Expectations were raised this week after a miraculous 3-1 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League. However, an accident in training left Morata hospitalized for a head injury, and concussion protocol means he will definitely not be available to travel to Sardinia Saturday evening. Tammy Abraham is still not fully fit after returning from his shoulder injury and Jović is still struggling with whatever his "injury" is that keeps him from playing for Milan, but allows him to play for Serbia. So Fonseca opted to give the 16 year-old phenom Francesco Camarda his first start for Milan in this match. While Fonseca is certainly not the first Milan manager to turn to a young player when injuries stacked up, it is helping journalists get clicks to sensationalize this call up. On the pitch, however, he has shown that he has earned this chance, so it is in Camarda we trust.
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| In Camarda we trust. |
Cagliari are yet another relegation-threatened side, and this is yet another away match, both of which are factors Milan have struggled against this season. And while their manager, Davide Nicola, is known for saving teams from relegation, his record stems from being brought in when a team was already down, then saving them from inevitable relegation by the end of the season. So it is difficult to tell whether or not his magic will work this season, being manager from day one.
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| The relegation savior's magic may not work when managing from day one. |
It has not worked so far, with Cagliari having won only two league matches, drawing 3, and losing six thus far. His most recent loss was a 2-1 loss to Lazio on Monday. Notably, in that match, Cagliari finished on nine men as a result of having two players sent off in just one minute, both for second yellow cards. For that match, Nicola liined up a 4-2-3-1 with: Scuffet; Zappa, Mina, Luperto, Augello, Moakoumbou, Adopo; Zortea, Gaetano, Luvumbo; and Piccoli. For this match, Nicola will be missing both Yerry Mina and Adopo to suspension, but otherwise has a healthy squad.
Fonseca is now without Morata, still without Jović (despite him being called up for National Team duty,) Gabbia is still out, and obviously Bennacer and Florenzi are still recovering as well. Morata is home from the hospital and doing well, but obviously cannot play in this match. But Fonseca did say he will allow Leão to start again, in fact he even indicated that "maybe it wasn't the best" strategy to bench Leão repeatedly for over two months. You think? Like who would ever respond well to that? One or two matches, maybe, but more than two months? Hopefully, Fonseca has learned his lesson, although he still had plenty of criticism for Leão in his prematch press conference, so I am not exactly sure that he did.
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| Did Fonseca actually admit he was wrong about benching Leão? |
Fonseca has complained many times about how defense works in Serie A, how everyone man marks. and he hates having to prepare differently for every match. On Tuesday, he bragged about how it was 'easier to beat Real Madrid than Monza.' I don't know about you, but if someone takes a job and constantly complains about what the actual job is, I am not sure if they are actually suited for that job. This is also the last of three matches with which Fonseca was meant to be judged by management, and of course, once they told him his job was on the line, the team pulled off the second epic performance, just like with the Derby. But I have to think that with all the controversy with Leão and so many poor performances and results, he will still be scrutinized more closely going forward.
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| Expectations for Fonseca were raised on Tuesday, now he has to earn trust with consistency. |
Serie A Week 11