Goalkeepers: We added Szczęsny, the leagues best goalie last season (according to Buffon at least ) for a reasonable fee. He is going to deputize really well this year and I think he is going to be very good for us. Great buy even though I was hoping for Donnarumma.
Defense: Losing Bonucci & Alves hurts. Rugani & Howedes are going to lessen the Bonucci blow even if everyone is convinced we aren't going to move the ball around as well. I disagree. The worst part about our defense is losing Alves and his productivity on the right as its going to be very hard to replicate if we keep playing fucking Cuadrado. The lessen the blow I think Beppe/Allegri saw the need for genuine wingers and gettin Costa & Bernadeschi is going to massively help our the void Alves leaving is going to have. Keeping Sandro was a huge step for us. Howedes is going to bring some very much needed stability to our mentally challenged back line, whether as a CB or RB. The league/CL teams were very happy when we lost Bonucci but most certainly faded quickly when we decided to keep Sandro & adding ze German. I think they saw what could have been a chink in our chain backline but we quickly patched it up.
Sandro, Asamoah, Chiellini, Benatia, Rugani, Barzagli, Howedes, Lichtsteiner, & De Sciglio (future Caldara & Spinazzola) is still a deep as fuck backline.
Midfield: Matuidi is going to make a huge fucking difference and that's why I'm less worried about losing Bonucci and his ball playing. Matuidi is like a cocaine-induced running frenzy midfielder who will make Pjanic's job ten times easier. Less defensive duties for Pjanic will make our ball playing ability from the back helpful. IMO we relied on Bonucci to bypass the midfield because Pjanic wasn't always free or available. Getting Marchisio back to full fitness is going to make us very potent from the midfield again. We finally have the muscle and a guy that doesn't mind running until his legs falls off for the sake of the team. Bencantur is going to be a pleasant surprise too. I think as the season grows we are going to see more and more of him and less of Khedira/Sturaro. Khedira still has his qualities but they don't show up as often anymore.
Wingers: IF anyone needs to the supersub title its Cuadrado. Since we didn't buy another striker, Mario needs to rotate with Higuain, I'll get to that later. Bernadeschi and Costa need playing time ASAP. The benefit to both of them is they can easily switch sides and be effective either way. I'd really like to see what Sandro & Costa can do together on the left side, I have a sneaking suspicion they will be deadly together. We finally have some exciting/pacey/technical players to play on the wings. Hopefully we see less of
Lord Can't Cross. As much as we all appreciate what Mario does on the wing with his work ethic/defensive contribution, we need more of him in the box as a striker. Hopefully we can see Pjaca full strength again but if seeing Marchisio struggle is a sign of things to come, we are going to need patience. I believe he can still be great.
Attackers: Higuain is still the main man up front, as he should be. But we should try getting less full 90 min matches out of him and spread the PT with Mario as with the proper service in the box we know to be amazing. The less we have to rely on Licht & Cuadrado crossing the better for our strikers that will be. We have Sandro, Bernie, & Costa that can all cross well. Let's hope Allegri uses that to our advantage. Dybala has shown early on the #10 suits him well. Let's hope this lightning pace continues all season. He is going to carry our attack. Keeping Dybala (like Sandro) was
yuge.
Next mercato(s): Looks like Can is in the bag from Liverpool. Hopefully he will be a welcome addition to the team if it actually happens. Caldara & Spinazzola will most probably come to defend the wall against the white walkers next year. God, our defense is stacked as fuck. Kean is out to get some experience at Verona, maybe this time next summer after lighting up the league we can welcome him with open arms. Younger players coming and all the Italian ones showing some serious qualities. Not to mention, God only knows what tricks Paratici/Beppe are cooking up for the coming mercato(s). I'd like to see SMS as the big signging for midfield as
Pjanic, Marchisio, Can, Matuidi, Milinković-Savić, and Bencantur is a pretty ambitious and young side with quite a bit of quality. Germans seem to be the flavor of the week and that can only be good for us. I think Beppe did his best to not burn any bridges with Atalanta/Lazio even amidst great tempation for his "market opportunities" as he likes to call it. Beppe playing the long game as well as an impressive short game.
7.5 for me ONLY because we added Howedes at the end otherwise it would have been a 6 or 6.5 for me.
I'm borrowing this from the other guy @IlCapitano to show our team depth. Its quite impressive:
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