Soccer-Fonseca set to back the Brits as Milan look for first win
By Trevor Stynes
Sept 12 (Reuters) -Paulo Fonseca is without a win at AC Milan after three Serie A games in charge and the manager is set to give his side a British flavour when Venezia visit this weekend, with a trio of Londoners making up the spine of his team.
Defender Fikayo Tomori and midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the only outfield members of the squad to have played every minute of Milan's season so far, and forward Tammy Abraham came on as a substitute a day after arriving on loan from AS Roma.
All three came up through the ranks together at English side Chelsea, joining the youth academy as eight-year-olds around the same period. Loftus-Cheek and Abraham are both London natives while Tomori moved there as a child from Canada.
After several loan spells away from Chelsea, they all ended up signing for Serie A clubs. Tomori arrived at Milan in 2021 with Loftus-Cheek joining last season and Abraham began life in Italy at Roma.
Now back together again, the English trio have already been shown plenty of faith by the new Milan manager. Fonseca left Serbian Luka Jovic out of his Champions League squad, with Abraham set to battle with Alvaro Morata for a place up front.
Morata missed the last two games through injury and while the Spanish striker is well on the road to recovery, Fonseca is unlikely to risk him from the start against Venezia and Abraham looks set to get the nod.
Milan are five points adrift of Inter Milan and Juventus after draws with Torino and Lazio and defeat by Parma, but Saturday's game against Venezia, who have one point, is the perfect opportunity to bring Fonseca some respite.
Fonseca took the decision to leave both Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez on the bench at Lazio, but they were called upon, along with Abraham, when Milan fell behind, and all three combined for Leao's equaliser.
The pair will likely feature from the start against Venezia, while Fonseca will wait to see how Christian Pulisic, another former Chelsea player, recovers from the international break with the U.S. national team.
The San Siro crowd will hope to see signs of improvement, especially with the visit of Liverpool next Tuesday in the Champions League and the derby game with Inter also on the horizon.
Juventus, level at the top on seven points with Inter, Torino and Udinese, travel to unbeaten Empoli on Saturday.
Thiago Motta made an excellent start at Juventus with two wins, but his side were held to a scoreless draw at home by Roma in their last game and the manager will be keen to return to winning ways to keep the pressure on Inter.
Defending champions Inter make the short trip to Monza on Sunday, a side on two points. Napoli are at Cagliari and after an opening day defeat, two successive wins have put Antonio Conte's side to within one point of the leaders.
Reporting by Trevor Stynes
Editing by Christian Radnedge
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