rincon wrote:You could not. The interpretations were totally different. Saponara behind Pucciarelli and Maccarone were a totally traditional 4-3-1-2 with no width offered by the front 3. Nothing like the setups he used at Napoli with Callejon as a out and out winger and the mezzalas coming inside instead of out.

Defence is more or less the same, midfield plays in a similar way. Hazard played as an inside forward, similar to Insigne, with only Willian playing wide.

So the difference really is the position Willian is taking up, as a wide man not an attacking midfielder and Hazard taking up some of the space made by a lack of an AM. I'd say that is minimal.

That's not the case, none of that is how they were playing. Midfield is not the same at all  and neither is defense. The fullbacks and the mezzala are responsible for the width as opposed to the wingers. You play central as opposed to wide.

A diamond and a 4-3-3 require very different players., and he made them in each team for that reason, the kind of players were different. Thats the whole point of it. You might as well say then that systems dont matter and all differences are minimal.

There is nothing similar in the style of Saponara and Pucciarelli to Inisgne/Callenon or Hazard/Willian. Which is exactly why the system he used was different.

Rabiot is just another guy who will refuse to come off when Sarri tries to sub him

Luckily we have Chiellini instead of Azpilicueta

Good point.

Revisiting this after half the season went by last night. Reading some of the posts we made and seeing how we compare in actuality.

Results balance:
1st in Serie A with 48 pts, only 1 loss against Lazio away so far.
1st in CL groups after 4 matchdays and unbeaten
Lost the supercup vs Lazio

As expected Sarri did away with any back 3 ideas and started with the 4-3-3, but changed to the 4-3-1-2 as it became more appropriate early in the season. We've stuck with this narrow setup as a starting formation for most of the season, changing to a 4-3-3 during games sometimes with subs. We are still not seeing all of Sarri's ideas fully implemented, the style has changed a lot and looks encouraging but not a finished product yet. Only for periods does the team look like what Sarri intends, and then parts of the match are jammy and lack the right movements. The midfield being the main culprit of the lack of fluidity as expected, Matuidi is terrible and the AM position hasn't been sorted out.

Signings:
De Ligt had to jump in due to Chiellini's injury. Started shakily and grew great. Still there has been some uncertain moments but looks like a huge talent.
Demiral didn't get his chance until later to give De Ligt a rest and now looks like he has always been a starter at Juve. Ready-made CB at 21yo that looks set for greatness, complimentary to De Ligt too.
Danilo certainly the worst transfer made in the summer. Just a back up though, so not much impact either way. Definitely not very good, also not a trainwreck, firmly on the bench to Cuadrado.
Rabiot after months of being unfit due to not playing for a season, he finally started performing properly. The last games of Rabiot are very nice, if this is his level going forward then it was a great move. Hope he keeps playing like this.
Ramsey less impact than I expected. The injuries were of course expected and those didn't fail to appear. When he is fit, he still doesn't do enough, not yet at least. Nice movement, nice passing, nice ideas, and overall fine, I want more from him though.
Higuain excellent. Great impact all around, no need to say more.

11 so far


Bernardeschi dropped out of form and out of the starting 11 in the last month. Ramsey has replaced him there, or Dybala with Higuain coming in attack. Rabiot has also started to feature more, and Demiral has started a bunch of matches in a row with Bonucci now.