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Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25
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This is the
fourth country in which Fonseca has coached. After leaving Portugal in
2016, he restored Shakhtar Donetsk to the top of Ukrainian football,
building a team admired across Europe, before then experiencing the
crosswinds of life at Roma. One good season, one less so. After leaving
Italy, he was ensnared by Tottenham’s
chaotic coaching search during the summer of 2021. The following year,
Fonseca, his wife, Katerina, and their young child fled Kyiv in the
early hours of a February morning, escaping the Ukrainian capital as
Russian bombing devastated the city.Then in 2022, he arrived in Lille. They had won the Ligue 1 title in 2021 but plunged into mid-table immediately after.
Fonseca was the response. For him, it was an opportunity on his terms.
“The
main thing in my conversation with the club was the feeling that I
would be able to build something that was mine. That’s what made me
decide to come to Lille. They had been champions two years before, but
most of the players (from that side) had left. The owner wanted to build
a new team with young players and no pressure. He wanted a new way of
playing and a team that could dominate games. Immediately I had the
feeling: ‘Yes, this is the place. I can build an identity here’.”
(Francois Lo Presti/AFP via Getty Images)
Fonseca
led LOSC to fifth place and the Europa Conference League during his
first season. In the process, he set a club record of 22 consecutive
home games without defeat, developing one of the most attractive teams
in France along the way. And that mattered because aesthetics are
precious to him.“For me, it’s never just about the result. It’s about the process. What we create and the way we create it. This is very important for me. I want to create something
that allows you to enjoy the game. And to do that, you need to have an
attacking way of playing. You have to try to dominate and create more
chances than the opposition.“I
think today people appreciate less the coaches who don’t have courage. I
want to create something spectacular. Something for people to really
enjoy.”Most often, they do. Fonseca teaches a bold possession
game, full of verve. His football is built on daring exits from defence
and clever numerical advantages constructed in midfield. His LOSC want
to bait their opponents. They want to draw the teams they play into the
middle of the pitch, lure them with intricate passing, before fanning
out and exploiting the space.
“Our
game is attraction,” Fonseca says. “We want teams to press us so that
we can find space. And so we take many risks. Especially when we build
up because our first phase — with our different structures and how we
accelerate and decelerate the game — is what allows us to dominate.”Bold
football brings rewards, but sometimes there is a price for taking
risks. At times during his career, that has been a criticism, but
Fonseca does not believe in scared football. In fact, he believes it is
an obstacle to what LOSC are trying to achieve.“We’ll fail sometimes,” he says. “Of course.
“We
are not the biggest club in France. We do not have the same capacity as
some of the other clubs. But we can be strong if we choose the right
players and if we can build a team with courage.”LOSC have only
the sixth-largest wage bill in Ligue 1. Paris Saint-German spend nearly
six times as much. Marseille three times. Monaco more than double. There
is also a significant financial gap to Rennes and Lyon.Fonseca
and his club agree that courageous football is the way to punch above
their weight. The cost, however, is putting players in positions where
they might make mistakes. In the present day, when any errors draw
social media savagery, that can be a tough proposition.“This type of game is not for weak players,” Fonseca accepts.
“The
players have to know they will make mistakes, but I always insist they
try. They know they can fail, but only within the intentions of the
team. If it goes wrong, then it’s my fault.“I’ll say that to the media: ‘I’m guilty here, not them.’ I’m asking my players to take these risks.”
He
is asking supporters to understand them, too, and to appreciate the
broader aims. Fonseca does not want a stadium of quiet, angsty
fidgeters.“It’s important to really make the people understand
our style of play. Here in Lille, people understood very quickly what we
were trying. When everybody believes, I think that most of the time
they don’t think about mistakes. The players take risks without being
afraid to fail.”Character, courage, fearlessness. Fonseca demands
these qualities but — in keeping with the club’s vision — from an
extremely young side. Canadian forward Jonathan David and former Manchester United prospect Angel Gomes are 23, goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier is 22 and
full-back Tiago Santos is 21. Centre-back Leny Yoro, who is as good a
defensive prospect as there is anywhere in Europe, is 18.Fonseca lights up with pride when he talks of Yoro, a stylish footballer who is the image of the modern defender.
“He’s amazing. In all my career, I’ve never seen such a mature young player.”
Fonseca gave senior debuts to, among others, Diogo Jota (at Pacos Ferreira), Mykhailo Mudryk (at Shakhtar Donetsk) and Carlos Baleba (LOSC, recently sold to Brighton), so he has been around plenty of
potential; in the years to come, Yoro will surely have a career to
watch.Asked about his favourite part of his job, Fonseca does not
hesitate. He enjoys match days and being on the touchline, but the
training pitch is where he would always rather be.“I’m not the
kind of coach who believes that the games improve players. No, it’s the
work. The daily work. When we get the time, I love the sessions, the
exercises and the teaching on the pitch.”
Dressed as Zorro after Shakhtar defeated Manchester City in the Champions League (Stanislav Vedmid/AFP via Getty Images)
Increasingly,
that is a privilege. Lille’s continued participation in Europe will
keep them in a Thursday-Sunday routine for, they hope, much of the rest
of the season, with days on the training pitch increasingly scarce.“It’s
true, we’re always getting less time, but I’m having such a good time
with these players and this team. From when I arrived, the players were
so open to playing my game and it was amazing to feel how much the
players were willing to believe in that approach.”He
takes pride, too, in what he describes as players “growing with the
ideas of the team”. LOSC have become a hothouse of sorts, full of
players of similar profiles, incubated by the team’s chemistry and all
progressing in the right direction.Edon Zhegrova has benefited. A
left-footed right winger, the Kosovan has grown much more efficient
under Fonseca. Alexsandro Ribeiro, who often partners Yoro in the middle
of a defence that is statistically Ligue 1’s third-meanest, was playing
in the Portuguese second division 18 months ago. Bafode Diakite, 22,
joined from Toulouse for €3million (£2.6m; $3.3m) in the summer of 2022,
but his value has risen exponentially after strong performances in
different defensive roles.Clearly, much is going right at LOSC.
The recruitment has been excellent and a youth academy which helped to
produce Eden Hazard, Franck Ribery, Yohan Cabaye and Benjamin Pavard
remains prolific. Fonseca’s work is helping the club capitalise on its
strengths. Part of that involves empowering players.“He is a bit similar to Thomas Tuchel,” Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who played for Fonseca at Roma, told The Athletic in 2021. “He tries to put the players in the best positions to allow them to play their own style of game freely.”
Fonseca describes his period in Rome as an awakening of sorts.
“It
was a difficult experience, but I enjoyed it so much,” he says. “The
passion of the Italians is amazing. You have radio stations that talk
about football for 24 hours. All the newspapers, too. It was a huge
pressure, but I loved it.
(Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
“I
grew a lot there. Every country has different ideas about the game and
in a lot of them, many coaches believe in the same things. In Portugal,
for instance, we were really influenced by tactical periodisation and by
Vitor Frade (the Porto academic credited with founding the theory). But
in Italy, I saw so many different types of football and had to adapt so
often, to pure man-to-man, for instance, like (Atalanta head coach Gian Piero) Gasperini. You don’t really get that in England or Germany. Brighton and Manchester City, maybe, and some teams do it during moments of the game, like at goal kicks, but all the time – no.“Italy is so tactically rich like that.”
Fonseca
managed Roma during the Covid-19 shutdown and recovery and then through
a change in the club’s ownership. He is reflective about his two
seasons there, conceding that he made too many tactical compromises.
During the 2020-21 campaign, his last, he and his squad were not quite
suited to one another, he believes. That the club chose Jose Mourinho
and his pragmatism to succeed him suggests he was right.But
Fonseca really comes to life when talking about the differences in
footballing culture he has encountered and how they have altered his
thinking. One of the adaptions he has made has been in how he uses his
4-2-3-1 formation to attack. In Ukraine, Shakhtar’s comparative strength
allowed him to use both full-backs, usually Darjo Srna and Ismaily,
high up the pitch, really as wingers. Ismaily, who is in his thirties
now, is with Fonseca again in Lille, but in a modified system.“Here
we still attack with five players, but we find them from different
parts of the team and often just use one full-back pushed higher. So, we
might only give Ismaily (on the left) more freedom to be offensive and
block the right-back from going forward. Why? Well, because Edon
(Zhegrova, the right winger) doesn’t have the right characteristics to
play infield (inside an attacking full-back) and also because we have to
prepare for the moment when we lose possession.“In Ukraine, the
teams didn’t create that many problems, so it was OK to take risks and
push players forward. Here? No. The game has a lot of transitions.“It
was the same in Italy, where you have to be really careful. There are
so many teams who play in a low block and wait for the opportunity to
counter-attack. You have to prepare well for that moment.”Another difference he has encountered in France is a change in the way opponents approach his team.
“In the first year, we had the right conditions to play our game.
“Most
of the teams would press us, which is what we wanted, but this year
they have started to defend much deeper, much more in a low block. OK,
when we play against Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, they still press
us, but many others are using a low block.“So the game is not as
it was last year. It is a big difference and gives you another solution
to find and sometimes this year our team has had difficulties with this.
Not just us. I see a lot of games in England and when teams play with
10 players in their box, it’s even difficult for Manchester City. When
we play this kind of game, the talent of the players and what they can
do one-on-one is so important. You need a lot of individual ability.”
Fonseca has to devise ways to deal with some of the world’s best players (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
The hope is that the freedom Fonseca affords talent allows LOSC to keep evolving and forcing other teams to adapt.
He
is an avid football watcher and knows what he likes. He speaks of his
admiration for all sorts of teams. Gasperini’s Atalanta. Roberto De
Zerbi’s Sassuolo of the past and his Brighton side of the present. He
talks of the work Igor Tudor did last year at Marseille and of an
enduring affection for Pep Guardiola’s great Barcelona teams.But
his eyes really dance when he speaks of the riddles that football
poses. How to find a new way out of defence. How to tease a docile
opponent forward. Or just how to make a player forget their fear.“I love the game,” he says, meaning it.
“I love my job.”
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