Serie A 16/17

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Paredes has been called up to the Argentina national team for the first time. Him+Sampaoli... hnnnngggggg.
 

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Roma down 1-0 to Chievo and they look slow and sloppy. Maybe they're due for a let-down after the victory over Juve. Could throw a wrench in the race for the CL spots.

Or not.
 

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Salah is very good in inside positions. Not particularly surprising, but I'm glad Roma will get the three points.
 

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You don't think he is too one-footed?

Robben is just as one footed. Defenders know exactly what both these guys intend to do and still can't stop it. My sole concern with him would be AFCON. That being said I don't think we'll sign Salah or anyone as good as him.
 

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Robben is just as one footed. Defenders know exactly what both these guys intend to do and still can't stop it. My sole concern with him would be AFCON. That being said I don't think we'll sign Salah or anyone as good as him.

Robben is much better than Salah. Also Robben is playing on his correct side. Salah would have to switch to the left because Mane plays the right. Not sure how I feel about that.
 

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Robben wasn't better than Salah at 24 years old. Sure now he is, but not at the same age. I watch/watched both almost every week.
 

YNWA14

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Robben was better than Salah at 24. Pretty easily, also. He's almost always been world class.

That said I don't think that Salah is too one footed anyway. He wouldn't be as successful as he is if he were unable to accommodate it.
 

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Robben was better than Salah at 24. Pretty easily, also. He's almost always been world class.

That said I don't think that Salah is too one footed anyway. He wouldn't be as successful as he is if he were unable to accommodate it.

You mean when Chelsea and RM booted him out of their clubs he was better? Sorry, but no. I'd have taken both at Liverpool in their situations at 24, but one is better than the other was. And, like I said, I don't think Salah will be playing for Liverpool anyway. It's not Liverpool's transfer policy to pay that much for a player, and unfortunately I think he can also do better than Liverpool (like Bayern buying him, which makes total sense to me).

It's hard to argue with a winger having 15 goals in Serie A when Robben has played in more offensive leagues and only scored that many goals two times. When Robben was 24 playing for Real Madrid he scored 7 league goals. And like I said at that age I watched both players all the time. If Salah could become as good as Robben became that would be great, I'm not saying that's going to happen. Just that he's better at 24.
 
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Why did you say you were rooting for Juve last week but not Chievo this week? I assumed you wanted Napoli to finish 2nd.

Dortmund sealed third place and I wasn't sure that was going to happen, so now a Liverpool win tomorrow will give them the seeded qualification spot. I would rather not see Roma sell all their players now that this league is irrelevant as to what happens to Liverpool. If Roma finished third Liverpool would potentially have to face them.

Also, of the two clubs I prefer Roma in general.

Reason I was watching the game is because nothing else was on, though.
 

Corto

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You mean when Chelsea and RM booted him out of their clubs he was better? Sorry, but no.

Robben was a starter for the Real team that won the La Liga in 2008 (when he was 24) and again in 2009 when he was 25.
He was sold not because he sucked or anything, but because Perez came back to the club and brought in Ronaldo and Kaka. And no matter how good Robben was, peak Ronaldo is better.

I'm not sure where you're coming from here, saying that Robben was a failure at 24 tbh.
He was already world class, and yes, way better than Salah (although Salah's had a great season in Rome).
 

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Dortmund sealed third place and I wasn't sure that was going to happen, so now a Liverpool win tomorrow will give them the seeded qualification spot. I would rather not see Roma sell all their players now that this league is irrelevant as to what happens to Liverpool. If Roma finished third Liverpool would potentially have to face them.

Also, of the two clubs I prefer Roma in general.

Reason I was watching the game is because nothing else was on, though.

Oh I see. I hadn't looked ahead to the likely CL qualifiers.

I don't have a general preference for either but right now I really like Sarri. Roma are fun as well though.

Robben was a starter for the Real team that won the La Liga in 2008 (when he was 24) and again in 2009 when he was 25.
He was sold not because he sucked or anything, but because Perez came back to the club and brought in Ronaldo and Kaka. And no matter how good Robben was, peak Ronaldo is better.

I'm not sure where you're coming from here, saying that Robben was a failure at 24 tbh.
He was already world class, and yes, way better than Salah (although Salah's had a great season in Rome).

I agree with this. Madrid has discarded plenty of great players. Salah has surprised me with Roma, but Robben at 24 had similar athleticism and far better touch. Even if Robben hadn't put the whole package together in Madrid, he had far higher potential than Salah.
 

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I'm not sure where you're coming from here, saying that Robben was a failure at 24 tbh.

He was already world class, and yes, way better than Salah (although Salah's had a great season in Rome).

Didn't say he was a failure. I said he got the boot from RM and Chelsea. Which he did. Because he was often injured at Chelsea and because RM got destroyed in the CL by Liverpool. Chelsea's such a weird club though that it's hard to judge anything by that, because after all they sold Salah too.

The latter sentence is just not true, but I can see why people think that. Frankly, the road to the top for an Egyptian and Dutch player are so different that I don't blame anyone for thinking it. Let's put it this way. If Robben fires his team to the World Cup everyone will be paying attention. If they fail to make the Euro somebody else will be blamed. If Salah does it (and he is right now), nobody will even slightly pay attention. If Salah advances his team through AFCON by scoring nobody will care either. He did that by the way. Then he scores in the knockout rounds but nobody cares. Assist in the final, nobody cares. But if Salah was Dutch he would have been playing at Ajax from age 19-20 and long been at a top club. I'm just saying it's far more difficult for somebody from such a football backwater to get into the clubs Robben got to.

It's also not like this is Salah's first great season. He was Roma's top scorer last year from the wing in a notoriously difficult league to score in. The bloke also has 15 assists in all competitions and Dzeko will probably win the golden boot because of it. For what it's worth this will be Roma's greatest point total in history if they get just one more point. Most goals scored as well.

I don't have any particular fascination with Salah, he just is better than Robben at this age. The statistics prove it even though he's playing for worse teams and he doesn't have the injury problems Robben had. He is also a world class player. You'll only find a few wingers who contribute as much to their teams attack. Of course this is probably as good as Salah gets. Not arguing otherwise.

But the original comment was about Salah being one footed. Robben isn't one footed? Coutinho isn't? One footed has literally nothing to do with anything in football. Salah isn't even one of my favorite players (I don't really love wingers, my favorite players are always hard tackling CB's and deep midfielders), he's just a very good player.
 
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gary69

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You mean when Chelsea and RM booted him out of their clubs he was better? Sorry, but no. I'd have taken both at Liverpool in their situations at 24, but one is better than the other was. And, like I said, I don't think Salah will be playing for Liverpool anyway. It's not Liverpool's transfer policy to pay that much for a player, and unfortunately I think he can also do better than Liverpool (like Bayern buying him, which makes total sense to me).

It's hard to argue with a winger having 15 goals in Serie A when Robben has played in more offensive leagues and only scored that many goals two times. When Robben was 24 playing for Real Madrid he scored 7 league goals. And like I said at that age I watched both players all the time. If Salah could become as good as Robben became that would be great, I'm not saying that's going to happen. Just that he's better at 24.

Robben was very good in Chelsea when he was fit, he was just injured a bit too much. Robben - Duff pairing on the wings was a treat.
 

HajdukSplit

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So only things left to play for on the final day is...

2nd place (automatic CL spot): Roma need a win over Genoa with nothing to play for to secure second place. Napoli must beat Sampdoria and hope Roma fail to win

Nothing to play for in Europa League; Lazio and Atalanta are in the group stage, Milan will be in the qualifying

Relegation: Genoa are safe; down to Crotone and Empoli....Empoli go to already relegated Palermo and need a win. Crotone must win regardless (home to Lazio) and hope Empoli drop points
 

Corto

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Glad to see Milan get Europa. Baby steps but with the new owners hope they can get back into CL soon

It feels so weird seeing them struggle so.

As far as international football goes, everyone in Croatia grew up a fan of one of Celtic, Liverpool or Milan.
They had a huge fan club here, and its all just fallen to bits since Milan hit the ground so hard.
 

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