But who is? Certainly not Biglia. Plus let's not forget: Bakayoko had a very bad start last season, but then Biglia had that long-term injury which allowed him to play regularly, hence gaining confidence and becoming a very viable asset.

Bennacer started in the second match against Brescia, where he played a very good match, but then for some odd reason was benched against Verona and Inter, only to be played again vs Torino and Fiorentina, then benched again vs Genoa.

A new player needs continuity, Giampaolo clearly did not understand that. One of the many reasons his @ss got fired.

I agree with Filippo though that Baka was a massive loss for us this season.

And really, what off field stupidity? The shirt thing with Acerbi? That's just them needling an opponent. What was truly stupid was the club's slience when he was racially abused by the Lazio fans who were up in arm about him holding Acerbi's shirt up but saw nothing wrong in waving a banana at him. That was disgusting from our club's end imo. How they did not back him but were quick to reprimand him for the shirt joke

And yes, he is a massive loss. The amount of balls he recovered and attacks he started from those recoveries were countless and are missed now

Re Benaccer, we simply haven't really been able to see what he can really do, but he looks very promising imo. Giampaolo treated him unfairly, and I hope Pioli can get the best out of him

Paqueta and Piatek were also looking terrible under Giampaolo, and we've seen how great they can be from last season. So it's obviously been a pretty obvious connection between the coach and how all the players just seem stifled compared to last season under Rino

Piatek started looking awful since last season. He had a fantastic start, but after, what, 9-10 games he scored only once till the end of the season. So, it's not just down to Giampaolo.

I honestly don't want him starting any more games. He doesn't score, he doesn't protect the ball, loses it very often, doesn't assist his teammates, and on top of it all he's very selfish.

Start Leao as CF with Rebic and Suso on the flanks I say. And have Paqueta play more advanced and Kessie more retracted. And start Bennacer. If Pioli wants to get it right, he must start from the correct man selection.

Piatek started looking bad last season when the entire team dipped in form, he's a striker that relies on service. If you're not giving him anything to work with, he's not going to create something out of nothing by himself.

Of course, this does not mean that I am disputing what you're saying in any way. I think a 4-2-3-1 with a all those players you listed would be the best possible solution, but I would not disregard Piatek just yet. He's lost confidence, and that has fueled the so called "selfish" streak, the constant shooting from players when they should be passing is mostly born out of frustration, we've seen Suso and Hakan doing it constantly as well

This.

And plus Suso himself is hardly known for altruistic play.

I'm a striker who relies on service. Give me easy balls to drop in the net, I can give you as many goals as you like. Why not just get Matri and Pazzini back then?

Come on, this idea of strikers relying on service is so 20 years ago. Piatek can barely control the ball. That has nothing to do with service.

Perhaps he just had some amazing 4-5 months last season that he'll never repeat again.

Yep. The fact that we're even talking about Piatek when Suso and Hakan are on the pitch is beyond me


Piatek was top notch all of last season - aside from the last few weeks with us when the entire team switched off, and he was scoring freely at Genoa, where I'm sure he was not being supplied to consistently.

He's generally lethal when he gets a chance, that's his talent. if you give him proper service he will score, but when you spend 90 minutes where all you get is sub-par balls in tight areas surrounded by 3 defenders in no-mans land because the midfield does not provide the right support and movement, then he really can't do much

This is not simply about service. We're just a static team ad have been for a while, this makes it difficult for the striker to even accomplish basic things like bringing down the ball and getting the others involved because no one is moving or making the correct runs in support. We just stand still and keep creating the same sideways passing patterns that allow the opposing team to shift back into position and stifle us.

Piatek has been struggling for sure, but the bad actors around him carry as much blame - if not more, than he does

As for Leao, i get the excitement about him, the kid is clearly supremely talented. But I don't agree with instantly making him our starting forward. I don' want to see us putting the kind of pressure on him that carrying this team would entail

I get your point man, I really do. But I've been watching Piatek game in and game out and the guy is just sh*t. Like, really, really sh*t. He can't do one single thing right.

And who knows, maybe if by some miracle we start playing well again he'll start scoring, but until then we cannot rely on a striker who's simply a ghost on the pitch.

Did anyone read about our financials this year? Loss of 160M. That's right, even worse than last year's loss of 126M, which was a negative record per se.

We are so f*cked. Like, seriously, there's no salvation. Even if by some miracle we qualify for CL football next season, you think UEFA will let a club with those numbers participate? We'll be banned, we'll be forced to sell all our players and end up with a team not even worthy of Serie A. That's how deep in sh*t we are.

'End up'?

I knew you'd say that.

I like to be predictable

Game tonight guys, let's see what happens now that Pioli is in charge. If we manage to score from open play it's already a good step forward in my eyes

I've seen more fluid football in these first 15 minutes than we've seen all season

Piatek is back!

We lost 2 points today but for once I'm not p!ssed off after a game. Some very encouraging signs today imo in terms of how we played.

We scored 2 goals from open play
Did not have anyone get sent off
Played with ideas and fluidity
Created plenty of chances

All of which are major improvements to the stuff we saw under Giampaolo

We made exactly 1.5 mistakes in defense and paid with 2 goals. Conti's was idiotic and the second goals was just amazing, maybe he could have been closed down better and we should have avoided bouncing around the ball so much so close to our area. But compared to the utter stupidity of the last 2 months, this was leaps and bounds better than what we've been seeing this season

Sure we lost 2 points against an easy side going into a brutal month of fixtures. But at least it was a performance that we can build on compared to the atrocities of the last few months

Didn't watch the game, but it was Lecce. Let's not get our hopes up. I doubt things can improve under Pioli so quickly.

Let's see how we'll fare against Roma next week. That's going to be a real test.

w0rd.

Roma are having a bad moment as well, not to mention they have half the squad out injured. A win against them would boost morale and turn things around. We'll see.

If GP was still the coach, we would have seen the same dire BS we'd been seeing all season.

I haven't seen these players play like this since the season Rino took over.

I think the major issue under GP was that he just did not inspire the players, not to mention the confusion with the system, he has about as much charisma as a door knob and that translated.

Yesterday there was energy and enthusiasm on the pitch and a bit more accuracy in front of goal would have seen us win by 4

Leao missed some sitters, that was my issue with him, he's insanely talented but just as green. Piatek got one clear chance and put it in, something he wasn't getting a sniff of before.

I've read a lot about Pioli in these last 2 weeks and his main attribute seems to be his ability to form relationships with his players, and with this particular set of players that is absolutely necessary. Hakan looked like a completely different player yesterday. We've played good teams and bad teams so far this season and we've looked p!ss poor against both sets.

Sure it was just Lecce, but at least I was seeing players willing to actually play, unlike what we saw just a few weeks before. We were moving the ball quickly, creating spaces with movement and more willingness to play for each other. All very basic concepts which were missing before but were present yesterday. That's why I'm hopeful, a lot more hopeful than I was with GP at the helm that's for sure.

As a door knob aficionado, I find your comment very rude.

Watched the extended highlights. We created so much, especially in the first half. Leao wasted a couple of good opportunities there. It's a shame we didn't take the 3 points, cos Lecce barely created anything at all.

PS: Calhanoglu was on fire.

As I was saying...

Yes. I love Calhanaoglu..I have no idea why..but I really hope he reaches his potential.

You love Calhanoglu?

Hakan can be great but can be twice as bad.

He single handedly cost us 3 games with his mistakes

He's never been great since he's joined us. Good at times, terrible at others.

I think he's had some great games, but you can count those games on one hand and still have fingers to spare, which is simply not good enough

Since he joined us? You all overrated him stubbornly thinking he can be something which suited our dream modes but in reality he was a player that failed at Hamburg and Leverkusen before coming here an failing once again. Next stop Galatasaray or Besiktas or whatever.

Btw anyone watching the game today? Starting in a few minutes, I see the depression hit another low here. Not even one comment or lineup talk...

Hernandez might be one of the best signings we've made in the last few years.

Also, get off Biglia FFS.

Biglia??? Get off Kessie. Have you seen what he's done? Also Dzeko's goal is on him as well. Kessie is a walking disaster. Conti also. So many mistakes and wtf moments. A junk player.

Not that Biglia did good, but those two were terrible.

And yes, Hernandez is a great catch. If only he had someone to play with. Leao seems to be fading away rapidly as well..

I started watching the game from the 25th minute or so, and I thought Kessie did alright. But yes, their goal was on him.

Strangely, the moment I thought Conti was doing well he started to have one brain fart after another.

Biglia IMO is the epitome of apathy. He adds nothing to our game.

We need to be more dangerous upfront. That's what we're lacking right now.

THEO!

Bennacer plz

and Conti is too weak defensively

So many individual errors...

I have no words for the mistakes we make. Sunday league football.

Comes from low self confidence..

The defending o the corers has been non-existent. Roma should have scored 3 off of these, not 1

Indeed.

Also, Calabria's mistake came from yet another attempt at playing the ball from Donnarumma. When you see the opposition pressing so high, just kick it in midfield. We're not good enough to play short passes in defense.

Nevertheless, Calabria has to be slapped all night for that idiotic pass.

Oh man..at this rate I hope we avoid relegation

Never seen a more AWOL game from Suso. Sometimes you even forget he's playing.

Yep, and it's not as if he was the only one doing it. Conti, Biglia and Kessie all got caught out in similar areas.

Honestly, I don't know what to say about this team anymore. If it's not a lethargic team display, it's individual errors and one special nights like tonight it's a mix of both

I still think that there has been a marked improvement under Pioli but it's just not enough. And with the grueling November fixture list ahead of us, it's not going to get any better


Suso has been bad all season. His constant shooting or going inside is so predictable it's painful to watch at this point.

So, so many individual errors. Even the commentators were saying that it was practically a festival of errors from our side. Roma didn't deserve to win tonight, we handed the 3 points to them.

If we keep going like that we'll be a relegation side by Christmas. My God how deep are we in mess.

So we're playing tonight, but I'm choosing a different horror movie for Halloween.

So many jokes about that today on Instagram.

Anyway, we won.

Well we won. So there's that...

A really sloppy first half. Rushed, full of errors and could barely hold onto the ball. Slightly better 2nd but still far and away from good enough

I just don't know where this team goes at this point. We've gone from super slow and lethargic under Giampaolo to a rushed and sloppy mess under Pioli

We need to keep the ball better and control the game, especially against teams like SPAL. We're too narrow and predictable with our movements. It makes it easy for teams to simply press us.

We have Lazio next, so that's probably another loss

You could see the sheer amount of pressure the players are under in the way they played that first half, the agitation was clear to see and this is no way to approach games. Pioli needs to do better. I can clearly see a change from how we played under GP, but it mostly feels like a sideways step rather than a forward one