Atalanta are currently Serie A's form team and Fonseca accepts they go to Bergamo as underdogs.
Is it a good time to face Atalanta?
"It's never a good time to face Atalanta. We are in a good moment, we are growing and we are confident. However, facing Atalanta is always difficult, they have won 8 of their last 9 games, scoring 25 goals and conceding only 4; they are a very strong team. It will be a very difficult match, but we are ready to play it with confidence."
Is the team headed in the right direction?
"Yes. I think a lot of this comes from how the team defends, because that brings stability and confidence to everyone. Three or four games ago there was defensive discouragement, but not today, the team is doing well defensively and that brings confidence to attack."
What is Atalanta like on an international level?
"We haven't seen a team play so man-to-man for a long time. Football is like life: cyclical. You always go back to what has been. Gasperini was a pioneer of this way of playing and now everyone in Europe is aware that it is difficult to face teams like Atalanta and many teams follow the Atalanta model. I was reading a German study and many teams play like this now: Bayern Munich, Stuttgart... I think they followed Gasperini's idea. Atalanta's way of playing is a reference on an international level."
A decisive match to turn the season around?
"The team doesn't need this match to be aware of what is needed. An important match, not decisive. We are in a good moment, but winning against Atalanta would bring more confidence for the future."
Milan finds De Ketelaere, former player of the match...
"Maybe he has adapted more to a different way of playing. But I don't want to talk about the Atalanta players, I think their most important thing is the collective. And they are very strong."
Do you define yourself as a modern, innovative coach who knows how to surprise? How are you adapting to this reality in Italy?
"I don't like to talk about myself. You have to talk about me. What I can say is that I feel very very good in Italy, it's very stimulating for a foreign coach. Here it's different, it's more stimulating to be here and find a different way of seeing things. Serie A is clearly different for me. These days I was talking to my staff and I was saying that only by being here can you understand how different it is. Coaches who aren't here don't have the exact idea of what Serie A is like and what it brings to a coach. Winning here is very very difficult. The big European teams now have the chance to face Italian teams. Let's look at the results. How are they? So think about facing Italian teams every week. It's difficult."
What's difficult?
"The way many teams defend here is different. I'm 100% sure that facing a team that plays man-to-man is more difficult than facing a team that plays zonal. Then there's the physicality, the way of defending. Finding space here in Italy is not easy. If you talk about intensity, England is more intense but here it's different."
Guardiola said that facing Atalanta is like going to the dentist...
"I completely understand what Pep said. It really is a game of sacrifice, commitment, attitude. He says that because maybe he goes to the dentist once a year. But here (in Italy, ed.) I go to the dentist every week, it's normal. Empoli, maybe they have different quality, but the way they play is the same."
How satisfied were you with Leao's growth?
"His growth is the reality, but Rafa has room to improve even more. He did well with his defensive attitude, but I'm not totally satisfied: he has the ability to do even better. And he must know in his head that he can always do better. He scored five goals, he can score twenty. We must demand from ourselves and Rafa must do the same: always be ambitious. He is on the right path, but he must not stop now."
Shouldn't Milan change strategy?
"The matches are very strategic. We have our characteristics, then we can make some adjustments. We always want to have offensive initiative, but against Atalanta it's not a match in which teams can have too much offensive initiative. Can they play catenaccio? No, I don't remember any matches in which this was done against Atalanta. So where is this match being played? Not near their goal."