[Danny]

Never quite sure where to start a thread so 'other' always seems best.

Just wanted to get general opinion from the board as to your feelings on our summer recruits so far - do you guys think we're in the right direction?

Personally I know little of Musacchio, but as Han says, a vital cog in Spain's second best defence last season has to be a decent recruit.

Kessie seems like the powerful box to box dynamic midfielder we've lacked in a long time - while Jack sort of fills that role, he's much more of an attacking midfielder really, so Kessie is a great piece of business.

Rodriguez is a great signing - comes from a great stable, a good age, and a massive upgrade over the garbage of De Sciglio.

Then there's Silva. Meh, I'm not blown away by his record, or his attitude. He's only young, true, but we've spent a lot of money on a player who appears combustible and who doesn't have a good scoring record in a weaker league than Serie A. I defer judgement on this one but it's not a signing I'm enthralled by.

Last but not least Borini. A sh*t signing, plain and simple. Not even good enough to be a squad player, I have no idea what he's doing here.

But I can pick it up with Calhanoglu - we appear close to this one, and from what I know of him, which is not a lot in truth, he's a top class attacking midfielder who would be such an upgrade to what we have.

Overall? I'm cautiously pleased. We've signed a lot of very good players and one or two I'm a little wary of. I wanted this done in 2011, but it's better late than never. Unfortunately rather than, as it would have been in 2011, adding fine players to a world class squad, we're rebuilding really from scratch.

But for me, it appears to be closer to going to Milan as we should be rather than in a poor direction.

7/10.

13/7/17 update:

We've now got Conti, Biglia and Bonucci. A RB, a CM, and a world class CB.

Suddenly we have a top four team. We now have a top four team. Yes. I am not going to declare a Scudetto challenge but we're much closer to one than we were a few days ago. This is now looking like a Milan level team.

This post has been edited by Danny: Jul 13 2017, 10:37 PM

[han2503]

You better be right!



Yeah, I have to agree too. On reflection, we didn't sign Musacchio to bench him. All three will start and we'll go 3. Which means Conte RWB and Rodriguez LWB therefore Jack, Kessie and Biglia central, Silva front and Belotti up top.

Why though? Holding on to Suso is only going to be beneficial for us. He might not even be an outright starter next season anyway, but a great squad player. He's on low wages and a great asset to have. Add to that for 22m I would tell Spurs to f off. He's worth more than that, if Bernardo Silva is worth 40m than so does Suso, he has very similar stats and played in a much more difficult league last season

For 40m I would consider it, but nothing less, especially from an EPL side, when they're wasting huge sums on mediocre players from their own league. Look at the Kyle Walker transfer FFS!

I think what we might see is one of Suso or Jack being SS, with Silva as playmaking CF. I have to admit I'm a bit worried about this enormous financial gamble that has been taken, with no CL in sight and the pressure it brings. Just think of Inter and the spent they did a year or two ago. We've spent more.


In fact with Bonucci's purchase I think we smash the all-time Serie A transfer spend record set by Juventus for a single season.

So at this moment in time, I can't say I'm all-on on spending another 60-70MM for a forward. Let's just sort of lay off the gas right? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

I think they'll rotate Silva, Hakan and Kessie tbh.

I am 100% sure we're getting a striker, a pure CF to either partner Silva or be the main forward in a single striker system. We'll have to see what formation is going to be used. If it's a 3 at the back we can either go 3-4-3, 3-5-1 or 3-4-1-2, Suso and Bona fit in all of them either next to the striker or behind him. I think Hakan is more of a central player, I don't think he should be used on the wings.

If we go for 4 at the back that poses a bit of an issue, especially if we add another CF into the mix

Those aren't really reasons, more like justifications. 3-5-2 is an outdated system, my friend. No big team in Europe employs it except Chelsea, and that's because of Conte. Even Juventus have dropped it in favor of the more modern and versatile 4-2-3-1. That should tell you something.

Moreover, I wouldn't want to sacrifice the likes of Bonaventura and Suso just because you don't want to bench Musacchio. We finally have three attacking midfielders, two of which can play on the wing. Let's use them.

I disagree. I think formations tend to go in fads. Atm the 3-man backline is in fashion thanks to Conte, not many teams can deploy it because it's a more complex system and your players have to know what they're doing but, I think it can be great if applied correctly.

Look at Real last season, they played a 4-3-1-2 with Isco in the hole. That's an "outdated" formation according to most but the won the CL using it