A shell? The guy is one of the top scorers in Serie A still... He has what? 7 or 8 goals in 8 games ???? If he were doing any better he'd literally be at Messi and Ronaldo's scoring levels ... I feel we've seen Rog at Callejons spot to give Callejon a rest, Rog is great at attack and defense so he can perfectly replace Callejon. He just doesn't make those runs Callejon makes.. He can be used as a vice Callejon or vice Allan until we get a buy in hopefully January. I'd love Verdi. Ounas can play at both left and right wing he just needs more opportunities.
That's a very good stat you picked up, that was kinda floating around my head too but i cba to look it up. Diawara's a terrific talent but not his type of game, especially when he's left deserted
I'm positive Allan and Jorginho are fundamental for us and I'm ever more sure Sarri knows this. They'll both be 100% for the game against Inter
Oh i meant past 2 or 3 games. And the reason I'm saying that is fatigue. He just looks a pace slower and less alert, and its clear fatigue is taking its toll. With Milik out, he'll continue to be tired and not at 100% unless sarri finds a way of resting him in next few weeks
Ounas looked explosive, man. I dunno anything about him, but the hope must be he eventually usurps Callejon, right?
Yeah thats what we're all hoping lol. Callejons been an asset over the years with his trademark runs, but it does not help having a right winger that cannot cross or take on players.
If Sarri wants to bolster the defence so much why not give the little girl who made a 19-year old take her penalty a rest? Why do Jorginho and Allan have to pay for Hamsik's status? He's is becoming more and more insignicant the more he plays - if anything this is hurting his play. Furthermore Brazil's manager came to watch allan and jorgy and none of them were starting lol
Hamsik was better in the second half, but I feel like now that your team is trying to enter the European elite discussion, you're seeing that Hamsik might get left behind. He was a great player for the level Napoli was at. But now it's different. I dunno, just the way I see it. Don't shoot me. Maybe I'm completely wrong. I don't watch Napoli every week.
To a level I kinda agree. Because when the rest of the team was poor, hamsik along with cavani and lavezzi were amazing. However right now he isn't the big fish in a small pond anymore, and his performances are severely lacking. It explains why he performs so well with Slovakia. I hate being critical of him because of his service to us, but there is something wrong mentally with him. I hope its fatigue because I miss the younger hamsik like so much.
he was excellent in sarriball when Higuain was here, maybe having a star much bigger than him does him better... I dont need to mention how he played when Cavani and Lavezzi were a thing
Yeah it must be the pressure of being the star player in the team, in that case its a mentality thing. For now its wise to bench him until he regains confidence
with cavani he was more of a number 10, we played direct counter attacking football which is more suited to his game. What isn't suited to his game is when he's in his own half, as then he becomes a liability giving the ball away quite often. He doesn't have that ball retention that players such as iniesta, modric, silva possess.
let him dickslap inter first. I dont even think he was the worse player out there for us today, but the fact he wanted nothing to do with that penalty just throws me off its not easy to play out there when he is getting all these stich up passes from diawara, who looked like a stranger today, and it doesnt help either when zielinski thinks he is supposed to start every defensive run from City's box. I actually respected and understood hamsik's performance today until he just looked away when ghoulam went down, I mean you're breaking the record here, take the damn penalty and move on.
I'm sorry Sarri but what a load of shit... “I am not diminishing the Champions League, but I will rest those who need a rest every now and then. If we changed two players and weren’t competitive, that would be a problem. You keep criticising me for playing the same XI and now criticise me for changing too much… Its the way you make the changes people dont agree with “We played a lot of games with Zielinski and Diawara, plus if I try to defend against Manchester City, I’m going to get crushed. I wanted more quality to make the opposition play in the way they dislike. They are very similar to us, so I wanted greater passing.” Wanted greater passing, but benching Jorginho, he's joking right? “The match is to be divided between the first 25 minutes and the rest of it,” continued Sarri. “We struggled because City are an extraordinary team in their quality, changes of pace, tactics and current form. We didn’t help our own situation by not doubling up on the pressing. It allowed them metres to emerge with ease. Again, what? you want pressing but bench allan and jorgy who both initiate pressure extremely well and then you go on to play Zielinski and diawara who both count for fuk all in the pressure play. Just admit you got it wrong and were lucky not to be 4 goals down at HT
Zielinski for Allan is better for passing, Diawara for Jorginho is to try and prevent us from being outmuscles with what would be an extremely weak Hamsik-Jorginho-Zielinski. I mean that midfield of 3 would have conceded way more. I understand what Sarri was trying to do, but it didn't work. At least he tried
Disagree... Allan's passing is safer than Piotr's and at least as good atm, and Diawara is not a good defender in any way, I dont know who invented this myth. Did you know he isnt even in the box on defensive set pieces? 6'1 and runs away from the challenge like he runs away from the play. its not about muscle, its about brain.. they had KDB, Jesus and silva around diawara's position, you cant outmuscles those players you have to intercept before the damage is done. Diawara might be great, but for Sarriball he is terrible... You cannot pass like he did at this level. Before their first goal we had a promising sarri-like attack in the making but Diawara's pass to Mertens was just ever so pathetic and jumpy, even mertens was angry with it. If he cant play almost simple passes on the floor what exactly is his future here? He needs to learn it asap.
Problem with diawara zielinski hamsik is that we would be almost mirroring citys formation. Diawara like fernandinho as the holding dm, with 2 offensively minded players further up. Considering the gulf in quality between the 2 midfield's it was too risky. Man city have one of the best midfields in the world, its where their play develops. We should have been more reserved definitely
Look I'm not trying to defend Sarri's decision, i'm trying to explain what I think he was thinking. Diawara although maybe not strong defensively like you say, is still much better defensively than Jorginho is, that's clear for everyone to see. I'm not saying that Diawara is some next De Rossi but he is better than Jorginho defensively. It didn't work, we suffered and we lost, but Sarri tried it out to see if it would work and it's better than keeping Jorginho and Allan out there when we all want him out there again 4 days from now. We have a serious chance at winning the league this year especially if Juve focuses on the UCL this season.
I'm sorry but you and I just see defending in two different ways then. Imo Jorginho's defending is miles better because he has an almost alonso-busquest'ish way of intercepting play before it happens and when needed he defends with the ball - not without it, which I'm sure he's capable of but its hard to tell when Sarri (and Ventura) never give him a chance in games like these. All these qualities are very important for central defending players, whereas the box to box midfielders on the wings have to posses defenisve qualities like those Diawara has. man the fattening of letters is picking up
I honestly don't think Diawara was that bad. He needed help, and got little from Hamsik and Zielinsk. That trio simply doesn't work. I get so frustrated watching Hamsik because I expect so much more. He looks bad in these big games too many times for my liking.
I don't think he was that bad either. He got stripped when teammates put him in difficult positions and he returned the favour a couple times. I think Man City's press rattled everyone on Napoli. It's just Diawara's mistake actually resulted in something significant. There were a zillion turn-overs from everyone on Napoli in the first 35-40 minutes. Based on what I saw from Allan, in hindsight, I would have started him. Would that have made the difference? I dunno. Man City was f'in flying at the start. I'm not sure Claude Makelele in his prime could have slowed down that onslaught.
I don't mind Diawara over Jorginho for this game, Diawara is much quicker and we might have been overrun even more with Jorginho out there in the first 30 mins. Don't lose much there in the passing department with Diawara, but Jorginho's positioning when we have the ball is really excellent and we probably could have dealt with city's pressing better with Jorginho out there. It's a reasonable change though. What I don't understand is not starting Allan for these games. The guy is an absolute beast and raises the level of everyone around him with his energy. I also get why Hamsik is there because the understanding between him, Ghoulam (who was excellent today) and Insigne is so good. But man he was completely awful today - by far his worst game of the season. Definitely ruing our missed chances, particularly with Shakhtar winning. EL would be a disaster because that's even more games than Champions League and we'll go deep in that competition even if we don't try. Gotta win the next three games and also make sure that we have the head-to-head advantage over Shakhtar.