Dusan Vlahovic | Signed for Juventus

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Or you could accept that Italian football is about as close to international football as it gets and, even in downturns, Italy has been able to win trophies on the international stage.

There can be good players who cannot perform in other leagues. Italian football has always been slower and more methodical in comparison to England.

Germany is as close to the English game in terms of both the energy and transitions, irrespective of your competitiveness argument, as Pep has also stated previously.

Lukaku has done little so far and I will also reserve judgement on Ronaldo, as he is a stop-gap signing, rather than someone City would be relying to score goals for the next five years.

Vlahovic might well be a decent player, but he's not the level of Kane or Haaland.
Maybe for the typical English team a player coming from the Italian league could be a guarantee of very little, but given that that’s a very tactical league (easily on average more so than the PL), I would say that for a Pep team that’s a good place to come from
 
Just a general question

Where have all the Suarez, Aguero, Tevez and Falcao types of strikers gone.

A few years ago everyone wanted small quick mobile strikers

Everyone seems to be a big lump these days

Tbh, the last few years have had a paucity of high quality strikers in general really. If you think about the best forwards in the world across the major leagues, they're all either very late 20s or early 30s now, or even retired. Ronaldo, Messi, Salah, Kane, Aguero, Suarez, Lewandowski, Lukaku, Immobile etc etc. There's Mbappe and Haaland, and now maybe this Vlahovic fella, but there definitely is a lack of great strikers in their mid 20s. It's either a couple of really young ones, or older ones.
 
Maybe for the typical English team a player coming from the Italian league could be a guarantee of very little, but given that that’s a very tactical league (easily on average more so than the PL), I would say that for a Pep team that’s a good place to come from

Perhaps, certainly for a defender or midfielder, the tactics in Italy would be more aligned to the technical requirements of Pep.

For a number nine, however, certainly one who will be expected to not only know where the goal is, but who can press with the bastard intensity of Jesus, I would still have reservations over a striker coming out of Serie A (all hypothetical at this stage)
 
Just a general question

Where have all the Suarez, Aguero, Tevez and Falcao types of strikers gone.

A few years ago everyone wanted small quick mobile strikers

Everyone seems to be a big lump these days
Chiesa seems the closest to that type,and would be very welcome.
 
The only kids that will have any chance are going have to be exeptional ala Foden.

Lavia could well be another, but if you think Pep will throw him into the middle of the park when we are trying to retain a title, think again.
I've never suggested that.I do believe he could be slowly integrated into the side though,while Rodri,Dinho,Gundo,and maybe others,share the bulk of our assault.
Hes a talent and hes capable,the opportunity may be all he needs.
 
Perhaps, certainly for a defender or midfielder, the tactics in Italy would be more aligned to the technical requirements of Pep.

For a number nine, however, certainly one who will be expected to not only know where the goal is, but who can press with the bastard intensity of Jesus, I would still have reservations over a striker coming out of Serie A (all hypothetical at this stage)
I can understand your reservations as a general rule but based on my observation, I would say they do not apply to Vlahovic. Certainly doesn’t make sense to me being hesitant about him but welcoming of Nunez who is less dangerous, less complete and playing in a much weaker league. Saw him vs Argentina last night and it was pretty bad
 
Tbh, the last few years have had a paucity of high quality strikers in general really. If you think about the best forwards in the world across the major leagues, they're all either very late 20s or early 30s now, or even retired. Ronaldo, Messi, Salah, Kane, Aguero, Suarez, Lewandowski, Lukaku, Immobile etc etc. There's Mbappe and Haaland, and now maybe this Vlahovic fella, but there definitely is a lack of great strikers in their mid 20s. It's either a couple of really young ones, or older ones.

This is a classic generation thing, like we've seen in Tennis and Australian cricket after the 90's team. There's few world class 25 year old strikers because the 1987-1992ish generation took all the best jobs.

People define strikers by how they do for big clubs in big games, so you can't become a world class striker if City have Aguero, Barcelona have Messi and Suarez, Bayern have Lewandowski, PSG have Cavani, United have Rooney, Madrid have Benzema and Higuain. There's not positions left at big CL clubs to look or become world class.

Instead we have a generation who haven't quite lived up to their potential or are late bloomers because they got stuck behind the previous lot and didn't get game time. Werner, Jesus, Correa, Dybala, Andre Silva, Icardi, Morata, Alcacer, Martial etc. Now all regarded as not quite good enough.

It's probably a product of the big clubs having ever increasing money to buy up and comers as soon as they show promise and park them behind a world class striker.

A lot of that 25-30 year old generation got bought up at 18-22 and put on a bench, instead of getting to play and improve through their early 20s and become world class.

But now there's going to be a generation of players who come of age just as the 1987-1992 lot are finishing, and they'll take all the top positions at the top clubs for a decade.
 
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This is a classic generation thing, like we've seen in Tennis and Australian cricket after the 90's team. There's few world class 25 year old strikers because the 1987-1992ish generation took all the best jobs.

People define strikers by how they do for big clubs in big games, so you can't become a world class striker if City have Aguero, Barcelona have Messi and Suarez, Bayern have Lewandowski, PSG have Cavani, United have Rooney, Madrid have Benzema and Higuain. There's not positions left at big CL clubs to look or become world class.

Instead we have a generation who haven't quite lived up to their potential or are late bloomers because they got stuck behind the previous lot and didn't get game time. Werner, Jesus, Correa, Dybala, Andre Silva, Icardi, Morata, Alcacer, Martial etc. Now all regarded as not quite good enough.

It's probably a product of the big clubs having ever increasing money to buy up and comers as soon as they show promise and park them behind a world class striker.

A lot of that 25-30 year old generation got bought up at 18-22 and put on a bench, instead of getting to play and improve through their early 20s and become world class.

But now there's going to be a generation of players who come of age just as the 1987-1992 lot are finishing, and they'll take all the top positions at the top clubs for a decade.

I agree. I think it's a direct result of the increased longevity of forward players overall. Years ago you'd panic if your top striker was 28 as the countdown would be on, now we'd be asking our clubs why they *don't* give their 28 key player 300k a week in a new contract. 28 is nothing. Coincidentally, now is a great time to be an up and coming striker. There are gonna be LOTS of gaps at big clubs very soon.
 
I think people are exaggerating with the narrative Haaland/Kane or nobody. We should appreciate transfers we made until now. Only minor mistake in recent transfer history could be letting Leroy Sane but on the other hand he was unhappy in the club at that moment. We need a player that can play at a proper striker position with decent physicality. Can you imagine results we could have if Vlahovic was with us in the last season? His 10-15 goals could make a difference in those games like against Chelsea in UCL or last week against Liverpool.
 
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