The Serbian Superman - Welcome Luka Jovic

None of this is real life lol.

I will repeat the guy started the second and third match of the season and did nothing. People here were championing him for being able to make simple passes and shoot off target.

Same people trash Benzema after a goal or two, demanding he do more (not you Digital).

I mean we have people who don't understand tje difference between a striker and midfielder adapting... like one is significantly harder than the other. There was no reason for Zidane not to play Odegaard, any excuse including injury is bullshit. There were reasons to not trust Jovic and that wasn't just because his off-pitch behavior or the fact he turned into Casper every time he enter the pitch in our shirt.

There is no balance, just agenda.

 

My argument goes beyond Jovic who had a clearly superior player ahead of him. But in general. Some players have an incredibly long leash and others don't. That affects performance and mindset bro. You know that.

 

This is true, but the real is that you're a pro. In the league you get cut for not being able to retain information, understand and execute calls or not be able to to the minimum of their expectations. If you're on an extension depending on what they had to give up for you they're already looking to replace you and find a way to lessen the contract blow.

 

Based on the few articles I've read on the Athletic with regards to how some clubs treat their youngsters (either new to the club or on loan), and then compare that to the issues we hear about in our club, it is clear to me that we are really dropping the ball big time. If you're going to spend millions on youth you need to have the proper set up to ensure they're loaned to the right place and have some sort of long term acclimatization program.

 

Certainly looks that way from the outside

 

Only youth I feel we dropped the ball on was Odegaard. The fact Zidane started playing Isco because he whined and didn't just let him leave, then stopped giving Odegaard even a second was horrible.

That isn't to say I know Odegaard will be a world beater but that's horrible managment of key talent.

Jovic was a failure waiting to happen. Militao is still here and has the chance to come good. I don't care about Llorentes, Ceballos or Kovacics. We need better anyways.

 

Hakimi and Reguilon were not going to start ahead of Mendy and Carvajal, why keep 70M on the bench?

 

We could have at least kept Hakimi, so we wouldn’t have to start Lucas as RB all season.

 

If the plan was to get Hakimi to backup Carvajal, then I would seriously question our priorities with our spending. I would rather keep LV or Nacho as backup RB and use those 40M to improve our attack/midfield these days. Zidane preferred Mendy over Reguilon (in better times when we had money to spend), thats his preference and he is allowed that. Its not like he chose Victor Moses over Cancelo. You already posted a lot here about the impact of Covid on our budget, why would we give up 70M for 2 backup full backs?

As for Hermoso, I would watch out with players excelling with "system" teams. Theres a gazilion examples of players who were fantastic with Simeone, Klopp or Guardiola who then had very mediocre careers after leaving. Miranda looked like Nesta for Atletico then went to Inter Milan and completely disappeared.

Just to clarify, I am not defending our youth policy it is shit, but those are justifiable cases.

 

Dani is frequently unavailable, I understand what you are saying but he's been remarkably inconsistent due to injuries and in some cases form over the years....

 

Hes aight, for a backup RB. He is definitely not a starter RW level player though, thats the travesty.

Am with you on all that, I dont get why Odegaard was loaned out and I would be annoyed if we sold him. We have the best midfield in the world, a historical trio, but if one of them goes down we have no backups but Valverde, who seems to be picking up niggles all the time, and Isco who.... just please no. Same goes for our attack, we stockpiled a bunch of wingers then either threw CR-sized responsibility on VJ, Rodrygo and Asensio and tried to rush their development, or dont seem to have a plan on how to integrate them like RJ, Brahim, Jovic, and Kubo. We lack long term planning but when have we ever had sporting long term planning in this team?

 

Fair enough, but look at our squad, we can play Nacho, Odriozola, Militao and LV there. Did we really need Hakimi at the possible expense of paying our players?

 

yes, in my opinion we did. FBs are essential to our making our attack work and it isn't working with Mendy on the left not being as much of threat going forward.

 

Vini did pretty well in 2018-19 when he had the responsibility. Then we got Hazard and Vini has been in and out of the LW spot as Hazard comes and goes out with injuries.

 

I'd rather have a natural fit for the position than relying solely on cover. Only one of those players is a legit RB and Hakimi would start over him everyday of the week. Players like Nacho and Militao being able to cover the position is good for situations like earlier in the season which started this whole LV experiment. Keep in mind though, the coach would rather play a RW at RB who has never player that position before than the defender on our payroll who was praised for his ability to play both CB/RB.

 

Hakimi is not a natural RB. You can make the argument like @temesgen said that since we rely on our FBs for width that an attack minded WB like Hakimi wouldve been a good fit, but the fact remains Carvajal wouldve been #1 anyways.

 

Yes Dani would be #1 but with his injury record I think there would have been more than enough opportunity to integrate Hakimi. I don't think it would have been as difficult as the LB situation trying to rotate between Mendy/Reguillon. Granted this is all a moot point if Hakimi was adamant about leaving in the first place.

 

If Inter has refused the pay us I don't know why we haven't recalled Archaf back and have him at least play on our right side of attack...

Seriously.