Andrea Pirlo (73 Viewers)

[s4tch]

Besides the "18/19 Pjanic alone" argument is kind of thin as he's pretty much the only guy that stands out when you compare 18/19 to 20/21, the rest are very similar or in favor of 2021 (like the attack comparison PI made a page back).

current cuadrado over '19 cuadrado or cancelo is an easy pick, and i'd take current buffon over '19 perin, kulu over '19 costa too probably. '19 cuadrado vs current chiesa is a question of tactics; cuads played mostly as a winger with max, and wingback/fullback with sarri/pirlo. otherwise i'd take younger sandro over the current one, '19 pjanic, khedira or matuidi over ANY of our current mids, that cristiano over this one, especially in the 2nd part of the season, '19 chiellini is obviously the best defender in the two squads combined, tek in '19 was very good, we don't have any player with mandzukic's features now (i bet allegri would pick that mandzukic over current morata too), and dybala was equally shit during both seasons, but he had an arguably more useful season in '19. we also had spina and kean, both homegrown, which could provide extra depth now; those two extra guys over zero hg's alone is quite a difference. even berna was a better player back then.

yeah, rugani and mds were meh, i wish we had a healthy demiral vs ajax, otherwise for me, this current one is a weaker, more unbalanced squad with some badly aging players, and some young guns lacking experience.

we're still underperforming since we're badly coached and the motivation isn't right either. at least we found some of our bite for the last couple of matches. i want us to absolutely destroy bologna.

 

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[Strickland]

current cuadrado over '19 cuadrado or cancelo is an easy pick, and i'd take current buffon over '19 perin, kulu over '19 costa too probably. '19 cuadrado vs current chiesa is a question of tactics; cuads played mostly as a winger with max, and wingback/fullback with sarri/pirlo. otherwise i'd take younger sandro over the current one, '19 pjanic, khedira or matuidi over ANY of our current mids, that cristiano over this one, especially in the 2nd part of the season, '19 chiellini is obviously the best defender in the two squads combined, tek in '19 was very good, we don't have any player with mandzukic's features now (i bet allegri would pick that mandzukic over current morata too), and dybala was equally shit during both seasons, but he had an arguably more useful season in '19. we also had spina and kean, both homegrown, which could provide extra depth now; those two extra guys over zero hg's alone is quite a difference. even berna was a better player back then.

yeah, rugani and mds were meh, i wish we had a healthy demiral vs ajax, otherwise for me, this current one is a weaker, more unbalanced squad with some badly aging players, and some young guns lacking experience.

we're still underperforming since we're badly coached and the motivation isn't right either. at least we found some of our bite for the last couple of matches. i want us to absolutely destroy bologna.

18/19 Khedira over any of our mids? the guy that played below 1000 minutes and was injured for almost all of the season? you must be joking. I agree in part to the rest, but you're really diving deep in the comparison and picking mostly the points that favor 18/19, this could take a couple of essays, lets not go there.

 

[GrandeGigi]

Great to see the sheer delight of winning the coppa on the faces of the likes of Pirlo and Buffon who have both won so much throughout stories careers.
Winning shouldn’t be taken for granted and these guys embody that.

Delighted to see Pirlo happy after the relentless pressure he’s clearly been under. He’s been given a huge learning experience at our expense and has two trophies under his belt, so it would be a good note to end on.

 

[s4tch]

18/19 Khedira over any of our mids? the guy that played below 1000 minutes and was injured for almost all of the season? you must be joking. I agree in part to the rest, but you're really diving deep in the comparison and picking mostly the points that favor 18/19, this could take a couple of essays, lets not go there.

i didn't check their playtime at all, but yeah, a half legged khedira over these fags anytime.

balance and intelligence ftw!

let's do a combined starting xi of these 2 seasons. i'll do mine after lunchtime

 

[LiquidPLP]

So we have a winemaker lobby now?

Nice to know there are people happy to embrace mediocrity..

On VS it's also an almost complete U-turn. I think it's just the effect of last night's victory.

 

[U Picciriddu]

On VS it's also an almost complete U-turn. I think it's just the effect of last night's victory.

But what if Allegri and Zidane arent available?

 

[s4tch]

@Strickland

'19 tek
'21 cuadrado '21 de ligt '19 chiello '19 sandro
'19 khedira '19 pjanic '19 matuidi
'21 chiesa '19 mandzukic '19 cr​

you can argue that khedira was injured a lot (i accept that, i didn't check), then insert '20 bentancur there

 

[DAiDEViL]

i always thought role of manager in football is overrated by many. games won by players. you get the best players, unless you have a manager actively sabotaging the team, you win. i also support another season with pirlo, if it is not zidane.

Right. Why even have a coach in the first place? Players win on their own and if you have no coach - no one can sabotage the players either. Also you save money. I wonder what's holding us back from going coach-less.

...I know I know, we basically coach-less, but you know what I mean.

 

[LiquidPLP]

But what if Allegri and Zidane arent available?

Then we're truly fucked.

Pirlo cannot stay, the involution that has happened throughout the season is unbelievable. Add to that his dumb insistence with the 442/352 hybrid, where we have no CMs that suit this system at all. You have to basically discard everyone except for Bentancur and Rabiot. Yet he comes out and says he adapted to the players...
It was enough to put together 3 CMs in their places before we started to control the match in the second half. It takes no genius to realize that a midfield of 3 is better for this team, even if the midfield is subpar at best.

Last night win cannot change anything IMO. It's perfect that we won but the season is a failure anyway.

Do you want to keep him and support him with a good mercato to improve? What kind of mercato would that be?

 

[il brutto]

@Strickland

'19 tek
'21 cuadrado '21 de ligt '19 chiello '19 sandro
'19 khedira '19 pjanic '19 matuidi
'21 chiesa '19 mandzukic '19 cr​

you can argue that khedira was injured a lot (i accept that, i didn't check), then insert '20 bentancur there

I'd also argue that '21 Danilo should be there instead of '19 Sandro. Khedira has no place in there obviously, options are probably current Rabiot or '19 Bentancur.

I also don't think this exercise tells a lot about the actual quality of the players. We are basing these picks on the performances of the team and the individual players and we know that a coach has an effect on both. It's pretty much impossible to compare them purely on ability.

 

[GordoDeCentral]

So we have a winemaker lobby now?

Nice to know there are people happy to embrace mediocrity..

Pretty sure they don't watch our games, they also like to engage in attention seeking hot takes which almost always results in a healthy dose of shaming and derision, they then disappear for a few months to live out the humiliation, only to come back and rebellotte!

 

[.zero]

So we have a winemaker lobby now?

Nice to know there are people happy to embrace mediocrity..

There are always splinter cells amigo

 

[Strickland]

@Strickland

'19 tek
'21 cuadrado '21 de ligt '19 chiello '19 sandro
'19 khedira '19 pjanic '19 matuidi
'21 chiesa '19 mandzukic '19 cr​

you can argue that khedira was injured a lot (i accept that, i didn't check), then insert '20 bentancur there

that Sandro-Matuidi-CR7 left flank is a nightmare and a big reason I generally hate flat out 433 involving Dybs/CR7, I think both are much more suited to 2 man frontlines. So if I was in charge I'd probably go with something like this. even knowing that Chiesa isn't a leftie, his performance against Porto confirms that he is better than anything we could put on that left side (Sandro, Spina, Cancelo).

19 Tek
21 de Ligt - 19 Chiellini - 21 Danilo
21 Cuads- 21 McKennie - 19 Pjanic - 19 Matuidi - 21 Chiesa
21 Morata - 19 CR7

 

[Post Ironic]

@Strickland

'19 tek
'21 cuadrado '21 de ligt '19 chiello '19 sandro
'19 khedira '19 pjanic '19 matuidi
'21 chiesa '19 mandzukic '19 cr​

you can argue that khedira was injured a lot (i accept that, i didn't check), then insert '20 bentancur there

I’ve always been a massive Mandzukic fan, but he played as our #9 that season and scored 10 goals - 5 assists. That’s just not enough production. He offers other things, but that isn’t close to enough as the CF. When he was running like a madman, all over the pitch in the previous seasons as a hybrid winger, it was... but in 18-19 he didn’t play like that, and after a decent start to the season in terms of production, he fell off a cliff in that way. And regardless of Morata’s drop off lately and mopery, he has double the goals + assists, in a similar number of minutes.

I was also one of the few Khedira supporters on this forum for pretty much his entire Juve career, but he was pretty much done in 2018-19, so no, in that particular season he was not better than all our current mids even if they mostly suck. I think Rabiot is massively overpaid and should leave, but his performances have been equal to 18-19 Sami.

 

[Mark]

2 finals, 2 wins.

 

[GiocataGrande]

How he ends up with 2 trophies this year is beyond me. Black Magic

 

[Vlad]

Pretty sure they don't watch our games, they also like to engage in attention seeking hot takes which almost always results in a healthy dose of shaming and derision, they then disappear for a few months to live out the humiliation, only to come back and rebellotte!

 

[CrimsonianKing]

So we have a winemaker lobby now?

Nice to know there are people happy to embrace mediocrity..

I get that people can change their opinions based on new info but tuz takes it to the next level.

It’s the Nemo syndrome.

 

[Strickland]

mourinho won the treble with fery few regular subs mate. iirc he regularly played 13-14 players and all but ignored the rest. conte also makes sure that lesser players like darmian or older depth options like sanchez perform. for example sanchez is on 7g5a, with a lot less minutes than chiesa (7g8a), and chiesa is a well deserved player of the season candidate for us. their depth is all right, especially with no european commitments during the crucial part of the season.

a '18/19 pjanic alone would make a huge difference to this team's overall quality. above all we lack a midfielder who can keep and pass the ball, and our best ball winners (rabiot and bentancur) are way too moody and inconsistent for their position. chiellini is unfortunately close to being finished, kulu is raw, dybala was a ghost throughout the season, demiral's injuries make sure he lacks consistency, sandro never was fast and even slowed down lately, etc. this squad is unfortunately inferior to our '18/19 squad.

fyi Chiesa has 14g11a in all comps this season (3109 minutes) vs 7g7a from Sanchez, no idea where you get your stats from, but 7g8a definitely isn't accurate for Chiesa

 

[U Picciriddu]

Do you want to keep him and support him with a good mercato to improve? What kind of mercato would that be?

Probably one where we sign Locatelli for Bentancur or Rabiot and De Paul for McKennie’s position.