GdS: ‘The eternal swing’ – why Conceicao took Leao and Theo off at half-time | OneFootball

There was some surprise inside San Siro yesterday when the board went up at half-time to show two players had been taken off: Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, in most other games double substitution of the two biggest stars at half-time would have been the topic of the week. However, the late comeback and the Calabria-Conceiçao clash instead put everything on the back burner.

Why did the left-sided duo come off? One detail needs to be clarified, in view of the Dinamo Zagreb game in midweek. There is a physical, muscular component to Leao’s substitution: he wasn’t feeling well even before the match and, after a very negative first half, he would have struggled to continue.

The situation needs to be monitored for him and for Pulisic, who didn’t think he had 90 minutes in his legs but played almost a hundred, despite having just recovered from the muscle fatigue that arose during Como-Milan. It remains to be seen whether they will both be able to play in Zagreb.

Conceicao was asked about his decision after the game, to which he responded: “They pay me to make choices and improve the team. A less brilliant day for Theo and Leao can happen, we wanted something different and the names are not important.

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“The two of them have been very important and will be in the future. In fact, I already say that, if they are physically well, they will play as starters in Zagreb too.” Despite the logic, one cannot help but notice that the case is more unique than rare.

A coach never usually replaces the two most talented players in the team if the score is level, even if they were the worst on the pitch (and yes, they were). Leao’s physical problem aside, the double substitution is a message that can be translated easily: ‘give your all, or you will not play’.

We remain rooted to the great theme of the season: the ups and downs of the stars, their seemingly limited commitment, the mistakes in defence or in front of goal. Leao and especially Theo were criticised after the reverse game against Parma, and were benched by Fonseca against Lazio.

The evening of the cooling break followed; the first, great public fracture of Milan’s 2024-25 season. Theo and Rafa were parallel protagonists throughout the Fonseca era, with the coach busy sending first one and then the other to the bench, talking privately and publicly about those two characters in search of application.

Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images

The key episode came probably in the defeat to Fiorentina, with Theo missing a penalty and then getting sent off as captain. And the best moments? Leao’s brace against Cagliari, the great match against Real Madrid and the derby.

The present is about Conceiçao. The Frenchman and the Portuguese were the protagonists of the Supercoppa Italiana win, which came when the rumours about Hernandez were growing. Theo scored the goal to make it 1-2 and provided the assist for the equaliser.

Leao came on after five minutes in the second half, just recovered from injury, earned the free kick for the first goal and provided the assist for Tammy Abraham’s last-gasp winner. The media spoke of two stars reborn, but the past week confirms that you don’t change in five minutes.

Against Girona, Leao was the best, Hernandez the worst. Against Parma, both were bad, in an ‘eternal swing’ of performances and moods.