MN: From reserve to immovable – Thiaw’s resurgence under Fonseca a positive note | OneFootball

In a season of ups and downs like the one AC Milan are experiencing, it can be tough to highlight positives. However, Malick Thiaw has been among them.

As MilanNews write, Thiaw has recovered after a horrible start to the season, with that catastrophic and clumsy own-goal against Torino, which continued the downward trend that began last season. The German struggled for form and picked up a serious injury that kept him out for months.

Paulo Fonseca has changed the two central defenders a lot this year, trying different combinations by switching Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori, Matteo Gabbia and Strahinja Pavlovic. From mid-October onwards it has been clear that the two starters are Thiaw and Gabbia.

Thiaw seems to be in perfect harmony with the coach, both in terms of game ideas and in terms of analysing the team’s problems. After the win over Red Star when Fonseca criticised the team, the ex-Schalke man backed up the coach’s statements.

“I agree with Fonseca. It was a difficult match and we didn’t do what we wanted to do: it was difficult to play both with the ball and without the ball,” he said.

“We played without aggression, leaving two or three opportunities to them. So it’s difficult, because, as the coach said, one day we do well, the second day… pfff… I don’t know.”

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The symbol of his resurgence – after some very difficult months – is the goal he scored at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League victory at the beginning of November against Real Madrid, but it is just the icing on the cake.

Thiaw is at the top of the list for defenders around Europe when it comes to completed passes among U23 players, as well as being among the best for completed passes that go beyond the opposition’s pressing lines, as seen for Tijjani Reijnders’ winning goal in Verona.

The golden pass was obviously from Youssouf Fofana, but the ball was delivered to the Frenchman by Malick. With Gabbia, who has been a leader of the defensive line, Thiaw is one of those players who has benefited the most from Fonseca’s new way of defending.

Without having open spaces to cover and without having to venture into reckless offensive pressing, the 23-year-old has resumed the growth path that he had interrupted last year due to various problems, both physical and otherwise.