Fonseca: ‘Theo Hernandez more motivated now to help Milan’ | OneFootball

Paulo Fonseca assures Theo Hernandez is ‘more motivated’ now to help Milan and this is why he wears the captain’s armband on his return to the side against Roma.

It kicks off at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, also known as San Siro, at 19.45 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s four Serie A games on the Liveblog.

The Rossoneri are coming off a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Hellas Verona.

“We had a lot of the ball recently without being aggressive enough in the final third. We need to improve the choice of the final pass, but the midfield is pretty balanced and we are doing better defensively,” Fonseca told DAZN.

“Roma are not that unusual in Serie A with the way they play attacking and focusing on individuals. They don’t tend to patiently wait and move the ball around, they don’t focus on possession, because their intention is to go vertical and go straight for goal.”

Fonseca on revitalising Theo Hernandez at Milan

AC Milan’s Theo Hernandez in action during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia FC, in Milan, northern Italy, 14 September 2024. EPA-EFE/ROBERTO BREGANI

This has been a difficult campaign for both teams, but there is some progress with Theo Hernandez returning to the starting XI and even taking the captain’s armband after clearing the air with coach Fonseca, having been dropped for the last two rounds.

It was also necessary, moving Alex Jimenez into a more advanced role with Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Yunus Musah, Noah Okafor and Alessandro Florenzi injured.

“Theo has always been one of the Milan captains, along with Calabria and Rafa. It is a normal situation, trying to recover and motivate the player, because we need the best Theo. He also seems more motivated and ready to help the team.”

Fonseca was asked about the specific Alvaro Morata role, which has been called a ‘False 10’ because he is a centre-forward who drops back to the trequartista position.

“We’ll see! I think Morata has these characteristics, but we might not need that role quite so much today,” replied the coach.