Official: Higuain joins Napoli

something-red wrote:He was at the club before Ronaldo and did fine.

He went for stupid money, but he is good. Trust Benitez to get the best out of him

Juve fans have switched their opinions on him because he didn't go to their club. He went from "WC" to "no better than Vucinic" ffs.

Would be much appreciated if you dont generalize.

Ibra's CL record is good... but it should be better for a player of his class. He did fine for PSG, especially in pool play. Did pretty decent in elimination rounds. I'm waiting for Ibra to Zlatanize someone in an elimination game though. Maybe this year.

Yeah agree with Sport and Arq completely

There's no way in hell that goals come as easily in Serie A as they do in La Liga

Yeah Serie A have had a much weaker group of talent than in other times for a few years, but nevermind the past talent it's also a lot to do with the style of play and the emphasis put on defence.





Also, not once in my life have I ever called Higuain WC

Look at the Higuain threads in our section. And form your opinions on what people ACTUALLY said, not what you are hoping we all said to justify your comments.


Some people may have called him WC. Surag, devi and myself were not one of those people.

i think most Juve fans were excited (normal) about his potential but also seemed aware the Higuain was untested as an attack leader (very reasonable). Most were worried about his CL record (rational). That's what i noted in their section.

The only place where there was some irrational discussion was his market value.

Arquitescu wrote:@Mole, Ibra has 34 gols & 24 assists in UCL while at least 22 of them are when he played wide for Ajax & Juve while the other quarter is while playing ahead of dire midfields in Inter & Milan.

His CL record cannot be called crap as I'd call it quite the opposite. Was excellent to Inter, Milan and recently PSG in the CL.

Give it up Rafael He has hardly ever shone in the knockout rounds.Right from his Juve days.

I remember when he played as the main man with Balo supporting him(at Inter) and he missed two easy chances in a crucial knockout tie against United(just an instance).Now you cant really excuse that.And that was for me the best year in his career.He was on fire that year.

Not to mention how horrible he was at Barca and his first season at Milan where he was piss-poor against Spurs.

Yeah I'd happily take him

But people seemed to think I was insane when I said we weren't 'missing out' on him for 40 Million

If we had a 100M budget then fine, but it would have been reckless to spend about 80% of our Budget on one player, and also a player who could end up competing with our other striker instead of partnering him


It would have resulted in us having the same starting XI + Higuain + no more upgrades in depth

So Higuain would have been better than who we purchased. But he is not better than the combined influence that Ogbonna, Tev and Llorente will have on our team. And that's what you have to consider when you're working on a reasonable but not insane budget.

Just because Juventus didn't get him (and for the right reasons as you say; you've got 3 players out of it instead of 1) does not mean you can't rate him.

But we do rate him...


As a very good striker with a bad record in the CL

A striker who we would have loved to have for the right price

You don't need to think somebody is elite to 'rate them'

You don't have to call him elite. But you rate him on the same level as Vucinic.................. the same player you wanted to improve on in your starting XI because he wasn't good enough.

The same Tier of Vucinic

Let's put this in a nice visual way



TIER 2

TOP
........
.........
.......

Higuain

......
......
........
.......

Vucinic
.......
.......
........


Bottom


See how Higuain is above Vucinic, and therefore better than him. But at the same time on a similar level, not a completely different level.

Surag wrote:

Arquitescu wrote:@Mole, Ibra has 34 gols & 24 assists in UCL while at least 22 of them are when he played wide for Ajax & Juve while the other quarter is while playing ahead of dire midfields in Inter & Milan.

His CL record cannot be called crap as I'd call it quite the opposite. Was excellent to Inter, Milan and recently PSG in the CL.

Give it up Rafael He has hardly ever shone in the knockout rounds.Right from his Juve days.

I remember when he played as the main man with Balo supporting him(at Inter) and he missed two easy chances in a crucial knockout tie against United(just an instance).Now you cant really excuse that.And that was for me the best year in his career.He was on fire that year.

Not to mention how horrible he was at Barca and his first season at Milan where he was piss-poor against Spurs.

He carried Inter within that CL and hit the post twice v United. Definitely not one of his best performances yet it occured during the worst form of Ibra's Inter career when he was fatigued and came from a month long injury. Still provided a creative presence to his on coming runners, despite having one of the worst midfields in UCL.

Barca? He scored the only goal in the first leg v Stuttgart. Brace against Arsenal and 3 assists throughout despite playing in an unnatural targetman position, fallen out with Pep and making bench appearances v Inter.

Milan? Do you forget the wrongly disallowed goal v Spurs in the first leg (overhead kick) to which was disallowed due to massive playacting from Dawson? I cannot find a single man outside the linesman and Spurs fans who felt that goal wasn't legit. Referee even ruled it legitimate yet linesman had to be a smartass.

All done while in his Inter role position until it was changed into his natural position in his 2nd year.

2nd leg he was our best player. Created 2 chances for Pato, one of them missed and the other a goal line clearance by Gallas. 2nd one an open-net miss by Robinho. He dominated Spurs.

I won't even mention his 2nd year at Milan to which he was absolutely fantastic for us in the groups and arguably our best player alongside Seedorf v Barca. Set-up another chance which was an open net miss by Robinho at Nou Camp. 5 goals and 5 assists in 8 games.

PSG he contributed heavily in the group stages and was amongst their best players v Barca alongside Verrati and Matudi. 1 goal and 2 assists v Barca in both legs.

Oh yes, not to mention he topped the assists charts in last seasons UCL with 7 assists.

Yeah agree with Arq about Ibra

I know i'm a huge fan but at the same time I wouldn't be such a big fan if Ibra wasn't playing to an elite level

His CL record is fine, and leagues above the players Mole listed him with, not sure why he'd ever put Ibra in that list when his CL record is about 15x better than the rest.

But he stand up when it mattered.You cant keep giving midfield excuse at the Milan clubs or the system excuse at Barca.If he's leading the line and destroying Serie A ,you expect the same him from him in the CL.For the standards he's set,he hasnt really performed upto the levels expected of him.

There are only two times for me in the knockouts where has stood out and both were against Arsenal who lets be honest werent/arent an elite CL team.And Stuttgart ? :lol:Lets not bring up scrub teams please.

2006-07-Flopped badly against inferior Valencia
2007-08-Totally anonymous against Pool in both legs.
2008-09-Same story against United.Missed easy chances which could've easily guided Inter through to the last 8
2009-10-Bar the Arsenal performance the rest was just
2010-11-Bottom-line he just wasnt decisive for Milan and this is spurs we're talking about.
2011-12-Improved CL performance.Was fantastic against Arsenal but again when it came to barca missed a very easy chance in the 1st leg.For a player of his class you should put that away.
2012-13-Goal against Barca was ironically off-side but really nothing out of extraordinary or something.Even Pastore performed against Barca in the 2nd leg

For a player of his class and track record his CL performances have been largely underwhelming.Sorry but its the cold hard truth.

So Ibra's good performances are ignored but bad performances will be remembered? Seems legit. This myth will only be busted if Ibra wins CL, even then I guess he has to score a hattrick in the final.

Reminds me of how English pundits thought he was basically on the level of Darren Bent and he had to score 4 goals including a wonder goal to change that.

Against.... England.

English pundits

M99 wrote:So Ibra's good performances are ignored but bad performances will be remembered? Seems legit. This myth will only be busted if Ibra wins CL, even then I guess he has to score a hattrick in the final.

Obviously you love to jump at any Juve fan's posts without comprehending what he's trying to say properly.Seems like a miniature baresi in the making.

Understand what i'm saying.Ibra has performed in the CL.He has a good record but it hasnt come in decisive games and when it mattered often which you expect from for player of his class and for someone who has set high standards.

Isnt Ibra placed in the same level as Ronaldo and Messi ? Thats the kind of standards he's set for himself and he's expected to perform especially in big games.

Surag wrote:But he stand up when it mattered.You cant keep giving midfield excuse at the Milan clubs or the system excuse at Barca.If he's leading the line and destroying Serie A ,you expect the same him from him in the CL.For the standards he's set,he hasnt really performed upto the levels expected of him.

There are only two times for me in the knockouts where has stood out and both were against Arsenal who lets be honest werent/arent an elite CL team.And Stuttgart ? :lol:Lets not bring up scrub teams please.

2006-07-Flopped badly against inferior Valencia
2007-08-Totally anonymous against Pool in both legs.
2008-09-Same story against United.Missed easy chances which could've easily guided Inter through to the last 8
2009-10-Bar the Arsenal performance the rest was just
2010-11-Bottom-line he just wasnt decisive for Milan and this is spurs we're talking about.
2011-12-Improved CL performance.Was fantastic against Arsenal but again when it came to barca missed a very easy chance in the 1st leg.For a player of his class you should put that away.
2012-13-Goal against Barca was ironically off-side but really nothing out of extraordinary or something.Even Pastore performed against Barca in the 2nd leg

For a player of his class and track record his CL performances have been largely underwhelming.Sorry but its the cold hard truth.

I won't agree with the rest of your statements outside your basic premise, because frankly it has been concluded to bring the absolute worst out in his performances, ignoring what he did best, and is arbitrary to his contributions within UCL, to which cannot be measured by numbers but by the timing of his goals, circumstances and various outliers to which have to be seen and remembered, thus why I (We) rate him so highly even in the UCL.

Back to your basic premise, yes by his indomitable standards he did not live up to them within the UCL, yet it does not take away from his highly underrated UCL career, to which cannot be called a flop or even average.

Ronaldo and Messi are a level above EVERYONE.

Ibra is the next best. He has competition by the likes of Iniesta, RvP, Suarez, Ribery and co.

Arq wrote:
I won't agree with the rest of your statements outside your basic premise, because frankly it has been concluded to bring the absolute worst out in his performances, ignoring what he did best, and is arbitrary to his contributions within UCL, to which cannot be measured by numbers but by the timing of his goals, circumstances and various outliers to which have to be seen and remembered, thus why I (We) rate him so highly even in the UCL.

Missing the point again.

His absolute worst has come at a point where his team(s) needed him the most to perform.

something-red wrote:Messi is a level above EVERYONE.

Ronaldo is the next best. He has competition by the likes of Ibra, Iniesta, RvP, Suarez, Ribery and co.

Fixed

I get it, Surag is saying Ibra flopped whenever his team got knocked out.

Let's see this time he got a goal (albeit offside) and two assists against Barca.

Milan's most dangerous player against Barca, though he shot straight at Valdes at 2nd leg, he set up chances for Robinho, Pato and Aquillani over both legs. Assisted Nocerino's goal.

Against Tottenham had a stoppage time overhead kick goal wrongly disallowed. 2nd leg he could have gotten a hattrick of assists easily, especially if Robinho was not the worst finisher in football history.

Had the whole Fiat/Ferrari saga on whole swing by the semis, entire Barca team was outclassed in 3-1. Inter parked the bus in 2nd leg, even Messi did not perform to his standards on both legs. Inter were just better than Barca.

For Inter his worst record. Though the service he had then was Inter walked a weak Serie A but their team was bad.

Reports in Italy and Spain both claim Gonzalo Higuain will tonight sign a long-term deal with Napoli. Arsenal were apparently not prepared to meet Real Madrid’s asking price in the region of €37million (£32m).

good luck at Napoli higuain!

Just love the passion of the Italian fans. This was when he landed in Rome btw and there were about 100 Napoli fans to greet him.

When was the last time he smiled like that. He has taken a step forward in his career. Knowing Madrid I won't be surprised if Napoli reach the cl final next season

Robben, Sneijder, Makelele