The Calcio Comment: Fonseca already under pressure at AC Milan thanks to Leao & Theo
However, The problems in Milan are much, much more complex. The scenes seen during the clash with Lazio left all Rossoneri fans - even all Italian sports commentators and journalists - speechless.
During the cooling break of the second half, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao refused to talk to coach Paulo Fonseca and their teammates. It was a strong gesture, a clear rejection of the leadership of the coach who was essentially delegitimised in front of everyone.
In order to apply his principles of play, he made strong choices in the first place, excluding important names, players who have written the history of this club in recent years. Among them, of course, are Theo and Leao, who evidently did not take the coach's choice well.
Fonseca is a courageous coach, he has proven it in his career regardless of the results produced. He is a coach who has never been afraid of anything. Even when he was in charge of Roma after a series of unpleasant episodes he took the captain's armband away from Edin Dzeko and gave it to Lorenzo Pellegrini, who has not lost it since.
In short, he has already shown in the past that he has ideas and the courage to apply them, but it is the club that has to support him, defend him from player misbehaviour and from undue criticism from the press.
Patience is needed, the Portuguese coach's ideas are not easy to put into practice and time is needed, but the team must be on the coach's side and not against him. The problem is that reporters were told by one of Milan's top executives, Giorgio Furlani, that it was not an episode to discuss and that they 'were amazed at people's reactions'. The hope is that he was protected at least within the locker room, because otherwise it will be difficult to move forward.
Barring rarities and very good and serious directors, only one thing can save coaches and give them additional time: results. Winning always helps, and Milan since the beginning of the season have still failed to do that. Alvaro Morata arrived, scored and got injured, now Tammy Abraham has arrived on loan from Roma, but the English striker needs to revive himself and return to the player who did so well in Jose Mourinho's first year at Roma.
The midfield has been reinforced and also the defence, the management now demands positive results, but the feeling filtering from Milan is always of precariousness, of instability and this does not help anyone.
In the coming weeks, the locker room situation will have to be seriously evaluated, and within the club they will have to do it thoroughly. That behaviour of two of the team's top players may have raised a wall, or at any rate undermined Fonseca's credibility. The Portuguese is a hard worker, he will try hard to make the problem go away.
Maybe he will have to build a dialogue with the most important players in the team. The alternative is the opposite, which is to go straight for his own way as, for example, Thiago Motta did in Turin.
In any case, the situation is delicate and never before have Milan needed three points more than at this moment. The next game will be against Venezia, the most struggling team in the league, it's almost perfect, but right now the Rossoneri can't underestimate anyone, because first of all their own ghosts have to be beaten and they have to work on the things that are wrong within the team.
Surely Leao and Theo will have to make it up to them, perhaps with a great performance on the pitch: it would be the first of the season in their case. They need to act like true leaders, solving problems and not creating new ones. Then the ball will pass to Fonseca: it's not easy, but he has to resolve the situation.