Strahinja Pavlovic had Milan ahead before Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia fired Lazio in front ahead of Rafael Leao's equaliser.
"I thought we had a good first half because we controlled the ball. The second half was totally different. We allowed Lazio to play because we stopped trying to play ourselves. What we did in the second half was totally different. We always lost the ball down the left, that was the trend,” said Fonseca.
“When a team no longer presses high and does not have the courage to keep playing, we don’t create those spaces. I realise this is not a positive moment and in the minds of the players they want to avoid conceding goals, but defending does not make us more comfortable. We have to control the match.”
Youssouf Fofana made his full debut for Milan in midfield, but are they still lacking another player in that area of the pitch?
“I am not missing a player in midfield. I am missing any play from the midfield. We stopped playing in the second half. We tried to build out from the back with Pavlovic and lost it 90 per cent of the time because there was no connection with the midfielders,” insisted Fonseca.
“Look, I realise the players feel that by defending they are being safe, but they are doing the opposite. It is not about a lack of character or responsibility, it is the intention of the team, which was not to play with the midfielders. It was a totally different match in the second half, not what we had planned.”