Antonio Candreva (21 Viewers)

[Salvatore]

Oh man, how typical to read the typical BS of "this was sanctioned by Lippi, OMG hijacked by Azzurri" yet again. I mean, its SO novel, that we, Juventus sign an up and coming italian youngster, its not like it hasnt been the policy of this club for its entire history (and has had many of our legends come like this), discovering younger unproven italian talents from smaller teams and them making their mark with us (instead of producing them perse, except rare cases).

I agree with this about Candreva. And this goes for most transfers, with people screaming for world class players. In over 100 years it seems to have worked quite well to get very good players which take it to the next stage of development at Juventus.

And for the bold, I know for a fact that people are desperate for these kind of players. I think the new Tiago was signed because of his attacking attributes.

 

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[Suns]

I agree with that guy from Football Italia, where does this leave Giovinco? Did you guys now that Candreva was in the Italian u-21 team in Sweden? He was benched and barely got to play while Giovinco was easily the star of that team. What a shame if this guy turns out to be another player who's before Giovinco in the order. Don't be surprised if Candreva gets picked instead of Giovinco on the left flank cuz he's better than Giovinco at defense or some shit like that.

 

[Salvatore]

"Wasn’t he supposed to be the vice-Diego?"

Yes, but then people realised he's better on the wing. And if Candreva was to be used on the wing, surely it would be for the injury magnet on the other side of the pitch?

 

[Osman]

Sensationalist as usual (who the heck expects him to save our season? Thats the coaches job, we have the material already to save ourselves). That same article would have said the same thing if we signed a washed up experienced veteran, and lamented the club for not going for well needed youthful vigour and talent (exact same thing articles like these keep saying Juve need to replace our old guard). And ooooooofcourse, had to put in the part about "ooh noez, where does that leave Gio???" angle. Candreva and Gio wont compete for the same spot AT ALL (nor will he be Diego sub or bench, can play behind him), that is for damn sure.

And I would really like to know what established (midfield) player we can or could have signed? (IF we even had the needed money for it), what would we have done if we signed and the injured starting players got back? (we need depth, not starting "established" midfielder in mid season).

And ofcourse the automatic comparisons with the other teams signings come up. Would anyone here would been remotely happy with signing Toni, Beckham or Felipe? (2 you all laugh at, and 1 who is automatically deemed not good enough for sure) Like the needs or signings of other clubs concerns us, or if the same signings would been good for us at all, what a compelling comparison.

Pandev is another matter, could been useful and added something extra quality, but its obvious we wont sign a forward with our current set of options (5 with Gio) in mid season (especially one demanding high salary). And I can gurantee you how this same journalist would have said how superflous it is to get a 5th-6th attacker when the team so badly needs defenders or midfielders etc etc.

It would be nice if the article said anything but hot air. But that is too much to expect by some FI journalists.

 

[Jasp]

I agree with that guy from Football Italia, where does this leave Giovinco? Did you guys now that Candreva was in the Italian u-21 team in Sweden? He was benched and barely got to play while Giovinco was easily the star of that team. What a shame if this guy turns out to be another player who's before Giovinco in the order. Don't be surprised if Candreva gets picked instead of Giovinco on the left flank cuz he's better than Giovinco at defense or some shit like that.

This might just be what Gio needs, because we can't play 4231 with other than gio-diego - camo/candreva.

I definetly don't view him as competition for Giovinco. Thx Osmann

EDIT: Does not seem like CF will play Gio in any other formation.

 

[Suns]

"Wasn’t he supposed to be the vice-Diego?"

Yes, but then people realised he's better on the wing. And if Candreva was to be used on the wing, surely it would be for the injury magnet on the other side of the pitch?

Don't be surprised, I sure he's going to play Candreva on the left wing instead of Giovinco. Ciro rather has Marchisio or De Ceglie on the flank then to play Giovinco cause he's a "bad at defense". Marchisio or De Ceglie, that left flank has more problems defensively and offensively then ever and we're always losing...

 

[Suns]

Sensationalist as usual (who the heck expects him to save our season? Thats the coaches job, we have the material already to save ourselves). That same article would have said the same thing if we signed a washed up experienced veteran, and lamented the club for not going for well needed youthful vigour and talent (exact same thing articles like these keep saying Juve need to replace our old guard). And ooooooofcourse, had to put in the part about "ooh noez, where does that leave Gio???" angle. Candreva and Gio wont compete for the same spot AT ALL (nor will he be Diego sub or bench, can play behind him), that is for damn sure.

And I would really like to know what established (midfield) player we can or could have signed? (IF we even had the needed money for it), what would we have done if we signed and the injured starting players got back? (we need depth, not starting "established" midfielder in mid season).

And ofcourse the automatic comparisons with the other teams signings come up. Would anyone here would been remotely happy with signing Toni, Beckham or Felipe? (2 you all laugh at, and 1 who is automatically deemed not good enough for sure) Like the needs or signings of other clubs concerns us, or if the same signings would been good for us at all, what a compelling comparison.

Pandev is another matter, could been useful and added something extra quality, but its obvious we wont sign a forward with our current set of options (5 with Gio) in mid season (especially one demanding high salary). And I can gurantee you how this same journalist would have said how superflous it is to get a 5th-6th attacker when the team so badly needs defenders or midfielders etc etc.

It would be nice if the article said anything but hot air. But that is too much to expect by some FI journalists.

Thats the thing OZ, they will cuz Ciro is going to place Candreva on the left flank ahead of GIovinco as he has been doing with Marchisio.

 

[Osman]

I agree with that guy from Football Italia, where does this leave Giovinco? Did you guys now that Candreva was in the Italian u-21 team in Sweden? He was benched and barely got to play while Giovinco was easily the star of that team. What a shame if this guy turns out to be another player who's before Giovinco in the order. Don't be surprised if Candreva gets picked instead of Giovinco on the left flank cuz he's better than Giovinco at defense or some shit like that.

SERIOUSLY, its already been said, Candreva is closer to Marchisio then Gio (who is a 2nd/wing forward or advanced AM/trequartista). Candreva is an offensive box to box mid/hardworking AM, is pretty balanced and plays bit deeper then Gio, AM and AM doesnt mean identical players, and is not the only position he plays.

I repeat, they do not overly compete. Because in that same Azzurrini, who I watched every game of (and not just in Sweden), the players Candreva competed a spot with was Marchisio, Cigarini, Dessena and Abate (more offensive CM then the others, and competed with Abate for the right side). NOT Gio, he wasnt on the bench for Gio, at his most advanced, he played the right side of the 3 man attack, while Gio was the left, so even then not same side (and Candreva didnt suit to be this high up anyways).

This I can ASSURE you (and I an others already told you). So relax with your protective mother nature of Gio. And btw, Gio is BETTER, so even if they competed for the same spot Candreva wouldnt bench him. There is a difference between being benched by Established players like Del Piero or Diego, and someone like Candreva even if they competed for the same spot, which they dont.


Saying Gio and Candreva compete for the same spot is like saying Cassano and Aquilani compete for the same spot. Gio being closer to the latter, while Candreva is mostly similar to Aquilani, except can fill in to the right if there is a need.

 

[Osman]

Thats the thing OZ, they will cuz Ciro is going to place Candreva on the left flank ahead of GIovinco as he has been doing with Marchisio.

Seriously man, there is a way to question in a valid way, and there is this. Marchisio plays LEFT in a 3 man CM midfield (in a 4-3-1-2), he does NOT compete with Gio, Gio never played there nor will he ever, it asks for totally another kind of player. Candreva will compete with Marchisio, Camoranesi and even Momo. Gio plays left in the 4-2-3-1, or the 4-3-3 in the case of the Azzurrini, Marchisio and Candreva mainly played in the 3 man midfield then, while Gio was left forward, get it? Not direct competition.

In the 4-3-1-2, Gio competes with Diego or the forwards, not the players who fill in for the 3 man midfield. How hard is this to get? I already said in the above post, before I saw you replied to my earlier post. But this seriously easy to get, what gives?

 

[only-juve]

Hope we're gonna use the 4-2-3-1 system now with Diego, Gio and Candreva as our 3 AM's. That way this move would make sence to me.

But using him as another CM doesn't seem logical because we do have plenty of players playing in that Dep allready.

 

[Osman]

Well there is a difference with playing a CM who can attack and support forward (you know, like Seedorf, or in Diego's experience, like Özil was) and playing likes of Poulsen, Momo or Marchisio as such, balancing players who dont excell too well forward, or are limited passers etc. So yeah box to box CM who can go forward is good too. Camo plays this anyways when he has bit freedom to roam, when we are playing two forwards (even if he is better more forward winger).

Candreva can play as a winger, but its not his strong suit from what I noticed, and he isnt the type to advance that far or hug the line, but is a good crosses though.

 

[Suns]

Seriously man, there is a way to question in a valid way, and there is this. Marchisio plays LEFT in a 3 man CM midfield (in a 4-3-1-2), he does NOT compete with Gio, Gio never played there nor will he ever, it asks for totally another kind of player. Candreva will compete with Marchisio, Camoranesi and even Momo. Gio plays left in the 4-2-3-1, or the 4-3-3 in the case of the Azzurrini, Marchisio and Candreva mainly played in the 3 man midfield then, while Gio was left forward, get it? Not direct competition.

In the 4-3-1-2, Gio competes with Diego or the forwards, not the players who fill in for the 3 man midfield. How hard is this to get? I already said in the above post, before I saw you replied to my earlier post. But this seriously easy to get, what gives?

Marchisio got to play ahead of Giovinco on the left when we played 4-2-3-1 for the last time and in 4-4-1-1.

And Candreva is a trequartista. He got hyped up after he switched to trequartista and got picked for the Italian NT and all of that. Trequartista obviously suits him better and he never really got the headlines for his performances as a regular CM.

 

[Hust]

Time for my daily long monologue....


Ok, when you think about signing defenders in the middle of the season it seems highly unlikely that teams would be willing to let your best defenders go. It is easier to fill gaps in midfield or offense when trying to compete in championships, but to fill a whole by losing a defender in mercato is much more difficult. Let's go, for example if we were to buy Kjaer from Palermo, finding an adequate replacement to fill the void would be a considerable task for Palermo. Same thing for Bari for one of their CB starlets. In a league full of tactics and defending, clubs would find it considerably risky losing their best CBs to transfers when it takes a long time to find someone to adequately fill that void. Does that make sense anyone? When a team is defending well as a unit and its hard for teams to score on, why change that halfway through a season and risk jeopardizing everything worked up to till that point? It makes more sense for clubs to allow their defenders to leave in summer as it leaves more time to fix the hole made, in winter however its much less time not to mention you are already playing games and mid season. Signing a CB for us would be no easy task, plus with having to bargain for the right price takes time, especially with our financial situation looming.

What if we sold Chiellini today. This would create a HUGE whole to be filled immediately. And who would we go after and more importantly who would be willing to let a CB of equal or greater caliber go at this point of the season? It would be insane to think I would ever let a great CB go when they are a pillar of my defense and a major point in any success I have made during the season. And now, to weaken a defense in the middle of a season? From a performance standpoint that is very risky, not many clubs would take that risk unless a HUGE sum of money is offered, which we don't have.

So when people here are claiming that "other areas" need strengthened, we all know what you mean...the defense. Right, I agree with that...BUT...as I just wrote two paragraphs on it, how might you persuade a club to let go of a great defender at this point in a season? Its so unlikely. We all know we need to fix the defense, but the time for that is the summer. Right now, you only really see midfielders and strikers moving and I believe its for the reasons I mentioned.

Now, to Candreva. Scrape the Lippi BS, I agree with Osman on that. It is pretty dumb to think that after one friendly match that by signing him we are trying to get the Nazionale. Now, if you want to make the claim that we are taking a risk by getting a potentially strong AM that has showed promise for the youth levels and consistency in the league, that's a little different than saying Lippi is hijacking our mercato for a benefit bigger than our clubs.

Candreva, this deal as low risk as it is, could turn out to be a HUGE deal for us. He is versatile like Camo in the sense he can roam the midfield positions when needed. He is young, talented and should we play a 4231 or 4321 would pose no harm to Gio. Squad depth is huge, especially for us with injuries. Diego, Gio, and Candreva can play and rotate with one another and if we ever played a 442, we have a new winger if Camo is out. No problem there whatsoever. We have a wealth of attacking options both mid and strikers, so now we should expect to see a bit more from our offense.

He said he likes to assist his players more than scoring. Hopefully this will help our strikers get back to scoring with ease. If he is good at passing which sounds like he is, along with Diego, Camo, Gio, DP...our fluid of play should increase much more dramatically than before. Hopefully now we can trust in Melo and Sissoko to destroy , and less on those two to have to work the ball around from the back. Diego now shouldn't have to drop back as often to get the ball, he will have Candreva to share that work load with. I don't see what the problem is here. He is low risk, talented and young and for a good price. He has league experience, knows half our team already from Azzurrini and should integrate rather quickly from that standpoint. Knowing Italian is a plus when half the team is italian and sure that might be a lame excuse, but regardless that hurdle has already been overcome...language that is.

Hopefully on Saturday we will see a glimpse of what he can do, and its time for Diego to repeat what it did to Roma earlier in the season.

As for the rest of the transfers. We will sign defenders soon enough, but IMO in order for a team to start winning the MIDFIELD needs to be a well oiled machine working like a Swiss watch. If we don't have that then we have no way to connect all areas of the team which means we will never play like a team. If the mids can't connect the defense to the attack then forever we will play long balls. I would rather get my midfield working the way it should and be able to support our attack and create goal opportunities for our strikers and on the flip side be able to support our defense when they distribute the ball so we can for ONCE IN A LONG TIME finally start leaning away from the long ball distribution we have become so accustomed to.

 

[only-juve]

Well there is a difference with playing a CM who can attack and support forward (you know, like Seedorf, or in Diego's experience, like Özil was) and playing likes of Poulsen, Momo or Marchisio as such, balancing players who dont excell too well forward, or are limited passers etc. So yeah box to box CM who can go forward is good too. Camo plays this anyways when he has bit freedom to roam, when we are playing two forwards (even if he is better more forward winger).

Candreva can play as a winger, but its not his strong suit from what I noticed, and he isnt the type to advance that far or hug the line, but is a good crosses though.

Honestly i don't think our team can perform in that system (the 4-3-1-2). We don't have the quality fullbacks that can help us out so i just believe that the 4-2-3-1 is perfect for the current team.

If he can cross, create and bit decent in dribbling players then thats more than enough qualities to use him on the right side

 

[Osman]

Hustini brings the much needed voice of reason

Marchisio got to play ahead of Giovinco on the left when we played 4-2-3-1 for the last time and in 4-4-1-1.

And Candreva is a trequartista. He got hyped up after he switched to trequartista and got picked for the Italian NT and all of that. Trequartista obviously suits him better and he never really got the headlines for his performances as a regular CM.

Those were defensive choices of a scared and nervous Ciro who played even Sali/DC over Del Piero, just to pack the midfield with defensive players to "hold" results. That wasnt the norm. And WONT be the norm with whatever coach we get.

And I repeat, work yourself up if you like, but Candreva does NOT compete with Gio, but more like Camo (in 4-2-3-1) and the others (in 4-3-1-2).

 

[Juventino[RUS]]

finally

 

[Bjerknes]

Yes, we might just need him that much. Yes our defense looks like some girlscoouts lost in Harlem by night, but the solution is not clear cut and it would be wrong to blame of defensive problems solely on the defense.

Our major problem - and has been since things started to go wrong - is that we are unable to keep the ball and create chances. Our midfield is running aound like headless chickens and are not able to pass the ball.

Defense is not getting help, nor that many calm periods. If we could just move the play 10 meters forward, and keep the ball a lot of pressure would be allieved for the defense. Candreva might not be the solution - but his type of player is. I view him as box to box midfielder or an AM that can tackle. My hope is that we get a 4312 midfield which can play a litlle more ball, thus helping Diego. We even get another option for the 4231 formation, if i've read some of the posts correct.

In my view, we need a better passer and more creative player than Candreva. Melo used to play neat passes for Viola, Marchisio is another box to box player, so I think we were set on box to boxers. What we could use is a regista, someone to control the proceedings so that Diego doesn't have to keep coming back for the ball all the time, taking him away from his danger areas. Candreva isn't that sort of player. We could also use another creative attacking player like Camo for the right side, which Candreva isn't either.

That Lippi BS is downright silly FFS. As I already said, we have been scouting and signing promising younger italian players throughout our history. Mention any prominent Juve player in the last 30 years, and you can bet we have gotten them from Padova, Atalanta, Lecce, Livorno Parma, Varese, Napoli, Como and so and so on, in between the ages of 18-24 mostly. So yeah, us doing so now with a 22 year old is automatically attributed to some "sinister" Lippi influence (like its a bad thing if he recommend a good youngster, if its a shitty Grosso yes, if its a talented player, mucho gracias), because its somehow totally out of the norm of the club huh? Seriously.

But Juventus isn't known for buying players we don't need, especially during the Moggi era. In my view we don't need another box to box midfielder (see above). So with this deal, along with the ridiculous decision of relying on Cannavaro after three years of mediocrity and bringing in Grosso, you have to admit this looks highly suspicious. There are better players out there, and better foreigners than all these players mentioned here. Surely Lippi wanted to get those players playing well together before the Cup, and then with Lippi hanging around all the time you have to question what is going on here.

 

[Osman]

No it doesnt look highly suspicious (remain to be seen if he is good enough or not, but promising young midfielder when we need one in mid season, and in loan, perfectly ok). And SERIOUSLY Andy, keep your really irrational Lippi stuff to yourself if you cant back it up with anything but weird paranoia.

 

[noussa]

 

[Christina]