Fonseca: ‘Milan controlled the match, but Napoli scored’

Paulo Fonseca insists Milan ‘played positive football’ against Napoli, but failed to convert their chances and made ‘errors’ to concede the two goals. ‘We controlled the match.’

The Portuguese tactician made a brave stand by dropping Rafael Leao for the second game in a row, especially risky considering Christian Pulisic was only fit for the bench with flu symptoms.

In addition, Tijjani Reijnders and Theo Hernandez were suspended, with Matteo Gabbia, Tammy Abraham, Luka Jovic, Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer injured.

The gamble did not pay off, as Romelu Lukaku and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia secured the 2-0 victory for Napoli at San Siro, Alvaro Morata’s goal chalked offside as the best opportunity.

“I am always responsible for what happens on the pitch and I take that on. We always have mistakes in all the goals that are avoidable and obviously it is not easy when you concede a Napoli goal after five minutes,” Fonseca told DAZN.

“If you look at the game overall, they scored the goals, but we controlled the match otherwise. We reacted well to that bad start, played very positive football with quality, created lots of scoring opportunities and that is not easy against a Napoli side that defends near its own penalty area.”

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Fonseca defends start to Milan season

Milan have a game in hand, as Saturday’s trip to Bologna was called off due to severe weather warnings in the Stadio Dall’Ara area.

Nonetheless, they are already languishing 11 points adrift of the leaders and are seven points worse off than they were at this stage last season.

They won five, lost five and drew two in all competition this season, so is Fonseca still aiming for the Scudetto?

“I cannot say otherwise. Seeing how the team reacted, created and stayed united even without important players available. I do not remember a single team that won or lost the title after nine rounds,” insisted Fonseca.

“I see the team growing and we will get the results to get back into this fight.”

The Rossoneri are struggling to finish off their opportunities and team moves, so what are they missing in the final third to move decent performances into good ones?

“I am above all concerned because we conceded goals that we should not have allowed to a team like Napoli. It is not easy when you have 10 players parked in front of their penalty area, but we created those chances and all we missed was to convert them,” concluded Fonseca.

“It is true we need to work on the final choices in front of goal, because we dominated the possession, kept Napoli pegged back into their own half, but we had four or five opportunities and did not convert them.”