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"Calcio!" Serie A

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Milanista

Milanista

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9 minutes ago, HTT II said:

I’d fancy Roma as dark horses for the title, hopefully Meelan will win it though if only for our friend!

Their defense is really poor, that's the issue. Their wing-backs are an impressive unit, but, their CBs, particularly Ibanez and Mancini, though Smalling, too, have looked really bad together.

 

The question is over Wijnaldum and Matic being able to actually rediscover themselves, and whether Dybala and Pellegrini don't step on each other's toes.

 

I personally think Inter are going to get ref-help into a win, Milan lack depth in the CM and CB areas, and unless those are addressed, I cannot be confident.

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Guest HTT II

Guest HTT II

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Just now, Milanista said:

Their defense is really poor, that's the issue. Their wing-backs are an impressive unit, but, their CBs, particularly Ibanez and Mancini, though Smalling, too, have looked really bad together.

 

The question is over Wijnaldum and Matic being able to actually rediscover themselves, and whether Dybala and Pellegrini don't step on each other's toes.

 

I personally think Inter are going to get ref-help into a win, Milan lack depth in the CM and CB areas, and unless those are addressed, I cannot be confident.

Sounds like it will be a really open title battle. As ever the team that is most consistent as cliche as that is, usually ends up on top. I just think Mourinho has another major league title in him and they have momentum as does AC of course, but with a CL campaign too that could stretch the team…

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Milanista

Milanista

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30 minutes ago, HTT II said:

Sounds like it will be a really open title battle. As ever the team that is most consistent as cliche as that is, usually ends up on top. I just think Mourinho has another major league title in him and they have momentum as does AC of course, but with a CL campaign too that could stretch the team…

Everything is a "what if?" scenario. Inter, Juve, Milan, Roma, Napoli, Lazio, everyone is in a "what if" stage.

 

There's also a bias against younger players, players are still considered "youngsters" at 23, where I feel like in England that is not the same. So there is a lot of skepticism over Milan, particularly because our transfers are not flashy.

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6 minutes ago, Milanista said:

Everything is a "what if?" scenario. Inter, Juve, Milan, Roma, Napoli, Lazio, everyone is in a "what if" stage.

 

There's also a bias against younger players, players are still considered "youngsters" at 23, where I feel like in England that is not the same. So there is a lot of skepticism over Milan, particularly because our transfers are not flashy.

Seems Serie A is more open than the PL and of the few games I have seen, looks exciting.

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Milanista

Milanista

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30 minutes ago, HTT II said:

Seems Serie A is more open than the PL and of the few games I have seen, looks exciting.

I think Juve is trying to rebuild, but they don't have a vision, they are just kinda... throwing money and names at the problem. Allegri's anti-football style is really defined by just amassing great players and just being better than other teams, by having better players, but nothing else.

 

Inter seem like they are the verge of a Barca-like collapse, as their Chinese owners are terrible at business, and they are selling off any promising youngsters to prolong their Conte-assembled team. Which is why I am skeptical of what Spurs will be after Conte, but who knows?

 

Napoli are stripping away players, Roma are adding big names, and the big question is can Mourinho really reinvent himself? He's relying on youngsters more, but watching how Milan blew Roma away, I can't see a big difference, unless Dybala stops being a mediocre player (for his price and hype).

 

Atalanta is sorta like Italy's Leicester, and they're on the downward trend, while Lazio could quietly do well, but they lack depth in defense, so they're a little bit like West Ham, there's a question as to where they'll be.

 

I think Milan and Juve (who will stumble into) being the top two teams in the next few years, while Inter will limp along with this good generation they have, prolonging a re-build that was expensive and yielded only a single league title and a cup win. I feel like people when talking about Inter forget that, without their best player (Barella) they beat Liverpool in the CL and were a really, really bad match-up for teams. The absence of Perisic is going to really hurt them.

 

I will say this about Serie A: it is much more attacking than ever before. Italy has seen the impact of Klopp's attacking style and realized it came from Italy, with Sacchi, and now the young Italian coaches of note are not defensive masterminds, nor are they using tactical schemes to be solid, or anything like that, their plan of attack? Attack. Dionisi at Sassuolo, Italiano at Fiorentina, in particular, just attack, attack, attack, as do relegation sides now.

 

I think defense, across the world, has become much worse, as one-on-one defending is a travesty. The excuses for Trent, for example, get on my nerves, as do comparisons of VVD with other "all-time" greats, when he makes basic errors. Everyone makes mistakes, even Maldini, but, teams defend as a unit now, there is far less one-on-one defending, and when there is isolation of players with defenders, it becomes ugly. Which is actually one of the hallmarks of the new tactical systems in Italy that are fixated on movement, breaking the press, and hybridization of pressing systems between ball-based press, and man-based pressing structures--Milan being the only team that does this at an elite level, lol.

 

Serie A is showing a lot of tactical innovation, but unfortunately, the dire state of Italian football infrastructure means that our bright talents from our smaller teams are not staying in Serie A. Scamacca is at West Ham, he should be at an Italian team, but there are more Italian players leaving Italy, Lorenzo Lucca, an overrated young striker just went to Ajax, which is new, and different. Italy's midfield and defensive talent is still strong, but our attacking talent is poor, and maybe that's down to them not being developed properly? We'll see.

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ponsaelius

ponsaelius

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Brilliant to see this level of engagement in this thread. Hope you stick around and contribute as the season goes on.

 

My biggest disappointment with the transfer market in Serie A this year has not been the lack of big signings. That is expected - and reflects the financial situation of the clubs. It's the fact that clubs are still not banking on young Italian players in the same way that happens in Spain, France or Germany. In fact there's quite a lot that have left the league (including Serie B) altogether. Lucca to Ajax and Scamacca you mentioned. But even the likes of Mattia Viti from Empoli to Nice, Inter looking to sell Casadei abroad etc. We know that Italy isn't producing the same talent that France is - but even those that have something are frequently not banked on by both big and small clubs.

 

Also can somebody rename the thread to reflect the new season?

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Milanista

Milanista

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On 12/08/2022 at 05:15, ponsaelius said:

Brilliant to see this level of engagement in this thread. Hope you stick around and contribute as the season goes on.

 

My biggest disappointment with the transfer market in Serie A this year has not been the lack of big signings. That is expected - and reflects the financial situation of the clubs. It's the fact that clubs are still not banking on young Italian players in the same way that happens in Spain, France or Germany. In fact there's quite a lot that have left the league (including Serie B) altogether. Lucca to Ajax and Scamacca you mentioned. But even the likes of Mattia Viti from Empoli to Nice, Inter looking to sell Casadei abroad etc. We know that Italy isn't producing the same talent that France is - but even those that have something are frequently not banked on by both big and small clubs.

 

Also can somebody rename the thread to reflect the new season?

Serie A still has the power for big transfers, whether it's the 70+ million that Napoli paid for Osimhen, or the 85m for Vlahovic, and on and on but I think the approach of Milan has really shocked the league--but Juve is still going to spend, they've put a lot of money into salaries (that most of their players don't deserve) and Juve's management really love an overrated free-agent.

 

The biggest issue is that Italy's biggest clubs (bar Juve) do not own their stadiums. That's 100m of lost revenue for Milan and Inter, while it would be between 60-80m for Napoli, Roma, and Lazio--none of them own their stadium, nor does Fiorentina.

 

Italy is still producing amazing talent, but that talent is limited to keepers, defenders, and midfielders--but the prices being asked for Italian attacker players just... isn't it worth it. Sassuolo were asking for 30-40m for Berardi, which is just... absurd.

 

Barella was around 45-50m (plus bonuses) and he was worth it. Tonali was 35m (was renegotiated to 17m, Maldini is a master) while Spinazzola was 30m and Bastoni was 31m etc, so Italian teams will pay for players when they're worth it, but Italy's problem is that it just isn't producing attacking players--for various reasons. We're not producing Donnarumma's and Verratti's in attack, no one comes close to Tonali, Giorgio Scalvini (my favorite young Italian defender), Destiny Udogie, or other young hot-shots.

 

Scamacca is the only fit attacker who has talent in Italy. Zaniolo has talent, but, he's stagnating at Roma, even if he'll show flashes. Milan were supposedly interested in him, but Roma were demanding 50-65m, which is an absurd amount for a player who has torn both ACLs. Chiesa, who also tore his ACL, is the only other Italian attacker up to those standards. This is the problem. And those that show any sort of potential get slapped with ridiculous prices. Orsolini, back in 2020, looked like a great talent, and then Sabatini, the sporting director of his club Bologna at the time (who is very good at his job) when asked about his price, he said he was worth 70m. Yes, this is posturing, but was the kid worth 40m? 50m? Not at all.

 

There is a lot of talk in Italy about foreigners being a problem, which I disagree with. Others say "oh, look at Italy needing oriundi in the national team," with the word "oriundi" meaning naturalized Italians from other countries, like Jorginho--showing the weakness of the team, but then people forget that in our 2006 world-cup winning team, which is the last "great" Italy team (which I don't agree with), Simone Perrotta was born in England, Camoranesi is Argentinian, and while he wasn't in the squad, Christian Vieri was raised in Australia before coming back to Italy, so the history of Italy and having various players raised outside of Italy is not unique or new.

 

I can keep going, but I'll leave it at that, there's more to say, about how Italy don't modernize their style of attacker, like how Argentina still go after Maradona clones, but I also think that Italy has had a lot of bad luck with injuries to super talented players, not just Zaniolo and Chiesa, but many others, and that the ineffectiveness of Immobile for Italy is one of the great mysteries. He is a top 10 striker in the world, and he preforms for Lazio against big teams, small teams, in Europe, but put him in a Italy shirt and he becomes... a shadow of himself. Very weird period for Italy.

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