Milan boss Fonseca frustrated by attitude within squad amid mixed start – report | OneFootball

Things are far from certain for Paulo Fonseca at AC Milan, as the Portuguese manager navigates a mixed beginning to life at San Siro.

After a slow start, Fonseca enjoyed some significant highs in recent weeks such as a Milan derby victory, only to have his future again thrown into doubt following back-to-back defeats.

Milan were beaten 2-1 at Fiorentina on Sunday night, which came days after a 1-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. Milan find themselves in 6th place in Serie A, while their Champions League venture has yielded two defeats at the hands of Liverpool and German champions Leverkusen.

As such, Fonseca finds himself under the spotlight. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the former Porto boss is frustrated by what he perceives to be ill-discipline within the ranks. The latest example of which was penalty taker Christian Pulisic relinquishing spot-kick duties to Theo Hernandez and Tammy Abraham during Sunday’s loss to Fiorentina, with both players seeing their efforts saved by David De Gea.

After the match, Fonseca said the incident would never happen again, but the report in Gazzetta insists it was just the latest situation to have frustrated the Portuguese. The most visible demonstration of ill-discipline occurred during a draw with Lazio, when substitutes Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao opted not to attend an on-pitch briefing conducted by Fonseca, instead remaining positioned on the opposite side of the field.

Fonseca brushed the drama off, but it appears the Milan boss is growing concerned with such examples typifying an underlying lack of discipline within his squad. The report in Gazzetta adds that recent defeats have put a large emphasis on Milan’s home match against Udinese after the international break, with Fonseca under pressure to improve results.