Lovely.
Italian Serie A - 2019-20
- Thread starter roonster09
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Juve have a bunch of completely average players and loads of injuries all the time. Their fullbacks are nowhere near good enough, Alex Sandro has the technical ability of a lower tier player and Cuadrado is a wingback that can't cross or defend. Danilo and De Sciglio don't need to be mentioned. Their best CB by a mile in Chiellini is injured for pretty much the whole season and both De Ligt and Bonucci are good but regularly make mistakes so their defense isn't as good as it used to be. Pjanic is going through the worst form of his career and shouldn't even be starting anymore, Matuidi, Rabiot, Bentancur make up for an average midfield.
Then Costa, Dybala and Ronaldo are great but Costa's always injured and the other two get no support and have to make goals out of scraps.
They will get knocked out of Europe by the first top team they play unless Chiellini returns from 6 months off at 35 and manages to fix their defense.
No one wants to win this league. They're all kind of awful. Would be great if Lazio could do it but seems unlikely.
it’s almost an illusion looking at the team, because there are points in almost all of those players careers (except for all of their “right back” options) where you could see a great player. But the gap from Ronaldo to their next best player is probably bigger than the gap from Juventus 2nd best player to veronas worst. Lord knows where they’d be without him.
Under Allegri they'd play exactly the same way but then after the 1-0 the game would be over. Now with Sarri their defense is miles worse but there's no improvement offensively. 4th best attack in Italy and 3rd best defense, it's a miracle they're first. Verona are a very good team but the way Juve throw the 3 points away here was something truly special.
They should stop focusing on the Champions League and focus only on the league. They have nowhere near enough quality to win in Europe unless they get a miracle draw.
Juve are just awful. Win or lose the Série A they need to get rid of Sarri.
Yeah that is bs
They're just struggling to be consistent within games, likely a combination of years of Allegri followed by such a massive tactical and ideological shift with Sarri. Individual quality is not the problem(except for the lack of a top attacking midfielder, since Douglas Costa can't be relied to stay fit)
Not really, they're consistently really shit. They get outplayed by midtable teams like Verona or Fiorentina literally all the time. How many times do these supposedly top players can get completely outplayed by average players before they stop being called top players? They're very lucky to have as many points as they do.
Amrabat from Verona would walk into that midfield...
For stretches. And for other stretches they dominate. That's the very definition of inconsistent within games
They conceded 18 of the 23 goals while leading. The issues are entirely psychological. They go up and kind of stop trying, like they were still with Allegri and once they took the lead the game was over. Absence of Chiellini is huge, for sure, but other than that, it's mostly down to the fact they still haven't adapted to Sarri's ideas. Also been more unlucky with handballs in their own box. In every game they've had spells were everything clicked and they looked unplayable, they're just unable to sustain it for the whole 90 minutes and when they slow down they can't fall back on a granitic defence keeping opppnents at bay
The attack got worse though, that's Sarri's biggest failure so far
It's February, not September. I don't even know what Sarri's ideas are, they rely on individual moments to create chances and can't dominate possession. Everytime the intensity gets higher they fall apart.
It's not true they have stretches where they're great in every single game, it happens about once every 5 games where they have 30 minutes where they genuinely look great. The last high quality game they've played in the league where they were very good for large portions of it was against Inter away... even in 4-0 wins against Cagliari and 3-0 wins against Fiorentina they've been poor.
They need to actually spend big on their midfield this summer (Pogba? Tonali?) instead of getting free players which are blatantly not good enough (Can, Ramsey). This season they've already fecked up if the plan was to win in Europe. You can't win the CL in modern football with a midfield and fullbacks like these without a miracle draw.
I literally called this in September. They have not looked impressive all season, when your winning your winning and it covers a lot of the bad but the truth is I can name about 6 game’s they could of easily lost or drawn. They are in first BUT they can easily have been in 3rd or even 4th.
As I said a while ago Inter have been the best team in Italy this season. Lazio has been fantastic as well.
Damn, Serie A must be the shittiest league in history ever, to be having such a shit team as league leaders still
Or maybe Juventus just looks bad because the rest of the league is so good. The 11th place team in Serie A did take 4 points off the best team in the world (possibly ever) in the CL after all.
Kidding, Juve have shown flashes, but they are not nearly consistent enough. The midfield lacks far behind the quality of their attack & defence.
Seariously
@Peyroteo is generally a good poster but when it comes to Cristiano or Messi, even tangentially, you just can't take him seriously. He's far too involved
I mean, you're a good poster too but you're wrong about this. Saying they're actually great because they have periods in games where they're great and then they just stop being great because they have a colective psychologic problem... that's nonsense. When they're great it's because they're great, when they're not great it's because they don't feel like it? Come on... They have loads of limitations in midfield and on the flanks that a top team that wants to win in Europe can't have without a miracle draw to help them out.Seariously
@Peyroteo is generally a good poster but when it comes to Cristiano or Messi, even tangentially, you just can't take him seriously. He's far too involved
Lazio went out of Europe in the Europa League group, Inter didn't get out of their CL group... these are the teams they're fighting for the title with. They're the third best defense and the fourth best attack in Italy right now. There isn't one single team in the world that you'd put on the same level as them that would be in the same situation.
I spent over a year telling you how Perez' management of Madrid was terrible in the preparation for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons and I was full of shit because of my Ronaldo bias... then the team massively declined and you had your worst season in 20 years. Maybe I just know what I'm talking about and what you call bias is a difference in opinions. From my point of view you have a lot of bias too on the same topics so perhaps it's not worth taking you seriously either.
Oh i never said they're a great team(well, they are, just not a top top side)
I said individual quality isn't the issue, and it isn't. Basically the same team with the same players was actually shredding the league and looked very much like a top 3 side in the world until last january(2019)
The idea that Cuadrado, Alex Sandro, Matuidi, Pjanic, Bentancour, Khedira, etc aren't great players and they can't win the CL with them is absurd.
Coaching is their problem, not a lack of quality
Not really, i did agree with you in the end(after we had that argument whether Bale could replace Cristiano or not, which i conceded your point that he couldn't
) about the 18/19 seasonAs for 17/18, that's another story. Your argument was that we should have kept players that wanted to leave...and that we should have broken our wage structure for an 18 year old Mbappé, coming off our best season in 50 years...
Of course, and we went all summer talking about all the ways that might happen and those turned out to be true
As for bias, you are making the same argument you vehemently argue against when it comes to barcelona here...
Even though he's in brilliant form Dybala still seems to be benched a lot this season.
Hope it's not a case in ten years you look back at his career and seen such a talented player spend 40% of his career on the subs bench for club and country.
Hope it's not a case in ten years you look back at his career and seen such a talented player spend 40% of his career on the subs bench for club and country.
The more I watch of Locatelli, the more I want us to sign him. Easily the best player for Sassuolo so far.
If Napoi lose at home to Lecce they need to kick the Malaka guy out.
What an embarrassment
What an embarrassment
Napoli
0-1
Caicedo
Caicedo
Not this season. While in previous years the likes of Alba, Pique and Rakitic were genuinely great, this season it’s not the case at all. What’s happening at Barca is very similar to what’s happening with Juve. But they’re different situations, I can have one opinion for one and a different one for another.Oh i never said they're a great team(well, they are, just not a top top side)
I said individual quality isn't the issue, and it isn't. Basically the same team with the same players was actually shredding the league and looked very much like a top 3 side in the world until last january(2019)
The idea that Cuadrado, Alex Sandro, Matuidi, Pjanic, Bentancour, Khedira, etc aren't great players and they can't win the CL with them is absurd.
Coaching is their problem, not a lack of quality
Not really, i did agree with you in the end(after we had that argument whether Bale could replace Cristiano or not, which i conceded your point that he couldn't
As for 17/18, that's another story. Your argument was that we should have kept players that wanted to leave...and that we should have broken our wage structure for an 18 year old Mbappé, coming off our best season in 50 years...
Of course, and we went all summer talking about all the ways that might happen and those turned out to be true
As for bias, you are making the same argument you vehemently argue against when it comes to barcelona here...
If you think the likes of Alex Sandro, Cuadrado, Ramsey, Matuidi and Khedira are CL winning level players then you haven’t been watching them at all. They were once that good but not anymore, at all. Coaching hasn’t been great but there’s definitely a quality problem at Juve when it comes to their midfield and fullbacks. Every other team that has the goal of winning the Champions League has better personnel in those areas. I was saying the same thing about their striker situation last year and got told the same about Mandzukic and Moise Kean that you’re telling me now as if Mandzukic was anywhere near the player he used to be. Now he’s flopping in China.
They did awful business this summer by letting Cancelo and Spinazzola leave (their 2 best fullbacks last season) and then getting Ramsey while they needed a top player in that position for when Costa is injured, which is most of the season.
Thought that Parma chance in 95th minute was in.
HUGE win for Lazio. Just 1 point behind Juve now. ,Milan derby set up nicely aswell.
HUGE win for Lazio. Just 1 point behind Juve now. ,Milan derby set up nicely aswell.
Young, Sanchez and Lukaku all starting for Inter in the derby shortly..
Line ups posted seem to infer that its a front 3. Cant be surely
Line ups posted seem to infer that its a front 3. Cant be surely
No, it's 3-5-2 with Young as LWB.Young, Sanchez and Lukaku all starting for Inter in the derby shortly..
Line ups posted seem to infer that its a front 3. Cant be surely
The difference between Fabinho, Henderson and Wijnaldum vs Matuidi, Khedira and Ramsey is the first set of players play in a team that maximizes their qualities, hides their weaknesses and doesn't ask them to do too much. For the others is the exact opposite
Alex Sandro and Cuadrado may be no Robertson/TAA, but which other team has a better set of WBs exactly?
That's down to coaching. This wasn't an issue last season, not until fitness and injuries screwed them over
Oh really. Like who?
Mandzukic was exceptional for them last season. Him getting injured was a huge part of their late season collapse
Cancelo is apparently a dickhead and Spinazzola is a perennial sick note. Alex Sandro may not be back to his best but he's still really good, and so is Cuadrado.
Bolded i agree with
Lukaku, Ibra and Sanchez. All Mourinhos big name signings up front.
My feeling is that Sanchez will be the best of them tonight. Although Lukaku might score a tap in or something.
Think it will be harder for Ibra here. Although would not be shocked if he does something spectacular.
My feeling is that Sanchez will be the best of them tonight. Although Lukaku might score a tap in or something.
Think it will be harder for Ibra here. Although would not be shocked if he does something spectacular.
Padelli? Handanovic listed as a sub just like last week.
Handa broke a finger
Ah right, was a little confused why he was getting benched. Guess injured players just get listed on the bench aswell on the betting sites.
He probably is on the bench
Anyway looking forward to this. Think it will be more open than usual as this fixture has ended 0-0 or 1-0 often in last four seasons. 9/1 for 0-0 tonight. Will go 2-1 Inter.
Romagnoli might not be the best player on the field, but he's surely the best looking. Good for him and congratulations to his parents.
AC to get a last minute winner
Milan started brilliantly. Hit the post and also got into some good areas for crosses.
Calhanoglu hits the post
Cuadrado and Sandro are good but am I the only one noticing how once they reach the penalty area all they do is pass backward like they're told to not take chance.
So annoying.
Anyway coach is the biggest problem right now. Some players aren't on level with the rest but you can't have 22 starters equally good.
The problem lies in the fact that they to fire Khedira and Matuidi in 2019's summer now because they didn't/coudn't they made the mistake of leaving Emre Can and having fight having him leave.
He was one of not so bad together with Bentancur and Pjanic... such a shame.
Higuain simply has lost all pace and juventus play so low that our strikers always has to do 30-40meters before being able to take the shot and always outnumbered as our midfield rarely helps and always but slowly drag themself when it's already pointless.
Inter probably gonna win if Sarri doesn't click asap
The referees in Italy are a different species if you were to compare them to those in England.