftime, and was unable to stop the ensuing penalty kick, so they were down 1-0 at halftime. They fought back and there was hope until an error led to the second goal. Highlights of the match on the Serie C YouTube channel. The loss saw Milan Futuro slip back down a spot to 18th on the table, although with a game in hand.

This post inspired by the music of Ministry's "Every Day is Like Halloween"

Our next matches are:

Campionato Primavera 1 • Week 10

Milan Primavera vs. Verona Primavera

Saturday, November 2, 2024 • 13:00 CEST (8am EDT)*

This match is not being televised in the U.S.

Serie A Week 10

Monza vs. Milan

Saturday, November 2, 2024 • 20:45 CEST (1:45pm EDT)*

In the U.S., this match can be streamed on Paramount+,

or use a VPN to access better coverage

Serie C Week 13 

Pontedera vs. Milan Futuro

Sunday, November 3, 2024 • 16:30 CEST (12:30pm EDT)**

This match is not being televised in the U.S.

*Note the time difference due to European Daylight Savings Time

**Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. ends Sunday