Official: AC Milan Hire Former Roma and Lille Manager On Three Year Deal

AC Milan have announced on their website the new head coach of the club. Paulo Fonseca takes the helm at Milan after five years of Stefano Pioli. The Portuguese manager takes over after two seasons at LOSC Lille in Ligue 1 finishing 5th and 4th respectively.

The club reports he has signed a three year contract while other sources note it as a two year contract with an option for a third year similar to Pioli’s original deal.

Fabrizio Romano is reporting that Fonseca will earn 2.5 million euros. Based on previous wage reports, he will earn 1.5 million less than Pioli was which is a saving for the club.

Fonseca has experience in Serie A as he managed AS Roma for two seasons between 2019 and 2021. Roma finished 5th and 7th. They had a Europa League semi final appearance too.

Fonseca has won the Ukrainian Premier League and Cup three times each with Shakhtar Donetsk.

Fonseca is very much an offensive coach and is often exposed due to lack of defensive cohesion. The attack will likely flourish under him but it raises question marks on his ability to win consistently and sustainably win as the all out attack often blunts over the course of a season in Italy as defenders figure out you and your system.

He is a 4-2-3-1 man so reverting back to the previous seasons’ look will be familiar for the Rossoneri but raises questions on the roles of the holding midfielders (defensive as opposed to free flowing) and the ideal position of Pulisic as the attacking midfielder opening up a starting spot for Chukwueze on the right with Leao on the left. His CAM usually acts as a second striker and his lead strikers are quite mobile.

His side conceded 98 goals in 90 games (1.08) with Lille and 141 goals in 102 (1.38) games with Roma whilst Pioli 282 goals in 240 games (1.175) across all competitions hence the expectation is fairly similar but the execution will make the difference given the previous four Scudetto winners have conceded under a goal a game in the 38 games. The first priority needs to be shoring up the defence as this was the glaring problem from last season while the attack delivered fairly well as is.

Some interesting links on the transfer market to watch will be two former players in Jonathan David (ST) and Tiago Santos (RB) while a showdown is likely with Alessandro Florenzi whose was loaned out twice by Fonseca at Roma to Valencia and Paris St Germain.