Paulo Fonesca lamented AC Milan’s lackluster defense against Liverpool in the Champions League.
Arne Slot’s team battled to a 3-1 victory in the San Siro, marking a successful start to their European season. On their return to the top club competition, things couldn’t have started much worse for the visitors, as Milan’s Christian Pulisic scored the first goal after three minutes.
However, Liverpool maintained their composure and led with goals from Virgin van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, two of their center backs, by halftime. Halfway in the second stanza, Dominik Szoboszlai then confirmed all three points for the Reds.
Apart from Pulisic’s goal, Milan was unable to muster more than one more effort on goal as the Reds were in complete control. Fonesca acknowledged that the Rossoneri attempted, but were unsuccessful in, isolating Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold from Rafael Leao in one-on-one situations.
“I think we started the game well offensively and defensively, then they had opportunities on the counterattack and punished us for some nice details,” Fonesca stated in an interview with Sky Sport Italia (via Milan Press). We cannot make mistakes in a game like this, but Liverpool is a stronger team than us. If we don’t work on maintaining the performance, it will be challenging.
We had anticipated the two central defenders to receive individual marking in the first goal given up. Leao was only able to defeat Alexander Arnold two or three times out of the one-on-one matches we had him in.
I value all viewpoints, but our defensiveness is too blatant. I give Loftus-Cheek an eight or ten, and I don’t think [Tijjani] Reijnders is a guy who should be playing next to [Youssouf] Fofana. I enjoy playing with two midfielders, and that’s how we generated our most threatening opportunities.
During his press conference following the game, Fonesca continued, saying: “We started well, both offensively and defensively.” But following their second goal, we became emotionally unstable and the team began to make mistakes that are deadly when playing opponents like Liverpool. It’s true that Liverpool was stronger than we were, and they still are.”
