Winter mercato 2022 (36 Viewers)
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It was obvious to anyone who saw him play or understood his kind of injury at his age that Marchisio was effectively finished after that injury, but sentiment is a strong thing.
Ramsey we knew was going to go one of two ways - he was either going to be mostly fit and would be a good player for us (unlikely), or he was going to be mostly injured and thus a big financial burden and waste of a playing spot (far more likely given his history). Completely hopeful signing. I had hoped that the slower and more tactical football would suit his physique but it seems to be even worse for him.
Ramsey we knew was going to go one of two ways - he was either going to be mostly fit and would be a good player for us (unlikely), or he was going to be mostly injured and thus a big financial burden and waste of a playing spot (far more likely given his history). Completely hopeful signing. I had hoped that the slower and more tactical football would suit his physique but it seems to be even worse for him.
Potentially €80M on Scamacca and Kean? Looks like we haven't moved on from Terrorist Tici.
This just doesn't sound right. Very Roma-esque.
I don't care if he 'explodes' at Sassuolo or another club. We need a guy who can score 20 goals a season right off the bat.
Dark days ahead if Scamacca is the answer to our CF problems.
This just doesn't sound right. Very Roma-esque.
I don't care if he 'explodes' at Sassuolo or another club. We need a guy who can score 20 goals a season right off the bat.
Dark days ahead if Scamacca is the answer to our CF problems.
https://theathletic.com/3052376/202...would-add-goals-zakaria-could-boost-midfield/
Sensible Transfers – Juventus: Vlahovic or Scamacca would add goals, Zakaria could boost midfield
By James Horncastle 3h ago
2
During the next few weeks, The Athletic will be running a piece for each of the clubs we cover looking at which positions they need to strengthen and using insight from our reporters and data from our analytics team to consider players who might fit the bill.
Next up in this Sensible Transfers series, Juventus and their desperate need of a goalscorer and desire for more dynamism in midfield…
The return of Massimiliano Allegri was expected to instantly restore Juventus to power in Serie A. The 54-year-old represented certainty at a time when champions Inter Milan were left insecure by the owner’s financial troubles and the departures of Antonio Conte, Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi.
Six months later, Juventus have had to scale back their ambition and take a more realistic view. They are already considered out of the title race and face a battle just to finish inside the top four. Inter aren’t as good as last season, but that provides neither succour nor solace, because in fact they’re even better. Juventus, on the other hand, have looked worse and, as if trailing Inter by 12 points wasn’t bad enough already, being five points off where they were at this stage last season under Andrea Pirlo stings too.
It has been a rough re-entry for Allegri. The game has changed in his two years away from it, with Serie A becoming more progressive, more competitive and more variable with the introduction of the five-substitutes rule. A little rusty by his own admission, the timing of Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit — late in the transfer window — did not help. As Leonardo Bonucci explained to The Athletic, Juventus gradually lost their religion during the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s three years in Turin. They played for Ronaldo rather than each other and as he excelled the team became less competitive.
Often the solution to the structural problems he creates, the Portuguese was nevertheless prolific and all of a sudden Juventus were left with no time to find the equivalent of 35 goals a season. No one expected the hastily-arranged reunion with Moise Kean to make up for the shortfall alone. Loading that responsibility on the talented 21-year-old was too much and it was clear the goalscoring burden would have to be shared with Federico Chiesa, the almost always offside Alvaro Morata and the fit-again Paulo Dybala, who was expected to make a far greater contribution than he did in the previous campaign when a mix of COVID-19 and a series of niggling injuries limited his game time.
By the winter break, Allegri seemed closer to sorting out the defence than the attack. Juventus have conceded only twice in the league since the beginning of November, keeping a clean sheet in six of their last eight games. No one in that time recorded a lower xG against and while that should be a source of encouragement, it must also be expected in a run of games that featured fixtures against Cagliari, Genoa, Salernitana and Venezia. More of a concern is what’s going on up front. After taking the lead against Genoa through a Juan Cuadrado goal scored directly from a corner kick, Juventus needed another 70 minutes to kill off the meekest of opponents. Morata had three chances saved and was so frustrated Allegri hauled him off within seconds of the referee showing him a booking for dissent.
The team has started to create more but still lags behind the unfairly criticised Pirlo as you can see in this StatsBomb trendline…
And by overlaying last year’s attacking data over this year’s figures…
Once again, Juventus have been too reliant on Cuadrado’s dribbling and crossing for incisiveness in the final third, not to mention renaissance man Federico Bernardeschi who is stepping up in a contract year and brimming with confidence on the back of his role in winning the European Championship with Italy over the summer. Allegri could still do more to make the team more daring and varied around the opposition penalty area. Juventus should not be 11th in goals scored (behind Empoli) and a bottom-half team in xG too (behind Udinese).
Rather than the quality of chances created, Allegri has hitherto chosen to focus on finishing. “We need to see what we can do to improve our conversion rate,” Allegri said after Juventus lost at home to Atalanta for the first time since 1989. The Old Lady ranks 13th in shooting accuracy and 17th in conversion. Dybala, for instance, has taken as many shots as Ciro Immobile (53) but if one of them is on five goals and the other is on 13 it’s at least partly down to decision-making and shot selection.
Unsurprisingly, Juventus’ priority in the transfer market is to add goals. Dybala has played 90 minutes only seven times in the league this season and his durability is perhaps one of the reasons why the contract extension he was expected to sign before Christmas is now being revised. Chiesa has started and finished just three games in Serie A and, while his performance in the 1-0 win over Chelsea in September led Allegri to claim he could have a future as a striker, for now, he is at his best out wide. As for Kean, he has not been as regular a source of goals as he was for Paris Saint-Germain last season and while he got the flukey winner against Roma, injuries and Allegri’s policy of picking his moments and opponents for youngsters means there is surely more to come from him as we move into what Italy hope will be a World Cup year.
Making the need for another striker more pressing is Morata’s unexpected wish to join Barcelona this month. Aware of Juventus’ reluctance to make his loan from Atletico permanent in the summer, Xavi at least makes him feel wanted. The Spain international may, however, have to wait. Allegri went into the January transfer window looking to add rather than substitute attackers.
Not only did Morata hit 20 goals in all competitions last season, this time around he has made more starts than the other forwards available to Allegri and was beginning to find a bit of form. He has been told a decision is still yet to be taken on whether or not Juventus will sign him at the end of the season and for now at least he isn’t going anywhere, which was reflected by Allegri in his press conference yesterday. “Morata isn’t leaving. Last year he scored 21 goals. This year he’s scored seven without taking a penalty. Alvaro’s an important player for us and I’m happy with him. I spoke to him and told him: You’re not going anywhere. Stay and be enthusiastic about it.”
Whether the predicament impacts on Morata’s performances remains to be seen.
In the long term, Juventus want to be in contention to sign the league’s current top scorer Dusan Vlahovic, whose metrics are only surpassed by Erling Haaland among strikers in his age category. While initially open to selling the player this winter following the Serb’s refusal to sign a contract extension beyond 2023, Fiorentina would be reluctant to let another star leave for Juventus considering Bernardeschi and, more recently, Chiesa made the switch to Turin. Juventus also need time to fund a competitive bid, especially with Fiorentina looking to start an auction involving richer Premier League clubs.
Smarterscout is a free-to-use platform that is powered by data and advanced analytics. It gives players ratings between zero and 99 relating to how often a player performs a given stylistic action (for example, volume of shots per touch), or how effective they are at it (for example, how well they progress the ball upfield) compared with others playing in their position.
Looking at Vlahovic’s smarterscout profile, it is clear he thrives in attacking areas. He is willing to shoot often (shot volume, 93) and is confident at getting into decent goalscoring positions (receptions in opposition box, 89), suggesting that he is more of a focal point as a No 9 and less likely to get involved in build-up play (link-up play volume, 17).
The tall and skilful Gianluca Scamacca of Sassuolo would be cheaper and Juventus enjoy an excellent relationship with his club as underlined in the structure of the deal for Manuel Locatelli in the summer. Pairing the 23-year-old with Kean aligns with the Old Lady’s plans to keep getting younger and their prospective strike partnership would likely also be Italy’s for years to come. “Scamacca has everything it takes to become a complete centre-forward,” the Italy manager Roberto Mancini told Gazzetta dello Sport last month. “He scores all sorts of goals: headers, from distance, close-range finishes. He’s powerful and skilful. I had a long chat with him at our recent camp and told him how far he can go.”
One metric that jumps out from Scamacca’s smarterscout profile is shot volume (99). This shows how often a player takes a shot out of the total touches they have. With a rating of 99 out of 99, no Serie A striker beats Scamacca in the frequency he gets a shot away. His profile also shows he is more likely to play simple, linking passes when he gets it (link-up play volume, 71) rather than longer passes upfield (i.e. progressive passing, 28).
Scamacca has similar underlying numbers to Vlahovic, with a non-penalty xG of around 0.4 per 90 over the past two seasons. He shoots from good, central areas and scores spectacular goals which probably discourages coaches from telling him to drop the long-distance efforts from the right-hand side.
Given Sassuolo let the popular veteran Ciccio Caputo go to Sampdoria in the summer to clear a pathway for Scamacca, selling him mid-season when Jeremie Boga has already been transferred to Atalanta has little appeal. It could lead to Juventus pursuing a stop-gap between now and the end of the season. One that has already been explored is the loan of Mauro Icardi from PSG. A double Capocannoniere at Inter, it’s often forgotten he was their eighth all-time top scorer ahead of Bobo Vieri, Ronaldo, Adriano and all the other stars of the 90s and early 2000s. Brought to Italy by Juventus’ former chief football officer Fabio Paratici, it is not the first time the Old Lady has dared think of signing the Argentine.
Icardi’s focus has been questioned recently and the drama of the Icardashian reality show is not a distraction Juventus can entertain when they are four points off the Champions League places. Kean also outscored Icardi last season and was Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino’s preferred choice of alternative when Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were either injured or needed a rest. Whether Icardi is the same devastating penalty-box finisher he was a couple of years ago will be up for debate until he proves his doubters wrong at his next club. It remains to be seen if Juventus take exploratory talks any further, not least because Icardi is on PSG wages which would make him close to the highest earner at the club along with Dybala and Matthijs de Ligt.
A striker isn’t Juventus’ only need. Fans continue to decry the lack of imagination in midfield and the club will try to move on Aaron Ramsey, Arthur and maybe Dejan Kulusevski over the next few weeks. Bringing Paul Pogba back under the Mole Antonelliana for a second time as a free agent is a dream for many of them but younger out-of-contract players like Denis Zakaria, who made a big impression when Switzerland played Italy last year, are also available.
Zakaria passes the eye test in being a frequent carrier/dribbler of the ball in central areas and his smarterscout profile shows how he keeps the ball very well for a player in his position (ball retention ability, 80), though the Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder is not the most active defensively (ball recoveries and interceptions, 25).
Marseille’s Boubacar Kamara is another player out of contract in June who would not command anywhere near the same wages as Pogba and would conform with Allegri’s appreciation of physicality and dynamism in the middle of the park.
Kamara was an ever-present in defensive midfield for Marseille last season and you can see from his profile how much of a well-rounded player he is in and out of possession. He is good on the ball, often keeping it simple, and is able to mix up his passing with short or medium-distance balls, while keeping possession at an above-average rate. Kamara is strong defensively and active out of possession (defending intensity, 80) and is above average in how well he defends in preventing the opposition from progressing further up the pitch (defending impact, 59).
Bonucci’s recent injury and Giorgio Chiellini’s COVID-enforced absence may cause the club to look at centre-backs in the immediate term and the position will likely have to be addressed in the summer after Mino Raiola intimated that it is time for De Ligt to take a new challenge. It does not reflect well on Juventus’ succession planning for their two veteran defenders, particularly in light of Cristian Romero and Merih Demiral’s recent sales. One player linked with the position is the revelation of this year’s Serie B, Frosinone centre-back Federico Gatti (whose name rather charmingly translates as Freddy Cats).
Gatti is a front-foot defender, pressing his man tightly when he has the opportunity (defending intensity, 94). It is important to note that this metric, and those that assess the quality of a player, are adjusted for Premier League standard, so these scores are comparing Gatti to right-sided centre-backs in England’s top flight. Having a benchmark league to work from provides a fairer comparison across players, with those adjustments calculated by looking at all of the flows of moves for players into different leagues, and how their ratings have subsequently changed.
Gatti appears to read the game well, regularly picking up loose balls and blocking passes (ball recoveries and interceptions, 92). He is clearly active in attack too, and at 6ft 3in will be a threat for his side at set pieces.
Before the Atalanta defeat, Juventus chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene said: “I don’t imagine the January transfer window will be particularly interesting or intense.”
Nevertheless, the next month will go a long way to deciding his club’s season, particularly with 2022 kicking off against Napoli and Roma in the league and Inter in the Super Cup. Without more goals, a top-four finish is by no means guaranteed.
By James Horncastle 3h ago
During the next few weeks, The Athletic will be running a piece for each of the clubs we cover looking at which positions they need to strengthen and using insight from our reporters and data from our analytics team to consider players who might fit the bill.
Next up in this Sensible Transfers series, Juventus and their desperate need of a goalscorer and desire for more dynamism in midfield…
The return of Massimiliano Allegri was expected to instantly restore Juventus to power in Serie A. The 54-year-old represented certainty at a time when champions Inter Milan were left insecure by the owner’s financial troubles and the departures of Antonio Conte, Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi.
Six months later, Juventus have had to scale back their ambition and take a more realistic view. They are already considered out of the title race and face a battle just to finish inside the top four. Inter aren’t as good as last season, but that provides neither succour nor solace, because in fact they’re even better. Juventus, on the other hand, have looked worse and, as if trailing Inter by 12 points wasn’t bad enough already, being five points off where they were at this stage last season under Andrea Pirlo stings too.
It has been a rough re-entry for Allegri. The game has changed in his two years away from it, with Serie A becoming more progressive, more competitive and more variable with the introduction of the five-substitutes rule. A little rusty by his own admission, the timing of Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit — late in the transfer window — did not help. As Leonardo Bonucci explained to The Athletic, Juventus gradually lost their religion during the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s three years in Turin. They played for Ronaldo rather than each other and as he excelled the team became less competitive.
Often the solution to the structural problems he creates, the Portuguese was nevertheless prolific and all of a sudden Juventus were left with no time to find the equivalent of 35 goals a season. No one expected the hastily-arranged reunion with Moise Kean to make up for the shortfall alone. Loading that responsibility on the talented 21-year-old was too much and it was clear the goalscoring burden would have to be shared with Federico Chiesa, the almost always offside Alvaro Morata and the fit-again Paulo Dybala, who was expected to make a far greater contribution than he did in the previous campaign when a mix of COVID-19 and a series of niggling injuries limited his game time.
By the winter break, Allegri seemed closer to sorting out the defence than the attack. Juventus have conceded only twice in the league since the beginning of November, keeping a clean sheet in six of their last eight games. No one in that time recorded a lower xG against and while that should be a source of encouragement, it must also be expected in a run of games that featured fixtures against Cagliari, Genoa, Salernitana and Venezia. More of a concern is what’s going on up front. After taking the lead against Genoa through a Juan Cuadrado goal scored directly from a corner kick, Juventus needed another 70 minutes to kill off the meekest of opponents. Morata had three chances saved and was so frustrated Allegri hauled him off within seconds of the referee showing him a booking for dissent.
The team has started to create more but still lags behind the unfairly criticised Pirlo as you can see in this StatsBomb trendline…
And by overlaying last year’s attacking data over this year’s figures…
Once again, Juventus have been too reliant on Cuadrado’s dribbling and crossing for incisiveness in the final third, not to mention renaissance man Federico Bernardeschi who is stepping up in a contract year and brimming with confidence on the back of his role in winning the European Championship with Italy over the summer. Allegri could still do more to make the team more daring and varied around the opposition penalty area. Juventus should not be 11th in goals scored (behind Empoli) and a bottom-half team in xG too (behind Udinese).
Rather than the quality of chances created, Allegri has hitherto chosen to focus on finishing. “We need to see what we can do to improve our conversion rate,” Allegri said after Juventus lost at home to Atalanta for the first time since 1989. The Old Lady ranks 13th in shooting accuracy and 17th in conversion. Dybala, for instance, has taken as many shots as Ciro Immobile (53) but if one of them is on five goals and the other is on 13 it’s at least partly down to decision-making and shot selection.
Unsurprisingly, Juventus’ priority in the transfer market is to add goals. Dybala has played 90 minutes only seven times in the league this season and his durability is perhaps one of the reasons why the contract extension he was expected to sign before Christmas is now being revised. Chiesa has started and finished just three games in Serie A and, while his performance in the 1-0 win over Chelsea in September led Allegri to claim he could have a future as a striker, for now, he is at his best out wide. As for Kean, he has not been as regular a source of goals as he was for Paris Saint-Germain last season and while he got the flukey winner against Roma, injuries and Allegri’s policy of picking his moments and opponents for youngsters means there is surely more to come from him as we move into what Italy hope will be a World Cup year.
Making the need for another striker more pressing is Morata’s unexpected wish to join Barcelona this month. Aware of Juventus’ reluctance to make his loan from Atletico permanent in the summer, Xavi at least makes him feel wanted. The Spain international may, however, have to wait. Allegri went into the January transfer window looking to add rather than substitute attackers.
Not only did Morata hit 20 goals in all competitions last season, this time around he has made more starts than the other forwards available to Allegri and was beginning to find a bit of form. He has been told a decision is still yet to be taken on whether or not Juventus will sign him at the end of the season and for now at least he isn’t going anywhere, which was reflected by Allegri in his press conference yesterday. “Morata isn’t leaving. Last year he scored 21 goals. This year he’s scored seven without taking a penalty. Alvaro’s an important player for us and I’m happy with him. I spoke to him and told him: You’re not going anywhere. Stay and be enthusiastic about it.”
Whether the predicament impacts on Morata’s performances remains to be seen.
In the long term, Juventus want to be in contention to sign the league’s current top scorer Dusan Vlahovic, whose metrics are only surpassed by Erling Haaland among strikers in his age category. While initially open to selling the player this winter following the Serb’s refusal to sign a contract extension beyond 2023, Fiorentina would be reluctant to let another star leave for Juventus considering Bernardeschi and, more recently, Chiesa made the switch to Turin. Juventus also need time to fund a competitive bid, especially with Fiorentina looking to start an auction involving richer Premier League clubs.
Smarterscout is a free-to-use platform that is powered by data and advanced analytics. It gives players ratings between zero and 99 relating to how often a player performs a given stylistic action (for example, volume of shots per touch), or how effective they are at it (for example, how well they progress the ball upfield) compared with others playing in their position.
Looking at Vlahovic’s smarterscout profile, it is clear he thrives in attacking areas. He is willing to shoot often (shot volume, 93) and is confident at getting into decent goalscoring positions (receptions in opposition box, 89), suggesting that he is more of a focal point as a No 9 and less likely to get involved in build-up play (link-up play volume, 17).
The tall and skilful Gianluca Scamacca of Sassuolo would be cheaper and Juventus enjoy an excellent relationship with his club as underlined in the structure of the deal for Manuel Locatelli in the summer. Pairing the 23-year-old with Kean aligns with the Old Lady’s plans to keep getting younger and their prospective strike partnership would likely also be Italy’s for years to come. “Scamacca has everything it takes to become a complete centre-forward,” the Italy manager Roberto Mancini told Gazzetta dello Sport last month. “He scores all sorts of goals: headers, from distance, close-range finishes. He’s powerful and skilful. I had a long chat with him at our recent camp and told him how far he can go.”
One metric that jumps out from Scamacca’s smarterscout profile is shot volume (99). This shows how often a player takes a shot out of the total touches they have. With a rating of 99 out of 99, no Serie A striker beats Scamacca in the frequency he gets a shot away. His profile also shows he is more likely to play simple, linking passes when he gets it (link-up play volume, 71) rather than longer passes upfield (i.e. progressive passing, 28).
Scamacca has similar underlying numbers to Vlahovic, with a non-penalty xG of around 0.4 per 90 over the past two seasons. He shoots from good, central areas and scores spectacular goals which probably discourages coaches from telling him to drop the long-distance efforts from the right-hand side.
Given Sassuolo let the popular veteran Ciccio Caputo go to Sampdoria in the summer to clear a pathway for Scamacca, selling him mid-season when Jeremie Boga has already been transferred to Atalanta has little appeal. It could lead to Juventus pursuing a stop-gap between now and the end of the season. One that has already been explored is the loan of Mauro Icardi from PSG. A double Capocannoniere at Inter, it’s often forgotten he was their eighth all-time top scorer ahead of Bobo Vieri, Ronaldo, Adriano and all the other stars of the 90s and early 2000s. Brought to Italy by Juventus’ former chief football officer Fabio Paratici, it is not the first time the Old Lady has dared think of signing the Argentine.
Icardi’s focus has been questioned recently and the drama of the Icardashian reality show is not a distraction Juventus can entertain when they are four points off the Champions League places. Kean also outscored Icardi last season and was Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino’s preferred choice of alternative when Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were either injured or needed a rest. Whether Icardi is the same devastating penalty-box finisher he was a couple of years ago will be up for debate until he proves his doubters wrong at his next club. It remains to be seen if Juventus take exploratory talks any further, not least because Icardi is on PSG wages which would make him close to the highest earner at the club along with Dybala and Matthijs de Ligt.
A striker isn’t Juventus’ only need. Fans continue to decry the lack of imagination in midfield and the club will try to move on Aaron Ramsey, Arthur and maybe Dejan Kulusevski over the next few weeks. Bringing Paul Pogba back under the Mole Antonelliana for a second time as a free agent is a dream for many of them but younger out-of-contract players like Denis Zakaria, who made a big impression when Switzerland played Italy last year, are also available.
Zakaria passes the eye test in being a frequent carrier/dribbler of the ball in central areas and his smarterscout profile shows how he keeps the ball very well for a player in his position (ball retention ability, 80), though the Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder is not the most active defensively (ball recoveries and interceptions, 25).
Marseille’s Boubacar Kamara is another player out of contract in June who would not command anywhere near the same wages as Pogba and would conform with Allegri’s appreciation of physicality and dynamism in the middle of the park.
Kamara was an ever-present in defensive midfield for Marseille last season and you can see from his profile how much of a well-rounded player he is in and out of possession. He is good on the ball, often keeping it simple, and is able to mix up his passing with short or medium-distance balls, while keeping possession at an above-average rate. Kamara is strong defensively and active out of possession (defending intensity, 80) and is above average in how well he defends in preventing the opposition from progressing further up the pitch (defending impact, 59).
Bonucci’s recent injury and Giorgio Chiellini’s COVID-enforced absence may cause the club to look at centre-backs in the immediate term and the position will likely have to be addressed in the summer after Mino Raiola intimated that it is time for De Ligt to take a new challenge. It does not reflect well on Juventus’ succession planning for their two veteran defenders, particularly in light of Cristian Romero and Merih Demiral’s recent sales. One player linked with the position is the revelation of this year’s Serie B, Frosinone centre-back Federico Gatti (whose name rather charmingly translates as Freddy Cats).
Gatti is a front-foot defender, pressing his man tightly when he has the opportunity (defending intensity, 94). It is important to note that this metric, and those that assess the quality of a player, are adjusted for Premier League standard, so these scores are comparing Gatti to right-sided centre-backs in England’s top flight. Having a benchmark league to work from provides a fairer comparison across players, with those adjustments calculated by looking at all of the flows of moves for players into different leagues, and how their ratings have subsequently changed.
Gatti appears to read the game well, regularly picking up loose balls and blocking passes (ball recoveries and interceptions, 92). He is clearly active in attack too, and at 6ft 3in will be a threat for his side at set pieces.
Before the Atalanta defeat, Juventus chief executive Maurizio Arrivabene said: “I don’t imagine the January transfer window will be particularly interesting or intense.”
Nevertheless, the next month will go a long way to deciding his club’s season, particularly with 2022 kicking off against Napoli and Roma in the league and Inter in the Super Cup. Without more goals, a top-four finish is by no means guaranteed.
For the past 10 years we had some of the best scouts and managers in Europe when it comes to recognizing talents. There's no doubt about it. We were on to Mbappe, Haaland, Verratti... long before anyone in Europe even heard of them.
It's just that we didn't have balls to take risks and pay peanuts for talent.
Conclusion: Our managers were skilled but they were pussies taking the safe way and signing experienced players (Rabiot, Ramsey, Khedira, Matuidi...) that were avearge for us at best. Only players like Ronaldo and Tevez delivered.
It's just that we didn't have balls to take risks and pay peanuts for talent.
Conclusion: Our managers were skilled but they were pussies taking the safe way and signing experienced players (Rabiot, Ramsey, Khedira, Matuidi...) that were avearge for us at best. Only players like Ronaldo and Tevez delivered.
I stopped reading at Scamacca would add goals 
our best players in that regard is kean with 3 goals in 499 minutes (a goal every 166 minutes) and dybala with 5 goals in 946 minutes (a goal every ~190 minutes)
of course scamacca would add goals. he's not an other pre-retirement anelka. he's actually a pretty useful player who can press like a madman, and in that regard he resembles to mandzukic more than anyone else out of those who were linked with us lately. i can see him being pretty good with allegri. question is whether he'd add enough goals, and whether the juve jersey would be too heavy for him. and the price of course. 40m is a lot - but marotta is ready to pay that, so we'll learn anyway how scamacca handles pressure at a bigger team.
I'm with you. His shot to touch ratio is extremely high, but he only has 6 goals. His shot map is all over the place, so who knows if he'll be able to hit from distance when everyone sits back against us. We need a striker who can grab goals from poaching or headers in the box since our chance quality isn't usually good.
what a post. 
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