Nicolò Zaniolo

[WiganSpur]

I'll revise some of my statements from earlier in that I believed this would be a massive, £50-60m transfer (as those were the numbers heavily rumoured in the Juve deal from last week). If we spunk £50m on him in cash, I am sorry but that is a ridiculous price. Dybala had 20 more G+A in Serie A last season and he was available for free.

If it is in fact a loan with a favorable option, and if Zani is OK with being a 5th or 6th choice attacker, it is nowhere near as bad as I was making it out to be. There is at least a fair amount of moldable talent here.

Depends for me if we're bringing in a technical player. By the looks of it Zaniolo isn't gonna pick out passes, whip in dangerous crosses or dead balls. We still need that player. With only Zaniolo in we'll be amazing at breaking on teams but soon teams will figure us out and start dropping deeper. We've got no answers to that atm apart from better wing backs perhaps, not even good set piece delivery.

 

[dellybelly]

We've been spoilt in this transfer window. Any other window in the last 4-5 years we'd have been jumping for joy at the chance of getting this level of international footballer.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Hey mate, very good Q/point. I think you could say he has the ability and potential to deliver on big occasions and it’s true that without him they probably wouldn’t have won the Conference League.

I can’t however lie and say that he is a reliable goal scorer in big games as he’s not scored a huge amount of goals in his career but I do remember off the top of my head he has scored big goals in the league in previous seasons before his injury against Milan and Napoli and I think a few in the CL against Porto or another Portuguese team also a few seasons back.

He’s a very talented player who can create something out of nothing or a moment of magic, part of the concern with him is that he’s not delivered big performances and goals as regularly enough as he was doing before his ACL but the Confence League goals were certainly a step in the right direction. That being said I don’t think he’ll ever be a player who scores you a ton of goals.

He can be a bit fiesty and picks up quite a few yellows especially last season and one red I think I remember.

I think if Conte does want him it’ll be more because he would offer us some creativity and a type of player we don’t currently have as well as being a bit of a punt on him returning to his pre ACL form in which case he’d be absolutely fantastic for us, I wouldn’t say conte would be looking at him solely for his mentality but yea ability wise he can on his day produce a big performance for sure. He’s also 6ft 3ins and we know Conte likes targeting big players for the PL.

Hope that helps / answers your question somewhat. @Ghost Hardware might want to add more

@Jet Fish does a good job of answering your question here. In general he does like an occasion and likes playing against big teams so you could say he is a big game player indeed. He does have a strong belief in his own ability which can cause him to overplay, be selfish at times and hang on to the ball to long. But on the flip side he will pull off moments of magic because his raw ability is very high. He’s also very inconsistent, which is common for a most young players.

The two factors to take in to consideration about this last season, firstly has been said 100 times already, it was his first back in a year and a half. This was never going to be a incredible season for him. Added to that his very rocky relationship with Jose, one really shouldn’t judge him too much on this last season.

Secondly, he is very much a diamond in the ruff and needs a lot of refinement. Essentially, he needs a very good coach. He has the raw ability but needs to improve his mentality, probably more so then his ability. You have to remember he has lost a year of growth which doesn’t always display physically. He is still far too tempestuous in his decision making. But with a good coach who will quiet his mind and help him focus, then he could be a beast. Assuming he gets over his injuries completely. It’s true tho, if you look back at his videos when 19, he has certainly lost some pace, he was a lot faster then. So who knows how he feels about his body and what he is capable of.

In essence, the challenge here will be just as much about focusing him mentally as it will be getting his fitness up. A big challenge for Conte, but I actually think if these two aspects can be worked on significantly, he’d be a very good fit for the PL.

 

[WiganSpur]

One positive is that he's another big fella and he's scored a few decent headers. We're gonna have the tallest side in the league at this rate.

 

[Now it's Spursonal]

I'll revise some of my statements from earlier in that I believed this would be a massive, £50-60m transfer (as those were the numbers heavily rumoured in the Juve deal from last week). If we spunk £50m on him in cash, I am sorry but that is a ridiculous price. Dybala had 20 more G+A in Serie A last season and he was available for free.

If it is in fact a loan with a favorable option, and if Zani is OK with being a 5th or 6th choice attacker, it is nowhere near as bad as I was making it out to be. There is at least a fair amount of moldable talent here.

Yeah I think the deal being a loan with an option is crucial

 

[npearl4spurs]

Depends for me if we're bringing in a technical player. By the looks of it Zaniolo isn't gonna pick out passes, whip in dangerous crosses or dead balls. We still need that player. With only Zaniolo in we'll be amazing at breaking on teams but soon teams will figure us out and start dropping deeper. We've got no answers to that atm apart from better wing backs perhaps, not even good set piece delivery.

I don't think this will be the case. We aren't a team to hold onto the ball and keep possession under Conte. And we have a midfield that can break-up an opponents play and win the ball high up the pitch. All our attackers (including Zaniolo) are pretty lethal in those scenarios.

And I am in the camp that the set-piece coach will make a massive difference for us. You're right that set-piece delivery is a bit of a question mark as it stands, but I think we may have high enough quality with Son and Perisic.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Yeah I think the deal being a loan with an option is crucial

If we could get that, great. I’m not sure I’d countenance it if I were them.

He’d be just as likely to come here and injured as he would thrive

 

[DodgyLasagne]

Depends for me if we're bringing in a technical player. By the looks of it Zaniolo isn't gonna pick out passes, whip in dangerous crosses or dead balls. We still need that player. With only Zaniolo in we'll be amazing at breaking on teams but soon teams will figure us out and start dropping deeper. We've got no answers to that atm apart from better wing backs perhaps, not even good set piece delivery.

I admit I’m terrified of the likes of Bournemouth, Wolves, Palace, and West Ham next year. The orc-like anti football sides languishing in the relegation spots. The thing is, they should be a guaranteed 3 points but we’ve struggled to break teams down under Conte and it’ll only get tougher next season.

I hope this new fangled set piece specialist is a genius because without those X factor sort of goals, I have a feeling we’ll be coming away frustrated in a lot of those matches. We’ve made fun of Arsenal for signing light weight fancy-foot fairies, but the truth is all PL matches count for the same 3 points, and we need some playmaking in the side. I’m not confident in our ability to pass through low blocks and none of our wingbacks are good crossers, bar Perisic. Conte has his work cut out for him this year. Zaniolo is a beastly ball progressor and runner into space on the counter, put 2 or 3 defenders in front of him though and it’s a much different story.

 

[Jet]

This one is really weird...I feel strongly you cannot get a handle on him by watching highlights. But to those saying he is slow, I watched Roma's highlights from their three preseason matches so far, and he is not slow, at least not straight line.
He seems to have a good strike on him and may well work on set pieces. He just seems difficult overall to play against. I think he has the stature and the playing style to fit in the PL, though.

I'd rather Maddison too, but a loan with an option to buy is a lot less risk financially especially if Zaniolo and Maddison both are not your top target within the next 12 months.

Strongly agree with this re: not being able to get a real impression of him from his highlight videos - was severely underwhelmed with almost all his recent compilation vids.

In fact when the Zorro ITK first broke I was rather disappointed, personally would really rather we get Maddison or Paqueta.

Having said that, I’m starting to come round to the idea of him, mostly because Trix said Conte wants him, but also to the fact that quite a few of us have noticed that he’s a really good ball carrier and line breaker, something we don’t really have in our squad at the moment. I’m still not entirely convinced by his passing ability, but I think he would certainly fill some gaps and offer us some variety in us progressing the ball up the field through the middle.

Dembele he’s not, but he does look hard to knock off the ball and/or dispossess. Him, Bentancur and Bissouma could potentially make a pretty beefy trio.

 

[Led Revolver]

We definitely need another left footed forward. We currently only have Kulusevski - albeit we do have Perisic (both footed) and Sessegnon who could theoretically play further forward. Is he good at set pieces?

A loan with an option on a 23 year old Italy international forward player is a decent free hit IMO. As Trix has said, this is a constant moving picture. If we sign him, plus Bastoni for instance, I don’t think anyone would be complaining. Maddison AND Bastoni (example) would probably be a financial bridge too far at the moment, unless we can sell some of our players for big fees which is unlikely as loan we are told are more probable.

We know Spence was a compromise, now I think Conte will insist on a priority signing of his as a makeweight. The wonderfully greedy git!

 

[Frank Blank]

Loan with option to buy suits me. At least we can see how his knees hold out instead of spaffing £50m up the wall and then finding out.

 

[WiganSpur]

I don't think this will be the case. We aren't a team to hold onto the ball and keep possession under Conte. And we have a midfield that can break-up an opponents play and win the ball high up the pitch. All our attackers (including Zaniolo) are pretty lethal in those scenarios.

And I am in the camp that the set-piece coach will make a massive difference for us. You're right that set-piece delivery is a bit of a question mark as it stands, but I think we may have high enough quality with Son and Perisic.

Doesn't matter if we're not a possession team. You still have to face those scenarios, and we've got 5 subs so no point in having more of the same on the bench. The opposition will force you into having more possession. Classic examples are both Burnley games, particularly the one we won 1-0 at home from a penalty. It was far from convincing and last season we struggled time and time again against deep blocks because of a) poor set pieces and b) lack of craft.

 

[djhotspur]

Doesn't matter if we're not a possession team. You still have to face those scenarios, and we've got 5 subs so no point in having more of the same on the bench. The opposition will force you into having more possession. Classic examples are both Burnley games, particularly the one we won 1-0 at home from a penalty. It was far from convincing and last season we struggled time and time again against deep blocks because of a) poor set pieces and b) lack of craft.

Exactly, and this is not the player to unlock those defences.

 

[parklane yid]

Can’t believe some of you would rather a bellend who wears and pink rucksack and slates Gareth bale to zaniolo

 

[N17NBL]

I really don’t know what to think on this one as I’ve never seen him play.

What I do know however is that we should be putting a little more faith in AC & FP.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, it would be a boring place if they were not, and I value these-but those who think he is crap does this mean that
a) AC & FP don’t know he is crap?
b) know he is crap but they may just sign him anyway?

Neither of these scenarios could possibly be the truth. Maybe they know more than us? I get that some posters will not like the transfer which is fine but some are just coming across as so negative. I am excited for this transfer purely because we are heading in a new direction and he has potentially been identified as a signing they want to bring in. NOTHING so far from AC or FP has be concerned about this as I trust them and I think it’s been earned if I’m honest. Let’s see what happens shall we and judge any players on their abilities when/if they are wearing our shirt. Rant over?

 

[Stoof]

Can’t believe some of you would rather a bellend who wears and pink rucksack and slates Gareth bale to zaniolo

I'd say 95% of footballers are bellends mate. If we were all held to statements we made when we were 16/17 then none of us would have jobs.

 

[Yiddo100]

Apparently Roma want €50m, Really would find it odd if Roma would let him go on loan with an option to buy.

 

[djhotspur]

Can’t believe some of you would rather a bellend who wears and pink rucksack and slates Gareth bale to zaniolo

A prem proven bellend who scored the same amount of goals in the premier league last season as zaniolo has in his whole career in serie a

 

[Pebble Dash]

Can’t believe some of you would rather a bellend who wears and pink rucksack and slates Gareth bale to zaniolo

What? One is a proven goal scorer and creator in the EPL. The other had had 2 major injuries, lots of niggling injuries and had a poor return goals and assists wise last season.

Maddison (if available) over Zaniolo is a no brainer.

 

[robertgoulet]

What? One is a proven goal scorer and creator in the EPL. The other had had 2 major injuries, lots of niggling injuries and had a poor return goals and assists wise last season.

Maddison (if available) over Zaniolo is a no brainer.

Maddison over Zaniolo is obviously a no brainer IF all things are equal.

All things are not equal though. Is Maddison for 50MM still a no brainer over a loan with option for Zaniolo with Tanguy going the other way? Probably a bit more of a wash.