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AC Milan chief Moncada explains Fonseca hiring; backing Leao benching

  /  autty

Fonseca has impressed this season, though Milan continue to battle with inconsistency.

He told MilanNews.it: “Paulo has a style of football that we believe Milan ought to have.

“We play at San Siro, we should control the game and the ball. We should be solid on these matters. Paulo is a good worker, he has interesting training sessions, working both individually and with the collective.

“For example, I’ve seen him take four or five midfielders after a regular session and do some specific work just with them. It is only November, I am sure that we will see many players have made enormous progress by the end of the season with him.”

Moncada says he also supported Fonseca when he benched Rafael Leao earlier this month.

“We work together every day, we support him and now I think Leao is a totally different player. Just look at his performances against Real Madrid, in Cagliari and on international duty with Portugal.

“These situations can happen, nobody is always perfect. We must accept that players have difficult moments and support them the way I and Zlatan Ibrahimovic did with Rafa, giving support and constructive criticism. We are a family.”

He continued on Leao, “I remember seeing him play for Sporting Lisbon against Belenenses, I think he was 17 years old. He played as a Number 10, a support striker, but had a lot of freedom and an interesting profile. He was tall, lithe, had super technique and scored a goal with this incredible sense of confidence.

“Obviously, many other scouts saw him too, I was certainly not the first, but when you go and see an Under-17s match in Portugal and see a lad like that… You note his name down.”

Related: MilanLeao