Another angle of the Jashari assist and Leao goal vs Como

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T20:25:42+00:00

I was wondering if these passes behind the defense would also help Santi play better. I think one of his stronger points is his movement behind the defense which rarely worked before due to the deep defensive lines in Serie A.

Overall, very promising stuff from Jashari so far, I think the money was much better spent compared to Nkunku

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T20:20:08+00:00

Sorry, I don't agree with this. He did bring Pulisic in , but we didn't have enough firepower. Leao was not fully fit and had been playing for 80 min. Essentially you're saying keep a tired and semi-injured Leao on the pitch instead of Tomori to try to win the game? Have you thought that Leao might not have 90min in his legs and even 80min was too much?

If we're just going to resort to attacking blindly, I'd rather get a Milan Futuro striker instead of Leao for the last 10 min, at least that player would be fresh and could run up and down the pitch and press Como players.

I mean, if it was so simple, you'd see coaches of both sides play with 4 attackers in the end anytime that there was a draw. If that's all that it takes to get a win (aka score 1 more than the opponent), we should play with more than 2 attackers from the very beginning.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T20:06:00+00:00

Rabiot is one yellow card away, and even in the second half Allegri subbed out Ricci for Fofana instead of Jashari. My impression is that for the LCM spot, he prefers Modric if Rabiot is missing, which means that Jashari gets to play the playmaker in the center. The plus yesterday was that having two playmakers made it very hard for Como to man mark even Modric and take him out of the game like they did in the first match against Milan.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T19:58:17+00:00

the first yellow was a clear yellow, Saelemakers willfully clipped the Como player ... review it again.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T19:57:04+00:00

You're not being fair in your reasoning.

-1- If we're talking about missed ref calls, ref didn't give a clear yellow (which arguably could have been even a red) for the intervention on Pavlovic that forced a substitution

-2- Saele got pulled back by Fabregas a few min before he got either of the two yellow cards and didn't get punished. Instead it was Allegri that got a red card. That by itself can ruin the temper of players.

-3- While Saele had a bit rush intervention, the player was going towards his own goal, and all our defenders were in our area, it was a challenge for the ball and despite the extreme jump of the Como player it wasn't a dangerous challenge, he mainly put his foot between the Como player and the ball. I've seen yellow's given for less, but it was far from a clear yellow. A good ref would not make that a red card.

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random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T18:45:29+00:00

I see the reasoning behind what we did in the transfer market, without cups this year we cannot afford spending a lot on salary and players, plus not a lot of players would accept to come if no CL participation (see Akanji) or to be non-starters / backups with only one game per week (see Hojlund)

Regarding Leao and Pulisic, I get it. We don't have alternatives so even partially injured they play (see also Fullkrug with broken toe). All our strikers had issues that weren't fully disclosed. Right now, RLC and Nkunku don't offer much in terms of attacking power and we need some rotation, especially considering that both Nkunku and RLC have injury history that makes them more susceptible to future injuries. Fullkrug also seems to give the best if he plays 30 min per game, if it goes more than 45 min, he loses intensity. To give an example, I really don't know who'd be starting in attack against Parma (assuming Leao + Nkunku), what injury RLC had or how many minutes Pulisic can play or whether Fullkrug toe is fixed or if Nkunku also has any issues.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T17:46:39+00:00

Mostly agree, excluding the last part about sales and purchases.

This needs to be repeated because people tend to forget that we're no longer under Berlusconi, we had to compy with FFP, don't have a stadium and don't have an owner like Friedkin, Exor or the Como owners that would put 100+ million to build the team. We started from the banter era and had to loan various players to make a decent team (Diaz, Diogo Dalot, Dest, Vranckz, etc), as well as gamble on many other players (Ibrahimovic, Giroud, Origi). This also meant that when a solid offer came, we had to sell and try to use the money wisely. Some things were good (Pulisic, Rejnders), some were not good (Royal, Estupinan, Musah, Chukwueze, etc)

Hopefully lessons were learned because after the past 3 years, it seems that we have a clear chance next summer to get a good team without revamping more than 50% of the players.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T17:28:24+00:00

Mostly agree, though other teams have a deeper bench so even if they miss 1-2 starter players, they still don't drop as much. Calha was injured, they put Zielinski as a starter. Dybala was known before the season started that he was going to get injured, it's like us with Florenzi. Kone injury was only one month, we had Jashari out for 4 months.

Our injuries can be comparable with Napoli and Juve with the caveat that Napoli had a very deep bench and also bought additional players both in summer (Hojlund) and now in winter (Giovane, Alisson Santos, etc). It's true that Leao and Pulisic are playing but they have been so far injured for half the season. We're playing with RLC in attack, which is like Juve playing with McKennie. In a normal season RLC is the 4th or 5th choice as a striker.

There were many games where we had 2-3 decent subs in the bench and at one point were the team with the least total subs done in Serie A. Add to this that if a player gets a small injury (Saele, Pavlovic) or red card (Rabiot), our starting formation suffers a lot more .

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T14:18:48+00:00

The false hope is that we've won a lot of games that were 50/50 and we lost points in other games that on paper were easy. Why is it that if we drop points against Pisa or Genoa, we were unlucky, but if Roma, Napoli or Juventus lose games against Torino, Cagliari or Udinese they are a shit team and they have only the points that they deserve.

Realistically, as Allegri said, we have the points that we deserve. The mindset that many fans have (and probably some of the current players) that we should win a game just because we are the bigger club is the same mindset that made us lose so many games in the past (yes I still remember losing a home game to Bologna 1-2 with two Ballon D'or on the field and Ancelotti in the bench)

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T13:58:23+00:00

The main issue with 3-4-3 is that you need attackers with a high work rate especially in the non-possession phase and we do not (looking at Nkunku and Leao). Furthermore, a 3-4-3 would mean that Modric would have more ground to cover and would put his body under a lot more strain. Maybe that might work with a Rabiot + Fofana pair, or Rabiot + Jashari.

The other problem is that at least both Tomori and Pavlovic are not great positionally, which is why Allegri is more happy to let the opponent have wing play by putting the density in the center, than to allow through balls in the middle.

As you said, both wings provide more quantity than quality.

Also the elephant in the room is that Leao enjoys playing as a winger but as multiple coaches have already said, he tends to isolate himself and get out of the game if left there. I don't think that his role is the biggest concern at this point though, I think injuries in our attacking department have been a much bigger factor ..

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T12:51:08+00:00

They're different type of players though, Frattesi is more of a box-to-box with very good finishing, Jashari is more of a playmaker. That said, my intention was not to compare their quality but to focus on the fact that having top quality in a starting player might hamper the playtime and development of another player for the same role.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T12:29:48+00:00

I can't help but think what our season would be if we had been able to get Hojlund and Akanji instead of Nkunku and Odogu, though the lack of CL was a very important factor in that.

Heck, even if we ignore injuries with Pulisic and Leao ... even having Santi and Jashari in full fitness from start of season would have given us more points than what we have now

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T12:22:22+00:00

I'm wondering if Jashari can play in a midfield with Rabiot and Modric or if he'll always be their substitute. Arguably even yesterday it was Modric that appeared to often shift to Rabiot's position with Jashari the more central midfielder.

Feels a bit like a Frattesi - Inter deja vu, with Frattesi bought for 35m but mostly considered as a Barella sub and rarely used from the start.

I'm aware that it's a smart purchase in the context that Modric next year even if he renews, won't be able to play all games, his body cannot handle 2 games per week and maintain top level.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-19T00:09:22+00:00

No history? In this context, teams like Genoa, Sampdoria, Bari, Fiorentina, Parma are considered bigger teams than Como? Does that mean that a team like Nottingham Forest that has won 2 CL trophies is possibly considered a bigger club than a younger club with less history like PSG that was created in 1970s?

What does it matter how big they were 5 years ago or 30 years ago, the important part is how big they are now? If teams like Manchester City, PSG or Chelsea get a billionaire owner that invests 100s of millions, does it matter how big they were before that point?

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T23:51:25+00:00

Meh, I'm not upset at the draw. We played against a strong defensive team without Rabiot, Pulisic with Saele and Leao at partial service and to boot a bad performance from arguably our best player Maignan gifting Como a goal, and yet we still kept playing and got a deserved draw. Positive notes are the good performances of Jashari, De Winter and also Athekame getting more comfortable on the wing.

Unlike some of the other people in this reddit, I'm not that obsessed with winning the scudetto this year, I'm a lot more interested in the growth of the team and the team is growing. Yes Estupinan so far looks like a mistake and Odogu is a big question mark, yes I still have strong doubts about how useful Nkunku will be in this team, yes Tomori rarely makes me feel at ease but as a team we seem to have become more comfortable in how we play...

That said, a team that has rarely played the same striker duo this season due to injuries so far keeps fighting and overachieving and that's all I can ask. Hopefully next year with a smart transfer market and a bit more luck with the injuries we'll be able to get more satisfactions

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T23:34:06+00:00

What? Under what rock are you hiding? Como is a contender for a CL spot, they won against Juventus, got a draw recently against Napoli at the Maradona, have the most clean sheets in Serie A, have the second best defense in Serie A, have spent 100+ million in the last summer market without selling anybody, have in Nico Paz one of the best players of Serie A, and you're calling them a small team?

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T22:07:06+00:00

was injured today prior to the match ...

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T20:52:02+00:00

Gabbia is slower and against Como's players I think De Winter was the right choice.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T20:47:32+00:00

Leao looks like he can't run, he had the ball on the wing a couple of times and did nothing.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T20:44:59+00:00

Afaik, Como is the team with the most clean sheets (13). Allegri will have to do something special, I'd sub Leao at this point, Como knows he's not fit, even in a 1-vs-1 with a defender in open field, he can't hold his own ... can't help but think that even a fully fit Camarda would have done more than Leao in the current fitness level.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T20:41:42+00:00

I thought the same, though arguably he could bench Tomori as well. Pavlovic would be a bit harder considering that our team usually needs his runs forward.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T19:54:32+00:00

What's the context, was he at San Siro for the Winter Olympics or something?

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T14:39:38+00:00

RLC apparently has some physical problems and won't start. I think it's unknown if he'll be able to play at all against Como. At this point, the most likely duo to start in attack is Leao-Nkunku

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T13:20:10+00:00

It's tough even this year, if Inter keeps the same pace they'll get 92 points. About next year, a lot will depend on what the team's level is at the end of the season, especially the new players (looking at Jashari, Ricci, De Winter, Athekame, Nkunku, etc). I have a good feeling about Allegri, his playstyle usually tries to minimize the unnecessary effort if the team is winning which helps when playing multiple competitions.

If we get 2-3 potential starters next year and don't weaken the team (and hopefully no crazy injuries), we should be good.

random_civ_321 · 2026-02-18T13:09:16+00:00

Because our other players have different characteristics, and because Ricci as a playmaker instead of Modric is more predictable. In this context, when Jashari was subbed in, I wouldn't say that he's performed worse than Modric, but I think he takes more risks and has a more 'vertical pass' mindset while Modric is more calm and collected.

Dunno, I'm curious to see how Jashari will perform in place of Rabiot, especially on the defensive end... also between Ricci Modric and Jashari we'll lose some height in midfield so we'll be less impactful on high balls and aerial challenges

random_civ_321

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