Sept 12 (Askume) – Paulo Fonseca is sidelined by AC Milan without a win in three Serie A games as the manager prepares to bring some British flavour to his side on this weekend’s visit to Venice, with London players the backbone of the squad.
Defender Fikayo Tomori and midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the only outfield players to play every minute for Milan so far this season, while forward Tammy Abraham came on as a substitute on his second day on loan from Roma.
The three grew up together playing for Chelsea in England and joined the academy at around the same time, when they were eight years old. Loftus-Cheek and Abraham are both originally Londoners, while Tomori moved to London from Canada as a child.
After leaving Chelsea on several loan spells, they all signed contracts with Serie A clubs. Tomori arrived at Milan in 2021, Loftus-Cheek joined last season and Abraham began his career at Roma in Italy.
Now reunited, Milan’s new boss has shown a lot of faith in the English trio. Fonseca has left Serbian Luka Jovic out of the Champions League squad, while Abraham will have to fight Alvaro Morata for a place in the first team.
Morata missed the last two games due to injury and now that the Spanish striker is fully fit, Fonseca does not want to risk him against Venice while Abraham looks ready to get his chance.
Milan remain five points behind Inter Milan and Juventus after draws with Torino and Lazio and a defeat to Parma, but Saturday’s game against one-point Venezia is the perfect opportunity for Fonseca to ease the pressure.
Fonseca decided to leave Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez on the bench for Lazio, but he was brought on alongside Abraham when Milan fell behind and the trio combined to get Leao the equaliser.
The pair are likely to start against Venezia, while Fonseca will wait and see how another former Chelsea player, Christian Pulisic, recovers from international duty with the United States.
San Siro fans will be hoping for signs of improvement, especially with the visit of Liverpool and the Champions League derby against Inter Milan next Tuesday.
Juventus are level on seven points with Inter Milan, Torino and Udinese and face unbeaten Empoli on Saturday.
Thiago Motta has had a great start to the season with Juventus with two wins, but his side suffered a 0-0 draw at home against Roma in their last game and the manager will want to press home his commitment to Inter Milan to get back to winning ways.
Defending champions Inter Milan travel to Monza on Sunday, where they already have two points. Napoli face Cagliari, with two consecutive wins having brought Antonio Conte’s side to within one point of the leaders after an opening day defeat.
