I just watched a bit of Empoli-Inter. Houseboat game, but a few performances stood out to me. I've seen Empoli three or four times this season and Riccardo Saponara has been great in every game. He won't play for Empoli next season, that much is obvious.
Serie A 2015/2016
More Dybala - great FK:
Juventus have found such an amazing balance between established players and upcoming talent.
Klaus wrote:I just watched a bit of Empoli-Inter. Houseboat game, but a few performances stood out to me. I've seen Empoli three or four times this season and Riccardo Saponara has been great in every game. He won't play for Empoli next season, that much is obvious.
Milan are fucking retarded for selling him for peanuts, said as much before the season. Very composed and elegant on the ball, he's easily a level above anything they have in midfield. Also Milan lost again today and from what I heard Cerci apparently had the one of the worst performances anyone ever had in football 
Bit pissed off I didn't bet on the Inter game by the way, a bloke at the local bookies put almost 1000 bucks on a 1-0 Inter win. He even predicted the way the match panned out, Empoli having the better chances with Inter scoring a scrappy goal from one of their few real chances.
And yeah, Juve seem to be running the league ragged again, kudos to Allegri for turning it around and finding a new system that uses the strengths of his squad. They had a Chelsea like start to the season and are now just three points off the top of the league.
That's some Barcelona MSN type shit.
Napoli are among the top three teams to watch in Europe at the moment, so much movement in that frontline. Their CB Koulibaly also seems to be the real deal, to be honest I'd take half of their squad off their hands including the manager if he continues like this.
Insigne is scary good. Supreme talent.
Caught the Roma Milan game and oh boy what a dire game. Complete waste of money. Both teams looked totally devoid of ideas. Bonaventura was the only bright spot in the entire game.
I must say both the managers are on borrowed time. Only a matter of time before they get sacked. Rudi Garcia's name was roundly booed by the entire stadium and also after the final whistle.
It's kind of hilarious that Seedorf was the best they've had these last three years. Wonder when he is getting back into management, he actually looked like he has the potential to be a good manager.
Yeah, under Seedorf was the only time Milan were halfway watchable. Hope he gets back into the game, such a classy man and at the rate he was going I think he was on course for a top four finish were he given a full season, impressive with that steaming pile of shit for a squad.
Getting rid of him only to hire Inzaghi of all people who seems to have learned fuck all since his playing days is part of the reason why I don't really feel sorry for their decline.
Milan's signings haven't paid off that well so far. On another note, that 16 year old GK Donnarumma looks good already. It's a little worrying though, giving someone so young so much already.
Talking about goalies, I am glad we do not have Szczesny in goal anymore to cause me some unncessary heart attacks when he plays with his goal kicks.
Sassuolo beat Inter away after Berardi converts a penalty in the 95th minute with literally the last kick of the game. Juventus must be buzzing over this result.
Fully expect Mancini to go and buy or loan dozen of players now
Really hope Napoli win the league this season, Juventus are actually pretty fun to watch but they are no match to what Higuain and co are producing so far. They really tried to outdo each other today with the quality of the goals scored, first Hamsik:
Then Higuain channels his inner Maradona
Then Gabbiadini tops even that
I really want us to sign this guy. Would probably take a season or two but I think he could be as good or better than RVP in his best season for us.
I love Gabbiadini too. The best part about him is that pretty much all his strikes are like that. Bloke has never scored a tap-in in his life. Every damn goal is some outrageous shit.
Yeah, that's why he reminds me of a young RVP, doesn't score many (yet) but when he does it's some unrealistic FIFA type shit. He's also shunted to the wing most of the time despite having the build to play CF.
Pogba by the way also seems to have become a lot more consistent and solid in his overall game, scored another goal today too. I could swear half of his goals are volleys like today and the other half are blooters from 40 yards out.
There are so many good talents in Serie A right now who could be transformed under a manager like Wenger. Most of them are cheap because of the euro too. It's puzzling that we're not scouting Italy more than we do.
I hope we make another attempt for Higuain in the summer, by the way. He's been world class this season. Took him long enough, but he finally looks like the player he was capable of being. That goal tonight was something.
Yeah he's playing like a peak Agüero for a good while now minus the exploding hamstrings. If Sarri really manages to win the league this year I could even see him move.
Rudi Garcia sacked by Roma with former Roma manager Spalletti rumoured to take over.
I thought he did a very good job there but it must have gone downhill pretty badly for him this season?
Makes little sense as they are currently 5th, and only 7 pts behind league leaders Napoli
Have you watched them recently? They have been utter shit.
Yeah, makes sense in this case. Garcia has way too many rotten streaks like this to be considered a real top manager these days in my opinion. They have been falling behind in the title race in recent weeks and were lucky to get a point vs fucking Milan at home last week ffs.
Will be interesting to see how Spalletti will fare, he should get more out of those players and they have a squad that's on par with at least Inter and Fiore, at least 3rd place should be a realistic goal.
I think Garcia gets way too much criticism personally. He has certain flaws but they're blown way out of proportion without any consideration to the context. He managed one of the most notoriously difficult teams in Europe; a club that has no business being involved in a title challenge yet expects to be year after year. Roma is a little bit like the Liverpool of Italy that way. They are so lucky to have one of the greatest players of any generation ever who has devoted his life and career to the club. Without Totti they would already have been long, long gone as a force in Serie A.
In terms of talent, the quality just isn't there. In terms of finances, the money is lacking. In terms of stability, they're swapping owners and board members at the same rate Real Madrid are swapping managers.
When you operate on a relatively small budget with a small squad you're going to be subject to some uncomfortable circumstances. A signing or two flops, Kevin Strootman picks up an injury that rules him out for 2 years and increasingly looks like it will force him to retire at the age of 25... there just aren't any margins for these types of miscalculations.
My criticism is not about him not winning the league; as you say Roma aren't exactly favourites for the title, Juve are just blatantly better all over the pitch plus you can't calculate for your best player and one of Europe's most exciting prospects to have his career ended.
At the same time he has brought them to a high plateau only to repeatedly falter when the going gets tough, in each of his last few seasons he's had a run of about two or three months where his teams have averaged about a point per game. There seems to be a regular massive drop in performances from most of his players at certain points in the season which smacks of poor man management. Not even going to get into his European performances which are probably the worst of any manager to have ever managed a CL team for more than one season.
He reminds me of Lucien Favre in certain aspects, the streakiness of their performances plus their ability to make a lot out of little, but the lack of nous of how to get the last few percent to make it at the top. Maybe Roma will now go on a similar run as Gladbach did when Favre left.
And I think it's unfair to say he had a small budget. The quality of his players he had at his disposal is comfortably 2nd best in the league which he finished 2nd in each of his last 2 seasons, so it is not to his credit in my opinion. Had it not been his awful streaks in those seasons, they would have finished much closer to Juve or even won one. To put things into perspective, he went from 12 points ahead of Juve to now behind them this season.
The problem with him is that he is tactically too limited. He can only play on the counter attack and when he is forced to take initiative in games, his side couldn't which is why he always dropped points against lowly oppositions.
He finished 2nd because he was punching way above his weight. Let's be honest, Roma have a shit squad compared to Juventus and even Napoli, and they have a sporting director who keeps selling off their star performers instead of letting him build. That's not to say he's a brilliant manager but whatever shortcomings Garcia have he was better for Roma than they were for him.
Just seen this save from Consigli against Inter, probably one of the best in europe this season. How did he even reach that?
Neuer against Theo was better.
Dybala is looking like worth every penny Juventus spent on him in Summer.
2 goals and 2 assists for him tonight in the first half against Udinese.
Juve have now won 10 consecutive league games, to think they had the same kind of start as Chelsea and now have overtaken everyone bar Napoli.
Pound for pound Juve have the best squad in the league.
They were always going to be near the top once the new signings gelled in and their injured got back.
Of course but it's no certainty that they'd actually get it together quickly enough to be back in the title race by December/January already, I think Allegri has to get some credit for that. Look at Chelsea, even after changing managers they still look like horseshit on the pitch.
That's because Allegri is an actual coach and not just a celebrity manager. I agree he deserves credit for it. Juventus certainly didn't make his job easy in the summer when they sold Tevez and Vidal the same summer Pirlo left. Khedira arrived injured. And then Barzagli and Marchisio, who are their best defender and midfielder respectively, suffered medium-to-longterm injuries.
Do you now rate Allegri or is he still a houseboat manager? I think he is much better than he is given credit for. Don't forget he last won Milan their Scudetto which didn't happen for a long time as well.
Carlos Bacca looks like the only class player left in Milan.
I still think Allegri is a bit limited as a manager. He's good but limited. He still has the same love for physical players and it's just not going to end well in the case of someone like Pogba, who if anything needed to focus on technical and tactical discipline.
Mancini with some scathing criticism of Sarri in his post-match presser tonight. Apparently the latter was having one of those nights where he was hurling racial and homophobic slur around. Can't say I'm surprised. People have been saying for some time that he's a brilliant manager but an absolute asshole of a man.
piece on the Sarri incident:
Yep, Sarri's been doing this shit for years. The only reason no one cares is because Italy is fundamentally homophobic. I'm glad it's starting to get picked up by the English speaking press. It puts some pressure on the league from the outside to deal with scum like him.
4 days later
New goal from Dybala to clinch a win against Roma. The bloke is amazing. He deserves to start ahead of Agüero for Argentina based on this season's form.
Klaus wrote:New goal from Dybala to clinch a win against Roma. The bloke is amazing. He deserves to start ahead of Agüero for Argentina based on this season's form.
Dybala's rise reminds me of when you talked about Felipe Anderson, who was once called Sleepy Anderson .
I remember hearing about him because he was recommended by Javier Zanetti for Inter when he played in the Argentine 2nd division. I think what really helped him grow was playing in Serie B and the fact that Palermo are more patient with youngsters (12m euros was spent on Dybala). It's all been a metoric rise since.