Is the current squad worth more than 4th place though? Not just the individual quality, but also how it is assembled, formation fit...
I think not. Imho, both the coach and squad are 4th place quality now. Rino isn't over-performing nor is he underperorming (results wise). The question Leo and Paolo should be looking at is what is his potential?
People talk about Conte and others, but I really doubt he'd have done more with this squad and the injury crisis. Guys like RR, Borini and Hakan shouldn't even be professional football players.
Is this Team worth more than 4th place? Definitely yes. On paper only Napoli and obviously Ladri are better than us. I see Inter on the same level, while Roma, Lazio, Atalanta and Torino are definitely weaker on paper.
You are judging Rino too much on results. Lots of experts in Italy too. That's the Italian mentality, saying things like "we all would have signed up for a Top 4 place in late April therefore Rino delivers". But when you look on how we play... We've had a decent run from Jan-March. The rest was cringe worthy to watch. Still being 4th after 5 points out of 18 in the last six games is not an achievement, it's not even on us: It's schier luck.
We must look beyond that. How are our players developing? How are we as a team evolving? There's no improvement at all. No evolution. More an inevolution. Gattuso was very good at forming a group, a bond between the players. But if we want to make the next step, then we need to change the coach. That's a given.
people forget most of the teams have been inconsistent. is this down to them being equally shit or equally good? i don't know. this year serie a is quite unpredictable(except for ladri and chievo). bologna just beat samp 3-0, lazio lost to chievo. i don't know what to expect from rest of our games(and opponents) honestly.
i'm sure if somebody offered us current league position at this stage we would have gladly taken it at the start of the season.
we would be keeping 4th place this round too which is what matters most, for me at least. hope napoli beat atalanta.
Voila, here we are
.
How can you be happy with Gattuso when he makes our team play like scared and clueless boys? How is that okay only because the others play as inconsistent as we are? I mean if we only beat one or two more relegation sides we'd be 3rd and aiming at Napoli for 2nd place.
With our current run we'd be 17th in Serie A. That's a relegation run. Yes battling for 4th is what all of us would have signed up for. But we're not battling. We're stumbling into 4th place somehow only because the others let us and
that's not enough.