Ronaldo levels it for Juve with a towering header.

Roma is poor beyond hope. bunch of hopeless over the hill footballers

mentalvortex wrote:

Ronaldo levels it for Juve with a towering header.

How this guy went from a pacy winger to guy who’s regularly able to deliver these hang-time headers is one of the great transformations

Napoli next. Should be fun.

10 players and 4 coaches have tested positive for covid-19 in Genoa. There are discussions right now about whether they should postpone the whole Serie A or just Genoa's games. There's an international break in two weeks and one suggestion is that the league would restart after that point. Of course there will probably be new cases by then.

I wonder how much longer football leagues are going to keep on going if this becomes a regular occurrence.

They need to kill the international breaks.
The football leagues should put pressure on the associations to condense international football to later in the season. I’m not even sure Covid-19 will be anywhere near under control by Q1 but target then. Having players disperse is going to be the biggest catastrophe.

What’s testing for teams like over in Italy?

The PL clubs, at least for now, seem be doing quiet well limiting infections with regular testing. Often it’s just a couple of players who test positive rather than half the squad, suggesting it’s picked up early.

I think they're testing at the same rate as Premier League, but I'm not sure.

There were 10 PL players and staff who tested positive in the last week for reference. Thiago was out against us last night because he had tested positive for covid. So as you say not half of someone's squad yet but still fairly high numbers, especially from people who are meant to take extra precaution, and we've barely entered fall. What is it gonna be like in two months? And how would another lengthy covid break impact football clubs? I imagine there would be some that'd go bust this time, and not just lower league clubs.

Claudius wrote:

They need to kill the international breaks.
The football leagues should put pressure on the associations to condense international football to later in the season. I’m not even sure Covid-19 will be anywhere near under control by Q1 but target then. Having players disperse is going to be the biggest catastrophe.

I don't think there's any more risk in having them travel. Footballers rarely travel with commercial airlines anyway, there's no audience, etc. There are procedures in place to ensure they don't meet a lot of people. Can't think they're much more likely to be exposed while they're on national duty than they would be in normal training in the vast majority of the cases, and in any event they get tested regularly everywhere they go. There's just a risk involved when you play football, full stop.

There’s massive discrepancy in policy response amongst African countries. The resources deployed, ability to track etc. When players leave their European bubbles and come to Africa, some countries will be highly capable of replicating those bubbles. Others will have no chance. It’s a crazy risk for leagues everywhere.

Either way they get tested when they come back. Thiago hasn't been in Africa and he contracted covid within a week of arriving in England. Genoa were in Naples, not South Africa, and now half their squad is ill. Can't blame or worry about international travel too much when there are widespread infections in every European country.

Klaus wrote:

I think they're testing at the same rate as Premier League, but I'm not sure.

There were 10 PL players and staff who tested positive in the last week for reference. Thiago was out against us last night because he had tested positive for covid. So as you say not half of someone's squad yet but still fairly high numbers, especially from people who are meant to take extra precaution, and we've barely entered fall. What is it gonna be like in two months? And how would another lengthy covid break impact football clubs? I imagine there would be some that'd go bust this time, and not just lower league clubs.

It's 10 people out of 1,595 or 0.6%. I think the Prem have been hitting around that mark since July so not high numbers just yet.

Fair point, mate. We all live with Covid.

jones wrote:

Atalantas wing backs are ridiculous. Looking like 2016 Real Madrid wingers out there

They’re dynamite, mate. Total domination. But it’s an all out attack. They’re very very direct through the middle with Malinowski. Creates so much jeopardy

As good as Hateboer and Gosens are, look at Papu Gomez. What a star he is. Easily one of the 3-4 best players in Italy. 2 goals and 3 assist in the opening two games.

Edit: Make that 3 goals and 3 assist.

That’s an absolute stunner by Gomez.

Someone please send Arteta Atalanta DVDs

jones wrote:

Atalantas wing backs are ridiculous. Looking like 2016 Real Madrid wingers out there

Its the system. Their wing backs get more goalscoring chances and are more dangerous than our winger.

Another gorgeous attack.

Muriel nearly bangs in a fifth. They saw their way through a defence in a way I haven't seen since peak Wenger.

Klaus wrote:

Muriel nearly bangs in a fifth. They saw their way through a defence in a way I haven't seen since peak Wenger.

You need to be also feel a freedom and lack of inhibition. This team concedes silly chances but is willing to make that trade off. I feel like Arsenal are taking the opposite approach right. Conservatism in the hope of one or two chances. 

Claudius wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Muriel nearly bangs in a fifth. They saw their way through a defence in a way I haven't seen since peak Wenger.

You need to be also feel a freedom and lack of inhibition. This team concedes silly chances but is willing to make that trade off.

They've created an environment where playing creative football comes very naturally to them. It begs belief that they're doing this to Lazio of all teams. Inzaghi has been such a revelation as a manager, and he still gets carved up like a steak without Atalanta really getting out of second gear.

jones wrote:

Atalantas wing backs are ridiculous. Looking like 2016 Real Madrid wingers out there

Speaking of wing backs, Hakimi looked great for Inter today. Him and Alexis were a great combo. I think Utd could've used some extra wingers now  

Atalanta's players off the ball are just incredible. There is a real smartness in the way Atalanta play their football.

Atalanta 4 up at halftime. The fun times roll on for them

I want us to play like Atalanta, so good to watch .

Serie A roundup -

Milan continued their unbeaten streak (19 matches in all competitions now) with a 3-0 win over Spezia. Rafael Leao scored a brace while Theo Hernandez was impressive again and pitched in with a goal.

Inter and Lazio played out a 1-1 draw. Both teams ended with 10 men as Sensi and Immobile were both sent off.
SMS continued his run of showing up and scoring in big matches.

Why did Juve prepare the match as per normal warm up before the match, team bus and even twitter official announced their lineup and all when everyone and their dog knows Napoli didn't travel for the match due to covid?

Clrnc wrote:

Why did Juve prepare the match as per normal warm up before the match, team bus and even twitter official announced their lineup and all when everyone and their dog knows Napoli didn't travel for the match due to covid?

Maybe they’re hoping for 3 points 

Because of a complete shitshow from the officiating bodies and Italian government.

Firstly, serie A confirmed that the match shall go ahead as planned.

Then there were conflicting reports whether Napoli will be allowed to travel or not.

Then the health minister comes out and says the match will not be played.

Just watched the Atalanta match. Think they got themselves another gem of a player. Sam Lammers with a brilliant goal

The Russian midfielder they have signed, Miranchuk, is extremely skillful and entertaining to watch as well.

It has to help that teams seem to just stand there in formation and watch them score.

Coombs wrote:

It has to help that teams seem to just stand there in formation and watch them score.

they're incredibly hard to defend because they swarm you. so I think a few teams are a bit overwhelmed. most teams are bit more one-dimensional in their attacks. less movement of the ball and men. 

Yes, most of the teams (especially towards the bottom of table) give up in the final minutes after they have been constantly bombarded from minute 1.