[Fillipo Simone]

All January transfer talk here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[han2503]

I'll stop you right there.

Irreplaceable? I think you overrate Biglia a lot. Sure, tactically he's a smart player, but he is far from being irreplaceable. In modern football you can't just be good at something and hope to be a crucial asset. It's why there are no one-dimensional players like Gattuso and Inzaghi anymore.

A holding midfielder has to be good not only at holding his position and keeping the midfield tight, but also to dictate play, to play smart balls, to makes assists and goals etc. Biglia contributes very little when we have the ball. He's very limited in that aspect, and that makes him very replaceable in my eyes.

Woah, I think you misunderstood me there. I'm not saying Biglia is irreplaceable because he's an elite player who cannot be replaced by an outside source. But right now in this squad he is and that is something that is common knowledge for every Milan fan. And if Paredes is our target Biglia would still be irreplaceable as I don't think Paredes is good enough to be the jump in quality we need.

Don't get me wrong, he's good, but he's not as positionally good as Biglia and with Kessie's undisciplined style you absolutely need someone who is capable of sitting and positioning himself to be a cover for the defence. I actually said that his passing game is not up to par, but his replacement has to be someone who's good in the defensive phase as well as a very good passer and I don't think Paredes ticks both those boxes

As for Barella, he can play any position in midfield. Since we have (apparently) signed Paqueta and I expect Gattuso to play him as LCM, an eventual signing of Barella would make much more sense having him in the holding mid role. The fact we're also after Paredes makes me think that we want to find a Biglia replacement for next season.

True, but you have to look at the kind of midfield we're building

Paqueta--Barella--Kessie looks good on paper but it certainly has weaknesses, especially defensive ones.

We'll have to see what Paqueta is like, but he strikes me as a more attack minded mid, so we'd have to see how all these elements could fit in there. For me Kessie has to be more disciplined in his positioning for us to have someone like Barella and Paqueta playing next to him.