Overreacting to the best summer transfer moves
In additions to overly optimistic projections, it’s also easy to over react to small sample sizes in both good and bad. So with these two disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at how some of the new additions have performed so far this season…
Juventus- at the end of the summer window, many expected Juventus to eventually regret not pushing harder to sign either Corentin Tolisso or Nemanja Matic. Instead Marotta and Paratici ended up finally signing Blaise Matuidi a player they had pursued for the past two summers, but the arrival of the 30 year French midfielder was greeted with as much enthusiasm from Juventini as kid opening a Christmas present only to find socks.
But so far Matuidi has strived in Turin- of all the new players, he’s the one that Max Allegri has trusted the most so far this season and he seems to have positively impacted Miralem Pjanic, who is off to the best start of his Serie A career. Matuidi has brought pace to Juventus’ midfield, an attribute sorely lacking once Marchisio struggled to stay on the pitch regularly.
While Juventus were pursuing both Danilo and Douglas Costa last summer, they would have been able to matriculate only one of them since they had used one of their non EU slots on Rodrigo Bentancur- at that time that seemed like a short sighted decision since they could have used both of the Brazilian players. But so far the Uruguyan midfielder has shown a lot of quality and personality in the limited opportunities he received- so much so that the Tevez deal doesn’t look so bad now.
Roma- a lot was expected from Monchi on his first transfer window as Roma’s sporting director. While he did receive some fair criticism for probably not adequately replacing Rudiger and especially Salah, so far it looks like he hit a homerun by signing Aleksandar Kolarov, who has shown great chemistry with another former Manchester City player in Dzeko- the left back’s performances have been so good that his past as a Laziale has almost been forgotten by romanisti.
In addition to Kolarov, Roma has also benefitted from Lorenzo Pellegrini’s return to Italy’s capital. The twenty one year old midfielder was already familiar with Di Francesco’s system since he played for him at Sassuolo, despite his young age he’s been able to become an important part of a midfield that features established veterans like De Rossi, Strootman, Nainggolan and newly arrived Gonalons, one of the best value purchases of the summer. Roma will also likely receive a substantial boost once Rick Karsdorp and Patrik Schick are fully fit.
Milan- aside from Donnarumma, Romagnoli, Bonaventura and Suso the rossoneri find themselves with a brand new core of players to build a new cycle around. So far Milan have been able to win all the matches were they were the clear favorites in (some instances were more convincing than others) but struggled against both Lazio and Sampdoria- it will take time to create a team out of a collection of impressive individuals while manager Montella has also made some questionable decisions.
Aside from his poor performance against Sampdoria, Frank Kessie’ has likely been Milan’s best new addition alongside left back Ricardo Rodriguez, who has shown why he was on the radar of so many top clubs. Hakan Calhanoglu, another former Bundesliga player like Rodriguez, has shown some very impressive flashes and it wasn’t particularly surprising to see the rossoneri struggle without him in the match against Sampdoria.
Lucas Biglia has been impressive in almost all the matches he was featured in once he recovered from a muscular injury while Mateo Musacchio has been more consistent than Leonardo Bonucci, who is probably feeling a lot of pressure after his shocking transfer move from Juventus and being named the team’s captain. I imagine I’m not the only one who is quite shocked by how much playing time Fabio Borini has received, especially over Andre Silva, Milan’s second most expensive addition of the summer.
Inter- the impressive performances of Milan Skriniar have been recognized by many. The former Sampdoria center back has been easily Inter’s best addition also because Dalbert is being eased in slowly after joining the nerazzurri at the end of the transfer window and Joao Cancelo has suffered an injury right after arriving in Milano.
While Borja Valero wasn’t a sexy signing like Arturo Vidal or Radja Nainggolan, he has shown why he’s been considered one of the top midfielders in Serie A the past few years- he’s been a much more consistent performer than players Inter invested substantially more in the past few seasons. Borja Valero’s former teammate Matias Vecino has so far been a good alternative to Gagliardini and Joao Mario have struggled with consistency.
Despite only being 19 years old, Yann Karamoh made a name for himself at Caen and was on the radar of a few Premier League clubs. In a brief appearance against Genoa, he has shown the potential to be the type of player interisti thought they were getting with Gabigol.
Best of the rest- while Napoli’s focus this summer was to retain the talent they had, they will likely greatly regret not improving at the goalkeeper position where Pepe Reina remains a liability. On the flip side Faouzi Ghoulam looked almost certainly on his was out after the partenopei failed to sign him to an extension, but so far this season he’s been the best left back in Serie A.
While Fiorentina was mainly in the transfer news headlines for the players they sold during the summer, the viola’s sporting director Corvino has uncovered a few new gems to add to his impressive resume- Gil Dias, Jordan Vertout and Giovanni Simeone form an intriguing core with Federico Chiesa and centerback German Pezzella has been one of the best in his role in Serie A this season.
Just like Fiorentina, Sampdoria also lost some substantial players during the summer, but Duvan Zapata and Gaston Ramirez have so far replaced Luis Muriel and Patrik Schick very well. The blucerchiati’s former manager Sinisa Mihajlovic has seen a massive upgrade at the goal keeper position going from Joe Hart to Salvatore Sirigu.