🇮🇹 Davide Zappacosta

[Tomo 21,751]

He's far from the worst player we've ever had and the rare times he brought his A game (Qarabag, Bate, Arsenal in the 2-2 at The Emirates, Frankfurt) he looked a player. All in all we were a level above his skillset but he was a solid 6/10 player, can't recall any real disasterclass performances.

A watered down version of Paulo Ferriera is probably the best way to describe him.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

He's far from the worst player we've ever had and the rare times he brought his A game (Qarabag, Bate, Arsenal in the 2-2 at The Emirates, Frankfurt) he looked a player. All in all we were a level above his skillset but he was a solid 6/10 player, can't recall any real disasterclass performances.

A watered down version of Paulo Ferriera is probably the best way to describe him.

Its a shame Azpi' was preferred to him at times because I feel at times if he had been played he would have given us a different dimension. His pace and crossing ability could have been used at times last year when we were pedestrian like. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

12 minutes ago, Vybz Kartel said:

Its a shame Azpi' was preferred to him at times because I feel at times if he had been played he would have given us a different dimension. His pace and crossing ability could have been used at times last year when we were pedestrian like. 

Yeah esp at home when chasing a goal. And get azpi to rest a bit... 

managers clearly value azpi’s leadership on and off the pitch, but thought that with Jorginho they could rest him a bit and playing Zapacosta more. Odd.

 

[Vesper 30,195]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

He's far from the worst player we've ever had and the rare times he brought his A game (Qarabag, Bate, Arsenal in the 2-2 at The Emirates, Frankfurt) he looked a player. All in all we were a level above his skillset but he was a solid 6/10 player, can't recall any real disasterclass performances.

A watered down version of Paulo Ferriera is probably the best way to describe him.

I always thought Zappacosta was underutilised

look at what multiple different managers have done to poor Azpi

he is utterly run into the ground 8 days before his 30th birthday

look at his minutes over the last 10 full seasons (he was injured in one (2010-11) and only played around 40% of the games then)

(and this year, 3 games 300 minutes already, due to the extra time, and that is NOT counting pre season)

40,557 minutes in those 10 seasons, that's over 4000 a year for 10 of the last 11 years on average

fullback minutes are crazy rough (especially a hardcore defender like Azpi, he is no glorified winger like the massively overrated Marcelo), and along with a DMF, they are probably the two most physically burning out positions (which is why 90% plus of both FB's and DMF's crater from elite level after 30 (and often before)

4867

4725

4098

4260

4367

3575

4113

3359

3821

3372

even as a 17yo/18yo he put in almost 2600 (2584) in only 29 games, all league games

once he was made starter on Halloween, 2007 (he did start the opening game and went the full 90) for Osasuna, he basically started playing most the of full 90 for the vast majority if the next 11 straight years (minus that injury year, which certainly did not help his overall longevity as it was a cruciate ligament rupture of his knee)

Counting preseason games he is already near and/or will go over 50,000 minutes overall for his 12 year topflight career this season

 

 

[Pizy 18,926]

Yeah, I don't really have a bad word to say about Zappa. Think he's been unlucky not to get more runs in the side. Has always looked pretty good going forward and in matches where we knew we were going to absolutely boss possession, he could've come in handy more than Azpi.

Good luck to him.

[Nicco 927]

6 hours ago, milan.cech said:

 

Stop fucking loaning them and put that obligation to buy already.

[Tomo 21,751]

8 minutes ago, Nicco said:

Stop fucking loaning them and put that obligation to buy already.

We get loan fees for them which ultimately will add to the overall fee once sold.

We will likely almost make our money back on the 2017 signings thanks to that which is pretty good going all things considered.

[robsblubot 3,595]

5 hours ago, Tomo said:

He's far from the worst player we've ever had and the rare times he brought his A game (Qarabag, Bate, Arsenal in the 2-2 at The Emirates, Frankfurt) he looked a player. All in all we were a level above his skillset but he was a solid 6/10 player, can't recall any real disasterclass performances.

A watered down version of Paulo Ferriera is probably the best way to describe him.

On the other hand, using your bats argument, we’ve got quite a few managers who consistently did not give him minutes. 2 of them also happened to be Italian.

[NikkiCFC 8,326]

52 minutes ago, Tomo said:

We get loan fees for them which ultimately will add to the overall fee once sold.

We will likely almost make our money back on the 2017 signings thanks to that which is pretty good going all things considered.

True for Morata, probably true for Zappacosta. But no way we get our money back from Bakayoko and Drinkwater. We still pay 50% of Drinkwater's wages and that saves us only around 2,5m this season. And that's only if he stays full season at Burnley not just till January. 

[Tomo 21,751]

10 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

True for Morata, probably true for Zappacosta. But no way we get our money back from Bakayoko and Drinkwater. We still pay 50% of Drinkwater's wages and that saves us only around 2,5m this season. And that's only if he stays full season at Burnley not just till January. 

Not sure how much Bakayoko's loan fee was at AC but I imagine if some club pay £30m this summer or £25 next on top of a loan fee for this season that would put our loss minimul at worst.

Drinkwater will be the one we do take a hit on, however a strong season at Burnley will likely see some midtable team take a punt at around £15m which that plus a loan fee maybe about £18m.

All added up we will probably make about a £20-25m loss on all those players which isn't too bad a recovery considering.

[manpe 10,861]

4 hours ago, Vybz Kartel said:

Its a shame Azpi' was preferred to him at times because I feel at times if he had been played he would have given us a different dimension. His pace and crossing ability could have been used at times last year when we were pedestrian like. 

Thought his shooting was dangerous too, had great power and could cut in to his left.

[Jase 43,479]

 

[robsblubot 3,595]

57 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Do you think language will be a barrier?  

man we do like to roll with very thin squads esp in UCL seasons! Isn’t James injured atm?

[LAM09 7,056]

Do you think language will be a barrier? [emoji4] 
man we do like to roll with very thin squads esp in UCL seasons! Isn’t James injured atm?

Putting all those eggs in youth.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Just now, LAM09 said:

3 minutes ago, Robchels said:

Do you think language will be a barrier?  
man we do like to roll with very thin squads esp in UCL seasons! Isn’t James injured atm?

Putting all those eggs in youth.

[LAM09 7,056]

I'd love things to turn out rosy, as it is something many of us have been calling for.

One plus of the transfer ban

[BlueLyon 9,359]

31 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

I'd love things to turn out rosy, as it is something many of us have been calling for.

One plus of the transfer ban

It will man, it will. If we dont win shit this year, we will likely establish at least two youth players that will help us win trophies in the next 5-10 years.

[robsblubot 3,595]

9 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

It will man, it will. If we dont win shit this year, we will likely establish at least two youth players that will help us win trophies in the next 5-10 years.

We’d have established at least two youth players without fucking up our chances regardless. Same as we did last season with Cho and RLC. Lamps would naturally give more minutes to homegrown.

All this is just making us less competitive in all fronts without any real benefit.

now if the manager and coaches believe James can offer about the same, then it kinda makes sense given how little Zapa played.

[NikkiCFC 8,326]

2 hours ago, Robchels said:

We’d have established at least two youth players without fucking up our chances regardless. Same as we did last season with Cho and RLC. Lamps would naturally give more minutes to homegrown.

All this is just making us less competitive in all fronts without any real benefit.

now if the manager and coaches believe James can offer about the same, then it kinda makes sense given how little Zapa played.

It's not only about age and youth. Pulisic and CHO are better than Willian and Pedro. Mount is better than Barkley and James I'm sure will prove to be better than Azpi. That's not the case with Abraham and Tomori at the moment and that's why they should play less. 

[the wes 7,212]