“Modern football is a circus, but Milan is not aggressive enough” in the 1-2 defeat

Milan coach Paulo Fonseca against Fiorentina (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Paulo Fonseca called the penalty decisions a “circus” but admitted Milan were “not aggressive enough” in their 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina. “It’s not a tactical question.”

The Rossoneri had won three consecutive Serie A games despite losing both Champions League games, but capitulated 2-1 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

It was a wild evening in Florence as Mike Maignan saved Moise Kean's early penalty and was beaten by Milan midfielder Yacine Adli.

David De Gea saved penalties from Theo Hernandez and Tammy Abraham, but after Christian Pulisic's acrobatic equalizer, Albert Gudmundsson scored the winner with a long goal kick.

Fonseca is annoyed by Milan's attitude in Florence

“I, who love football, don’t want to contribute to this circus. Everything is a penalty now, whether in our favor or against. It's not football if you give a penalty for the slightest touch. I don’t want to get involved in it,” Fonseca told DAZN.

Did the lack of squad rotation demand a lot from the Milan players in a 4-2-4 system?

“I think we have managed well with this structure so far, it's not like Fiorentina have created so many opportunities. What we lacked was aggressiveness. In the first half it was too easy to allow the goal with a throw-in, and also the second goal with the long ball. I told my players that it is not a tactical problem, that it is not about defending and attacking aggressively .

“If you don't convert two penalties, it's hard to win a game, no matter how many chances you create. The crosses into the penalty area didn’t have the necessary quality for me either.”

The Gudmundsson goal resulted from a long kick from De Gea, which Kean knocked down as Fikayo Tomori missed it completely.

“To be honest, it’s difficult to explain how they scored those goals. It was a lack of determination as we didn't close those spaces as aggressively as in recent games, which allowed Fiorentina to play long and win the second ball,” admitted Fonseca.

After the final whistle there were further problems as Theo Hernandez was sent off for insulting the referee and therefore had to serve a ban.

Some of Fonseca's decisions also sparked controversy, such as the substitution of Pulisic and Rafael Leao in the second half, who was visibly irritated.

“Leao was my choice because I wanted more depth with Okafor at that moment. Pulisic had a flexor problem during the week and I was worried it would get worse. In my opinion, Chukwueze progressed well and created chances.

“I don’t know what happened to Theo.”