Daniele Rugani

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 hours ago, Belgiannutt said:

Gotta disagree with you. 

Those tough and big characters were the reason AVB failed here. They were all set in their ways and resisted the change making it impossible for AVB to change our way of playing. 

We then ended up hiring pragmatic managers while we had bought technical players that suited a more attacking  possession based approach. 

The club doesn't need strong, loyal and never give up players. The club's mistake hasn't been that we tried to change our playing style. It's that we didn't fully commit to that change. 

We found ourselves between two opposite styles and ended up trying to do a bit of both and half assing both styles.

The club needs to pick a direction, a style and commit to it in everything we do.

Now we seem to have decided to actually commit to a more attacking style of football with the (possible ) hiring of Sarri. 

Even if it doesn't work out with Sarri i hope the club doesn't  hire another pragmatic manager after him but continues to hire a manager that wants to play attacking football. 

 

The problem was in Chelsea and AVB. We are counter attacking team. Period. We played great football under Mou in his first spell and Ancelotti. Yes there were shit games, but generaly we dominated opponents. Then we suddenly want to play fancy under Avb? Sure it will backfire. We had 10 years of pragmatic football and that created identity within club. Obviously you cant change that in one summer like we tried with Avb. Its like you would want Barca to play like Atletico starting next season. 

Mate, this fancy football hype is unbelievable.

Everyone is bandwagoning the fancy football nowdays. 

Bring me Drogs and Lamps squad ahead of these Guardiola style cunts anyday of the week.

People think we were parking the bus all the time back in the day. Thing is we played great too, destroying teams. But obviously against Barca or similar big team, you will defend. 

You think we will play ball against Barca or City and win at their own game if we meet under Sarri? Haha. Or maybe win once but lose next one, like Pool did. You just have to know when to stay back and defend. And be great at it. That wins you titles. Thats why Madrid wins it. 

Can Sarri push back and defend efficiently?

What we need is to create a team that can dominate in sense of being in control. Not a team that can keep the possesion and play fancy. Dont know where this obssesion comes from. 

Why is everyone trying to make revolution here? Whats wrong with pragmatic football? The media keeps banging that tiki taka shit that made people brainwashed. Praising Bonucci, Otamendi, Ramos best defenders in the world, when it was obvious they werent even best in their own team (Pepe, Barzagli, Chielini were)

Does Atleti give a shit how they play? They play their own way and with quality players they are up with the best. 

But we have to change, play fancy blah blah.

Yeah, we must get rid of the pussies in the squad. We must become dominant again. People think we will dominate and be best only if we play offensive football. Bullshit. Back in 2003-2010 we went toe to toe with any team in the world. They had superstars, we had determination. Everyone feared us at Bridge. We had powerful squad and when we went in offense, man, we could destroy anyone. Long shots, corners, freekicks, crosses, headers,...we had it all. 

We could defend 80min, then go to offense for 10 min and they didnt know what hit them. Thats what you call being in control.

You dont need Sarri/Guardiola possesion football to be good. 

Real, Barca, City will always have best attackers suited to such game. We will never beat them in their own yard. 

But pragmatic approach where they attack and we do them on counter? Possible. 

Now dont get me wrong, we played great football until 2010. The CL 2012 and after that was more often than not complete park the bus. Last season the players lacked spine and Psg spanked us every season. 

I didnt like football we played last few years with exception of Conte october2016-january 2017 run.

But the football we played before 2010 was great. We didnt always win, but we sure put superb performance in nearly every big game. Not the bs we have to watch past few years with few exceptions.

I will suppport Chelsea whatever happens, but IMO we wont win shit if we go full Guardiola/Sarri approach. Even Guardiola himself sucks in CL for years now. We need to play pragmatic or like Real plays. Nice football, but dont let that blind you from how pragmatic they are. Pulling all kinds of tricks. 

I hope we dont get to play the way City does, a bunch of pussies with no identity that gets spanked by every tactical manager in CL. Their defenders are wankers, know how to pass and walk with the ball, but cant defend. I guess thats modern football nowdays. 

I admire Atletico to stick with their style, the same style we once had. But we turned into sheep who follow latest trends. 

If board truly decided to play fancy, then fucking stick with it. Get managers and players that suit it, get competent board and create new identity. But fucking show some guts and determination and bring players that give a shit and have a spine.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

47 minutes ago, BlueLyon said:

The problem was in Chelsea and AVB. We are counter attacking team. Period. We played great football under Mou in his first spell and Ancelotti. Yes there were shit games, but generaly we dominated opponents. Then we suddenly want to play fancy under Avb? Sure it will backfire. We had 10 years of pragmatic football and that created identity within club. Obviously you cant change that in one summer like we tried with Avb. Its like you would want Barca to play like Atletico starting next season. 

Mate, this fancy football hype is unbelievable.

Everyone is bandwagoning the fancy football nowdays. 

Bring me Drogs and Lamps squad ahead of these Guardiola style cunts anyday of the week.

People think we were parking the bus all the time back in the day. Thing is we played great too, destroying teams. But obviously against Barca or similar big team, you will defend. 

You think we will play ball against Barca or City and win at their own game if we meet under Sarri? Haha. Or maybe win once but lose next one, like Pool did. You just have to know when to stay back and defend. And be great at it. That wins you titles. Thats why Madrid wins it. 

Can Sarri push back and defend efficiently?

What we need is to create a team that can dominate in sense of being in control. Not a team that can keep the possesion and play fancy. Dont know where this obssesion comes from. 

Why is everyone trying to make revolution here? Whats wrong with pragmatic football? The media keeps banging that tiki taka shit that made people brainwashed. Praising Bonucci, Otamendi, Ramos best defenders in the world, when it was obvious they werent even best in their own team (Pepe, Barzagli, Chielini were)

Does Atleti give a shit how they play? They play their own way and with quality players they are up with the best. 

But we have to change, play fancy blah blah.

Yeah, we must get rid of the pussies in the squad. We must become dominant again. People think we will dominate and be best only if we play offensive football. Bullshit. Back in 2003-2010 we went toe to toe with any team in the world. They had superstars, we had determination. Everyone feared us at Bridge. We had powerful squad and when we went in offense, man, we could destroy anyone. Long shots, corners, freekicks, crosses, headers,...we had it all. 

We could defend 80min, then go to offense for 10 min and they didnt know what hit them. Thats what you call being in control.

You dont need Sarri/Guardiola possesion football to be good. 

Real, Barca, City will always have best attackers suited to such game. We will never beat them in their own yard. 

But pragmatic approach where they attack and we do them on counter? Possible. 

Now dont get me wrong, we played great football until 2010. The CL 2012 and after that was more often than not complete park the bus. Last season the players lacked spine and Psg spanked us every season. 

I didnt like football we played last few years with exception of Conte october2016-january 2017 run.

But the football we played before 2010 was great. We didnt always win, but we sure put superb performance in nearly every big game. Not the bs we have to watch past few years with few exceptions.

I will suppport Chelsea whatever happens, but IMO we wont win shit if we go full Guardiola/Sarri approach. Even Guardiola himself sucks in CL for years now. We need to play pragmatic or like Real plays. Nice football, but dont let that blind you from how pragmatic they are. Pulling all kinds of tricks. 

I hope we dont get to play the way City does, a bunch of pussies with no identity that gets spanked by every tactical manager in CL. Their defenders are wankers, know how to pass and walk with the ball, but cant defend. I guess thats modern football nowdays. 

I admire Atletico to stick with their style, the same style we once had. But we turned into sheep who follow latest trends. 

If board truly decided to play fancy, then fucking stick with it. Get managers and players that suit it, get competent board and create new identity. But fucking show some guts and determination and bring players that give a shit and have a spine.

When AVB came the old guard were already declining. While the attempt at switching styles didn't help let's not put all the blame solely on that.

The old guard were already declining and the investment in the squad wasn't the same as it had been in the very beginning of the Roman Abramovich era.

"You think we will play ball against Barca or City and win at their own game if we meet under Sarri?" 

It really isn't as impossible as you're making it seem. These teams aren't invincible. As good as they are they also don't like it when you push back. When you press them high up the pitch they also struggle at times. 

Noone is saying we should be gung ho about it, Like you really seem to have a very weird and extremely naive view of possession (fancy) football. Like it's apparently impossible to combine defensive solidity with good possession football.

The 2 aren't mutually exclusive.

You just have to know when to stay back and defend. And be great at it. That wins you titles. Thats why Madrid wins it. 

Madrid ? Madrid aren't a pragmatic side nor a great defensive side. They are very much a possession side. Just a really experienced one.

Can Sarri push back and defend efficiently?

Well looking at Napoli in the 3 years that Sarri was there.

15-16 : 2nd place 82 points 80 goals scored  32 conceded

16-17 : 3rd place 86 points 94 goals scored 39 conceded 

17-18: 2nd place 91 points 77goals scored 29 conceded 

I would say he can. 

 

I honestly just want to be able to enjoy watching us play. Last couple of years have been hard to watch from a purely entertainment view.

It's not really that difficult to understand possession -> control. While control can also be achieved through controlling the spaces it's still beneficial to have the ball as it allows you to take the initiative. 

Real Madrid really aren't a pragmatic side. They played with a 2 man midfield consisting of Kroos and Modric for big parts these last few years with Carvajal and Marcelo constantly pushing up high.  . I think only last season they started to use Casemiro as teams were starting to hurt them on the counter. 

 

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

3 hours ago, Belgiannutt said:

When AVB came the old guard were already declining. While the attempt at switching styles didn't help let's not put all the blame solely on that.

The old guard were already declining and the investment in the squad wasn't the same as it had been in the very beginning of the Roman Abramovich era.

"You think we will play ball against Barca or City and win at their own game if we meet under Sarri?" 

It really isn't as impossible as you're making it seem. These teams aren't invincible. As good as they are they also don't like it when you push back. When you press them high up the pitch they also struggle at times. 

Noone is saying we should be gung ho about it, Like you really seem to have a very weird and extremely naive view of possession (fancy) football. Like it's apparently impossible to combine defensive solidity with good possession football.

The 2 aren't mutually exclusive.

You just have to know when to stay back and defend. And be great at it. That wins you titles. Thats why Madrid wins it. 

Madrid ? Madrid aren't a pragmatic side nor a great defensive side. They are very much a possession side. Just a really experienced one.

Can Sarri push back and defend efficiently?

Well looking at Napoli in the 3 years that Sarri was there.

15-16 : 2nd place 82 points 80 goals scored  32 conceded

16-17 : 3rd place 86 points 94 goals scored 39 conceded 

17-18: 2nd place 91 points 77goals scored 29 conceded 

I would say he can. 

 

I honestly just want to be able to enjoy watching us play. Last couple of years have been hard to watch from a purely entertainment view.

It's not really that difficult to understand possession -> control. While control can also be achieved through controlling the spaces it's still beneficial to have the ball as it allows you to take the initiative. 

Real Madrid really aren't a pragmatic side. They played with a 2 man midfield consisting of Kroos and Modric for big parts these last few years with Carvajal and Marcelo constantly pushing up high.  . I think only last season they started to use Casemiro as teams were starting to hurt them on the counter. 

 

 

If you said you didn't enjoy watching us play in Contes 1st year I'd call you a north Londoner mate. IMO we played some of the best football Ive seen us play. It was a great atmosphere in the stands and you could see the lads were enjoying playing together.

Thats what makes this season so much more difficult to get our heads around it.

Similar to the 2 seasons previous. its like we get a biannual PMS!

So by rights Sarri will come in, we will extract the urine out of the league and then we will need tampons the next season and need another manager.

I'm going to start practicing thee black arts. Just need some chickens to sacrifice now. Will gooners work instead do you think?

[Tomo 21,751]

6 hours ago, Belgiannutt said:

 

I honestly just want to be able to enjoy watching us play. Last couple of years have been hard to watch from a purely entertainment view.

It's not really that difficult to understand possession -> control. While control can also be achieved through controlling the spaces it's still beneficial to have the ball as it allows you to take the initiative. 

Real Madrid really aren't a pragmatic side. They played with a 2 man midfield consisting of Kroos and Modric for big parts these last few years with Carvajal and Marcelo constantly pushing up high.  . I think only last season they started to use Casemiro as teams were starting to hurt them on the counter. 

The last couple?

Last season for sure, but 16/17 we were playing great stuff, maybe not Pep, Sarri or Klopp level but certainly the tier below.

[AK-3001 286]

Headed over to Juve forums and the fans are really angry about Juve asking just 35 million euros for him. They're also not happy that the club apparently is open to selling Rugani cause their CBs are really old, 3 of them above the age of 30. They wanted to see Caldara + Rugani partnership at Juve and Italy both.

 

This reminds me of Rudiger's signing last season. No one was really excited because it's not a big name and we were bailing out on Ake for him. But see how that's turned out. 

 

I'd listen to the Juve fans on this, they are unhappy that Allegri isn't developing him exactly although he's looked good with Chiellini and their results have been the best with this partnership than any other all season. 

 

Just finding out numbers and how he isn't preferred over Barzagli isn't enough imo. It could go either way, but there's not much to lose, but a lot to gain from this signing. 

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

12 hours ago, Tomo said:

The last couple?

Last season for sure, but 16/17 we were playing great stuff, maybe not Pep, Sarri or Klopp level but certainly the tier below.

Fair enough on 16/17 although like you said yourself not quite on the Pep Sarri Klopp level. It was more of a direct type of football and we still heavily adapted when we faced the bigger teams in the league.

Also under Mourinho we only really played well for half a season. Before Mourinho 2.0 it also was pretty meh. RDM tried but couldn't get the balance right and with Benitez there was a decent structure to our play but nothing stand out about it. 

 

That's probably what i'm looking forward to the most If/when Sarri comes.

That we'd actually try to attack, try to play out, try to press in big games. You know actually put up a fight instead of crawling into a ball and hope they punch themselves out. 

Even just thinking about the Man City game this season pisses me off. 

 

 

 

[the wes 7,212]

There's alot of rumours flying about that Rugani will be Chelsea 1st signing 

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Really hope this is just his agent planting stories to raise his stock... Not a fan of this guy at all

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Weren't we linked with him last season or the one before?  I thought he was seen as a left sided CB in a 3 man defence.  It's odd that we're supposedly close to this deal with Conte and the 3/5 ATB on the way out the door (supposedly).

[akgw13 867]

11 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

Weren't we linked with him last season or the one before?  I thought he was seen as a left sided CB in a 3 man defence.  It's odd that we're supposedly close to this deal with Conte and the 3/5 ATB on the way out the door (supposedly).

I think you might be thinking of Romagnoli, he was the young italian CB who mainly plays in a 3 we were hot on for awhile.

You very well could be right though, at that time we were linked with every smooth ball playing italian CB for the Don. 

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

2 hours ago, akgw13 said:

I think you might be thinking of Romagnoli, he was the young italian CB who mainly plays in a 3 we were hot on for awhile.

You very well could be right though, at that time we were linked with every smooth ball playing italian CB for the Don. 

I thought it was both that we were linked with.  Definately remember Romagnoli.

Either way, it's an odd signing if it does happen.  Of all the positions that need strengthening (with depth), CB isn't really one of them.

 

[akgw13 867]

28 minutes ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

I thought it was both that we were linked with.  Definately remember Romagnoli.

Either way, it's an odd signing if it does happen.  Of all the positions that need strengthening (with depth), CB isn't really one of them.

 

I think we do need a CB who understands Sarri, Rugani fits the clubs MO and Sarris. Cahill wont be able to play this way, Zouma is a project still, Luiz is seemingly heading out the door. That just leaves Rudiger & Christensen with a lot of games to be played. I am alright when/if this deal gets done. I wouldn't be surprised to see Rugani in serious contention as our opening day CB truthfully.