Italian Serie A/Serie B 2013-14 Discussion

There are already multiple prediction threads so thought it wouldnt be add another one to the collection.So,dear Serie A folks ,please fill out these categories.


Best Transfer:
Biggest Transfer Flop:
Winners:
2-6:
Bottom 3:
Player of the Year:
Young Player of the Year:
Top Scorer:
Most Improved Player:
Most Regressed Player:
Coppa Italia Winner:
Surprise Team of the Year
Surprise (in a negative way) Team of the Year:
Your Prediction for Serie A's Best XI of the season:

Best Transfer: 3 way split between Gomez, HIggy and Tevez, Probs Apache cause of his small transfer price
Biggest Transfer Flop: Matri has to be up there. then kaka but he was free but when i think of kaka i dont think hmm great player anymore, just madrid reject. (hopefully he proves me wrong, but not against juve ofc)
Winners: Juve
2-6: Milan, Napoli, Roma, Fio, Inter.
Bottom 3: Torino, Verona and Atalanta
Player of the Year: Hamsik
Young Player of the Year: Pogba
Top Scorer: Probs Penotelli but Tevez a close second.
Most Improved Player: LLalic
Most Regressed Player: SES
Coppa Italia Winner: Juve or Inter
Surprise Team of the Year: Inter imo, most people say they wont even finish in the top 6 but they have a decent enough squad and coach to challenge for CL spots imo.
Surprise (in a negative way) Team of the Year: Fio Everyone expects them to do really well but i see them struggling for the first 6 months.
Your Prediction for Serie A's Best XI of the season: cant possibly make a judgement on this just yet.

McLewis wrote:I won't get too carried away...we're expected to beat the likes of Livorno and Verona.

The first real test is the derby. Lazio's shat form and our good form can't be taken into account when that rolls around honestly.

Well, I agree, but we were expected to beat those sides last season too.. we ended up with losses. And the confidence is from another level that it was last year. Everybody seems to know what to do and when. We can beat minnows, lets see how we take on a bigger club (well, i don't really want to refer nazio as a big club.. )


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Okay:

Best Transfer: Gomez, because of the price. Higgy is too expensive. Strootman could be here too.
Biggest Transfer Flop: Matri
Winners: Juventus
2-6: Roma, Milan, Napoli, Fiorentina, Inter
Bottom 3: Sassulo, Genoa, Livorno
Player of the Year: Vidal
Young Player of the Year: Ljajic
Top Scorer: Gomez
Most Improved Player: Ljajic
Most Regressed Player: some inter player
Coppa Italia Winner: Roma
Surprise Team of the Year : Roma
Surprise (in a negative way) Team of the Year: Udinese
Your Prediction for Serie A's Best XI of the season:

3-4-3

Handanovic
Benatia, Bonucci, Chiellini
Maicon, Vidal, Strootman, Hamsik
Ljajic, Gomez, Totti

Interesting question: What do Juve fans (and other fans) see as the main weakness of Juve's team?

Forza wrote:Interesting question: What do Juve fans (and other fans) see as the main weakness of Juve's team?

Pirlo imo, hes a great at what he does, infact one of the best at what he does but but other than dictating tempo and defense splitting passes he can be a real defensive liability and has been bailed out countless times by the defense or Gigi. He dawdles in and around our box and gets closed down n loses the ball all to often. fair enough yeah sometimes he'll do a beautiful turn and spray a 50 ye=ard pass to the feet of Vucinic but hes lucky we havent conceded many goals because of this.

Another is lack of clinical fnishing upfront. Tevez seems to be the end of of that but once again, in the lazio game a midfielder had to score twice before any forward put the ball in the back of the net. We cannot and should not be relying on our midfielders to open the scoring account/bail us out'

Another glaring weakness is Conte's terrible use at substitutions. and when he does use them he puts in players none of us want to see like padoin. and they usually happen at the 80-90th min mark.

Just a few off the top of my head.

Our main weakness as in threat from opposing teams would definatly have to be the left flank, Asabob is great but hes no natural defender. He does great in the LB/LM position because hes athletically brilliant but no doubt he'd get schooled by a winger who knows what to do.

Do you think Pogba should start over Pirlo?

Yes and no.

No because Without Pirlo we wont play as we do currently i dont think, most plays start through him, everyone looks to pass to him, when he gets the ball players run because they know he can find them in space consistently. Im not sure pogba, Marchisio or vidal have that skill as of yet on a consistent basis.

yes because Pogba, Vidal, Marchisio what a 3 man midfield that is. All 3 have energy, drive, technical abilities, defensive abilities, goal scoring abilities whilst Pirlo is a grandmaster at making the play flow and creating chances that no one else see's ect but useless at defending, covering ground ect. All 3 could interchange jobs throughout the game seamlessly too. If we created a system that worked without Pirlo and played to the strengths of that 3 man midfield id wrap pirlo up with a little bow on his head and send him to who ever wanted him.

Imo i would rather have Pogba, Marchisio and Vidal and use Pirlo sparingly when he's needed but im not too sure he'd accept that as he's said before he'll leave if he doesnt feel like he's needed anymore. but the hard truth is Pirlo is having a reJUVEnated () career which wont last much longer at all probs a season more. Pogba is a 20 year old who's playing like a player who's in his prime. alot of people expect him to become one of the best midfielders in the world very soon. i think it would be silly of juve to let the respect we have for pirlo get in the way of this once in a generation chance to own the best midfielder out there.

Here's a bizarre 5 man midfield idea, just cause...

Seems a bit odd playing pogba not in the centre where is is already beasting.
This would be a bit more suitable lineup imo. Personally i think Tevez plays best with someone to link up with ala Vuci but with a 5 man mid if we played Claudio in the CAM to link up and roam that area behind Tevez, not exactly a #10 by any means but maybe it would work.

Tevez
Marchisio
Asabob - pogba Pirlo Vidal - Licht
Chiello Bonucci Barlz
Buffon

Im shocking at making these lineups so excuse if it looks terrible lol.

just keep marchisio on the bench

Interesting how non of you guys view Marchisio as a problem. IMO he's just living off half a season of good form and the fact that he's an Italian youth academy product.

zizzle wrote:Interesting how non of you guys view Marchisio as a problem. IMO he's just living off half a season of good form and the fact that he's an Italian youth academy product.

yes your right but as someone once called deschamp Marchisio is our 'water carrier'. Thing is though Claudio has always shown glimpses of absolute magic but doesnt consistently show it but his work rate goes unnoticed and the midfield engine of juve wouldnt work without him.

when i called Marchisio your 4th best midfielder, people laughed. but no way he is better player than Pogba. that italian bias will get in the way tho

Cassius wrote:Seems a bit odd playing pogba not in the centre where is is already beasting.
This would be a bit more suitable lineup imo. Personally i think Tevez plays best with someone to link up with ala Vuci but with a 5 man mid if we played Claudio in the CAM to link up and roam that area behind Tevez, not exactly a #10 by any means but maybe it would work.

Tevez
Marchisio
Asabob - pogba Pirlo Vidal - Licht
Chiello Bonucci Barlz
Buffon

Im shocking at making these lineups so excuse if it looks terrible lol.

yeah, looks good, btw just highlight and centre the lineup to make it look good...

I like Marchisio, but I don't think he is essential for Juve, nor is he a regular game-winner like Pogba is. Just look at Pogba's impact after coming on for the injured Marchisio in the supercoppa. Beast player, I wish we had got him instead of Juve.

Marchisio as a support striker ? Please no.He is just plain horrible there.It dint work last year either where he was deployed there because Pogba had to be in the starting lineup because of his form.

I am not a huge fan of accommodating all our midfielders into one lineup just because they're quality.I mean do you see Mourinho playing all his AM's at once ? The answer is no.For me the best working system is more important.Marchisio when he returns has to fight it out with Pogba for that LCM spot.

Whats up with all these drastic thoughts about Juventus lol?

They are a well oiled machine who will likely win the league comfortably and be a threat to almost anyone in the CL.

Their only real weakness is probably their wingbacks don't offer enough on the ball but that aside there is zero wrong with them.

Marchisio > Pogba. Pogba is more flashy so gets more recognition, but Marchisio is a proven world class player who goes unnoticed for some unknown reason to me. Pogba has the pitential to be the best midfielder in the world bar none but right now hes not as good as Marchisio. You guys also forget that Marchisio before he got injured in the Supercoppa was probably our best player until the injury hit. Dont understand why Marchisio gets hated on so much.

unnoticed because there is nothing to notice, that's more like it.

S wrote:Marchisio as a support striker ? Please no.He is just plain horrible there.It dint work last year either where he was deployed there because Pogba had to be in the starting lineup because of his form.

I am not a huge fan of accommodating all our midfielders into one lineup just because they're quality.I mean do you see Mourinho playing all his AM's at once ? The answer is no.For me the best working system is more important.Marchisio when he returns has to fight it out with Pogba for that LCM spot.

No one put Marchisio as a support striker, atleast not me anyway.

I dont see why we couldnt play a 5 man midfields including all our best players, unlike your mou comparison all our CM's gel well and have different attributes that make them all give something different to the team, unlike playing a midfield complete with AM's from madrid.

A 5 man mid consisting of Asa and licht as the wide players. Pogba and Vidal doing thier usual business whilst supporting a pirlo who is spraying balls left right and centre with Claudio playing CAM further up from the initial midfield drifting into area's in the final 3rd of the box whilst linking up with tevez and pressuring opposing defenders whilst they have the ball in thier area. March could fufil that task easily with what he already brings to us.

Pretty decent imo. But its all just hypothetical anyway, no doubt we'll play the same system as last year.

Cassius wrote:Claudio playing CAM drifting into area's in the final 3rd of the box whilst linking up with tevez and pressuring opposing defenders whilst they have the ball in thier area.

Everyone thought that would be the case as soon as we reverted to a 3-5-1-1 at the back end of last season but it just wasnt to be.Its an extremely defensive formation and Marchisio doesnt have the qualities of a proper trequartista.Plain and simple.

I wouldnt tinker the formation too much.Tevez and Vucinic have shown excellent chemistry between each other and i wouldnt change things just to accommodate Marchisio into the lineup.Like i said when he returns ,he fights it out with Pogba for the CM spot.But at this point,it looks extremely difficult to bench Pogba.I certainly wouldnt do it.

S wrote:

Cassius wrote:Claudio playing CAM drifting into area's in the final 3rd of the box whilst linking up with tevez and pressuring opposing defenders whilst they have the ball in thier area.

Everyone thought that would be the case as soon as we reverted to a 3-5-1-1 at the back end of last season but it just wasnt to be.Its an extremely defensive formation and Marchisio doesnt have the qualities of a proper trequartista.Plain and simple.

I wouldnt tinker the formation too much.Tevez and Vucinic  have shown excellent chemistry between each other and i wouldnt change things just to accommodate Marchisio into the lineup.Like i said when he returns ,he fights it out with Pogba for the CM spot.But at this point,it looks extremely difficult to bench Pogba.I certainly wouldnt do it.

Fair enough your right, i remember those games and marchisio looked lost and he doesnt have the tools to succeed playing like in that postion.

Just to be clear i was talking about Marchisio playing in an unorthadox CAM, like not exactly a trequartista or a forward but more of a yaya toure type CAM, not the most elegant but get him the ball and he'll drive forward ect.

I like what i see of Vuci and Tevez but i constantly see them clashing too and Tevez has looked a little frustrated with Vuci at times, hopefully as the season goes on they grow more of a partnership and telepathic bond with each other.

I've always been a great fan of Marchisio (my girlfriend as well, probably for different reasons though ), but I have to admit that Pogba is on another level. Marchisio is an engine of the team, a typical hardworker, but Pogba is a true game changer, whilst Marchisio rarely shows his glimpses of magic.

Until Marchisio replicates his amazing form, which he is capable of, he will be warming the bench probably.

oh you GL posters, answer me this, If Marchisio is really that bad and just riding the hype train, why wouldnt Juventus sell him?

Or better yet, how much do you think is Marchisio's worth?

So plz, dont be haters. Marchisio is one of the best CM, period. Just cuz he plays along Vidal and Pirlo doesnt mean he's shit!

Well when the rumors were saying that Man UTD were considering a 30m offer, juvi did little to deny these links. Matter of fact if i remember correctly Marchisio commented many times that he doesnt wanna leave and neither Moratta or Conte said much about that. Needless to say the offer never came so that's that. And if the whispers are to be believed, it's said that during his first board meeting this summer Conte indicated that he would approve selling Marchisio if that's necessary to buy the 2 new strikers he demanded (other than Llorente)

djfawnz wrote:oh you GL posters, answer me this, If Marchisio is really that bad and just riding the hype train, why wouldnt Juventus sell him?

Or better yet, how much do you think is Marchisio's worth?

So plz, dont be haters. Marchisio is one of the best CM, period. Just cuz he plays along Vidal and Pirlo doesnt mean he's shit!

Because selling a fan favorite and a homegrown product is a direct insult to the fans

And if Marchisio was to be sold, the majority of his price will be dictated by his sentimental value

Marchisio is one of the finest midfielders in Serie A, truly a one of a kind player. But a situation i have noticed that may prove hectic for Juventus. Pogba wants gametime, Marchisio wants gametime. Both are extremely talented midfielders and have been fantastic for Juve, though certainly one of these will guys will have to sit on the bench?

Pogba has said he wants to one day challenge for Ballon d'Or. Pogba won't except anything less than being one of the greats. Juve will try to hold on to him for a long, long time. But sooner or later one of these guys is going to be unhappy. It'll be hard to because you have a fan favorite and the icon of Turin, and on the other hand you have one of France's most talented young midfielders. No, not just France, but Europe.

As i said, sooner or later. It could be in 6 months or it could be in 5 years. Pogba will not settle for poverty substitutions, and we all know when Conte likes to sub his players. Maybe even the same could be said for Marchisio. I am not trying to get at anything, i am just saying that Juve will find themselves in a pickle in the future