This Mercato is quite baffling to me. I understand and
almost support the decision to give Conte his favourite child (Vidal) as it was the footballing equivalent of giving a pacifier to a newborn baby. Will it solve the problem? No. But it will shut the thing up for a few moments. Obviously the decision to bring Hakimi in was fantastic. Beyond that? I have no clue what's going on.
We paid Godin a golden handshake after relying on him as a starter for the last month of the season. We are now actively looking to sell the man Godin replaced, Skriniar, for a fraction of the value he is normally worth in a non-covid environment. This would leave D'Ambrosio as the only viable option at RCB, meaning we'll continue to get skinned alive by any attacks with pace. The reported solution to this glaring opening at RCB are to spend the entirety of Skriniar's transfer fee on Milenkovic? Or better yet, to sign Chris Smalling who seemingly has similar physical characteristics to Godin. There are also reports that Ranocchia is close to Genoa. That would leave our CB depth chart looking something like this:
RCB - Skriniar, D'Ambrosio
CB - de Vrij, Pirola
LCB - Bastoni, Kolarov
Simply put, this would be the worst defensive unit we've had since before Miranda's arrival. No pace whatsoever.
At wingback, apparently Perisic is now a perfectly capable LWB. This means either the player refused the role last year, went on loan, won a treble, and returned only to decide that actually he
does want to meaninglessly run up and down the left flank all game OR he was always willing and Conte has changed his mind (for no apparent reason). You all know my thoughts on bringing in Darmian as our reserve RWB.
In the midfield, we seem intent on trotting out this attacking triangle despite the fact Serie A teams spent a month demolishing our midfield every time we tried it. The most alarming development is that our midfield, aka our single worst positional unit last year, is substantially unchanged other than the addition of the Chilean human pacifier. Brozovic is clearly for sale despite the fact no one wants to buy him; I'm sure that will end well for all parties involved. That leaves us with:
LCM - Gagliardini, Brozovic
RCM - Vidal, Barella
AM - Eriksen, Sensi
This unit should be good enough but still suffers from a lack of goal scoring ability and overall lack of creativity. Bonus points if Napoli somehow decide they want Vecino and his hernia.
I only have one comment about our attack. How do we STILL not have a fourth striker? If Lukaku gets hurt for any material length of time, our season is over - blanket statement. Sanchez doesn't have the legs to start regularly and too much of Conte's
tactics involve Lukaku bailing our backpass triangles. If Pinamonti stays with the club I will wager that he scores less than five goals this year.
Forum Supporter
10 years of FIF
.
