Excellent tacking, but a suspect against pace and direct runners possibly which is what EPL he may face most? But one on ones he is ace already. Good composure too unlike what we have currently.
Milan Skriniar
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The guy can tackle, pass, dribble, and basically play football. Would he be allowed to take as many risks in a Jose defensive system?
Yeah, if I had to critique a couple of aspects in Škriniar's game, his positioning and spatial awareness isn't consistently top-notch and he can also be a bit flat-footed at times. In terms of pure explosiveness, he'll never reach the level of a Stam or Ferdinand because he doesn't have the natural physical tools, but hopefully he can iron some of the rectifiable issues in due time because he's superb at 1v1 defending in recovery, dominant on the ground as well as in the air and tough-as-nails when compared with some of the other supposedly elite defenders today. With the progressive decline of Barzagli, Chiellini and the likes in recent years, he's probably the best Serie A has to offer after only Koulibaby (who is already a finished article and could have a Van Dijk-esque instant impact if he moves from Napoli to United), though this year is a real litmus test for him because he's facing elite level teams in the Champions League for the first time, and Inter qualifying for the knockouts would give you an even better sample size.
I'd prefer Koulibaly, Skriniar is a bit of a headless chicken IMO, similar to Bailly.
Perfect for a back 3 but not sure he'd be great as a 2 man CB.
Perfect for a back 3 but not sure he'd be great as a 2 man CB.
Sign him and Koulibaly for 75M each, bin off Jones/Rojo and Smalling and recoup about 60-70M.
Win everything.
Play football manager Woody!
Win everything.
Play football manager Woody!
There arent many top rated CBs around at the moment that do have good pace. Koulibaly is the same with pace not being his strong point.
Varane has pace but is nowhere near as good as has been made out and is currently in terrible form.
I think we'd all be all for such a move, though 70m for those 3 is highly optimistic IMO, even in the current market, and especially with the wages they're all probably on with us.
Aren’t Smalling and Jones out of contract this season? Given Rojo has barely played in 18 months we’ll be lucky to get £20m for the three of them. Just don’t see the club binning Smalling and Jones for nothing. Can see both getting new contracts with Bailly and Rojo going.
Guy looks like a beast. What a name to have, considering the team he plays in though 
I may have watched 8-9 games of his in total and most of the time he appeared like a clueless rash defender to me. Maybe I was high each time reading some of the comments here
That is an interesting point.
And I will start by admitting that I have not seen as much of Skriniar as I would have liked, but I have seen a bit, including couple of games where he has been playing RB, the one against Spurs a month ago comes to mind. He was horrendous in the 1v1 situations. Like really horrendous. I know that its not his preferred position but that looked really terrible.
And one of the things of the PL is that you will be challenged with much more of those type of situations instead of the positional defending in Italy or Spain. Even at CB.
He looks like a real prospect but I would not bet on him instantly adapting to the PL and improving our defense from what I have seen so far.
I think it would be a disservice to him if we would buy him in January and throw him straight into the team. Not that Inter ever would sell him then, which is fine because the summer window would be much better. Let him get a pre-season with the team etc if its going to happen.
I actually have no clue tbh. Though we usually have those +1 options to extend in most of our contracts?
Some of you seem to forget that Skriniar is only 23 while Koulibaly is 27. In 4 years time he will probably be just as good, if not better, as Koulibaly is now.
We don’t have 4 years to wait, we have Lindelof for that
Saying that I think Skriniar would be a good signing
I have the same impression tbh. Even in that video against Barca, there are occasions where he’s lucky his clearance/tackle rebound off a teammate. One of those went awry and it’s a clear goal scoring chance.
Also his recovery speed isn’t impressive. If we sign him, it’ll be another long term project.
Don’t think we do for those two so it would be a case of extending before the end of the season or they leave for free.
Koulibaly is the better player but not by much imo. Financially Skriniar makes more sense given their respective ages.
Given a choice limited to both, Koulibally would be the preferred choice as he can come into starting lineup immediately and has the physical tools and experience to cope with the PL.
In that case, we're most probably going to extend and be stuck with them for a while yet
He would still need time to adapt to the pace of the PL
Yes but his 'adapting' would still be better than what we currently have
The EPL is a different cup of tea to the Serie A so a transition period is needed. Both players would cost a bomb as neither clubs need the money. Actually I think Napoli are better off then Inter on that regard.
Now lets have a look at our team. Smalling is our best CB and he's 28. Bringing in Koulibaly would mean having to replace them both in 4-5 years time. Skiniar on the other hand is younger and thus pose more value. He's got a bigger chance of partnering Smalling in short term and then replacing him in long term possibly alongside Tuanzebe or Lindelof.
Skinny is of course less experienced then Koulibaly but that doesn't mean he's a rookie. He's been playing in the Serie A for quite some time and has distinguished himself as a top top defender. My only concern is that at 6.2ft he does lack an inch or two from the typical EPL CB. In an ideal world we would sell Jones, Bailly and Rojo and add him and Milenkovic to the team. We still need to replace Valencia/Young after all. When the time is right he can then move as CB.
Now lets have a look at our team. Smalling is our best CB and he's 28. Bringing in Koulibaly would mean having to replace them both in 4-5 years time. Skiniar on the other hand is younger and thus pose more value. He's got a bigger chance of partnering Smalling in short term and then replacing him in long term possibly alongside Tuanzebe or Lindelof.
Skinny is of course less experienced then Koulibaly but that doesn't mean he's a rookie. He's been playing in the Serie A for quite some time and has distinguished himself as a top top defender. My only concern is that at 6.2ft he does lack an inch or two from the typical EPL CB. In an ideal world we would sell Jones, Bailly and Rojo and add him and Milenkovic to the team. We still need to replace Valencia/Young after all. When the time is right he can then move as CB.
6 foot 2 is too small for a CB? Are you serious? You're not even taking into account jumping either. Cesar and Monreal did fine at 5'10. Our very own Daley was great. Otamendi is just under 6 foot. Nonsense.
I am not saying he's short. However Vidic, Rio and Stam were all 6ft3 and in my opinion they were all better in air then Skinny. I think Milan and Smalling would do fine on that regard and as said I prefer him to Koulibaly. Having said that, since Bailly, Jones and Rojo are bust + we still have to replace Valencia/Young in the very near future then it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring Milenkovic as well. He'll slot as RB for the time being only to move as CB once and if we need to.
Skriniar is 1.88 and Rio is 1.89 (feck the imperial system), the difference is negligible. Vidic is 1.90.
Still I feel Rio and Vidic were better in air then Skinny. Look I am a big fan of the guy and honestly I can't see it being a problem as long as we play him with Smalling. However if Smalling is injured then we might have issues. Bailly, Lindelof, Jones and Rojo do not strike me as being great in air and Skinny might struggle on his own in that regard.
In my opinion, we should get rid of Bailly, Jones and Rojo and bring Milenkovic in. He's proven to be a beast at RB which is of course great since we'll soon have to replace Valencia/Young. If Smalling is injured and we turn out to need extra inches in CB then he can easily slot there (which is his natural role btw).
Honestly I can't see us being able to bring Skinny or Koulibaly at OT. They would both cost a bomb. So if you ask me, I won't be surprised if the club ends up just getting Milenkovic. He's less experienced then the former two but he's got great potential, he wouldn't cost us a bomb and he can slot both as RB and as CB.
Pretty sure wiki have their heights wrong. Rio was taller than Vidic (Rio was generally said to be 6'3" and Vidic 6'2").
That could be, the imperial system does my head in though. It’s less precise than the metric. Transfermarkt list Vidic as 1.90 and Rio as 1.89 so feck knows.
First, if recent form persist, Lindelof will soon be our best CB.
Jones, Rojo and Smalling are older and have likely peaked. Unfortunately, none of the trio is at the level of quality or fitness that should be ahead of our 4th/5th choice. Thus they should be gradually phased out of the squad.
With Lindelof, Bailly and Tunazebe, what we should be looking at is an experienced CB that can lead the defence and would help their development (dont want them learning from Smalling and co). Skriniar can not do this.
Thus if we buy Skriniar, we would still be looking for that experienced leader or else we risk stunting even the development of Skriniar.
Given the needs of the squad in other areas, I dont see us splashing big money on more than one CB. Thus I would prefer we sign Alderweireld for cheap and another young athletic CB (preferably left footed and can play LB), than spending all the money on a lone CB like Skriniar or yet Koulibaly.
Any big spending should be done on left footed a RW/RMF/AMF
Surely one can think of a better nickname than that
I beg to differ. First of all age is just a number and so is experience. Stam was 26 when he signed with us and he never played outside of Holland. That didn't stop him from immediately take control over our defence. Rio was even younger then that while Maldini looked like an experienced defender while still in his teens. On the other hand, Smalling is 28 and is not a natural leader while Jones & Rojo still play like 12 year olds. Skriniar is a born leader, something we haven't had for a long long time. Secondly its not as if he lacks experience. The guy has been in Italy since 2016 and had never looked back. In terms of playing in a solid league, Koulibaly has just 2 more years experience then him.
Don't take me wrong I rate them both. However given the choice I'd go for Milan.
de Vrij, and not Skrinair, is the leader of the Inter defence, nor was Skrinair the leader at Sampdoria. In fact there is little to no evidence of him leading a defence. To expect him to come in and mentor a group of CBs older than him, when he has not shown the needed precociousness, is setting up for a disappointment.
(if you want a precocious defensive leader, then take a look at Nesta at Lazio)
Rio was already an established top defender with Leeds and came into a united backline group with experienced players like Neville, Blanc, and Silvestre. He was not required to mentor a group of CBs like we need and had his reputation precede him.
Maldini developed under the guidance of Baresi, while Stam was dutch footballer of the year. Skrinair is not at the level of such players yet
BTW i have not said Koulibaly is what we need either.
Skriniar is top class but so too is Andersen from Sampdoria.
Facts tells us that De Laurentiis sells a key player every season for big money, while with Suning at Inter this thing never happened even though the club was under Settlement Agreement with UEFA 'till last summer.
Skriniar will not leave Inter not only becouse of the financial solidity of the owners but also becouse he's very loyal to the club.
Its curious how the then Lazio player gave away a penalty in favour of Inter just few days after confirming that he's Inter bound. That ended up pretty much ensuring Inter's entrance in the CL. Of course its pure co-incidence as everyone know that Juve are the 'cheaters' not Inter. Juve simply need to cheat to win despite having the best Serie A team ever since Berlusconi decided not to spend money on football anymore.
So gossipers might say that De Vrij signed for Inter so that he could ensure their CL qualification while others might say that he signed for them because he is a decent player on free. If you ask me, its both. Inter desperately needed the CL qualification to balance the books and De Vrij on free was too good for them to turn down. However one thing is certain. Signing De Vrij was certainly not a vote of no confidence towards Skriniar leadership skills. The guy is pure gold
PS Silvestre was shit (Jones shit) and Blanc should have retired instead of coming at OT. The only 2 decent defenders we had back then was Gaz and a very injury prone Wes. Rio held the line basically single handedly
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First of all I think both players would be very difficult to sign. Also both clubs are very very volatile to the point of craziness. Inter fans are so proud about that that they even made a song about it "pazza Inter amala" (crazy Inter love her).
Returning to Skriniar as you've said he had already committed to Inter. However, being the crazy and incompetent club they always were, Inter has yet to offer him the long term contract he wants, much to the player's frustration. So if Inter keeps dilly dallying on this matter then there's a chance for us to be able to sway him to OT especially if we decide to throw crazy money on him.
I am not sure what your argument is in defence of, as all I have stated is that Skrinair is not the leader in the current Inter defence and there is no evidence that he can do it successfully with a set of Cbs that are older than him, even if he is better than them. If you have evidence of Skrinair leading a defence and/or mentoring other CBs and defenders then please share. It is also the concern I have with Koulibaly. IMO, if we pay that much for a CB, we should get more than an individual contributor, but someone who can raise the quality of every other defender on our squad.
The mentoring process is something a lot of Serie A teams seem to do better than most, as one can see with the group of young CBs currently playing for Juve behind Chielini and co. To give an example, we can look at Spurs Sanchez, comparing him from when he was at Ajax to the present, where the effect of playing alongside more experienced CBs is quite evident.
I have described what I think our defence needs to get the best out of our current group of CBs (i.e. focus on developing Lindelof, Bailly, Tuanzebe, and other younger CBs, and graudually let go of Rojo, Jones and Smalling). The alternative being buying better and/or more experienced CBs who dont need as much leadership and/or mentoring (in which case Skrinair+De Ligt combo would be worth considering) but I dont think we can afford to invest so much money in our CBs, when there are more urgent areas like LB/RB, DM and RM/RW/RWF (and even CF is Lukaku doesnt improve)
Football is about cycles you know, Inter might be "Pazza" but not stupid, especially calling "always incompetent" a club that have a similar successful history as United at least is silly. Then if you think that you have some chances that Inter is in need of "crazy money" then good luck with that.
I am referring to my time ie around 20-25 years. During that period Inter won just 5 leagues all of which came after the team with the best players, the best manager, the best system and the most efficient board in the Serie A were caught 'cheating'. It never cease to fascinate me why on earth such stellar team whose Italian core won the WC would need to cheat especially since there was hardly any competition.
I assure you for most of that time Inter had been stupid. We can start about how they sold the likes of Bergkamp and Carlos for cheap, the latter after crashing out with the manager only for the manager to be sacked few months later. How (according to our Mickey) the manager would ask for a striker only to get 3 LBs, ah and I almost forgot, how their former owner nearly bankrupted his family business because of his obsession with getting out of daddy's shadows and ultimately had to be dragged out of it by his own siblings. Thank god Juventus cheated else Moratti would have destroyed their family fortune with his obsession of winning something.
TBF things seems to change a little with Suning. Inter are acting more professional. Moratti and his puppet Branca were shown the door, Ausilio is finally getting the credit he deserves and by the looks of it Thorir seems close of leaving too. Inter are also a step away of signing Marotta which would, most certainly, turn things around. It never cease to fascinates me how obsessed they are with Juventus staff especially since they think that Juventus win by cheating.
Nevertheless till the time of writing, Skriniar is still without his contract extension and that despite having big clubs circling around him + he's begging to commit himself to Inter. My only conclusion to that is, well, Inter is being Inter as usual
PS If you read my posts I think both signings are extremely difficult to make
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Well I've followed him for quite some time and he does seem to be quite a leader. The Interisti fans I know think he's a leader too. Regarding your last comment, my only issue is that Bailly seems to be injury prone and Jones/Rojo are basically crap. Which basically mean our defence is short of staff and quality. Thus I don't mind seeing us adding someone like Skriniar to partner Smalling, with Lindelof and Tuanzebe acting as cover/competition. Ideally we would also add Milenkovic whose very promising and is comfortable both as RB and as CB. That would add the 5th CB we might need if Lindelof/Tuanzebe get injured/ aren't good enough.