Alessandro Bastoni

[ukdy]

We have a whole pre season of games and training scheduled for Conte to make up his mind about who starts the first game. Hence why we appear to be moving quickly now.

 

[chrisd2k]

I watch zero football outside of Spurs these days unfortunately but some of you are getting me worried now talking about how he's a bit weak defensively lol.

I'll go with the majority and tentatively start getting excited

 

[curlacious]

Bastoni concerns? Come on. Everyone was saying Pau Torres is too weak defensively and also Josko Gvardiol was positionally suspect according to a pundit I listened to the other day. There's no perfect defender. Yes, even Romero. Just got to trust the Conte.

 

[BorjeSpurs]

If Dier were to get injured, can Bastoni play in the middle with Davies coming in at LCB?

 

[C0YS]

Yes, but also no. The fact that Milan was able to win the league through the power of friendship and Ibrahimovic's motivational speeches says a lot. That team is mediocre in the extreme with the exception of a handful. Still, they performed far, far above their level for the entire season. I give them a lot of credit for that.

While there might be a lot of talent in the league, it's losing a lot of that talent, Inter especially. In the past 12 months, Inter has lost: Conte, Lukaku, Hakimi, Eriksen, Perisic and likely soon Bastoni. i.e. half a championship winning team. The quality going out is far greater than what is coming in (again, especially true at Inter). Elsewhere, Milan lost Donnarumma and will lose Kessie too. Leao will probably leave within 2 years unless Milan quintuple his salary, while other talent has departed like De Paul from Udinese, Gomez from Atalanta etc.

As for Bastoni, keep in mind he is not the finished article so there will be (and has been) some bad games. He's not fast and he's not great at stopping speedy wingers getting past him. Luckily he'll have an excellent player helping him out on the left flank ?

Milan are much better in talent than you give them credit for and Leao was widely voted as the best player in the league. Theo Hernandez is also probably one of the best full backs around right now while Tonali has developed well this season and Calabria is a seriously underrated player. Maignan has also been the beet goalkeeper in the league by a country mile. I get what your saying but it isn't a super medicore team, it's a young team where most players in it have yet to become household names, but that's a very different thing.

I do agree that it's not a super strong league atm, but probably still stronger than the most overrated league in the world (the bundesliga) There is a lot of talent in serie A, largely because Serie A isn't as strong as in the past and most teams have realised that they need to develop talents rather than just buy the discards from better leagues.

But it's true that Milan are more than the sum of their parts, and the same is for other teams. But it's a relatively untapped market and big teams have come to realise that there is a lot of value in serie A and we are seeing more and more players leaving there and becoming successes elsewhere. In some cases doing better elsewhere than in Serie A itself (such as Cancelo, our two signings and even players like Castagne)

 

[noiseboy55]

for the first time since well ever, it seems like we mean business. This is exciting.

 

[barry]

Bastoni concerns? Come on. Everyone was saying Pau Torres is too weak defensively and also Josko Gvardiol was positionally suspect according to a pundit I listened to the other day. There's no perfect defender. Yes, even Romero. Just got to trust the Conte.

Take that back about Romero. NOW

 

[C0YS]

If Dier were to get injured, can Bastoni play in the middle with Davies coming in at LCB?

Yes

 

[curlacious]

Take that back about Romero. NOW

Yeah, he's perfect

 

[mil1lion]

Only issue with Romero is he gets the odd injury and we can't play him every game. I don't expect too much switching around at the back unless forced upon us. I fancy us to keep Sanchez and use him primarily at right centre back (so if Romero is out he comes straight in). I expect Bastoni to only play left centre back along with Davies. The only one I see could possibly switch would be Romero to play central if Dier is out. However I really hope we get an experienced leader for that role. I know it's pretty basic but I really do feel in defence it's a simple case of 2 for each position.

Davies/Bastoni----Dier/ANother----Romero/Sanchez

 

[tevezito]

I guess what I am saying is it's probably unfair to judge someone on their game against Liverpool, unless he had them in his pocket of course.

Surely this should be in the Sessegnon thread?

 

[Johno1470]

If we sign him, I wouldn’t be surprised to see us adopt an approach similar to what Liverpool have done with Konate/Matip - rotating between Pl and CL.

There’s been very few faults in Davies game this last 6/7 months. I would imagine we will continue playing him and play Bastoni in CL games to get accustomed to our style, as PL football might be a tough transition for someone so young.

Either way, I am still confident that if we started the season with the same back three, we’ll be defensively solid. The main issue has been wing backs and that’s the priority for me.

 

[Jimb197774]

He is a left footer which would make him a very strange choice at RCB, and I don't think he has ever played there, he has played in the centre of a back three on occasion and can certainly deputise there.

Exactly, it would nullify some of his best attributes, it would be like playing Vetonghen at RCB under Poch.

What excites me most is his range of passing, in particular his ability to hit that long diagonal that was a feature when we had Toby/Jan. Which incidentally is a key to releasing your wingbacks.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

There's no perfect defender. Yes, even Romero

People have been banned for a lot less…how dare you?!

 

[ssamme]

Exactly, it would nullify some of his best attributes, it would be like playing Vetonghen at RCB under Poch.

What excites me most is his range of passing, in particular his ability to hit that long diagonal that was a feature when we had Toby/Jan. Which incidentally is a key to releasing your wingbacks.

Just need a RWB To release….

 

[aliyid]

I watch zero football outside of Spurs these days unfortunately but some of you are getting me worried now talking about how he's a bit weak defensively lol.

I'll go with the majority and tentatively start getting excited

It’s ok, I’ve watched a couple of carefully curated YouTube clips and can confirm he is the greatest defender that’s ever lived

Spoiler: Short example

Appears to be quite solid though and very good at staying on his feet and nicking the ball off people with his stupidly long legs.

 

[djhotspur]

We need the options but we shouldn't underestimate just how good Davies is in that role. Not only does rarely make a serious error, his use of the ball has improved and he gets forward so well now.

Its telling that most of the, admittedly very few, goals that we conceded came from the right and not the left!

Have to say I disagree on the serious error side. Wasn’t there 3 games in a row where he made a huge error leading to a goal? Plus the big error against Saka.
he has been excellent yes but he’s still not a world class player.

 

[djhotspur]

Bastoni concerns? Come on. Everyone was saying Pau Torres is too weak defensively and also Josko Gvardiol was positionally suspect according to a pundit I listened to the other day. There's no perfect defender. Yes, even Romero. Just got to trust the Conte.

VVD is a perfect defender.

 

[KirstyG]

VVD is a perfect defender.

That hair tho…

 

[rawhide]

That hair tho…

He can’t defend that hair