Eh? He was injured/unfit for quite a bit of last year's campaign. That's not to say there hasn't been a slight decline with age, but he's far from meh. Also, Luis Enrique made Barca play in a much more direct manner, which somewhat reduced Iniesta's influence in midfield in comparison to the tiki taka days of Pep where he and Xavi pretty ran controlled everything from midfield.
The year before he was great, last year when he did play he was very average. We will see this year but that first game against RM he was fairly poor and now he's hurt again.. like I said, meh.
Who knows. Maybe just trying to drive the price up on Inter. Maybe Defrel is going to be a full time RW player. Maybe Roma just figured they have done the blown knee thing enough and figure a different ailment would be a nice change of pace.
I don't know what to think about the pursuit of Patrik Schick. On one hand, I think he probably has the highest upside of any attacker we've been linked to and by a wide margin. Would not surprised to see him explode into a world class striker and be a €100m+ transfer target in the very near future. On the other hand --while he can probably do well playing on the right wing on occasion in a 4-3-3 when Dzeko starts since he's such an explosive player all around --- it's certainly doesn't seem a natural fit. If Roma's interest is really serious, the thinking may be that instead of buying a third-choice RW that's really no better than Defrel, Under or Florenzi why not set yourself up for the future with a talent like Schick who would probably still do a better job at RW than most of the targets being rumored, aside from Mahrez.
Me neither. Maybe Monchi has some grand plan up his sleeve where if Schick comes Dzeko goes? Not likely I know but none of it seems likely anyway.
Every year around mid-June I look forward to the transfer season. Every year by mid-August I'm ready for it to be over.
Wow, he's such a smooth dribbler. He will be worth 100m in a couple years no doubt. He aint no Iturbe.
I'd gladly take Schick. He's not a RW but he'll do a hell of a lot better than Defrel there. He has some of the attributes to do it and he's better than most players we've been linked with for that position other than maybe Mahrez/Berardi.
If I had a dollar for every young kid that was going to be the next <insert world class player>.. I'd buy Roma.
If we don't get a stadium we all might be able to buy the team if we pool our money. Big Soccer could be our sponsor.
It seems insane to go into a season with a coach who is infamously rigid in his dedication to the 4-3-3 and not have a proper RW. Schick is a huge talent, but I don't think he's what we need. Especially not if the price is 40m euros. Have to say, for all the hype surrounding Monchi this transfer window has been a little worse than mediocre so far. Maybe it'll get explosive in the next week.
Monchi and Baldissoni will allegedly meet with Sampdoria reps today for Schick. It's being claimed we are offering 25 million plus another 5 million in bonuses.
Every single year without fail Roma fans complain that this is the worst mercato ever, wait to see how the team does before you judge. Personally I think our squad is stronger than last year.