FIF's Dramatic last day of the Mercato - Summer 2020

Il Drago said:

Transfer market in Portugal ends in October 25th. We can still sell players. We just can't buy.

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Ah, then it doesn't matter. Because he's out of CL list for sure anyway.

Looking at this tweet: https://twitter.com/marifcinter/status/1313194809209880577?s=20

Kolarov Godin
Perisic Biraghi (Asamoah in the tweet)
Darmian Moses
Hakimi Candreva
Vidal Borja Valero
Nainggolan Agoume
Pinamonti Esposito
Radu Berni

I can't but help to notice that we improved with most of these "swaps". Only swap we got worse is that Kolarov Godin and debatable is Darmian Moses. Hakimi and Vidal swaps improves us big time. Nainggolan improves Agoume for sure and Pinamonti to Esposito.

Sales were the big disappointment. We managed to sell one player in Candreva, others were just either contract terminations or loans.

Juve added Kulusevski, Arthur, Morata, Mckennie & Chiesa to their squad. Players worth over 200m.

Inter added Hakimi, Vidal, and some bits and bobs.

talk about spin. Bringing back players we discarded is now considered a "swap"

Hakimi and Vidal are the summer mercato. Everything else is fodder.

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Bluenine said:

Juve added Kulusevski, Arthur, Morata, Mckennie & Chiesa to their squad. Players worth over 200m.

Inter added Hakimi, Vidal, and some bits and bobs.

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Players "worth"? Which means what? And did you seriously put McKennie on the list? :trollol:

They downgraded the most important position.....manager

Morata is also a very dubious addition to that list Bluenine Arthur and Kulusevski are quality, no doubt.

n4l said:

talk about spin. Bringing back players we discarded is now considered a "swap"

Hakimi and Vidal are the summer mercato. Everything else is fodder.

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Players "worth"? Which means what? And did you seriously put McKennie on the list? :trollol:

They downgraded the most important position.....manager

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The fuck is your problem exactly?

Swap in this context means one player removed from last year's team, one player added to last year's team.

n4l said:

Players "worth"? Which means what? And did you seriously put McKennie on the list? :trollol:

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Worth means exactly what it says. The only real parameter of judging what a player is worth is how much a club is ready to pay for them. In this case, what Juve have paid or agreed pay for these players if/when some of the loans become permanent.

McKennie deserved his place in that list only coz he will end up costing Juve 25m.

Bluenine said:

Worth means exactly what it says. The only real parameter of judging what a player is worth is how much a club is ready to pay for them. In this case, what Juve have paid or agreed pay for these players if/when some of the loans become permanent.

McKennie deserved his place in that list only coz he will end up costing Juve 25m.

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If Arthur is added with 72m€ worth, Pjanic was removed then with 60m€ worth.

YoramG said:

Morata is also a very dubious addition to that list Bluenine Arthur and Kulusevski are quality, no doubt.

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Signing Chiesa is bad news for Kulusevski development. Whether Pirlo sticks with 3-5-2 or switches to 4-3-3 there's no place for Kulusevski in the starting lineup. In 3-5-2 Kulusevski was woeful as a wingback and in attack he will be behind Dybala, Ronaldo and Morata. If they switch to 4-3-3 he will still be behind Dybala/Ronaldo and even Chiesa in the pecking order.

CafeCordoba said:

The fuck is your problem exactly?

Swap in this context means one player removed from last year's team, one player added to last year's team.

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so needlessly argumentative hahahaha

Well, we are technically 'covered' in the squad this year, with two players at least for every position -


So in those terms, we are set and the squad definitely has enough depth. The issues, as usual, will come from the sometimes ridiculous difference in quality between starters and subs. Ranocchia/De Vrij, Bastoni/Kolarov, Vidal/Gagliardini, Hakimi/Darmian, and especially Pinamonti/Lukaku are killing me.

Yeah the starting XI is strong, though we're still missing the true starting calibre LWB. But at least the difference between our LWBs aren't that big so there's that.

Could not care less about Chiesa going to Juve. Might well be the most overrated player in Serie A and don't see him being any sort of game breaker in that squad. Grade-A cunt on the field as well, though we have more than a couple players like that now ourselves so I guess that's not really an area we can talk. Either way, not worried at all about that one making a difference down the road.

If we're just looking at acquisitions, I'll give us a 6/10:

Hakimi and Vidal are clear upgrades.
Sanchez was made permanent on reasonable terms.
Kolarov can give us something, but I question his defending and whether we really needed a player like that.
Darmian... less said the better.
Pinamonti is good enough for 4th striker, but we are really stunting his growth.

If we look at everything on the whole, I'll give us a 7/10:

We didn't lose any key players-- Godin is over the hill as much as I hate to say it. It was a terrible decision to bring him here on those wages, even if we didn't know Conte was coming.
Perisic can be useful; I just don't know how much. We are very thin in that position and we could have done with another signing.
Nainggolan is an even bigger question mark. He clearly doesn't have much ambition and doesn't want to be here, but I'd rather keep a quality player than gift him for peanuts. He's also clearly lost a few steps, but it doesn't worry me too much.
We didn't really manage to get rid of any of our shitters on favorable terms.

I still think we could have done with another Wingback and CB, but it is what it is. We have a good enough squad to dethrone Juve; let Conte earn his reputation and high salary.

Il Drago said:

Signing Chiesa is bad news for Kulusevski development. Whether Pirlo sticks with 3-5-2 or switches to 4-3-3 there's no place for Kulusevski in the starting lineup. In 3-5-2 Kulusevski was woeful as a wingback and in attack he will be behind Dybala, Ronaldo and Morata. If they switch to 4-3-3 he will still be behind Dybala/Ronaldo and even Chiesa in the pecking order.

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The way I see it, they have CR7, Dybala, Morata, Kulusevski, Chiesa and Bernardeschi for the 3 attacking positions. Thats pretty decent depth.

And I think Kulusevski is going to surprise people this season. The kid is the real deal.

Bluenine said:

The way I see it, they have CR7, Dybala, Morata, Kulusevski, Chiesa and Bernardeschi for the 3 attacking positions. Thats pretty decent depth.

And I think Kulusevski is going to surprise people this season. The kid is the real deal.

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They have a shaky defense and not so good midfield in my view. Their least problem is the attack and I don't understand why jube invested so much there this summer.

varmin said:

They have a shaky defense and not so good midfield in my view. Their least problem is the attack and I don't understand why jube invested so much there this summer.

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Pretty much, their attack was always good. Arthur,while younger and arguably has more potential than pjanic, is not an upgrade. Coming in to a new league isn't easy and pjanic has been a top mid in serie a since roma days.

brakbrak said:

Pretty much, their attack was always good. Arthur,while younger and arguably has more potential than pjanic, is not an upgrade. Coming in to a new league isn't easy and pjanic has been a top mid in serie a since roma days.

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Pjanic hasn't been a top mid for 2 years now. Juve fans were absolutely delighted to get rid of him.
We'll see how it turns out but by the end of the year I'm sure we will be saying Arthur is an upgrade. Hope I'm wrong, but let's see.

Bluenine said:

The way I see it, they have CR7, Dybala, Morata, Kulusevski, Chiesa and Bernardeschi for the 3 attacking positions. Thats pretty decent depth.

And I think Kulusevski is going to surprise people this season. The kid is the real deal.

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Their attack is a mess. They have 1 striker (Morata ). Dybala, Bernadeschi and Ronaldo who don't really want to play wide and want a free forward role. Both berna and dybala suck on the left and must play on the right. Chiesa who really is not a strong winger (probably best as a wide midfielder, like lazio-days Candreva), sucks on the left and must play on the right. Kulu who sucks on the left and must play on the right. I hope you see what's happening there Who has to play left for them? Ramsey . Come on guys, you all know that's a joke.

Sarri had to change formation and play ronaldo and dybala as 2 free roaming forwards and relied on their individual brilliance to produce their most underwhelmning season in 9 years. Allegri ended up benching dybala a lot, playing him AM, benching bernadeschi a lot also just to spatially make it work. Both seasoned coaches. But somehow I'm supposed to be worried about these issues magically disappearing when PIRLO has to solve them?

Harpsabu said:

Pjanic hasn't been a top mid for 2 years now. Juve fans were absolutely delighted to get rid of him.
We'll see how it turns out but by the end of the year I'm sure we will be saying Arthur is an upgrade. Hope I'm wrong, but let's see.

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Sorry but I totally disagree. Pjanic has been their best midfielder these past 2 years. He's been the protagonist in midfield with the others being utilitarian, enforcers and more support players (matuidi, khedira, betancur etc). Now the midfield is a disaster that Arthur alone cannot fix. Arthur at this point is a less-grinta/low energy Sensi. That's not enough. When Rabiot has to start, your midfield is a mess. When you have to mention McKennie as a player in your midfield, you're a MESS.



Even with our mercato being considered relatively poor, the signings fit a tactic and generally, the best players can play with effective backups sitting on the bench..

n4l said:

Even with our mercato being considered relatively poor, the signings fit a tactic

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Yeah, I keep looking at Juve's squad and scratching my head. A lot of quality but I'm not quite sure how it's all supposed to fit together.

If they keep playing with a back 3--they lack depth at CB-- I think they have Bonucci, Chielini, De Ligt, Demiral and Danilo (who's been playing as a makeshift CB). That's 5 players. Some of those guys are also really slow.
The only true wingbacks are Alex Sandro and Cuadrado. All the other names in the mix there (Chiesa, Kulusevski, Frabotta ) aren't natural wingbacks.
Morata is the only true #9, but what does it matter; they have firepower galore up top. Personally I would just play Ronaldo and Dybala up front and let them do whatever they want.

If they go with back 4-- they have a lot of depth at CB, but shit fullback options and a pretty lightweight midfield.

They'll be able to beat most teams on individual talent alone, but we have to come out ahead this year-- no excuses.