Inter Milan coach Ronald de Boer has criticised Geoffrey Kondogbia for not following his instructions after hauling him off after just 28 minutes of his side's 1-1 draw with Bologna on Sunday.
Many fans in the San Siro applauded when De Boer substituted Kondogbia, 23, after an error-ridden performance which was condemned by his coach, who felt the midfielder had been at fault for Mattia Destro's opener for Bologna.
"If a player does not want to understand -- I spoke with him this morning when we lost Joao Mario [to injury] and I told him he needs to play simple balls, particularly with his back to goal, in the most dangerous areas, but he just doesn't want to listen," De Boer told a news conference.
"These are things we've been talking about for ages, but he doesn't want to listen. You can't go on not understanding where you cannot take risks and where instead you need to keep things simple. He keeps repeating the same mistakes, including for Bologna's goal.
"Maybe there was a foul on him, but that doesn't count anyway. He had the chance to play the ball away safely with two teammates free close by. It's not a problem that you make mistakes in a match, but what I cannot accept is when you make them because you don't want to listen."
De Boer pinned the blame for his side dropping two points on Kondogbia, showing once again that he is not afraid of making unpopular decisions after leaving Marcelo Brozovic out of his recent squad selections, having also been disappointed with him.
"I'm going to speak with him [Kondogbia] tomorrow and I will listen to what he has to say," De Boer said. "He has got to prove to me that he has changed. It's not a given that he will return in the Europa League [against Sparta Prague] because it takes more than just a few days to erase everything.
"They are both good players [Kondogbia and Brozovic] and I have no problems about fielding them, but they just need to realise that they must change."