Yeah he was more of a wing forward, creating opportunities with great dribbling more then the dynamic scorer he is now. He added the lethal consistency to his game and elevated them.
What poor record? We raped every big team in Italy consistently (more so than the last and the current season) and we did great against Chelsea and very good against Madrid. Only Bayern managed to outplay us. If anything, Conte's CL group elimination was down to dropping points against the weaker teams unnecessarily.
The 'big' teams in Italy were so much worse than our players that I did not include them when speaking of quality opposition - that's not a critique point against Conte but you can hardly give him credit for beating a better side when Roma with Totti, Maicon & The Greeks and Stekelenburg were our main competition.
Against Bayern, Chelsea and RMA (the quality sides we faced) our record was 1W, 2D, 3L. That's not impressive, by any means.
The 'big' teams in Italy were so much worse than our players that I did not include them when speaking of quality opposition - that's not a critique point against Conte but you can hardly give him credit for beating a better side when Roma with Totti, Maicon & The Greeks and Stekelenburg were our main competition.
Against Bayern, Chelsea and RMA (the quality sides we faced) our record was 1W, 2D, 3L. That's not impressive, by any means.
At one side, one can argue the remarcable difference when looking how Allegri's team handled the big games, apart from that final where vidal went zaza and pirlo went on vacation early.
On the other side, Conte faced a madrid in the groupstage and a bayern in the knockouts, who are FAR superior over their current forms
Berardi and Cuadrado are upgrades.
Zaza must go,because we cant sell MAndzukic, Dybala, or Morata.
Berardi can score more goals than Zaza and Cuadrado can make the difference even against competent opposition where Pereyra fades.
The 'big' teams in Italy were so much worse than our players that I did not include them when speaking of quality opposition - that's not a critique point against Conte but you can hardly give him credit for beating a better side when Roma with Totti, Maicon & The Greeks and Stekelenburg were our main competition.
Against Bayern, Chelsea and RMA (the quality sides we faced) our record was 1W, 2D, 3L. That's not impressive, by any means.
I do not think seel our promising youngster is good.
No matter money we get for that, as long as there is salary cap, we can not buy world class player.
No wonder why. It's the first season of the new EPL deal and their sides are trying to do everything to finish the season above their opponents. Huge money to win there so there's competition.
We should watch out with selling our players though. These sums are getting everyone excited right now but soon those will be the reality of the market. We're a top top side now and it's normal our bench is becoming more attractive than our starting 11 was a few years ago.