Italian Football Thread III

vB9 said:

This guy is a loon

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He is right

Pingu said:

Lukaku to Inter official. Conte finally got his man.

Look forward to seeing Kessie outscore him this season.

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Conte also wants a left wing all rounder.
He doesn’t believe in Perisic.

So it could be that by December he still can’t get them rolling.

Lukaku

Jasper said:

idk, always kinda looked like a EPL Gilardino, so quite possible.

(of course I never watched his games )

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He can be very good, but he's also a donkey. He'll get 20 goals for Inter but he's more of a bully against lesser teams.

1 goal in 17 games against the big 6 in the PL for eg. One. He started every one of them 17 games as well.

They don’t want Lukaku to score goals. Conte teams use the physique and skill of strikers to keep defenders off and make space for midfielders rushing into the box. The goals will come from Barella, Sensi and Brozovic.

Lukaku fits Conte’s style perfectly. The money is meaningless, it’s a great signing for Inter.

Skrtel to Atalanta, Schone to Genoa,Lukaku to Inter

Calshio is getting serious

necromancer said:

They don’t want Lukaku to score goals. Conte teams use the physique and skill of strikers to keep defenders off and make space for midfielders rushing into the box. The goals will come from Barella, Sensi and Brozovic.

Lukaku fits Conte’s style perfectly. The money is meaningless, it’s a great signing for Inter.

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conte won the league with freaking vucinic, matri and iaquinta. So lukaku is definitely a great signing.

Soldier_of_god said:

conte won the league with freaking vucinic, matri and iaquinta. So lukaku is definitely a great signing.

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Let's not forget the quality of the other teams around the top of the table was pretty shit compared to now, though.

^Conte played Graziano Pelle and Eder as the #9 options in Euro 2016 and dominated the likes of Spain with ease thanks to his style. The actual goalscoring quality of the #9 is completely irrelevant to Conte teams.

If you put aside the overspending part and purely judge the quality of the players bought for the manager's style, Inter has had the best mercato in Serie A this summer - followed closely by Milan. I think if we manage to sign a Correa characteristic player, both teams should be joint winners of this mercato season.

Juventus had a reasonably bizarre market (selling Kean boggles my mind), while Napoli failed in all their major targets so far.

I think there's a good chance of both Milano teams making the CL next season.

Who have Napoli actually signed?

KujaIX said:

Who have Napoli actually signed?

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Manolas is the big one, then Di Lorenzo is a good signing too. They signed a promising 19 yr old called Elmas, I’ve no clue how good that might be but obviously not a signing that’ll influence this season.

Besides these, they’ve not signed any of their top targets - James, Pepe, Lozano.. they need that level of signings in order to maintain the 2nd position.

Good read about Piscitelli, the recently murdered leader of Lazio’s Irriducibili.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...olik-fabrizio-piscitelli-lazio-football-ultra

Is this true? Because I read somewhere that Milan sold 30.000

Monday August 19 2019

Cellino: 'Italian media must help Balotelli'
By Football Italia staff

Brescia President Massimo Cellino urged the media to “help” Mario Balotelli, but claimed English football fans were “racist” against Italians.

The patron spoke at a Press conference presenting new star signing Balotelli.

“This was not a publicity stunt, in fact it was also a way of thanking the fans for buying so many season tickets and showing such enthusiasm,” said Cellino.

“I want to be clear that Mario allowed Brescia to have him in our team and did not put us at any financial risk. I realise there can be this fear of over-hyping, much like going to see a film that everyone told you is brilliant, but we don’t want to put too much pressure on Mario.

“It’s a team with over 20 players and he is here to help the team, while I would like you in the media also to help him express himself to the best of his potential. We’d like you to highlight the positive stories about this lad, too.

“If he came to Brescia, it’s because he made a choice out of love and not for financial gain.”

Former Leeds United President Cellino commented when Balotelli was asked about the fear of racist abuse in Serie A stadiums and came out with an interesting analogy.

“I’ve never felt so alien and outside as when I was in England. I thought that I’d be respected and even admired for what I gave to English football, but I’ve never seen so much racism as in England. It wasn’t towards black people per se, but anyone who wasn’t English, and they are very open about expressing that.

Polotelli said:

Is this true? Because I read somewhere that Milan sold 30.000

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Even so, its quite sad that Inter manages to outsells us..i thought the city was red

Anyway did you guys see the rumours about Dybala - Neymar swap..jesus if that happens there goes another 5 years of anybody bar Juventus winning fuck all in Serie A.

Inter fans have been the best in the league for quite a few seasons now. It has been one of their proudest accomplishments even during the sporting disappointments of the last few seasons.

We need to get to that level. We started attracting fans properly again only from last season.

necromancer said:

Inter fans have been the best in the league for quite a few seasons now. It has been one of their proudest accomplishments even during the sporting disappointments of the last few seasons.

We need to get to that level. We started attracting fans properly again only from last season.

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Yep, their fans have steadily supported the club these last few years since Suning took over and they're now headed back to the top it seems. Let's hope our fans do the same now behind Maldini and Boban, even if not for Elliot, but for their love for the club. I'd love nothing more than to see both Milan clubs start to sell out San Siro - or the new stadium - and have the biggest showings in the league. Would be great for Italian football.

Wow, didn't even think Inter had 40k fans worldwide...

suning probably buys their own tickets

surprised that Napoli & Atalanta are this low and Lecce that high

nonsonoqui said:

Good read about Piscitelli, the recently murdered leader of Lazio’s Irriducibili.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...olik-fabrizio-piscitelli-lazio-football-ultra

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Good article. Pretty insane how powerful he once was.

Saturday kickoff: Parma vs Juve and Viola vs Napoli. Both great games.

Sunday: Besides the Milan game, we've got Roma vs Genoa (I think Genoa could be quite good this season), Samp vs Lazio, SPAL vs Atalanta and Torino vs Sassuolo.

My weekend is gone.

Sarri will miss both Parma and Napoli games..

Lol I thought the Milan game was on Saturday, been declining weekend plans with my friends all week. Good thing I read this now or this would have been me Saturday 18:00.

vB9 said:

This guy is a loon

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Even a broken clock is right twice a day

necromancer said:

My weekend is gone.

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i love these type of weekends

necromancer said:

Saturday kickoff: Parma vs Juve and Viola vs Napoli. Both great games.

Sunday: Besides the Milan game, we've got Roma vs Genoa (I think Genoa could be quite good this season), Samp vs Lazio, SPAL vs Atalanta and Torino vs Sassuolo.

My weekend is gone.

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Liverpool vs arsenal

For a player who can’t ignore critics and haters, I don’t know why Lukaku chose to join a serie a club. One racist chant towards him and you never know what could happen.

One day to go!

My short preview for the season ahead:

Top 3 - I think we'll have a close battle this season.

Juve are going through a peculiar period. They have chosen to trust a manager who is far removed from the usual 'fino alla fine' Juve prototype. The last time they did this, with Manfredi, the project collapsed. Their transfer market campaign has been absurd, with the Moise Kean move, and the continued stay of those '6 extra players' whom Sarri referred to last week. Even Khedira seems determined to stay. And now the manager will miss the first two matches - one of them against Napoli. I think many things are coinciding to potentially make this the year when Juve finally lose their grip on the title.

And Inter are well-positioned to capitalize. Conte got his man finally, whom he has been chasing since his Chelsea days. With Lukaku's physicality and aggression, the typical Conte midfielder surge will result in plenty of goals this season. And they've signed two of the most promising players the league in Sensi and Barella who can thrive in such a system. Defence is rock solid now with Godin, Skriniar and De Vrij. I'm tipping them for the scudetto.

Napoli had more failures than successes in the mercato, but regardless, they've succeeded in forming the best CB pair in the league. With Koulibaly and Manolas marshaling the defense, they will not be easy to score against. Fabian Ruiz is well positioned to be the MVP of the league this season. I expect them to conclude another big offensive deal in the next week and a half. It could yet be James.

Prediction: 1. Inter, 2. Napoli, 3. Juve

The Climbers: Milan, Roma, Atalanta and Lazio

Milan have made the technical decision to make the manager the most important signing, and to build a team that fits his style. Needless to say, I love this. Giampaolo has been my manager pick for a very long time, and I'm happy to see signings such as Bennacer, Krunic and Theo Hernandez - all players who fit his system very well. 10 days to sign the last big hole in the team - a support striker - and the mercato would have been handled really well. Giampaolo should have enough ammo to gun for the 4th spot once that's done.

Roma has gone a similar route, as Fonseca is rated very highly by Fonseca watchers - of which I'm not one. Spinazzola, Mancini and Veretout are clever picks - like Milan, they've gone for players who had break-out seasons in 2017-18. I'm eager to watch how they do.

Atalanta have done well to keep most of their core intact. Even though Gasperini will struggle to balance CL demands with the league, they should be competing for the 4th spot with Milan and Roma. Duvan, Papu and Ilicic (now backed up by Muriel) still form the best attacking trio in the league.

Lazio: Not a stellar window, they are banking on stability. However, they were really trying to sell Milinkovic-Savic and use that money to fund a few more players, which did not happen (not yet at least). There are a couple of the usual unknown Tare signings, but I don't think that'll be enough to challenge for the 4th spot.

Prediction: 4. Milan, 5. Roma, 6. Atalanta, 7. Lazio

Dark Horses:

Genoa: I will be watching Genoa as much as I can this season. Many reasons for this, including 1) a manager who plays really fun football - Andreazzoli, 2) some really nice pickups in the mercato like Lasse Schone, Saponara and Pinamonti. If things go well, that's explosive creativity when combined with the players whom they have kept like Kouame and Sanabria.

Sassuolo: De Zerbi gets the continuation he wanted as Sassuolo have kept most of their key players. Sensi was too hard to retain, but they've got Hamed Traore now to replace him (who will eventually leave for Juve), who was part of that excellent Empoli midfield last season.

Fiorentina: New money, Franck Ribery, Boateng, retained Chiesa (again provided there are no more surprises in the next 10 days). Could sneak in a top season.

Prediction: Sassuolo, Genoa and Fiorentina could all be surprise top 7 contenders, while likelier to settle down in the positions that follow.

Others:

Sampdoria and EdF: Di Francesco will probably need time to get Samp working well while trying to fill Giampaolo's shoes. So I expect a slight drop in the standings.

Mario Balotelli and Brescia: SuperMario is back with Brescia. If that isn't a good enough reason to watch them play, another one is that Milan and Brescia are traditionally very friendly to each other off the pitch.

SPAL's stability: Few lower table clubs in Serie A is run as well as SPAL. I enjoy seeing their stability and continued growth after they reached the top-flight.

Alfredo Donnarumma: The league's 3rd Donnarumma is here and he's a striker. No relation to Gigio and Antonio.

Here's to a great season ahead!

Great post Necro! Will be interesting to reflect on this at the winter break and again at the end of the season. Only difference I see is Juve and Inter fighting for 1st with Napoli just behind. Not sure who wins this year, potentially more open than ever but I'd predict: Juve, Inter, Napoli top 3 with either Milan or Roma coming 4th.

Also as much as I dislike Juve, it might be fun to watch them this year with Sarri-ball rather than the god-awful anti-football of recent seasons.