Re: The 2017/18 Calcio Thread: Part 2

[rincon]

Benevento celebrar goals like wins and wins like WC wins. Its great to see.

[Warrior]

Never forghetti

[rincon]

0-2 Roma-Atalanta!

Civilization regen Andreas Cornelius and now De Roon. Great work by Papu and Ilicic.

Nainggolan is an idiot (again) for getting himself suspended ahead of such a tough game.

[Warrior]

I've watched around 8 to 10 Atalanta games this season.

Someone who impresses me much is Masiello, feels strange to say this

GOL DZEKO !

[rincon]

Roma got wrecked. Samp lost and Inter drew. Hell of a week for Lazio who are in CL spots for now.

[S]

Inter have earned just 3 points from the last 5 games and are still 3rd in the table

Serie A

[Luca]

Milan just 3 points from 6th place

GOATtuso
The prophecy

Can't wait until Gattuso is tossed up in the air in celebration after Milan beat Firoentina in a 1-0 smashing on the last match day

[RealGunner]

Roma

[S]

Szczesny unreal once again

I wonder if he can give competition to our De Gea

Top 5 keeper in the world IMO

[Luca]

Cagliari playing very physical, tons of fouls

Sandro being targeted and got ruined a few times, forced him into a couple poor mistakes

Dybala cross bar, Bernardeschi cross bar, Benatia goal- ruled, correctly, offside

Cagliari with a post and a couple other good chances to score

Barella looking dangerous for them

[McLewis]

Even with Nainggolan on the pitch, we look like ass.

Biggest weakeness? Giving away the ball in our half, especially in the defensive 3rd. I know of no other team that does this with such alarming regularity.

Fazio's form fell off a cliff, Kolarov is great in the attacking 3rd and terrible in the defensive 3rd. Strootman runs so much, yet somehow just doesn't influence the game as much as he normally does, and Pellegrini was probably the worst player on the pitch in all phases. El Shaarawy's going through one of his low form patches, Perotti too, and Dzeko continues to do everything, but score from the chances given him, despite the solitary goal today. He and Schick absolutely can't play in the same XI. One cancels out the other.

That Gonalons was actually our most solid player today, speaks volumes.

Not sure this is a crisis yet, but that's definitely on the horizon if this form continues.

[Luca]

I think the attack is the biggest concern

For me, Dzeko is not even off form. He's just missing a player to play off of like Salah. Its quite clear that for whatever reason, Schick is off.

Perotti, SES, way too inconsistent

Defrel? Not even a whisper

[Luca]

https://imgtc.com/w/h0G7TaN

[iftikhar]

It's now eight points between second and third and it's only 20th round. By round 30, JJ should be top of the heap.

[Luca]

Martin Caceres to Lazio

He's looked decent at Verona everytime I've seen them play [albeit not that many matches]

This second half of the season is going to be very intense for the CL places

[rincon]

He is always great when he is not injured.

Verona are begging to get relegated.

[rincon]

Verdi might be off to Napoli now for 25m and Inglese staying at Chievo for his whole loan.

[McLewis]

I think the attack is the biggest concern

For me, Dzeko is not even off form. He's just missing a player to play off of like Salah. Its quite clear that for whatever reason, Schick is off.

Perotti, SES, way too inconsistent

Defrel? Not even a whisper

Until Schick proves to be more than just the next young name, I can't rate him. That said, I think his breakout season is next season so we'll see. Defrel was a waste of money. Full stop. Good player, wrong team. SES and Perotti are indeed too inconsistent. Losing Salah was bound to expose this, especially with Under too raw. Dzeko is definitely not to blame for any attacking issues. If anything he's still our best attacker. Hold up play and off the ball movement has been as good as ever. Just no finishing to show for it, but at 9 goals he's not having a terrible season by any means. Just not at the heights of last season, which was always going to be difficult to replicate. It's interesting that he's outshot all of his opponents yet is so far behind in the capocannoniere race.

[Warrior]

I've read Inter might sign Ramires from their affiliates Suning. Decent transfer on paper, he is precisely the energy player they need in that midfield.

More importantly Inter needs a CB able to rotate with Miranda.

[rincon]

They are getting Lisandro Lopez for CB. Official any time now.

[Warrior]

At first i thought you were trolling

Good ol loan + option to buy it seems ? In any case he can't be worse than Ranocchia.

Ramires + an offensive player would complete the team.

[Robespierre]

We needed just of a temporary situation, I mean 4th defender to add on roster (because we had just 3..., played with Santon against Fiorentina as CB in last 20 and it gave the tie to Fiorentina),  a man to put if even Ranocchia is injured .. quite desperate situation, we didn't care about quality in that role
Budget is 0 euro for this session . If Ramires comes it is just because he plays in Jiangsu (the other Suning team)

[Warrior]

Budget 0 euro ? Gotta love them chinese owners as a Juve fan

[rincon]

Serie A is back this weekend!

Some great matches to kick-start it too.

Atalanta-Napoli Early on Sunday
No team has Sarri's Napoli more controlled in Serie A than Atalanta. Going to Bergamo is by far the biggest test for the biggest teams in the provinces. Juve and Lazio already dropped points there. Roma won 0-1 in August. Napoli lost 2-1 there and got knocked out of the CI last month.

This is a real scudetto test. Napoli always struggle with their hard pressing, physical and organized style. Milik and Ghoulam are still out, Hamsik was sick iirc so he is in doubt. I see something like a 1-1.

Probable lineups:
Berisha; Masiello, Caldara, Toli; Spinazzola; Cristante, Freuler, Hateboer; Ilicic, Gomez; Petagna

Reina; Rui, Koulibaly, Albiol, Hysaj; Zielinski, Jorginho, Allan; Insigne, Mertens, Callejon

Sassuolo-Torino
Should be good too. Two teams that changed coaches and are faring better for it. Torino with Mazzarri is still a question mark and Sassuolo have improved so its hard to call this. Sass come from getting 2 wins and a draw vs Roma, Inter and Samp.

Sampdoria-Fiorentina
Proper EL clash. Fio are in great form and Samp were suffering lately. After the break though, perhaps thins are more stable. Being that this is in the Marassi I expect a hard fought Samp win. 2-1 or 1-1.

Inter-Roma
The other match of the round. Both teams come from bad streaks that in terms of points knocked them down from scudetto contenders to CL place contenders over the last few games. Inter has 3 points over Roma but also 1 more game played so things are even.

To start the season Inter won at the Olimpico in what seemed like a really lucky/fluke win. Since then Inter have improved a lot and Roma got a lot more clinical, although both improvements looked undone by the end of the year.

Inter may have a full squad. Roma are missing Perotti and Defrel. Seems like a low scoring tight game, maybe a 1-0 here, could just as well be a 0-1.

Probable lineups:
Handanovic; Santon, Miranda, Skriniar, Cancelo; Glagliardini, Vecino; Perisic, Borja, Candreva; Inter

Alisson; Kolarov, Manolas, Fazio, Peres; Pellegrini, De Rossi, Nainggolan; El Shaarawy, Dzeko, Florenzi

[McLewis]

Will be surprised if we come away with at least a point from that match. Will be shocked if we manage to win it.

In other news, I think this sums up our transfer strategy at the moment:

Spoiler:

[Robespierre]

Interesting table

Serie A release clauses

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