Paulo Fonseca believes Milan’s lack of positivity, energy and defensive will cost them dearly in their 2-1 defeat at Parma in Serie A on Saturday night.

The Rossoneri are now two games without a win in the 2024/25 season after last week’s 2-2 draw with Torino. Today’s goals were scored by Dennis Man after two minutes, Christian Pulisic with the equalizer after 66 minutes and the eventual winner by Matteo Cancellieri 10 minutes later.

Fonseca expressed his frustration during his post-match media briefing, saying it was “difficult to understand” how Milan performed as they did, given that the team had prepared well in the week leading up to Saturday’s match.

He took responsibility for the performance, but then began to criticize his player’s attitude in defense.

Fonseca blames “attitude, energy and the will to defend as a team” for Milan defeat

“I have to say that the main responsibility for what happens to this team lies with me,” Fonseca told DAZN after the game.

“I accept responsibility and don’t want to hide from it. But I realize that there is a collective problem when it comes to defensiveness and aggressiveness.”

When asked if his players had an attitude problem, Fonseca replied: “I think it’s everything. This team has a problem in general. We had problems when we didn’t press too high against Torino. Today we tried to get the players to press higher and we still had problems.”

“When someone played through our pressure, it became difficult to stay compact and regain our positions. When we got back into position, we were passive. There are many things. For me, it’s a problem with attitude, energy and the desire to defend as a team.

Milan had a successful pre-season this summer, including impressive wins over Real Madrid and Manchester City during the tour of the USA. After those victories, did Fonseca expect such a start to the season?

“No. The truth is that we had a good preseason, but this is our reality,” he said. “It’s always easier to play against big teams, you’re more motivated.”

“We came here and there was a change that is really hard to understand. During the week, when we prepare our strategies, the team makes really good progress. Then the game comes and we start behaving in a way that is hard to explain.”

Serie A | Parma 2:1 Milan: Rossoneri fall in the Tardini