out now?


  • Total voters
    166
  • Poll closed .

singus

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2020
2,073
Maybe we ll see something like this when all are fit.

Woj
Danilo Chiellini MDL AS
Arthur Locatelli
Cuad Dyb Chiesa
Morata

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Allegri also mentioned that MDL can learn to play rcb so we could see 3 men backline. MDL Bon Chiello

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Yeah right...

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You have to give credit to inter's defense, they defend really well and dont leave much space behind. Skrinjar as annoying mf he is, became very good defender.
We already play with 3 CBs + 2 backs.

Danilo plays as CB for us, he never moves forward.
 

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JuveE46

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2015
1,595
Our space management is much better lately. And it's way better than last year. Hardly ever do we concede a threatening ball between the lines. Yes, it's a low block, so that's easier to close space, but it's a lot more compact than last year.

We're talking about one or two scoring chances against per match right now. The Dzeko 59' is a half chance. Perisic was a counter because Juan was pressing for a goal and fell down.

I don't really have concerns about the defence right now. If you can keep the ball from going between your lines then you will be fine. Where you're really fucked is when you let players receive a ball, turn and run at the CBs. We are limiting that right now.
Of course we are better than last year, I don't think there is anything we don't do better and it should be so since the last coach was a wine maker..
however that is not a standard to use when you want to face Bayern in the CL or some team that can actually play, merda has one or two dangerous targets to feed the ball to while Bayern has five or six. The sort of space/time we give to the opponent who has the ball specially in our third and is about to pass to a reciever is inexcusable and has no benefits..it can only create problems. They used those passes and shuffled us around looking for openings.
Ball needs to be at least challenged in our third before the pass not after it, can't give that much space because then all you can do is to pray for dzeko to miss the "half chance". Need to challenge the sender of the ball better not only mark the receiver.
Maybe it was a one time thing, id say Max done a great job and I don't think realistically any other coach could pull us together this fast.
 
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zizinho

Senior Member
Apr 14, 2013
51,815
Was a decent game with a GREAT result. Looked dark for most of the game and people were going bonkers in the live thread lol.
But Dybala, Arthur and Chiesa certainly improved us.



We have enough quality and depth in order to compete. Who in Serie A has better than us?

In defense and attack we are probably still the most stacked team. In midfield we are above average, maybe top 4-5.

Thats very normal for a Scudetto winner or CL winner to not always have all the best players in every position. The team and its chemistry and mentality is more important than the individual players. Therefore the coach is super important too and we happen to have one of the bests according to a lot of people.
Imagine if we kept a clean sheet tho
 

Akshen

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2010
8,112
We are lacking a goal machine in this team. I believe we can do good in CL, but for the league we would need a regular goalscorer. Now thinking of it, if we would have signed Dzeko as Ronaldo replacement we would look much better in attacking phase. Morata is good on counters, but he struggles when there is no space.
 

IlCapitano

Senior Member
Dec 16, 2012
5,614
We are lacking a goal machine in this team. I believe we can do good in CL, but for the league we would need a regular goalscorer. Now thinking of it, if we would have signed Dzeko as Ronaldo replacement we would look much better in attacking phase. Morata is good on counters, but he struggles when there is no space.
We had Cristiano and nothing.

We need a WC midfield again and then everything else will fall into place. When we had MVPP we had a good attack with Matri and Quagliarella. Good midfield will create chances for everyone, a goal machine without a good midfield makes little to no difference
 

juve123

Senior Member
Aug 10, 2017
15,332
We are lacking a goal machine in this team. I believe we can do good in CL, but for the league we would need a regular goalscorer. Now thinking of it, if we would have signed Dzeko as Ronaldo replacement we would look much better in attacking phase. Morata is good on counters, but he struggles when there is no space.
We are waiting for Vlahovic now he has also become a threat from direct free kicks
 

LiquidPLP

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2012
12,237
We are lacking a goal machine in this team. I believe we can do good in CL, but for the league we would need a regular goalscorer. Now thinking of it, if we would have signed Dzeko as Ronaldo replacement we would look much better in attacking phase. Morata is good on counters, but he struggles when there is no space.
Fix the midfield and the attackers' numbers will improve. The better midfield can also score goals - something that's unimaginable now.

Look at the attacking options we have right now vs our midfield and say with a straight face you would spent cash on a forward first.
 

Akshen

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2010
8,112
Fix the midfield and the attackers' numbers will improve. The better midfield can also score goals - something that's unimaginable now.

Look at the attacking options we have right now vs our midfield and say with a straight face you would spent cash on a forward first.
Partially agree, but when we have players like Dybala, Chiesa, even Kulusevski on wings, we really need a strong presence in the midfield who can keep the ball and send a wise pass, at least that's my feeling.

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And yeah we defo need midfield reinforcement.
 

Lion

King of Tuz
Jan 24, 2007
31,784
Was a decent game with a GREAT result. Looked dark for most of the game and people were going bonkers in the live thread lol.
But Dybala, Arthur and Chiesa certainly improved us.



We have enough quality and depth in order to compete. Who in Serie A has better than us?

In defense and attack we are probably still the most stacked team. In midfield we are above average, maybe top 4-5.

Thats very normal for a Scudetto winner or CL winner to not always have all the best players in every position. The team and its chemistry and mentality is more important than the individual players. Therefore the coach is super important too and we happen to have one of the bests according to a lot of people.
i agree about the team mentality and chemistry. my worry isn't that every player is best in position, but that a few players have no business being in the squad, let alone starting for the team.

rabiot, mckennie, ramsey are no where near starting quality and two of those should not even be bench option due to wages. bentancur is a question mark still but for now he is proving to be a useful player.

kulu and berna have no business being the squad at all, let alone starting like berna does. kulu can be forgiven for being young still. berna should be playing for serie b sides.

and before this season Sandro was also a question mark but so far he looks in form.

so when you look at that out of 6 cms, 3 of those have been dreadful (rabiot, mckennie and ramsey) and 2 are question marks (bentancur and arthur) thats the core of the team being weak.

same with width. you have cudrado, berna, kulu and chiesa. cuadrado looked drained, and chiesa same. that leaves two subs that the less said about them the better
 

singus

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2020
2,073
i agree about the team mentality and chemistry. my worry isn't that every player is best in position, but that a few players have no business being in the squad, let alone starting for the team.

rabiot, mckennie, ramsey are no where near starting quality and two of those should not even be bench option due to wages. bentancur is a question mark still but for now he is proving to be a useful player.

kulu and berna have no business being the squad at all, let alone starting like berna does. kulu can be forgiven for being young still. berna should be playing for serie b sides.

and before this season Sandro was also a question mark but so far he looks in form.

so when you look at that out of 6 cms, 3 of those have been dreadful (rabiot, mckennie and ramsey) and 2 are question marks (bentancur and arthur) thats the core of the team being weak.

same with width. you have cudrado, berna, kulu and chiesa. cuadrado looked drained, and chiesa same. that leaves two subs that the less said about them the better
I agree with you and I said it from the start of the season and many times, that these players should not be in our squad at all:
- Ramsey
- Mckennie
- Rabiot
- Bentancur (half the games he is catastrophic, other half he makes you think he can be useful)
- Rugani
- Bernadeschi
- De Sciglio

Instead of these, we should have actual talents or reliable veterans for depth.

Id also like a talented young CB when one of Chiellini/Bumbum is gone.

That said, our starting 11 is still top 3 if not the best in the league.
 

Akshen

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2010
8,112
I agree with you and I said it from the start of the season and many times, that these players should not be in our squad at all:
- Ramsey
- Mckennie
- Rabiot
- Bentancur (half the games he is catastrophic, other half he makes you think he can be useful)
- Rugani
- Bernadeschi
- De Sciglio

Instead of these, we should have actual talents or reliable veterans for depth.

Id also like a talented young CB when one of Chiellini/Bumbum is gone.

That said, our starting 11 is still top 3 if not the best in the league.
wont agree on it, all the teams have some squad fillers and so do we, guys like MdS Berna and Rugani, are okay if they rarely play. Berna even showing some glimpses of starter material lately, same for MdS. The problem here is that we can classify 4 out of 6 midfielders as such players, meaning one of them is a starter. I wouldnt have problem with Benta as backup midfield option, but he is more than enough as a backup - Inter has a fucking Gagliardini and Vecino as they backups.
 

singus

Senior Member
Sep 22, 2020
2,073
wont agree on it, all the teams have some squad fillers and so do we, guys like MdS Berna and Rugani, are okay if they rarely play. Berna even showing some glimpses of starter material lately, same for MdS. The problem here is that we can classify 4 out of 6 midfielders as such players, meaning one of them is a starter. I wouldnt have problem with Benta as backup midfield option, but he is more than enough as a backup - Inter has a fucking Gagliardini and Vecino as they backups.
Yes some of them can be fillers, totally. However they should all be shortlisted by default and then if we cant get rid of them, thats when they end up being fillers. We cant cherry pick who of them we want as fillers, they should all be listed for sale. Also, imagine we buy some better midfielders, then players like Arthur, Bentancur, Locatelli could end up as backups. Just like they would be at many top clubs. Thats how you improve your team, you improve the starting 11 and then demote others to the bench (when viable and economical)
 

ilmetronome

Junior Member
Sep 16, 2020
430
IMO, ideal number of starting material players in a team are 16
11 starters plus:
- 1 center back
- 1 fullback (preferably can play both sides)
- 1 midfielder
- 1 winger
- 1 striker
They can rotate each other with not so much difference in minute play.

Right now we lack:
- 1 fullback
- 2 (or 3) midfielders LOL. Depend on formation. just too many fillers LOL. Only Locatelli deserve starting. Arthur i agree rn is a question mark.
- 1 (or 0) winger. Depend on formation.
- 1 striker (depends on Kaio -- question mark too)
-
 

MikeM

Footballing Hipster celebrating 4th place with Tuz
Sep 21, 2008
12,462
Of course we are better than last year, I don't think there is anything we don't do better and it should be so since the last coach was a wine maker..
however that is not a standard to use when you want to face Bayern in the CL or some team that can actually play, merda has one or two dangerous targets to feed the ball to while Bayern has five or six. The sort of space/time we give to the opponent who has the ball specially in our third and is about to pass to a reciever is inexcusable and has no benefits..it can only create problems. They used those passes and shuffled us around looking for openings.
Ball needs to be at least challenged in our third before the pass not after it, can't give that much space because then all you can do is to pray for dzeko to miss the "half chance". Need to challenge the sender of the ball better not only mark the receiver.
Maybe it was a one time thing, id say Max done a great job and I don't think realistically any other coach could pull us together this fast.
It's difficult because Max wants to play with 2 strikers (has to with Dybala?). So you have only a bank of four midfielders to press. I'm not sure the 2nd striker really does anything in defence, even if it's Kulusevski or Chiesa. I think that's just the symptom of the position. You get passed around easily. It's always better to just have 5 midfielders in a line than 4 and 1 just wandering around behind a #9.

This is what Allegri is always balancing. The 2 strikers has always allowed us to score, even in the UCL. We always scored. But you cannot defend perfectly with it, so the two banks behind the strikers have to be more passive, since they have less players to work with obviously. There's only 2 CMs in front of the CB, instead of 3. So there's a huge risk for one of them to shoot out of the middle.

Really, I always thought if Dybala could just run enough to fake RW or play like a Simeone second striker, we would be very formidable.
 

JuveE46

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2015
1,595
@MikeM
I get what you mean but it's not a matter of tactics forcing it in this situation. it's a matter of organization and instruction. Those 3 standing around before the shot should close it down, it's not due to tactics dictating them not to react What is keeping one of Sandro, Loca, Mckenie standing around scratching thier nuts to challenge chalangogolu or whatever before he takes a shot? He never would have had the chance to get a look to get that shot off had someone been in his face and not a kilometer away..
kulu standing in the parameter should know to cover the reciever instead of stand like a dummy.
This is not about allegri being limited because of type of players we have, it's about organization and ironing out the kinks.
 
Jun 16, 2020
10,886
He really has courage tho starting one of the most difficult away games without 3 of his 5 best players (De Ligt, Chiesa Dybala). Add Cuadrado and Locatelli to the top 5 imo.

In that perspective we did really good although I’m still disappointed, after seeing Inter and their approach I feel like we could’ve won with more ease than expected before.

Hearing Allegri today saying that we need to win after a good draw I can only conclude that it was a calculated point against Inter.
 

Nedved96

Senior Member
Sep 1, 2017
7,184
Locatelli, Arthur and Rabiot are our three best midfielders in terms of football ability.

The problem is that Arthur is mediocre defensively while Rabiot is lazy, so this inevitably leaves us with the possibility of being too open defensively.

I don’t know how we can solve this problem. I don’t trust Bentancur against top teams, he’s so prone to losing the ball in dangerous areas.
 

Akshen

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2010
8,112
Yes some of them can be fillers, totally. However they should all be shortlisted by default and then if we cant get rid of them, thats when they end up being fillers. We cant cherry pick who of them we want as fillers, they should all be listed for sale. Also, imagine we buy some better midfielders, then players like Arthur, Bentancur, Locatelli could end up as backups. Just like they would be at many top clubs. Thats how you improve your team, you improve the starting 11 and then demote others to the bench (when viable and economical)
Yeah that's true, the problem is we have too many weaknesses in the squad and partly due to the crysis none wants our fillers.
This squad really has too many problems and lack of continuity, we still guess each game how we will play. If it's one or two strikers, who will play on the RW, if we gonna field LW or play midfielder in this spot.
We are confused with this and I think the same goes for players. It's of course thanks to constant injuries that really hurts us.
I have no idea what will happen if all of them are back, because we have Dybala, Chiesa and Cuadrado - probably our best players and all of them feel most comfortable on the right side ( Dybala more centrally, but still closer to the right) and with them on the pitch we have only one spot in attack left. But field them all and opponents just have to defend that right side of ours.
Thinking of it now maybe we should try to play Morata/Kean more on the left side? Pretty sure they would score plenty there from Cuads crosses. Though if we play Rabiot as our left attacking outlet then don't expect much.
Max has done wonders with the defence, let's hope he can work it out with attack too.
 

MikeM

Footballing Hipster celebrating 4th place with Tuz
Sep 21, 2008
12,462
@MikeM
I get what you mean but it's not a matter of tactics forcing it in this situation. it's a matter of organization and instruction. Those 3 standing around before the shot should close it down, it's not due to tactics dictating them not to react What is keeping one of Sandro, Loca, Mckenie standing around scratching thier nuts to challenge chalangogolu or whatever before he takes a shot? He never would have had the chance to get a look to get that shot off had someone been in his face and not a kilometer away..
kulu standing in the parameter should know to cover the reciever instead of stand like a dummy.
This is not about allegri being limited because of type of players we have, it's about organization and ironing out the kinks.
It was just a chain reaction caused by not being ready to defend with 10 men. Kulusevski goes wide, not really thinking that he should probably stay more central since Berna is not on the pitch. Then Alex Sandro DOES come out of defence to try to fill that hole left by Kulu. Then that causes Locatelli to think about covering Alex Sandro, because he left a gap there. And then that gives Calhonaglu a bit of a lane.
 

JuveE46

Senior Member
Dec 6, 2015
1,595
Excuses could win arguments but not games. At least Allegri is admitting some defence mistakes...

"On Sunday, I was wrong, but I had read the game in a different way, with Kulusevski man-marking Marcelo Brozovic."
 
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