Imo vidal is the best mid that ever played for us, not only for his skill set but especially for his mentality in this day and age.
Hear me out, i think a big problem in football nowadays is players ego, it is extremely hard to get everyone to play for the team, i think the only team that's so big that it is an ego killer of sorts is real madrid, no player is bigger than real Madrid, juventus is the same for italian players. Gone are the days where Ferguson or moggi would put the fear of God in the players hearts, why do you think conte goes for the giaccherinis of this world.
If you look at the winners over the last ten years:
Barca: core that play together forever, and maybe only neymar comes up as the toxic type to fuck a team up, and we almost beat that team.
Real madrid: ego killer
And the rest: chelsea, bayern, liverpool, inter epitomized team work those seasons
I found this anecdote which i think is a propos
i love these fairy tales in sport and football is of course a team effort, but ironically real's recent success story was co-written by the biggest ego in football, and they needed plenty of luck too.
i guess you can't find the recipe for cl success, because there isn't a universal one unfortunately.
our '15 team was a complete team effort, on pirlo's last chance. still, we missed chiellini and got unlucky in the 2nd half with that penalty incident at 1-1 and the following counter with barca's winner. we rarely speak about luck as a deciding factor. inda were lucky not to go get eliminated in the group stage (they were gonna be 3rd in their group like literally 10 minutes before the last group stage match ended) or not to go out vs barca with a last-gasp regular goal which was disallowed. chelsea could have been losing 0-4 until that corner (bayern had like 40 shots iirc, probably the highest shot count in any cl final by a single team), so chelsea also needed a lot of luck that night.
there's this book:
i love it and hate it at the same time. it reveals that football is the team sport that is mostly driven by luck. the book brings some stats from major leagues, and iirc in baseball it's like around 80% of the matches that are won by the stronger team on paper. in football, with the inclusion of the draw as a possible outcome, the underdog won't lose the match in around 50% of the cases. statistically, 50% of the goals is preceded by a lucky incident (deflection, big defensive mistake, refereeing mistake, etc).
i'm not playing down the importance of a team effort, i'm just saying that drogba is asked about the '12 final at first place because bayern literally missed dozens of chances that night. it was almost the same bayern that happened to become arguably the best team of the century just a season later. we can say that outstanding team efforts are rewarded by luck, but the '15 final shows otherwise. let's hope we'll deserve and get some luck in the coming years. gonna be hard without the old guard, without a strong italian core and with a bunch of mercenaries on board. i can't even expect dime a dozen players like danilo or rabiot, or a coach with strong neapolitan roots to die for the jersey. i expected ronaldo's professionalism and endless desire to win to lift the team spirit, and all i see is dybala, demiral, cuadrado and de ligt putting on some spirited performances on a regular basis. the others are usually soft as fuck.
but at least we got rid of mandzukic. SAD!
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Honestly, I've no idea. But I'm not paid to make those decisions...
Arthur for Pjanic is sideways, so is Jorginho on paper. But if either can make Sarri's plan work better than tired Mire and his half a season effort than it stops being a sideways step and becomes an improvement, it's not just about stature and prestige. We chose Sarri and we know he's a coach where system is nearly all-important. Allegri was more flexible, but that can also have drawbacks in terms of identity.
Who is more likely to succeed short term? Obviously Jorginho. Knows the coach, knows the league.
We talk about Pogba, but aside from the financial cost, does he really suit Sarri's way of playing? Is he going to raise his game again or be the same dabho we see in Manchester? I know we can't be super strict with Sarri's way but you get the impression already that he's trying to fit square pegs into round holes even with super talents like Ronaldo or Dybala, let alone the likes of Matuidi or Ramsey. But that's another story, we won't see the best Juve midfield or the best Juve full stop for more than a season, just depends if he gets time or if it's a failed experiment.
I'm happy to let this happen:
LCM - Jorginho - Bentancur
Matuidi, Ramsey, Rabiot as backups
LCM has to be someone of quality and balls, not necessarily as experienced or high profile as Pogba. In an ideal world it would be someone to come in and his stock rise rapidly, like Vidal's did. People knew him as a talent and he was wanted by clubs, but he went from a middling Euro team to a big team and took off. Another one of those for €20m or €25m wouldn't go amiss. If Barella had still been at Cagliari maybe he would have been an interesting option, he seems to have that spark and talent, but you won't find hardly any CMs who score goals like Vidal did. Tonali is not quite the same, I see him having a similar slow progress and style to what Bentancur has.
good points. i don't find our options too exciting either. barca already bought de jong, my previous darling ndombélé probably wasn't mentally prepared to make a step up after leaving lyon, rodri was always gonna be too expensive, otherwise i didn't really see ready-made classy young mids lately. maybe aouar...? but a complete box to box beast like vidal is basically impossible to find.
the club's transfer policy doesn't help either. allegri never got the players he looked for, and i guess market opportunities will drive our transfers above sarri's needs. (not that i expect sarri to remain for more than 2 years anyway.)
as for tonali, those who are expecting a new pirlo are up for a disappointment. besides the accurate long balls, he's nothing like pirlo. more physical, without pirlo's vision and creativity.
btw i fully expect rabiot to leave during the next transfer window.