Serie A Season 18/19

That was a sad game against Arsenal. We didn't play half badly from what I heard, but I guess I was a little too optimistic. I didn't see the game as I was at work (I hate week day games). There remains to be a lot of work to be done with this team.

But hey we won against Genoa in the final minute. One game at a time and seem to be back on track.

This is a major win. And a major goal for Andre Silva who finally got on the scoring map. He needs time. That is all I will say. Coupled with Sampdoria's loss, Milan now moves into sixth.

Think this Milan team need to be really focused. Except Suso i could not see anyone being legitimate threat in the third half. The finishing has to be worked upon.

We had a couple of good chances the second half. Bonaventura was good. But I agree. We need to really focus. Sampdoria gifted us and while I wanted Napoli to beat Inter, we are five points away from them. Inter will probably drop more points. A fourth place finish may be too much of a feat. Fifth is likely.

Still the team did react well after the defeat to Arsenal. The finishing aspect has to be worked on. Cutrone needs to keep his eye on goal and start scoring again. Silva perhaps can step up too and he certainly did in a big way.

Gattuso on Kalinic:

https://www.football-italia.net/118706/gattuso-%E2%80%98train-poorly-stay-home%E2%80%99

Everytime during the summer that I criticized this transfer on this site and another, I was viciously attacked.

Even Borini has had more of an impact than this useless scrub. 4 goals all season, and a waste of space. And now he isn't even training enough and Gattuso has sent him home.

Kalinic is a talentless hack and I hope the guys on the other site see this message. I was right about him from the beginning. 24 million euros on a useless player that has had less of an impact than 5 million euro Borini.

the team is *bleep* horrendous. truly pathetic display against inter. thank god icardi was off of his game, that *bleep* should of scored a hat trick. midfield is still shit, brozovic dominated the game. monto/kessie..bonaventura nowhere near good enough. suso sucked as well..

depressing that we have borini and kalinic as substitutes.

kalinic's performance was bad, even the ultras started hissing at him.

im not a big fan of rodriguez either.

So with that, as well as consecutive victories from Inter, Roma, and Lazio, pretty much confirms our destiny for the end of the season. We are 9 points off 5th, and 10 off 3rd and 4th.

There are some positives to this, as we will see, but now we will need to take maximum points to even cement 6th place. Fiorentina and Atalanta are both hot right now with the former being on an unstoppable run since their tragedy not so long ago.

Lets start with some things that are going really well for us. Well, the team seemed in shambles, everyone (me included) had written off gattuso as Brocchi 2.0 and also thought wed be lucky to keep up the same point total. Some were eager to point out how we were 10th, and at the time closer to relegation than our preseason targets. Our 200 million spent seemed to deteriorate in value almost instantly, it seemed like the new value of all the players we had purchased had halved, if not quartered the money we put down. We had no identity, we honestly played scared, and beside keeping possession in our third, we literally sucked. In every area of the pitch, we had no communication or direction seemingly, and the only reason we didnt do even more poorly is because Suso seemed to pull one out of his ass a few times.

Enter Rino, he gets the guys playing as a team, and gets them to fight for eachother. We now have enough points to put us 3rd in the table after January, Only Juventus and Napoli have more points (and by 7 at maximum).

How did he manage this? A few reasons of course. The first is quite clearly the fitness levels. We often would start games impressively, and i think we did a lot of good under montella, but there was always a noticeable drop off around say the 70th minute mark. We now are able to press well beyond that 70th minute mark and you now only really notice the fatigue when weve had a busier schedule and limited rotation options.

Next thing he did was pick a formation and stick to it. He changed the back 3 to a back 4, He gave Bonucci the support to start driving our attacks and being a leader, he gave romagnoli the trust to become the player weve always known he was. He gave confidence back to calabria who has now been one of our best performers. Rrod has also shown he can defend well when asked, but needs to show more offensively, as he has in the past. Next is Gigio. This year has been a hard one for him no doubt, with all the rumors of ownership, money, contracts, he has had less time this season to focus on playing his game. He has improved on his distribution, and now looks steady with the ball at his feet, which he sees a decent share of. He is still suspect on some of his positioning but the kid is only 19 and a stellar player at that.

Then next big development was the new organization of our midfield, and pressing system. Gattuso has brought out the best of Kessie we have seen yet, and i imagine the more time he has under gattuso he will continue to show his class. The next thing is Biglia, who has also shown that he has the capacity to play in front of the defence and marshall our attack. Biglia has been a rock, and certainly and underrated performer in our team. The next is Jack. Jack is interesting because for me he is our best player when he isnt let down by others on the pitch. He also has struggled with form, and sometimes he looks to be trying to do everything himself, when he feels that others arent pulling their weight. He can be very frustrating to watch, and at other times, our best player on the pitch.

Our attack does need work, but gattuso has been able to ignite cutrone, and he is starting to get real minutes from Silva. Silva has shown he can be a match winner but has not yet done enough to cement a starting spot. He will come good, but right now needs to keep working which im sure he will do. Then theres the most frustrating player in our squad, the flop Kalinic. Honestly i dont think he knows how to properly head a ball into goal, which is surprising because it was one of his redeeming qualities and another reason we payed for him. His workrate is there, but he has not only been unlucky, but simply poor when he has played. Hakan has also shown his class, and as seen yesterday, he is clearly missed when not in the lineup. He can become a complete player if given the chance but i do think his best position is not on the wings, as he doesnt have the pace to take on his man. Suso is Suso, and has shown consistency through both of our coaches this term. He has regressed lately, and defenders in italy are learning how to neutralize him, he needs to evolve his role.

All said, our starting eleven as a whole looks more solid than in the last 3 years. We have players that are staples in this team, and we have an identity. Once again, looking at our form since gattuso arrived, I am confident will will be a force next season, a team who nobody will look forward to playing.

If we look to the mercato, we have already signed reina and Strnic. I assume we will go for another winger, and look to replace kalinic with an actual professional. We will also look to add depth in our mid options, likely a player who will compete for a starting spot. The rest will depend on our returning players, some of whom i assume gattuso will give a chance to.

Anyway, thought i will chime in on our current status, while the season this year has largely been a disappointment, gattuso has mad me excited for the future and given all the youth in this squad, we have some stuff to look forward to. We have youth players in every area of the first team (cutro, locatelli, calabria and donnarumma) and a few young guns waiting for their chance. We also have the fans back on our side. I havnt heard them sing like they have in years, and our stadium looks fuller than in the last 5 years or more.

Lets hope gattuso can get us locked into 6th, and that he is given the chance to experiment with new ideas for next year. Im reading he wants to do a 4312 which already excites me.

Good season, not great. Overall it started with rumors that we would push juve and napoli for the title, then it fell to us not even being in the talk of a europa spot, then it went back to UCL hopes which since have dwindled. All said, it could be so much worse and im satisfied with the way things have gone.

Someone make a 2018-2019 Seari A thread

We do need a new thread. This season has started at a weird pace. Napoli who beat us (should have at least a draw), were badly beaten by Sampdoria.

I watched that game...

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/fabio-quagliarella-scores-outrageous-goal-as-sampdoria-stun-napoli-in-serie-a/news-story/efb18c69bcb413fe65465ff02382ddfc

Truly insane goal by Quagliarella.

I renamed this thread for 18/19 season but i can split that into a completely new thread if you guys want

RealGunner wrote:I renamed this thread for 18/19 season but i can split that into a completely new thread if you guys want

No need mate

[post]

Arquitecto wrote:[post]

Thank you Arq, very cool!

Arquitecto wrote:[post]

Very true, but I think [/post] would be a better explanation over here if I am honest.