It is looking more and more like the Premier League could be a destination for Alexis Saelemaekers with three clubs having expressed interest, according to a report.
Calciomercato.com are claim that the Premier League is ‘crazy about Saelemaekers’, who returned to Milan after a good season in Bologna with four goals and three assists but above all qualification for the Champions League achieved against all the odds.
After some early injury problems, the Belgian winger seemed to really get his confidence back with the Rossoblu which is why it was a surprise to many when they didn’t use their option to buy him permanently. Thiago Motta’s departure as head coach was a big factor, though.
The report adds that are two newly-promoted teams in England after him: Leicester City and Ipswich Town. Nottingham Forest are also in the hunt, and other offers are arriving from the same league.
At the moment the former Anderlecht man is training with his team-mates under the orders of Paulo Fonseca but for Milan he remains on the list of those that can be sold and the management will listen to the offers that come in.
Geoffrey Moncada and his team will naturally prefer bids that provide the chance for a permanent sale, with an asking price of around €10-15m set.
Good for him.
I don’t understand this.
Saelemaekers proved to be a solid LW with Thiago Motta last season.
Why not keep him as a substitute for Leao, and play Noah Okafor as a substitute striker.
This way we would have 3 decent strikers
A proper number 9 (Jovic)
A false 9 (Okafor)
And one who participates in build-up and is good in counter attacks (Morata)
This solution will save us resources to invest on a quality DM and a young solid CB.
It’s a shame but we don’t have space.
The squad needs to be reduced to 23-25.
We don’t even have space for Jovic.
Our attack needs to be Puli, Chuk, Leao, Okafor, Morata and Camarda.
If we’re serious about those players that’s what we need.
Anyone else will deny minutes, not just individually but collectively.
Most title winning sides have gone for 3/2 or 4/3: Duff/Cole/Robben, Wilford/Ljunberg/Pires,
Pirlo/Gattuso/Seedorf/Ambrosini
Pirlo/Vidal/Marchisio/Pogba
Chiellini/Bonucci/Barzagli/Cáceres
Iniesta/Messi/Neymar/Suarez
11 of Inter’s players played 40+ games last season.
That’s what we need to be aiming for.
Any players who take away from that need to go.
You got something wrong there.
Camarda is eligible for the list B (players who are under-23). Clubs can register an unlimited numebr of those players. So players like Camarda, Zeroli, and even Simic do not count.
Secondly, you need at least 2 players in each position. And with the current formation we have 4 positions up front (ST/AM/RW/LW).
So:
RW: Pulisic/Chukwueze
LW: Leao/Saelemaekers
AM: Loftus-Cheek/Okafor
ST: Morata/Jovic
I honestly don’t know why we are looking for a third striker. I t doesn’t make any sense, especially when one of your forwards (Okafor) can already play false 9.
I’m not bothered by some squad rule that doesn’t seem to be effective at reducing the size of first team squads in Serie A or developing youth players.
In fact they should insist youth players be included in first team squads and cap them at 25.
I am more concerned about the players actually reaching their potential. The two for every position is a myth.
As shown above, most title winning sides rotated across 3/2, 4/3 or 6/4.
The core of the squad should be about 18-19 players with the remainder made up of youth and experience (which is why we should’ve hung onto Kjaer).
Btw.. it’s a huge mistake to sign too many players in the same position.
In 2015 we signed both Luiz Adriano and Carlos Bacca, before signing Gianluca Lapadula in 2016.
Instead of creating a healthy competition, it turned out to be a mess.
Too many players in the same position, means not enough playing minutes for any of them.. which also means that they are constantly under the pressure of trying to impress the coach.. which means they end up playing for themselves as opposed to playing for the team.
The third striker idea (unless we’re offloading Jovic or Okafor) is a terrible idea. I’ve seen too many of these case in 30 years of watching football. Absolutely none of them ended well.
100% agree with you here.
I hope they get offered 6m and see what it is like dealing with time wasting low ballers