User talk:Vaselineeeeeeee/Archive 16

Re: Juve 11
Hey, tough draw today after being 2-0 up... Unfortunately these 2:45 games over here are not gonna work for me. I saw the highlights and kept up a bit with live commentary. That first goal was so nice, Pjanic picking out Higuain who was basically uncovered and what a nice volley that was to the bottom corner. Too bad he couldn't get his second penalty in...looked like Lloris read he was gonna go in the middle, but the bar got it...I wonder if it would've gone in with all that power if it was just below. I think I read Buffon made a couple good saves, but that was kind of a gaffe on the goal. Kane was coming in with pace, but Buffon probably should've went in with a slide, but I guess it was kinda close to the edge of the box. Their last goal was really stupid. We should've done way better to defend that free kick. He had such a clear lane to just shoot it at the bottom there. Can't deny their two away goals are pretty good, but I think it should be fine in the return. Hopefully we can catch Napoli by then and Juve can seal the quarters in early March. Oh and also, I don't know if you have Netflix, but there's going to be this, what looks to be a pretty cool docuseries that followed Juve last year in their dressing rooms and the pitch and has interviews and such with players, and it comes out this Friday. Pretty pumped to see this. Parliamo dopo! Vaselineeeeeeee★★★ 23:42, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

Hi! Yeah, I'm so annoyed about the result today. I was so excited after a such great start (two goals in under 10 minutes...), and then we somewhow blew it, and now it will be so tough in the second leg...not only a draw at home, but they got two away goals... We can still pull it off, but this is probably the result they dreamed of bringing into the second leg. I hope we can do it once everyone is back and fit (we really missed Matuidi in midfield). I can't believe we gave up a lead like that and that we resorted to playing behind the ball at home and letting them control possession. I know we had injuries, but come on, we still have a good team as well and much more experience in Europe than Spurs do. Higuain started off so well with that excellent run and volley off of Pjanic's clever free kick as you said, but then he had to miss that penalty right before half time (even the first one was lucky to go in after Lloris had guessed the right way, but thankfully it was a hard shot), and even that chance on the counterattack after linking up so well with Pjanic, yes it was hard, but it's so frustrating that he often doesn't convert those chances in big games. Yeah, Gigi made an error of judgement on Kane's goal; I think he thought he was younger and could've gotten there before, because now he isn't one to rush out like that anymore, even though he almost always used to anticipate strikers when he was young, and his momentum allowed Kane to rush past him. The reason why I think he didn't go in for the challenge was because he realised he wasn't going to get there in time and that if he tried to tackle him he would probably risk taking him out and either concede a penalty or be sent off...and yes, the equaliser was also annoying, how the wall moved at the end and Buffon took a slight step because of that and that basically caused him to miss the shot... I really hope we can come back in the second leg, and yeah it would be nice to try and catch Napoli and hopefully not win every match by grinding out a 1-0 win by the skin of our teeth, even though as always my main concern is Europe...I would be absolutely pissed off if we went out in the second round like this, even more than if we lost the Serie A title to be honest. Yeah, I heard about that docuseries...it should be interesting, and I'm curious to watch it as well! Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 05:28, 14 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi! What a game today! Even just me looking at the commentary I was on edge. I heard Juve had a clear penalty call by Vertongen on Costa, with the linesman right in front of it! It didn't seem like we got out to a good start in the first half as Tottenham clearly had more of the ball and 5+ shots at net. Son apparently had a Ronaldo-like game, but that goal was so damn lucky to go in...flutter and Buffon wasn't expecting that as he went down before the kick. Two goals seemed like an enormous feat away from home, but I had a feeling if Tottenham did it last leg, then Juve has to do it now. Almost out of nothing, Higuain gets the job done, then that Dybala breakaway and that finish was superb. It can be so easy to hit those right at the keeper. So happy we get to move on, and for Buffon, although the next draw looks like it will be really tough with almost every team being of caliber except maybe Shakhtar. Last Serie A weekend was great with Dybala scoring and the death against Lazio to take victory, and Roma beating Napoli, it looks better now. Unfortunately, the next day we were saddened by Astori's passing, which shocked the footballing world. I checked his English wiki page got almost 500,000 views, with the Italian wiki page almost getting 1,000,000 views. It is really scary to see that happen out of the blue. TFC didn't get off to a good start with the home opener loss, but are doing alright in the CL as they came back 2-1 from 1-0 down to Tigres, but will still be tough to get even a draw in Mexico. Hopefully they can do it like Juve. Regards, Vaselineeeeeeee★★★ 03:06, 8 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I know! I must admit I thought we were screwed when Spurs scored, especially as they were keeping the ball afterwards and creating more chances, as you said, and I was really annoyed; but yes, I think I still had that inkling of hope as well, as we had more experience, that we might also be able to pull off a comeback, but I still didn't expect it, I must be honest, especially as our mindset seemed to be quite negative initially! Yeah, Gigi has been a bit iffy recently, and he slipped on the goal before the shot, otherwise I think he would've saved it in spite of Son's scuffed shot which ended up wrong-footing Chiellini (yeah he played well overall, sort of like Cristiano Ronaldo, although back in his Man U days; I might be a bit biased, as I'm not a huge fan of his, but now I don't think Ronaldo is the best comparison as he sort of isn't involved in anything and suddenly he will make a run and head in a cross :P). I hope he can pick things up again and have a good season, and it would be amazing if he could finally win himself the Champions League; he's still had to make a couple of decent saves at least. and then when Allegri brought on Asamoah and Lichtsteiner fairly early on in the second half I thought he was crazy, as I think it was probably since Conte's days that we hadn't played with both of them as wing-backs, but in the end they proved to be key in our comeback, and in the space of five minutes we had turned the game around, which was crazy! Chiello had a crazy game in the second half even though he struggled a bit in the first half, and we defended well after we had the lead, and Higuain was brilliant both to run onto Khedira's header, and then to drop back, hold up the ball and send a perfect throughball to meet Dybala's run, who did really well to time his run against the defensive line's movement inwards, and he also waited for Lloris to go down a bit before finishing; really glad for both of them, and hopefully this will help their confidence in Europe! I'm really glad we went through the quarter-finals, but it won't be easy as there are many good teams as you said, and we need to play better than we did agaisnt Spurs if we do want to progress. Yeah, Dybala got a great goal against Lazio, and Napoli lost, which was crazy; I didn't expect that, and it's sort of changed things in the league, and Juve are in the Coppa Italia final, so the season is looking better now, even though my dream is to go far in Europe and possibly even manage to win a European title, even though it won't be easy. Yeah, it was so sad about Astori; he was still so young, and yes, it's shocking for someone who is an athlete to just die like that from a heart attack in his sleep. It's heartwarming to see the effect it had on the footballing world at least (btw, why is that user being so annoying about sources for medals? none of the major good articles, like Messi's have sources for them, and later on in the body of the article, there was a cited passage which stated that he scored in the victorious bronze medal match). Yeah, a good win for TFC agaisnt Tigres in their Champions League quarter-final after a disappointing loss in the MLS home opener; it's a shame about the away goal, but they played quite well and it was nice to get the win right at the end, and hopefully they can pull off a result in Mexico, even though it won't be easy playing there against such a good side. It would be awesome for them to reach the semifinals again (yeah, hopefully they can pull off a good result away like Juve did; I was thinking that myself!), although it seems like they will have another tough draw if they do progreess (I would love to see them win it; maybe if Juve win the UEFA Champions League they can face each other in the FIFA Club World Cup ;) ). They certainly have acquired some interesting players though; hopefully they will do well and help the team in the Champions League. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 04:49, 8 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, it did seem like they may have been down and out, but I also had an inkling they could make it back, more so than when Italy faced Sweden...But yeah, if it went into extra time, that would've been bad as everyone was getting tired. That clearance by Barzagli off the line was already too much. Inter face Napoli on the weekend so hopefully Inter can pull something off there as well. But yeah, that user can be a little annoying when it comes to that. I guess he does it all over, but I think he does it especially for Italians because he knows we will find him a source! It really is a friggin lazy thing to do to just remove them like that without a two second Google search or looking within wiki pages to find a source. I've never seen medals in an infobox sourced before that's why we were probably perplexed. It also annoys me when people pick and choose which articles they randomly delete info from. He did it a couple days ago on Luigi Riva removing his stats table, as he did with Giacinto Facchetti a couple months ago, which I reverted with a source, which I'm sure you saw and then cleaned etc. Anyway, yes, hopefully they can do well in CL and have a dream matchup at a FCWC! Vaselineeeeeeee★★★ 05:30, 8 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi, it's been a while! Shame about TFC coming so close and losing on penalties...Giovinco played really well, aside from the goal, and came close to scoring again a few more times as well, and it's too bad that he set up two chances which Toronto couldn't convert towards the end as the second half they defended most of the time. When it went to penalties, playing away, I didn't think they had much chance, but they did well to come back and win it away from home; it's shame they fell apart at BMO field in the first leg. Nice penalty by Giovinco, but most of the other ones were poor, unfortunately, but I suppose that's the lack of experience, although I'm surprised that Aketxe didn't take one over someone else; Bono has done well, but he doesn't seem the best keeper on penalties – I know people are too harsh on keepers on spot kicks as it's hard, but there were several times this season that I've seen him guess the right way but he didn't have the explosiveness to get to ground to parry the ball and they ended up going under his body. It was nice that Juve were able to win the double in the end so that Gigi could win the Coppa Italia final and go out on a high in the end, in spite of the disappointment with Real Madrid in the Champions League and the stupid decisive penalty/red card in the dying seconds of injury time and the lack of a World Cup this summer. We'll see what he decides to do now that he's leaving Juve. I wonder if Barzagli will retire as well; it seems that Asamoah and Lichsteiner are leaving, and maybe some other players might as well. Crazy how Real were so lucky with the decisions against Bayern as well, and how Roma also nearly managed a come-back against Liverpool but were also denied a penalty which if given and scored would have brought the game to extra time. It was frustrating seeing Roma in the semis while we didn't make it, but I suppose we lost the tie in the first leg, even though we managed an incredible comeback. I just wanted to apologise personally for my absence from wikipedia and for not responding to your messages while I was away; I didn't mean to seem rude, I just wasn't really on, aside from reverting a few edits from and arguing with the irritating user who keeps removing Serie A/Coppa Italia/Supercoppa Italiana honours from players who didn't appear in the competition, even though everyone gets medals, but he doesn't listen to me and goes by his own rules even though he hasn't done sufficient research and doesn't even speak Italian... I just wanted to know that I will probably be away for some time, as I really need to focus on finishing my doctorate right now and I feel that I've spent too much time on wikipedia. I've returned briefly just to tend to a few things and polish them up. Best wishes to you, and I hope you're doing well; take care! Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 15:15, 20 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Hey!! Yes long time no talk, I’ve noticed you’ve been gone for awhile. No worries good luck on your doctorate! But yeah that was so disappointing that TFC lost in penalties like that. Especially because Delgado could’ve finished it off right at the end...he could’ve taken another touch if he really needed. Yeah the home game was off. And I was there! They couldn’t really get anything going despite being all over them. They scored two lucky goals. Bono did really well during the tournament. But they sacrificed ghe league for it. They’ve really got to pick up the pace but I think they can get back into s playoff spot soon. Yeah I was gonna message you about Juve in the champions league against Real Madrid that was unbelievable!!! The champions league just had all sorts of comebacks this year. Shame about Roma too, but for them to have won while we’ve been trying so hard these past few years would be cruel even though I also wanted to support Italy in the tournament. I think that if we took out Madrid the cup would be even closer to us than the other years. Mandzukic was amazing that game. With Roma coming back to Barca, I felt it gave us more drive to do it ourself. And after mandzukic scored pretty early I could taste the comeback. At 3-0 up going to extra time, we still would’ve needed to do a ton more work to progress. But I’m the 93rd minute flofnvto extra time to call an iffy at best call that was insanity. Oliver let the home crowd influence him. To give Buffon a red card for his protests was again heartbreaking. Buffon is always calm and friendly even in the toughest of moments, but when it is likely your last chance at the cl and in that situation he actually acted like a normal person. What angered me the most is social media some comparing it to Zidane’s red card in his final match for France. Totally different scenarios. Buffon’s reputation cannot be tarnished from that one instance. His comments after the game about Oliver were harsh but he was obviously still fired up. Oliver was not the right choice for the match between two high caliber teams. What Buffon said about not having courage is completely right to me. Not Benatia’s fault at all either, it looked like he got ball even though from different angles it looked worse than it really was because Lucas is a shrimp. What’s happened to Buffon this year with the World Cup and this cl was heartbreaking but yes at least he won the double in his last season even though I think he could’ve played on. I really hope he doesn’t go to any European team like PSG or Liverpool or whoever because what would be the point after all he’s done? I think if he wants to stop with Juve he should just retire or go abroad. His send off vs Verona in the last game was so sad. A legend gone. I hope Juve can figure out the keeper situation. Scezney isn’t bad even as a starter but it would be good to get another. What kinda got to me was that Buffon also rejected his national team send off on June 4 against Netherlands at the juventus stadium especially since he said that he would accept a call up even at the age of 60. I don’t take that as a joke. Obviously they wouldn’t do that but I don’t think he should’ve rejected the send off arranged for him, but you have to respect his decision. Mancini is Coach now so we’ll see how he does. Hopefully he can revive the team. And Balotelli is back!!! Finally!! Hopefully he can show everyone wrong. Best regards and hope to see you back soon. Vaselineeeeeeee★★★ 21:54, 20 May 2018 (UTC)


 * Than you! And yes, it was a shame about TFC and Juve. I'm annoyed about everyone blowing the Buffon thing out of proportion as well...it wasn't an obvious penalty, because pundits were debating whether it was afterwards (I'm not saying it couldn't have been a penalty, I'm just saying that it was certainly debateable) and it was in the dying seconds of injury time and it would have changed the tie so he shouldn't have given it full stop. And Buffon is the captain and is allowed to speak to the ref and it's understandable after a stupid decision like that that he would be annoyed especially in his last game in the Champions League and with what an incredible match it was. He could've booked him but a red card was ridiculous, especially when knowing Buffon he might've saved CR7's penalty as he was having a good game. Oliver was not up to par, as you and Buffon said, and what is ridiculous is that in the past Hart put his head against him and Oliver did nothing...he could tell he was losing control and that he seemed spineless by giving the penalty and conceding to the crowd so I think then he wanted to show he was in control so he sent Buffon off....geez, I mean have some sympathy at least! And Buffon's comments, yes they weren't nice and he probably shouldn't have said them, but they weren't anything offensive! It's not like he uttered any slurs or anything like that...I don't get why everyone said that they were horrendous and that they tarnished his career, especially when he's always been very affable and sportsmanlike as you said. Zidane physically assaulted a player, which is completely different. It's a shame because had we progressed I think we could've gone all the way this year. And yes, with no more CHampions League and no World Cup it really sucks for him to end it like this. I heard that he might be joining PSG but we'll see if that happens. Yeah it's odd he didn't want to play for Italy one last time in Turin; hopefully he will change his mind as Mancini seems keen on him being there. Yes, hopefully having a good, successful, and experienced manager with a strong character like Mancini there will help us get back on our feet now! And of course it's great to see Balo again, as you said, when he's been doing well and had his best season ever! Yeah, hopefully he can shut everyone up and score a goal, too! Best, Messirulez (talk) 05:05, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Hey how you've been?? Hope your summer has been good. So this World Cup was pretty nuts eh? So many big teams were knocked out so early. Germany was hilarious lol. Sweden actually had a good showing, good for them; a lot of the "weaker" teams did prove their worth. Argentina was so bad though with the exception of that Di Maria wonder strike. It's really strange that the WC winners of every tournament since 1998 except 2002, the champions have gone out in the group stage the following tournament. I was cheering on Croatia from the start, I really thought they could do it, but they shot themselves in the foot a couple times in the final even though they looked the better team. I'm happy for Matuidi and Pogba, France did pretty good the whole tournament. I thought Belgium should've beat them though. I hope Italy can make a speedy recovery like France did, with the UEFA Nations League coming up soon, it would be good to get results as this tournament does somewhat matter. They are implementing new methods of calculating the FIFA World Rankings now, so hopefully it makes a difference. Hey Canada is hosting 2026 WC with USA and Mexico! Really excited about that even if we only get 10 games; should be good for Canadian soccer. They still haven't officially decided if the 3 host nations will qualify, but since the teams are expanding, I think in a year or two when they announce it, they'll let us in. After almost winning the CONCACAF CL, TFC have been slipping pretty badly. We did have a lot of injuries the first half, with Altidore still out, it's hurting us. I'm hopeful we will still be able to make the playoffs though; it would be terrible not to after winning it all last year. I can't believe Buffon actually went to PSG after the months of rumours. It makes me think that since he wants to keep playing, that it wasn't his own decision to leave Juve. I hope he won't have to face Juve in Europe; I haven't heard any news on if his ban may be reduced. The truly insane thing is Juve buying Ronaldo for a relatively speaking cheap price. It would be sad for Buffon if he were to bring us CL just as Buffon left. We've never been a huge fan of Ronaldo, but there's no denying his skill, and what he'll bring to the team, and bring for Serie A as a whole. I think it will be good for Italian football. Ronaldo clearly wanted a new challenge and didn't want to sell out to China, wanting to continue winning with a top club. Even with Ancelotti as the new Napoli coach, he will have his work cut out for him now lol. We've gotten so close within the lat couple years to lifting the CL trophy, and now it seems like Ronaldo can be the missing piece to the puzzle, although it would've tasted much sweeter without him knowing they did it against the odds. I'm looking forward to the next season! Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 16:24, 21 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi! Thanks, and likewise! Yeah, it was odd; makes me upset that we weren't in it as maybe we could've surprised everyone. I couldn't believe that Germany went out; they never do that...and yes it's crazy that aside from Brazil all the defending champions have gone out. I know, Argentina were so disappointing and disorganised, as expected, even though I really wanted to see Messi win it finally. I'm glad Portugal went out in the round of 16 as I didn't want to keep hearing about Cristiano Ronaldo and his performance against Spain haha. Yeah, I was hoping that Sweden would do better actually and beat England, but it looked like they had run out of steam by then...I'm glad England didn't beat Croatia as they had a ridiculously easy draw and route to the semi-finals, and I'm also glad they didn't win the bronze medal match! Belgium definitely deserved it, and I was hoping they would win it and face Croatia in the final as I was hoping for a new winner. I agree that Belgium looked better than France initially, and then the goal from the set-piece changed things; sometimes that's all that ends up deciding a game. It was a shame, but France did have a good team, and probably deserved it, and Mbappé was really incredible. And yeah, I'm also happy for Matuidi and Pogba as well! And Mandzukic, for getting a goal in the final after a good tournament, especially when the own goal was so unlucky, and the foul was very dubious. It was a shame because even the penalty was harsh, and without those goals maybe it would've been a different game for Croatia, as they weren't bad. I'm glad Modric won the Golden Ball as he's such a great player, and reminds me a lot of Pirlo sometimes. Hopefully the new rankings will be better and hopefully Italy can do well with the Nation's League as you said. And yeah, it's great for Canada to be co-hosting the 2026 World Cup with the States and Mexico, and yes, I agree that it will be great for Canadian soccer, although I'm wondering what it would be like considering the tensions between the US and the other two countries because of their temperamental and petulant leader... Yes, hopefully Toronto can pick things up now during the second half of the season and still qualify for the play-offs, as I agree it would be bad not to do so after such an incredible last season. Unfortunately I think the Champions League final defeat was a big blow, but they obviously have the ability to beat anyone with the players they have! Altidore being back should help now. Yeah, I can't believe that Buffon is at PSG, and that we got Ronaldo now. I can't stand him, but he's definitely a great acquisition, and he does change us from a good to a potentially title-winning side with his goals in big games, so yes, he does seem to be the (or one of) the missing pieces, although I'm concerned that we don't have good enough full-backs (although maybe if Sandro gets back to his old self it will help) or midfielders (Pjanic seems to disappear in big games in spite of his ability) to support him, although Costa will be a good partner on the wing. It's a shame that Gigi isn't on the team as well... maybe I'll hope for a Juve–PSG final! Haha. Best, Messirulez (talk) 05:34, 29 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi! Summer goes by way too fast but at least we can start watching calcio again! Man that was close with Chievo for the opener...Bonucci was at fault for that one goal - his man was never picked up. It was kind of a silly penalty to give away by Cancelo, but I have to admit that Giaccherini's penalty was one of the most cooly taken penalties I've seen. And then that goal in stoppage time by Bernardeschi to grab the win, that was great. Sorrentino played great and was tough to see him stretchered off like that by an accidental Ronaldo collision. Ronaldo had his chances in his debut, but couldn't get it - Sorrentino made a couple decent saves on him. The second game it was hilarious when he fanned on it and dropped to Mandzukic for the goal lol. Goes to show that Serie A is a different league and it isn't going to be a walk in the park every game getting tons of goals. But I think once he can find the back of the net once, he will start to light it up. Juve got an okay group in the CL draw today. Man U is off to a bad start and Valencia can probably overtake them lol. Young Boys should not be taken lightly, they can be a surprise; they look good in the Swiss league right now it seems. Napoli got a really hard group with PSG and Liverpool; Roma not too bad, and Inter being in pot 4 not too easy either. Hopefully this year will finally be the year. Apparently Ronaldo will not be with Portugal for our September Nations League match - hopefully Italy can do something in these two games - against Poland as well - as we've now fallen to the lowest ranking below 20 - plus it is an alternate route to Euro 2020. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 19:59, 30 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi, sorry for the late reply! Yes, it flew by, but at least that means that football is back (especially as Italy weren't in the World Cup!). Yeah a close opening win and the team looked a bit shaky, especially at the back with Bonucci and Cancelo but it's just the start I guess. Bernardeschi has looked good so far and was decisive in the opener. And Sorrentino played well (a very underrated keeper; probably deserves a call-up with Italy for a friendly); I'm glad the goal was disallowed because it was worrying to see him in that state after the unintentional collision, but I'm glad we still won it. Yeah, Ronaldo couldn't seem to score at first, but it's good that it shows that it's still a difficult league tactically even though we don't have the talent that La Liga has, and even though their teams dominate the European competitions. I was disappointed by the Champions League group but we got off to a good start with a win away from home in Valencia (crazy about Ronaldo's sending off! Mind you, he's probably deserved it for all the diving he used to do against us, but this was ridiculous...it's amazing that we were still able to win without him considering we got him to win the competition, even though we did win because of penalties, but we had so many chances we should've put away). Yeah, Napoli have a very tough group; won't be easy at all. It's annoying the Italian teams aren't doing well with the draws again and didn't start off well in Europe aside from Juve. Yes, I really hope that this will finally be our year! The Nations League games were dreadful for Italy, and we should've done better if Portugal were without Ronaldo, it only makes things worse for our international ranking, etc. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 18:08, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Hey! It's been a while! Man, first, the Giovinco news.....ugh. So he went to that Saudi team but it is evident it wasn't because he wanted to make more money, Toronto FC's new GM and the new management clashed with him a bit and couldn't reach an agreement even though he was willing to take a little less (I've added his comments from his Instagram post to his article). With Gio and Vasquez gone, and van der Weil too probably since he had a falling out wit Vanney, I think it's an end of an era. I doubt Altidore will stay now but let's see; they did acquire earlier the Belgian defender Ciman which looked good since our deference struggled last year. Well, the new Canadian Premier League is coming in this April, and York 9 FC (region just north of Toronto where I live) looks to be interesting. Canada should've had their own league from the start, but again we're influenced by whatever the u.s. does. We knew Gio loved it in Toronto, which was further emulated by his post, his daughter was born in Canada while he was playing here and it seemed like he really wanted to retire here, so it's unfortunate it has to end like it did for him. In other news, did you see the Juve-Lazio game? They played so bad, especially Can, but he did almost redeem himself at the end lol. We were fortunate to win the match as we did not deserve it, but there's no disputing that was not a penalty. Too bad Bonucci may be out for a month now, and we already have some injury problems, but I think Pjanic should be back now as he came on as a substitute in the Coppa Italia yesterday. They also played awful though. 3-0 to Atalanta in the quarters, being 4 time defending champs is shameful. So the treble is out the window now, but they really need to start playing better as a team if they want to even think about winning Champions League. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:51, 31 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi, ! Yes, it has indeed! Yes, it's a real shame about Giovinco. I think money might have played a slight factor in where he ended up going, as he will be making over 11 million apparently, but he evidently clashed with new TFC management and wanted to stay because he really liked Toronto a lot, and his daughter was born there as you said and he was a star there and was already making a lot of money. I'm surprised that he didn't move to another MLS club or to another European team at least, as he isn't all that old, and his talent is undeniable, so it seems a bit of a shame to go to a league with less of a following or worldwide presence (I guess he'll be done with Italy at international level as well, which is also a pity). I saw that Vazquez left TFC to move to a middle-eastern club as well, which was also a surprise and a major disappointment, so yes, Toronto will have to rebuild and it will be difficult without their two most talented, skilful, and arguably creative players, especially after a tough MLS season. Apparently 2006 FIFA World Cup winner with Italy Cristian Zaccardo nearly signed with them, but the offer fell through, which is a shame, even though I'm not sure what shape he is in given that he is quite old now and hasn't been playing for competitive first division European sides for some time now. I hadn't heard about the Canadian Premier League starting this year...that is an interesting development; is that still a top tier domestic league even though Toronto don't seem to be playing in it? Yes, I actually know Toronto quite well, and enjoy the city very much! So I do know the North York region! Yes Juve's situation is also quite difficult right now. At first I thought that Can initially seemed to be the best player to sit in front of the defence, as Pjanic doesn't have the mentality to pull the strings like Pirlo does unfortunately, even though he is talented (he should play further up). I feel like we really need another midfielder...I miss Marchisio, although it seems like he isn't doing too well in Russia, so maybe physically he can't cope with top football right now, which is a shame because when fit he was one of the best and most complete midfielders around, who could do almost anything: pass, shoot, defend, attack, press, and he was quick, hard-working, creative, skilful, and nimble. Also, we have Khedira and Can who are less talented and also injury prone (Can at least is more skilful than Khedira, who seems to have lost his defensive skills and work-rate now, and turned into an offensive minded midfielder who makes runs off the ball...). Hopefully Bentancur will keep developing well as he has talent and character, but he still makes mistakes and has plenty of room for improvement as he's still young, so right now I don't think he will make the difference for us in midfield, while Matuidi is great, but can't really create and does his work for us off the ball by running and winning back balls and distributing them to other players. Although I appreciate the success he has had with us, I must admitthat Allegri has made some off decisions though, especially with Dybala almost playing like a midfielder now (although to be fair he doesn't seem to click with Ronaldo the way that Mandzukic does, and Costa is important with his speed, dribbling, and crossing ability), and Pjanic in front of the defence (I feel like we will miss Bonucci because it's almost like Bonucci is more responsible for starting plays than Pjanic becuase the latter seems to collapse under pressure, but then again Bonucci has made a few defensive errors as well...). I also don't understand why Perin hasn't been playing in the Coppa Italia, or why he didn't play in Juve's last group game of the Champions League to make his European debut and gain experience, because he's also a good keeper and doesn't seem to be happy with the lack of playing time. Don't think he should start yet, and I'm glad we have him for the future, as he is talented and Italian, but he needs playing time in order to develop and become a top keeper for both Juve and Italy, and I feel like he's wasted at the moment; maybe we should loan him out. We also haven't been playing great football and have been letting some games slip, but the former I'm not to worried about as long as we keep winning title; it's more the inability to finish off chances and our concentration late on in matches which worries me. No, the Lazio match wasn't great by any means, and we were lucky to win it; neither was the Atalanta game, and it is a shame to go out so early in the competition to a mid-table side after winning the title for several consecutive years, but I suppose the only consolation is that it's the least important title and one distraction less. We lost Benatia, which is a shame (I understand he wasn't playing much, but he was a great defender, probably more reliable, physical, and solid all-round defender than Bonucci, even though not quite as skilful or as intelligent in his reading of the game), and I don't know why he didn't go to a bigger European side considering that there are plenty of teams that could use a very good defender like him. Now with Bonucci's injury, as well as Barzagli's and Cuadrado's, and Chiellini also picking up an injury in the Coppa Italia, we look a bit unsteady. Caceres did come back, and he knows the team and was great for us in the past, but right now he isn't in great shape and is also injury prone, so we look weaker if anything. The Darmian loan didn't come through, which is a pity (although at least Spinazzola will get a bit more space now that he's back from injury), and Ramsey (not a great acquisition, but still a decent player) will only come nexst season, so right now I feel like we look weaker if anything. Still, if we can pick it up in the Champions League, things could change significantly, although facing Atletico won't be easy. As much as I can't stand Ronaldo, I really hope he does pick it up in the knockout stages and helps us win the title like he did in the past, because that's the reason why we got him. Fingers crossed! Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 20:00, 1 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Yeah, money probably played some role, as it always does. I did hear that it was reported he'd make about 11.5 million in Saudi Arabia, instead of the 7 million year, but apparently TFC offered him 5 million this year, which I think isn't too unfair given the state of the team. But at the same time, GM Ali Curtis said they'll be looking for a new designated player soon, so I don't really know why they were hard pressed on their offer for their current DP, as Gio is still undeniably talented and not that old as you said. Yeah it's also disappointing he didn't go to another MLS team or a smaller club in Europe, but I guess if Gio wasn't going to retire in Toronto like he hoped, he's at the point in his career where he might as well get a large paycheque instead of getting paid like 2-3 million in a European team. Also disappointing about Vasquez too, I hope TFC can rebuild some of this lost talent or they'll end up like the Jays did in recent years. It's also a shame they didn't get to have one more chance in the Champions League; hopefully we can have a good run at it again without losing focus on the league again. Yeah the CPL will be the top tier league in Canada for soccer sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association, as the MLS is sanctioned by the U.S. federation. The Canadian teams in the MLS will stay there for the time being - I don't know if they'll ever come over as the league probably needs to build some reputation first. The good thing is though, that the CPL and Canadian MLS teams will play in the Canadian Championship, so it will add some competition to that tournament as it was basically just a 5 team competition before. I'm curious to hear more about your relationship with Toronto, would you mind? Yes, it's frustrating to see some of Juve's targets didn't happen, and several of our players have picked up injuries. With the BBC out for at least two weeks for Chiellini's injury, yes, they are in a tough spot. I was puzzled when I heard Caceres was coming back. Although I see how he knows the team from previous, but the team is very different from when he last played here and he was never outstanding, so yes, I also think we look weaker right now. With the majority of our CBs out, I guess it's good we got him back, although for a Champions League contending side, we need better than that! Rugani is still learning, although he's been getting a bit more chances to play, but it looks like them two will be our CBs for the next couple of weeks which may or may not be a good pairing. Yeah I don't know why Perin isn't playing a few more games, as last year Scezeney played pretty much every Coppa match, so I don't know why it can't be the same, although Scezeney has had some good games even when Juve have played badly to keep them in the match. I think Juve are playing with perhaps too much complacency as they've given the ball away so many times, especially in the last two games with Can, De Sciglio and Cancelo which was a shame because Cancelo was the reason we got back into the game against Lazio. Yeah Allegri has made some poor calls recently as the team doesn't seem to be properly in sync anymore. They'll have to figure it out soon as the Champions League starts back up soon. It does seem Giovinco has accepted that was his last national team call up with his move, but good for Fabio Quagliarella being called up (to the training camp to start), the 36 year old is on fire this year. I've seen some backlash on Mancini's tactics when it comes to calling up a team because he seems to experimental with each call up but why not give him a chance? Our attacking is obviously still building, but that was a great hat trick by Chiesa in their thumping of Roma, hopefully he will start to be consistent with Italy as well, as we sure need it. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 21:11, 1 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it's a shame that they're leaving TFC. Ah, ok, I see, that's interesting about the new CPL, and I'm sure it will make the Canadian Championship a bit more exciting with more teams, even though they will probably struggle against the more established MLS Canadian teams. Yeah, I did like Caceres before; I think without the injuries he would've been a very good centre-back, even comparable to Benatia, as he was quick, versatile, strong, aggressive in his challenges, confident on the ball, and good in the air, but unfortunately the injuries really took their toll on him, so right now I don't know if he's good enough to start in Europe, but in the league I guess he's fine; same with Rugani, who is young, intelligent, and talented defensively, but also inconsistent, and ok for Serie A but that's all for me at the moment; however we might not have a choice but to start them in Europe if we don't recover the others, and it will be tough as Atleti have some good, physical strikers, who can move well and score, even though they are quite a closed team like us. I agree that Scezeney has been great so far and fully deserves to start, but I just find it frustrating to see someone young, talented, and Italian like Perin on the bench and only playing a league game every now and then (I think he needs to play 10 in his contract, so he's at 6 now, and I have a feeling that he won't get anymore than that once he's made 10 Serie A appearances, and no more games in Europe either as it's already the knockout stages, and obviously we're out of the Coppa Italia already), so at this point it would be good to loan him out and get a solid back-up who maybe isn't quite as good, but who won't suffer from not starting, especially as keepers don't pick up injuries quite as often. Yesterday he didn't have a great game and for me it's due to lack of playing time and frustration/poor form, so I don't know why he didn't play the last UCL group game or the Coppa Italia like Scezeney did last year at least. A few players seem to be a bit frustrated with Allegri as well which isn't great, and right now I don't feel quite as confident in our chances to go all the way in Europe anymore given the state of our midfield, our wastefulness in front of goal in attack, and the injuries to our defenders, although I guess some slip-ups are normal, and it's better to have them earlier than later. Yeah, Cancelo is great going forward, but sometimes he's a bit too over-confident and will give the ball away, plus defensively he's a bit of a liability even though he has improved tactically since joining us. We've had a few players make silly give-aways as of late as well, as you said, which is frustrating. Yeah, I agree; if Quagliarella is playing well, why not call him up. He's always had a hell of a shot from distance and often scored absolute screamers or insane volleys, even though he didn't seem to be an outright goalscorer. I always liked him as a player; good all round on the ball and could link-up well on top of scoring. Best, Messirulez (talk) 15:46, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

Wow that was an amazing win eh! Too bad I was only able to stream the first half, but I was really impressed with the way Juve played. They started out strong right from the start and you could feel the goals were coming. I think we were hard done by with Cheillini's goal, but I guess you could argue either side. Ronaldo got the hat-trick but Bernardeschi also played great, and so did Can which was finally good to see. Spinazzola also had a good CL debut. Allegri has been under the knife in recent weeks, but I think all he needed was this win to redeem himself. With the Serie A title essentially wrapped up, I hope they can really focus on CL. There have been a couple shocks so far with Ajax and Real Madrid, so I wouldn't want to face them, but Porto is still in, Roma couldn't finish them lol. Ronaldo himself has been sort of quiet recently, but my did he wake up for this match, and he even predicted his own hat-trick! TFC crashed out early, as expected; Ciman didn't impress. Altidore signed an extension which is good, but he is also very injury prone. No one was expecting much from their season opener, but they actually won away which can hopefully give them some confidence going further in the season. AM Pozeulo came on as our last DP from Belgium, so lets see how that turns out. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:18, 13 March 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi, ! Sorry for the delayed response; I thought I had answered you, but I actually hadn't in fact! Yes, an incredible comeback, and they played for well and went for it from the start as you said! And Allegri did a good job despite the criticism as you mentioned. That's exactly why they bought Ronaldo, and although I don't like the guy, I can't deny that he is a goal machine in the Champions League, and I hope he can keep this up in the knockout stages of the Champions League like he did at Real and that we can go far; as you said, he often wakes up later in the knockout stages. Yeah, I think it was fair to disallow Chiellini's goal, although it was a bit unfortunate, but in terms of karma it does make up for Atlético's controversial disallowed goal in the first leg. Yes, Spinazzola was great (considering that Sandro hasn't always been at his best, maybe he should get more playing time), and Bernardeschi was arguably theman of the match for me. Yeah, Ajax will be though, and they have some talented young players and are playing well and are in good form having knocked out the defending Champions. It's a shame that PSG are out (especially with Buffon's error, but they were unfortunate with their missed chances and a very dodgy penalty given at the end), and I'm disappointed about Roma as well. Hopefully Napoli can do well in the Europa League. Yeah, I saw that TFC went out early. They lost Van der Weiel officially I saw, but yes, Ciman hopefully will give the team some stability once he establishes himself and I hope that Pozuelo should be an interesting acquisition. Hopefully he will be a replacement for Giovinco, but I see him as more of a playmaker, although hopefully he can score as well and hit double figures in terms of goals and assists in the MLS. I'm really happy to see Italy playing better, with a young team, and to see two promising youngsters like Barella and Kean (especially the latter as he plays for Juve and is the first true millenial to score an international goal) score their first Italy goals. Hopefully they can keep this up tomorrow. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 23:07, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
 * No worries. Yeah that was an exciting game. I hope Ronaldo's injury isn't bad, he seems to think he'll be fit before Ajax. I think Ajax was a decent draw, although they'll have confidence with kicking out the defending champs. I've also seen some former Ajax players and coaches say they'll want revenge for the 1996 final lol. Yeah, I saw those PSG highlights, that was an unfortunate error by Buffon - but it happens. I saw TFC lost Van der Wiel - I think it was to be expected after it was reported he and Vanney had a falling out a couple months ago; I don't think he'll be a big loss. Pozuelo should be interesting. Hopefully TFC will perform even though we aren't expecting much as fans, like Euro 2016 Italy. I'm excited about Kean also - he has the potential to be great. It was fun to see Quag score twice - you could see the enthusiasm coming back into the players and the fans. Obviously it was just Lichtenstein, but honestly in the past we would probably only win 1-0 against a team like this in the past. And we could've had a couple more goals on top of it as well. Immobile once again didn't really impress - I don't know why he is constantly being called up when he isn't performing for club ether. Quag had two close chances in 10 minutes than Immobile and Insigne had in two years lol. Balo has started off well with Mersielle, so I don't know why he wasn't called. Verratti scored a great goal, and it was good to see him play better than he has in the past. I think things are starting to look up, but Italy still has to find a constant goalscorer. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:37, 27 March 2019 (UTC)


 * Yeah, Ajax will be tough; they are young but talented and full of confidence after beating Real, and it will be a big test for us in terms of mentality, but if we beat them then we will be in the semi-finals and will be full of confidence. Yeah, I was really happy for Quagliarella to see him get those two goals (and an assist) and play well when he's been great for Samp and scoring like crazy, and when I always liked him at Italy and Juve, especially because he scored big goals and often spectacular ones (and he had a great record in Europe and for Italy as well). And it's true, although these weren't tough opponents that we faced, they were still competitive qualifying matches, and it's nice to see the team actually playing well and scoring more goals unlike before, and it's always good to have lots of young talented players getting more confidence, experience, and playing time with Italy, which will hopefully help them to develop and improve, as we need them to get better and make our national team stronger. And like you said, the fans and players seem to be more excited about things which is nice after such a big and disappointing failure. Yeah, Balo has been doing well since joining Marseille, but I'm guessing he wasn't called because of his usual issues with his attitude and because he was awful during the first part of the season with Nice. Immobile, I don't know what his problem is with Italy. In the end of the current strikers who are still playing for Italy (aside from Balo and Quagliarella, who aren't regulars anymore though), he's technically the "top scorer" (not a great achievement seeing as we haven't had too many prolfiic strikers for Italy as of late), but he doesn't play well or score when we need him to. I guess it's because he's still scoring for Lazio (even though not as much as of late, and he hasn't been too convincing as you said) that he still gets called up (he did provide a nice assist for Kean's goal against Finland though I must admit, and he's not bad in that regard in terms of his link-up play and work-rate on top of his goalscoring, but obviously he's not a technical or creative striker and he doesn't do this enough). Insigne is the same as well, great for Napoli, but inconsistent for Italy, and even Belotti, although he has gone downhill as of late, so hopefully he can pick things up again. Happy for Kean and Verratti as well, and all the other players who made their debut/scored their first international goals in these last two matches. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 16:31, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Hi, I hope all is well. First I'll start by saying that the debut for Pozuelo for TFC was amazing, even I don't think he thought it would turn out like that! His deliveries in to Altidore, his pk taking - gotta have confidence to pull of a Panenka - and on your debut at that, then he strikes that beautiful chip just over the keeper... that was excellent. I guess no one really gave TFC a chance at the start of the season with Vasquez and Gio gone, but Pozuelo looks to be a great addition. TFC started off really well, but have sunk back down a bit, but the link up play between Pozuelo and Altidore is still strong - it's our terrible defence with the likes of Zaveleta and co that are holding us down. He's awful and TFC still need to do something about their defensive situation. With regards to Juve, Kean has been an unstoppable force in several consecutive games and all really wonderful goals at that. Too bad they couldn't get the win at SPAL to win the title at record speed, but Allegri felt the need to play second stringers for some reason. I think there was too much criticism towards Bonucci for his comment as maybe he was misunderstood, but the comment also didn't need to be made. There's no way the blame is 50-50, obviously Kean provoked the Cagliari fans by the celebration, but I don't think it was a rude gesture at all - he showed them what he can do by scoring and the racist chanting was going on much before that. With regards to the CL, I knew a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam was not a good result as I think Bonucci said. Even with 1 away goal as a draw is basically not an advantage as there's not many scenerios where that goal would be useful - it only gave them a false sense of security. Letting Ajax scoring early on like that and the fear sets in as Allegri says and you give a team like Ajax hope like that which can make you suffer, provided costly. It was a fortuitous goal, but these things always seem to happen and must be accounted for. Having Rugani play the last couple games, you can see he isn't up to par with Chiellini, but the only way he'll grow is by playing, it just happened at a bad time with the Chiellini injury. I also don't know what's going on with Allegri and Dybala. It seems like Berna is getting more playing time, and rightfully so, but Dybala is still a good player and giving him the captain's band and subbing him off at the half way mark seemed odd to me. Kean has been on fire, yes, but I didn't see a need to bring him on in that manner. He did have a couple chances but unfortunately couldn't convert. Ronaldo for the most part couldn't save us. In the second half we played absolutely awful. I can't believe that Juve let Ajax walk into their house like that and let them dominate them the whole half. Before they scored the second goal they had at least 3 amazing chances to score - a couple of which were saved nicely by Szezney and one nice toe tip by Pjanic to clear the ball from a ball across the box. You could see it was only a matter of time before Ajax scored again. Once the moment shifts unfavourably it's very hard to get it back. I thought the game was pretty well officiated, he got two VAR calls right and even though I initially thought that was a hand ball at the end there, from another angle you could see it just hit his upper chest. The one thing that was poor was the 2-3 minutes of added time, there was at least 6 minutes in stoppages that half! But like it would've mattered anyway at that point. All credit to Ajax though, they played great and they knew deep down that they had every chance to progress. I think that's the problem with Juve - they get too content at being where they are and sometimes don't have the will it takes sometimes to win and play with quality and therefore often get outclassed. Ajax will probably progress against the English sides, but would probably go out against Barca. I'd honestly give them better chances of winning it all than Juve in 2015. It's frustrating to see that we had such a great season, but in Europe maybe we relied too heavily on Ronaldo, and even he couldn't save us from the dead. Nedved said it before the game that if we weren't attacking enough we wouldn't progress, and that's what happened. Something has to change and it can't just be the addition of Ronaldo. I guess Allegri says he'll continue on as manager, but I think his time should be done, give the club a fresh perspective, because with things under Allegri, we can't seem to be getting quite where we want and need to be. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 18:49, 17 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi; sorry for the delayed response. Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised to see how well Pozuelo is doing, and how he has revitalised TFC with his goals and assists. He seems to have filled up the gap left by both Gio and Vazquez, which I didn't expect, so good for him and TFC! I feel like Bonucci was a complete idiot with what he said about Kean and the portion of Cagliari fans making racist chants being equally to blame. People calling him a racist are wrong as he obviously isn't, he just made a stupid mistake and shot his mouth off when he was trying to get Kean to keep his head down and to show that he was an authority figure, and he did apologise after at leaast. But havint said that, he can't criticise Kean for doing what he did. As you said, Kean didn't even really do anything...he celebrated passively after he scored a goal, and he had every right to (Ronaldo has provoked or "silenced" the opposing crowd plenty of times at Real after scoring and no one has said anything about this ever, and he did this when he wasn't being racially abused), especially after the abuse. Kean wasn't at all rude in how he celebrated, and this was even after he had been subjected to racist chants all game. Bonucci needed to stick up for him, and Kean was right to stand up against the racism he was facing as well, so he should've been praised for his maturity by his teammates and coach if anything. Every time something happens, we are told that the best way to fight racism in football is to ignore it but it keeps happening. Then this week, when today is liberation day in Italy, some of the idiotic section of far right-wing lazio fans held up a pro-Mussolini banner, which is horrible, so obviously some firm action needs to take place. These people shouldn't ever set foot inside another stadium, and they should receive a big fine and be forced to do community service and classes on tolerance.


 * Yeah I'm really upset about the Champions League result. All credit to a young, exciting, talented, and attacking Ajax team, who played really well and did a great job to win away from home and knock out both Juve and Real. I hope they will go on to play Barca in the final, as I really don't want another English team in the final, seeing as they alrady have two in the semi-finals of both the Champions League and the Europa League (wouldn'd mind who won it as we went out to Ajax, and Barca winning it again would be nice for Messi, whom I enjoy watching, especially when Ronaldo has really been dominating in the Champions League in recent years, whereas Messi has struggled in the knockout rounds at times); as usual our teams have really disappointed in Europe. But back to Juve, yes, we didn't play well away but 1–1 was a good result in theory, having not lost and scored an away goal, and we went up at home even though we weren't playing well. It wasn't the best result away, I agree but given our experience, and the team we have, and the fact that we were playing at home against a young side, we should've sealed the tie. We were just terrible in general, except for Sczesny. Dybala didn't play well once again. The reason he went off at half time was because he was injured, by the way. But unfortuantely, regardless of the injury, he's been out of form, and has been playing out of position as well, and isn't scoring as much further back, plus I don't think he has the vision to play in midfield (unfortunately further up he doesn't seem to gel with Ronaldo though, and he hasn't been scoring like he used to plus his mentality has always been an issue, even though he's really talented). I know it's easy to say this now in hindsight, but I disagree; for me Kean should've started with the form he's in, especially when several Ajax players are his age. In the second half it's trye that he played, but he barely even touched the ball because by then we were already tied on aggregate and our midfield were awful and couldn't feed him at all; the same thing happened to Ronaldo, who was invisible in the second half even though he scored again in the first half. Pajanic disappeared as usual, and misplaced a lot of passes, when we needed him to keep possession, create chances, and control the midfield, and didn't do anything good aside from the delivery for Ronaldo's goal and one interception at the other end. Bernardeschi made the wrong decisions time and again, Matuidi and Can tried hard, but couldn't do much, Bonucci and De Sciglio were all over the place, Rugani was also shaky, and Sandro wasn't pushing up when he was supposed to be the one providing crosses and pushing up on the left wing for Ronaldo to get on the end of. Without Chiellini our defence falls apart; Bonucci is important with his ball-playing ability, because Pjanic goes missing, but he makes so many defensive errors, and Rugani is probably a better defender, but still not great, and also inconsistent, and when pared with Bonucci our defence is very unstable. I like what Allegri has done but I thought he got almost everything wrong. I know that when Cancelo came on he played badly as well, but by then we were in trouble, and if he had started I'm sure it would've made a difference. Unfortunately Costa was injurd as well (and we really missed his speed, dribbling, and crossing, which is why I felt like we needed Cancelo from the beginning, because seeing someone like Matuidi – who is intelligent and hard-woring, but not very technical or creative – trying to get past players and whip in crosses was painful), and so was Mandzukic, who has been inconsistent out of late, but who is so important in big games like this. Plus I feel like it was Allegri's job to prepare the team mentally to not underestimate Ajax even if we were ahead on aggregate, as they had already eliminated Real, and outplayed us in the first leg, and one goal would put them back in it and could change the momentum completely, as you said. We were completely outplayed in the second half, as you rightly pointed out, and they dominated and were even unlucky not to score more goals, as they had a lot of chances. I also expected a bit more from Ronaldo as well with his mentality to try and get the best out of the team, even though he has been scoring in almost every knockout game, and his job is to finish off chances, not to track back to help win back the ball or create them. Yeah, we messed up terribly on the firt goal. I know that Bernardeschi was out of position, but still it was such naive defending from the back four to just stand there afterwards and they should've still been aware of Bernardeschi as well. The second goal was also bad defending, even though the same could be said about the goal we scored as well, and it's frustrating to have been eliminated from two avoidable goals. I also don't think we should keep Allegri on. I'm thankful for all he's won and done for us, with all the doubles and the two Champions League finals, and I wasn't critical of how we played under him or some of his unorthodox decisions in the past, as they usually worked, and we still captured another league title and super-cup and still got to the quarter-finals of both he Champions League and the Coppa Italia this season, but with the transfer campaign we had last summer, I expected a lot more, especially when winning the Scudetto now is practically a guarantee at this point. And the way we play is just so negative, ugly, and overly cautious, when we have a good team. In the past we didn't look flashy, but we were getting results and were organised and a lot more solid defensively, but now even in Italy we are playing badly and only just scraping by and winning games purely because we have the best players, when we should be looking to play good football and dominate games as well seeing as we are the best team in the league by far. And we needed to go for it more as you said, especially considering that we spent so much on one of the best goalscorers of all time. He's also made some weird decisions like playing Dybala so far back, and Pjanic for me isn't at his best as a regista, and the fact that Perin didn't play in the Coppa Italia or in the last Champions League game was also odd, seeing as he's a talented keeper, although Szczesny has been great and deservedly has the number 1 spot. If Allegri stays, I don't see any of this changing. Hopefully next season we will sell Pjanic and get a better playmaker, or maybe Dyabala as he seems to be struggling to play with Ronaldo, and it hurts to see him on the bench or out of position. We could still use one of them for set pieces though, but both of them, although they are talented, are too inconsistent for us to win in Europe I think unfortunately. We also need a better centre-back if we do get a good regista (now giving Benatia away is very unfortunate); before Bonucci was necessary, as Chiellini is limited on the ball, but with someone who has decent technique and is a far better defender, and a regista who really takes control of games, I think that could change. I also wonder if we should try and see if we could get another left-back as Sandro is great but has been out of form for some time; maybe Spinazzola would be ok as he has looked good when he has played...I also don't see why he wasn't given a chance when he played so well against Atletico. He really should've been given a lot more space after that. Costa unfortunately hasn't been anywhere as good this year, especially after the Sassuolo incident, and we've had so many injuries as well (including Costa), which also leads me to quesion Allegri's fitness coaches, especially when we looked so tired against Ajax. Hopefully we improve next seasaon. I do admit that, seeing as I'm not a huge Ronaldo fan, if we had won the Champions League the first season after Buffon had left with Ronaldo, it would've tinged the victory slightly for me, because Buffon deserves a Champions League title more than almost any other keeper, but he and Juve seem to be cursed unfortunately. I hope we can do better next season in general, as winning the league title so many years a row has devalued it a bit, especially seeing as we aren't facing a lot of competition domestically and our teams aren't doing well in Europe. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 22:15, 25 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Yeah Pozu looks good, but too bad Alitdore is injured once again and TFC seem to be suffering again! Yeah Lazio's ultras are notoriously racist which puts a bad image on the club...you know better than me why Italy in general is kind is still kind of backwards when it comes to social issues... and then Lazio only gets a partial stadium closure for curva nord for one match.....don't they know the names of the people in these sections in Europe?..there has to be some sort of change where individuals are held accountable and rightly banned as you said or this type of thing will keep happening. Oh I didn't know it was because Dybala was injured, I guess it makes sense though as he hasn't been in the line up recently. But nonetheless, his tactics as you said are becoming increasingly imprecise and not working. I agree why didn't Spinazzola play as he played very well against Atletico. Yeah we said it when it happened that Juve didn't get the defensive replacement they needed out of Benatia which was probably not a good move, but I think it was Benatia himself had something to do with the move as well if I recall correctly. I think Pjanic maybe has run his course, as he hasn't been looking sharp lately, although when he wants to show up and play, he can. But you read my mind, I was also talking with some family members, who said the same thing that it would've been bitter sweet to win the CL right away after Buffon left and Ronaldo, especially with the Coppa already lost, but still to lose in that manner was also very hard to watch in and of itself. All the best, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 00:21, 30 April 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi, Vaselineeeeeeee! How're you doing? What do you think about the transfers so far with Rabiot joining for free and Gigi returning? Did you watch the Women's World Cup, and the Copa América and Gold Cup this summer? Hope everything is well with you! Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 20:27, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi, thanks for the message! I hope your summer is going well. I recently got back from a trip to Italy, which was very involved - the highlight was going to the Juventus Stadium museum and tour - going through the dressing rooms, press area, pitch, etc - it was amazing! (after the season had ended, no games). It would've been nice to see the Italy-Bosnia match there, but the timing was slightly off as we had to be in a different region on that day. We covered a lot of ground in northern Italy, but there's still so much to see in this beautiful country! Since we were on the move every day I wasn't able to see either of qualification matches, other than maybe a few minutes when it was playing at the bar of our hotel, but both I saw that both Insigne and Verratti's goals were excellent. Italy's qualification games have been good so far, but the second legs still need to be played later this year, so I hope we can secure first place with some games in hand. I was able to watch some of the Women's World Cup - I saw Italy vs Australia, Italy's comeback with that last gasp Bonensea goal was great. I think a lot of Italy's team are Juventus Women's players which is interesting. I saw the China game where Italy did a pretty good job to get a comfortable victory, I liked Giacinti's style, but against the Netherlands they just couldn't break through even though they kept fighting to the end. It was a shame they conceded two goals, rather sloppily from their set pieces, and then Giuliani the keeper should've done better with both of them. Canada vs Sweden was disappointing, especially seeing them go out that early - they couldn't find their way through after so many chances, but a lot of their passing and crossing into the box was dismal. The goal the conceded was rather sloppy too, miscommunication between the keeper and the defender. I saw the final, which USA fully deserved, they were on the harder side of the tree after all, Netherlands didn't really ever have a chance. It was good to see Italy go relatively far though, as they haven't been the great the past several years not qualifying for several World Cups until this one - I think women's football isn't funded enough in Europe as it is in North America which is a shame, because it was entertaining to watch, although sometimes frustrating to see rushed clearances into touch, etc, something that doesn't happen often in men's football, but overall I enjoyed it. I didn't bother watching most of the Gold Cup, I didn't see any of Canada's matches, but heard they blew a 2-0 lead against Haiti, which is pretty sad, but it looks like Cavallini and David are doing really well for Canada, the team as a whole just has to do better. I saw most of the final, USA almost equalized a few times at the end there after unluckily missing a couple good opportunities with Alitodre's miss that really should've been finished (finally he's better), and the chance cleared off the goal line, but Mexico got the upper hand. I didn't get a chance to watch any of the Copa America, but heard about the scandalous Messi red card even though he didn't do anything to Medel; Peru also surprised. I think Juve's signings so far have been decent, although I'm not thrilled about letting Spinazzola go - I didn't think he was given enough of an opportunity to show his skill, like he had against Atletico, but at least we got a quality young signing in return, hopefully he gets some chances to play. Juve have strengthened their midfield, an area that seemed to be lacking a little last season, with Rabiot and Ramsey, I'm not very familiar with their styles of play, but hopefully they will be a good addition to the team that allows more control of the ball, but also being more attacking. They also got that Turkish defender - I doubt he will play much, given Rugani doesn't even get played much, but I suppose he will be a good CB to have when our two older ones go. I don't know how the process on de Ligt is going, but I'm still skeptical paying a huge sum of money for a 19 year old who had a good year in CL. And last but not least, Buffon! Buffon, Buffon, Buffon - this guy wants to die on the goal line! I mean he must have the passion still, this is Buffon we're talking about - he doesn't want the arm band or the number 1, just to be a contributor, which I can understand, and oh yeah, maybe another shot at the CL lol - this time as a backup - I hope they do still play him every so often because he still is a great keeper - I think there is some sort of target of games he needs to play in his contract, so we'll see him. I feel bad for Perin, I wonder what his fate will be. I still can't imagine Sarri as coach, Napoli-born and ex-Napoli-coach, and he goes to Juve. It'll feel strange to see him on the Juve bench, but he is a quality manager who just came off a EL win. I think Inter are looking better this year with Conte, Godin and Sensi, and with Icardi virtually gone - he has been some sort of cancer for them. It was disappointing to hear El Shaarawy go to China, he has been passed up by the national team year after year when I think he could've benefited them a lot. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 02:58, 9 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Ayyohh ^ how's it been, done the PhD now? :) <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 01:45, 10 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Hi! Nice to hear from you! Yes, I've finished now, so I'm doing well! How have you been doing? Best, Messirulez (talk) 23:18, 15 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Congrats! I've been well, the summer went by fast - I was finally able to take a trip to Italy, taking a tour of Juventus Stadium in the summer - breath-taking stadium! The start to the season has been alright, not the best as we seem to be conceding from set pieces too easily, and with the injury to Chiellini, we'll see how De Ligt can perform, who hasn't impressed me much yet. The game against Napoli started great but to give away a three goal lead was ridiculous - by some miracle we took 4 points after the Koulibaly blunder lol. Fiorentina was disappointing not to get three points, no one showed a drive to win. We started badly against Atletico, but after a half hour or so were able to get on the front foot. Cuadrado's goal was fantastic - he's a great player in the Champions League especially. Again, cheaply gave away the two goal lead with some defensive errors, but almost won it again at the end with Ronaldo. When we were 2-0 or 2-1 up there was a chance that was cleared by a defender with the keeper out of position that should've sealed the deal, I think it was Matuidi - wasteful. It is honestly a good result away from home, but the method of the draw was not good. I was disappointed to see Mandzukic out of the squad, he's a great player in the league and CL, and I don't find Higuain better than him, so seeing him getting snubbed like that forcing interest in looking for other clubs, is tough. Same with Sarri leaving Dybala on the bench in several matches, especially in the Fiorentina match, we needed a change if we were going to get 3 points. It was good to see Buffon back in goal for Juve, against the team he made the emotional farewell against a year ago. That volley was so well struck, virtually unsavable, but not all that far away. He made a couple key stops. Good we were able to get the 3 points against a promotion side. What's with the keepers able to pass it to a defender within the box from a goal kick...is that a new rule - the ball had to reach outside of the box before it could be received by the defender before, no? Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 04:17, 23 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Yeah, tell me about it! Wow, that's really exciting that you were able to do that, that must've been fantastic! Where else did you go in Italy? Yeah, with Chiellini out, which is a big blow, and De Ligt still adapting alongisde the error-prone Bonucci (and Rugani who hasn't seemed to have stepped up) the defending at times, especially on set-pieces has been a bit sloppy (as you said with us giving up leads against Napoli and Atlético), and although I feel like Sarri is introducing a more positive, attacking attitude, and better gameplay, we still don't seem to have adapted to that system yet, and the midfield is still too weak to play his game in my opinion, and we don't seem to have a fixed starting midfield...I know we got two decent players like Rabiot (who has been disappointing, but it doesn't surprise me given his character; his talent doesn't mean much in that case) and Ramsey (who never excited me, but he has impressed me since returning from injury...mind you, that's another injury prone player we have in midfield, aside from Khedira and Can...why didn't we just keep Marchisio in that case...) on free transfers to "boost" our midfield, but I would've rather invested in a top midfiedler who can start (hopefully Pjanic can turn into a good regista under Sarri finally), especially as right now it's the same players from previous seasons who seem to be starting, so the same issues keep popping up...plus we have too many players right now (especially in midfield and attack...plus we weren't able to loan out Perin, so right now we have three good keepers, which is great, but Perin needs to play to develop for the future starting spot and recover his form), and we didn't get rid of anyone, so right now Can and Mandzukic have both been left out of the Champions League squad. Despite my reservations over Higuain and his composure/finishing in big games, at least he has looked good in his new more creative role à la Benzema with his passing, hold-up play and movement, which might take more pressure off of him, and might help Ronaldo become more prolific by creating space and chances for him...I also agree that it's a shame that Mandzukic isn't playing, because of his mentality, and work-rate, etc., but I guess that he isn't a Sarri type player unfortunately, as he isn't particularly skilful; still, I wouldn't mind having him as a back-up to be honest, but the problem is who do we offload in that case, with Bernardeschi (who has also been inconsistent and hasn't yet made his breakthrough, despite a few decent showings), Dybala, and Cuadrado already on the bench at the moment... I was hoping Dybala could become a false 9, but he hasn't seemed to have broken into the starting XI as of yet; after a dreadful season last year, he's looked better alongside C. Ronaldo in an attacking partnership as of late, so we'll see what ends up happening...I feel like Sarri still needs to settle on a fixed starting XI and a fixed formation, whether it's his favoured 4–3–3 or maybe the 4–4–2 diamond that he has used at times, but I'm not sure if the latter system would be best for C. Ronaldo. I'm also annoyed we got rid of Cancelo (and Spinazzola...who is right-footed and could've played on the right even though he prefers the left, and he's quick, skilful, can cross and attack and had done well last season...) but didn't get a good right-back who can attack as well as defend; Danilo is fine, but not amazing, and De Scilgio is solid at the back but doesn't offer much in attack, while Sandro is good on the left and seems to have recovered his form (Pellegrini is young but should be fine as a back-up). I know that Cancelo was shaky at the back, but there aren't many great attacking full-backs like him right now who are fast, energetic, skilful, and who can cross well, and I thought he would be great in a system like Sarri's. We'll see if he flourishes under Guardiola. Yeah, it's nice to see Buffon back and in good shape, and Woj has been playing well as usual, the error aside. At least Costa has looked like he's back in form, and surprisingly Cuadrado has lookd good (maybe he could play as an attacking right-back? I'm not sure). Yeah, I think the passing within the box from a goal kick is a new rule that I remember reading about, which makes sense, I guess, as long as the opposing players can't be in the box. Hopefully we can sort things out...I really want us to win the Champions League for Gigi, but it still seems like a long shot, even though we could've last year if we hadn't messed up against Ajax, as I don't know if Liverpool or Spurs were really superior, maybe just stronger mentally and more clinical up-front and concentrated at the back (but also fortunate at times, as is the case with any winner or finalist). At least Serie A should be more exciting now with an interesting Inter side under Conte (great transfer campaign; I hope they can have a decent showing in Europe in particular), and hopefully Napoli will be strong under Ancelotti. Best, Messirulez (talk) 15:37, 1 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Ya it was great, I have an extensive list of where I've gone on my user page, but we basically saw the highlights of northern Italy: Torino, Milan, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Cinque Terre ... but more time is always needed! Beautiful cities particularly the Milanese and Bolognese food scene as we are big foodies. You do anything to celebrate finishing the doctorate? With regards to Juve, Ramsey and Rabiot haven't played too much as of yet, but it's probably for the factors you mentioned. Sarri seems to love playing Matuidi as a given, and rightly so as he is a work horse. Even as seen today, he prefers Bentancur over them. But yeah it does seem as though we have too many players, which is a good and bad thing as we have a lot of depth, but at the same time some of these players shouldn't and don't want to be sitting on the bench. I really wonder what would've happened to De Ligt if Chiellini was still here - you can't have a 80 million euro player on the bench or else what was the point. Bonucci seems to be making at least one glaring error per game as he did today that forced a good save from Szezney. I was on the fence about Higuain again too, but in the majority of the games he's played in, he's played pretty good and has scored some goals. I think Sarri is leaning towards playing Cuardrado as a attacking right back, which has also suited him in the past as he is a very versatile player; I personally think he's been fairly consistent throughout his time at Juve and wouldn't want to lose him. The team played well against Bayer and didn't hold back, so hopefully they can pick up some more momentum after that. Yes last year's Liverpool win was tough to see since if Juve hasn't messed up against Ajax, we could've had a good shot. It was amusing to see Liverpool lose to Napoli in this year's opener. The game today against Inter was such a poorly officiated match - Rocchi left his cards at home or something, he wasn't calling literally clear fouls! I think the offside call on Dybala was kind of ridiculous... such a close call where we are literally talking about centimetres being called back by VAR seems like it is ruining the game. I think it is being overused in some instances - we needed it to bring back clear offside calls that often went unnoticed and misconduct not seen by a referee, but calls like the one today are just ridiculous in my opinion. It seemed like Rocchi was losing control of the game by not giving out any yellows until basically the last five minutes - some sort of incident was going on at the walk off at half. At least in the end we got a huge 3 points from the formerly leading Inter away from home with great goals by Dybala and Higuain, and one that would've been nice from Ronaldo, not to mention his crossbar shot. Bernardeschi played well against Bayer, but today he was pretty much nonexistent - I felt like Higuain would do something when he came on. Credit to Inter though for their performances this far, they acquired some good players, and of course Conte who has so much charisma. I hope they can do well in the CL too, but had a disappointing showing in their opener and then lost it to Barca at the end there, and also have Dortumund to face so it will be tough. I feel sorry for Atalanta not having desereved a loss in the final minute like that to Shaktar. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 03:16, 7 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that's a really nice trip, glad you enjoyed it! Haha, not really! I need to look for positions now! I thought I might take a trip, but that didn't happen in the end. Yes, Matuidi has been important in giving balance to the team defensively, especially with Sandro and Ronaldo both on the left; having said that, technically he dooes have some limitations, and I feel like that does affect us a bit in controlling the midfield when we have the ball, especially as Pjacnic, although he seems like he's doing better, isn't quite the player Pirlo is on the ball, and his other partners don't seem to offer a whole lot in that area, but I do like having him in the team as well, as he works hard, is smart tactically, and is consistent, and he was important to PSG and to France in their title victories, and obviously he impressed Sarri and convinced him that he can still be importnat, when he initially didn't seem to want to keep him. Yeah; I'm hoping that De Ligt can recover from the shaky start (he has been improving slowly, but he seems to alternate strong performances with more error-prone ones), and hopefully replace Bonucci once Chiellini is back, as he's also been unreliable, and error-prone (like his younger self), as you said! Plus he isn't getting any younger himself. And yes, although he was brought in for the future, and is only 20, it would seem to be a waste for De Ligt to be used only as a rotation player. Yeah, Higuain has been doing well; scored again after coming off the bench and even created some chances! Glad to see Dybala creating and scoring goals again now and clicking with Ronaldo; hopefully he can recapture his prior form...I think he looks so much better in an attacking partnership as a striker/second striker rather than as an attacking midfielder. Ramsey has looked good there so far, and Bernardeschi did do quite well in that role as well. There is a lot of competition right now for starting spots, and we have too many players, and Sarri in the past didn't like to rotate, which can be frustrating for some players on the bench, but I guess we also have several options tactically now, which will help us if we have injury struggles (and unfortuantely we do have several players who are prone to that), and he hasn't seemed to have decided upon a fixed system, even though we started out with the 4–3–3...maybe he seems to be more inclined towards the 4–4–2 diamond now? I guess it also took Conte a little while to find that with the 3–5–2 in his first season, even though he initially seemed certain we would play with a 4–2–4. Yeah, Cuadrado has been great in the attacking right-back role, which is a pleasant surprise; I know he played there in the past, but given his issues, and our lack of options in that position, I didn't expect him to be doing so well! Yeah, it was frustrating last season to waste the opportunity we had with Ajax; the same could be said about our eliminations against Real the year before, or Bayern...I wonder if we could've won a Champions League title if we hadn't been so unfortunate, or more attentive at the back. Yeah, I was glad to see Napoli win against Liverpool! Great for Serie A to see that! Yeah it was too bad that Atalanta lost right at the end, especially with the woodwork being struck and having missed a penalty...they needed that as a morale boost...but it's frustrating to see them to do so well domestically but struggle in Europe. It really was shame that Inter lost at the end against Barca as well...after a disappointing opener, as you said, they looked quite sharp at the Camp Nou, taking the lead, and Sensi also impressed; I'd like to see Conte go far in Europe finally, but it is a tough group, which is a shame... Yeah, Rocchi didn't do a great job with the officiating...I'm all for keeping the play moving, but you also need to call fouls and watch out for players! Set the tone early and then let play go on. Yeah, the offside call was frustrating, because it wouldn't have made a difference, but I guess with VAR in those situations it's always black or white, so you can't really argue, even though in the past that probably would've gone unnoticed, and it wouldn't have changed the goal either. I wonder if they would have to revisit the rule, but it might make thigns more complicated. Yeah, it was a derby match, so it was getting heated, and Rocchi definitely didn't have control of the game and there were a few tough tackles/fouls due to frustration. It was a good win; Inter didn't play well but it was still a tough victory, and they do like they will put up a good fight as they have a good team and manager; all they lack is depth. Best regards to you as well! Messirulez (talk) 00:32, 8 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Hey, I hope you and your family are doing well during this time. It's really just a disheartening thing that is going on around the world right now. While most businesses and schools remain closed here in Ontario and most of my family is staying home like they're telling us to, my mother works at a bank and is considered an essential service (seriously ridiculous that branches are still open), so we are being extra vigilant. It makes me especially angry that our government did essentially nothing but play down the risks of spread until basically last week - when containment was already shot. Surely it is disappointing that virtually all sports are suspended (including Euro 2020 :( - as Italians we've waited long enough to see la nazionale back in action!), but it is obviously the right call. It is sad to see that what's happening in Italy, especially to the elderly given the older population. When I first heard that Rugani was infected I was shocked, but little did we know how many more celebrities would become infected after that, and it seems to make sense when the virus has been recently thought to have been accelerated by Atalanta's CL match. Seriously crazy stuff. I hope we can all go back to our normal lives soon. Best regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:40, 27 March 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi, ! I'm so sorry for the delayed response! Thank you for your kind message! I also hope that you and your family are doing well; I am fine and so are my family thankfully, although I no longer live in Italy, although it still is very sad and scary seeing what is happening, although thankfully my family and friends all seem to be doing ok. But yes, it is very frightening. Yes, I'm glad that those of you who can stay home are doing so, and that the Canadian government is finally doing something...yes, it's unfortunate and very frustrating that your mother does one of the jobs which are considered essential services...especially today, I'm wondering if a lot of banking could be done electronically or over the phone in times of emergency like this (not permanently...automation is another concern I don't want to go into now, just like I don't want classes to be held over zoom on a permanent basis once this is over...), just to avoid employees being in contact with a lot of people coming in, seeing as the disease is highly contagious (especially as I feel that it's mainly the elder demographic who come into branches to do their banking, and they are the ones who are more at risk), although I know that generally in pharmacies and supermarkets, screens have been placed between cashiers and customers, and employees have been wearing gloves and masks and surfaces are sanitised frequently, in order to protect everyone, so hopefully that is the case and that it helps. Yes, I know, it certainly is annoying that so many places downplayed the severity of the disease, especially when many countries had time to act before the situation got out of control, and after seeing what had happened elsewhere, and also having the opportunity to learn from observing countries that dealt with it successfully. I have friends who are doctors in the US who have said that they have been asking for more ICU beds since January, and that their requests have been ignored...ridiculous. I've been writing to MPs and politicians about this, and about the fact that it is imperative that those who rely on freelance work or who cannot work from home are supported so that they can still afford living expenses. And of course, across from your southern border, there's this complete idiot who kept downplaying it as a strong flu, and who keeps pushing for social distancing to be lifted so that people can get back to work, and doesn't want to produce more ventilators for certain highly populated states, or send masks to Canada, and who doesn't realise that so many people who are uninsured could potentially die or be bankrupted if they contract it...hopefully he loses the next election. The same with Boris Johnson in the UK, who ironically contracted the disease (I wonder if he still wants to cut NHS funding now...), although thankfully he seems to be recovering. From what is happening in Italy, we've seen how dangerous it is to underestimate the virus and not take precautionary measures, and there are still too many people out and about. What strikes me is how stupid some people are, when they know they aren't part of one of the groups who are at risk, and they think this is being blown out of proportion in the media, because more people die from car crashes or the flu...the whole point is that the sudden exponential growth of cases if no precautions are taken (seeing as we all know that it is highly contagious, it can survive on surfaces for quite a while, and there is a two-week incubation period in which carriers can be asymptomatic, but can still pass it on) can take a tremendous toll on a country's healthcare system, as most countries don't have very many ICU beds with ventilators...then if all of the ventilators are being used to treat COVID-19 patients, it isn't possible to give them to other patients who might need them. It's just a complete and utter mess. I know that in Italy apparently some doctors have had to make really tough decisions on whom to treat, for example, because of this, especially if the elderly contract the disease. Yes, it is disappointing that sports have been cancelled, especially when many of us are at home and would like to watch games to pass the time, and it's a shame that Euro 2020 has been postponed, especially as Italy missed out on the last World Cup, but it is the right decision, especially after what supposedly happened after the Atalanta UCL match (it's a shame that such an amazing achievement and performance was marked by that), and unfortunately the situation in Bergamo has been quite dire, and the images coming out have been rather shocking. I hope that the players at Euro 2020 can really use what has happened as motivation as it would be a nice way to lift morale by seeing the nazionale do well. I wonder what will happen with Serie A and the Champions League and the other leagues...it seems that they have been postponed, but I don't know if the seasons will be able to be finished. It's definitely a blow for athletes as they only have a certain amount of years at their physical peak, but it's a necessary measure and precaution to be taken. What's really incredible is that Liverpool – after almost 20 years without a Premier League title – and a record breaking campaign (something like only two draws and one loss I think?) and a huge point margin between them and Manchester City in second place, needing only something like two more wins to clinch the title – might not actually get to finish the season, or win the title. To be honest, if that is the case, I really do think that the FA should assign the title to Liverpool, as they, Klopp, and the players deserve it. With other leagues, where the point margin is closer, I don't think it's so easy, but with Liverpool...the chances of them tripping up are very unlikely! Yes, it's incredible to see that several Juve players, including Rugani contracted it, and other celebrities as well, although thankfully it seems that most of them aren't among those who are most at risk and have been coping with it, and most of Juve's players who had it have recovered. Hopefully we can overcome it soon and buy some time for a cure to be developed, because unfortunately I feel like this will take a while. Unfortunately, with social distancing, although it is the best way to flatten the curve, it does take longer as well, but at least if we can buy some time and maybe gradually develop herd immunity, then hopefully things can get back to "normal," or maybe this will serve as a lesson that our way of life is not working and that we need to look after people more and appreciate people who work in minimum wage jobs by allowing them to actually survive off their salary, and that health benefits are a right and a necessity for everyone. Best wishes to you and your family during this difficult health crisis, and please stay safe! Messirulez (talk) 17:41, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
 * That's good to hear you guys are doing well. We're still hanging in there over here. You really hit the nail on the head. It seems that "normal" will not be such until a vaccine is widely available. Yes, with football it seems that, at least in Italy, they sporting directors think that they will be able to resume sometime in the summer, but really that may be too optimistic. There still may be sick people going to the games and not even knowing it and people cannot social distance even if they wanted to in stadiums. My hope is that they don't start opening sports and the economy up too quickly. Yeah, Liverpool was far and away in first place so if they don't assign them as winners if the season doesn't go through, then that would definitely be disappointing for those fans. Juve just being one point ahead in first - there was such a tighter race there that I hope they don't assign the title - just finish when it is safest or terminate because if they do Lazio will go nuts hahah and people will have even more animosity towards Juve lol. Stay safe and talk soon, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 16:17, 20 April 2020 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's true; between Juve, Lazio, and Inter, this has been the most exciting title–race in a while, even more than when Napoli were doing well a couple of years back...otherwise I don't think we had to fight so hard in Serie A since starting off our streak by beating out Milan back in 2012! I'm glad, because hopefully it means that slowly the league is getting back up there again, especially with the arrival of C. Ronaldo and several other good players at Inter, and some ageing former superstars like Ribery as well; that's also why it's great to see Atalanta doing so well!! But because of how tight things were, I also agree that it would be better if we just finished the season later, rather than assigning the title (I also think it would be a shame to cancel the entire season, because we haven't had such a close battle in a while!). And yes, I fully agree with you that while I do miss watching games, sports should only resume when it's safe, and probably only behind closed doors at first, which is a shame, but probably better for everyone's safety, because, as you said, people could be carrying and spreading the disease without knowing it, and having so many people in such close proximity, moreover travelling with other people, it really is risky. Thank you, and you stay safe as well; speak soon! Best, Messirulez (talk) 17:01, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi! Hope you're still doing well. Juve were fortunate to come away with the title this year eh. If Atalanta or Inter started the season off stronger, Juve easily could've been in trouble. I think we both thought that when Sarri came on last year it seemed like a bit of a strange fit, and it seems that his system really did not work all too well with Juve. Since that was the case, I'm not sure if we can fully blame the players under that system. Cuadrado playing as a fullback virtually all the time for example. Under him, several players looked slower - Pjanic, Matuidi and Berna. Rabiot post pandemic though looked really good for once. Almost like a workhorse that Matuidi had been in previous seasons. With Pjanic leaving for Melo, I think that was a good deal and hopefully integrates well at Juve. The midfield still needs work. I wasn't completely shocked that Juve didn't overturn the Lyon deficiet, although Lyon really had no business scoring in either match and I think Juve were a bit unlucky with their chances in both matches. Both of the penalties were invented by the ref, but the one to Lyon already screwed us given it set us back by three. You'd think Juve would be able to score one more goal in 30 minutes, but nope - several chances including a couple headers that should've been in the net went begging. I was surprised that the following day Juve had already terminated Sarri because they usually beat around the bush when it comes to those decisions. I was hoping that they would announce Pochettino as his tactics look like what Juve need right now, but was shocked to see that just after about a week of announcing Pirlo to take control of Juventus U23, they promote him to manager of the senior squad. It's funny because Buffon is older than his coach lol. We can both agree that Pirlo was a fantastic player, but for being his first managerial job, it seems like coaching a team like Juve might be too much for him too soon. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not sure (well really no one does) how he'll fair. He had exceptional vision as a player, and maybe he is someone who can help our midfield and make the team jive, but I am still skeptical at the moment. Hopefully it turns out to be an experiment that turns out well, but senior management really shouldn't be experimenting with a club like Juve. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:29, 9 August 2020 (UTC)


 * Hey; I'm alright thanks. I hope you're doing alright and staying safe. I'm very annoyed about the result on Friday. As you said, both penalties were stupid, but despite the ref's efforts to fix his mistake, it screwed us because of the away goal. But as you said, it seemed like we weren't going to overturn it, and I guess with the pandemic, and no attendance, and the players not being in great shape, that also contributed to that. We didn't play well, even though we controlled the game, but we still had our chances and we should have done it. I don't really think it was Sarri's fault though as we won and he tried, and we were unfortuante with Dybala being injured before the game and then going off injured again. Pochettino is a good coach, but I'm not thrilled with him either as I did like the idea of a coach who played fun football, but I feel like he would have been a better appointment than Pirlo. Don't get me wrong, he's one of the best players ever, and one of my favourite but this is a stupid decision. I know that tacticlaly as a player he had a lot of intelligence, and incredible vision as you said, and he seems like someone who would make a great coach when you look at the types of players who became coaches (like Ancelotti, Sousa, Guardiola, Rijkaard, or Capello), and often the best coaches are midfielders, because they understand both sides of the play, but this isn't the case with everyone, and he has no experience; people like Zidane and Pep had spells as youth or assistant coaches at least, and they are exceptions. I'm obviously hoping he works out, but I don't understand the board's decision; having him as the Juve U23 coach would have been great for him to start his career, but not as the senior squad coach! I'm also skeptical, even though I obviously hope it works out and that we somehow win the Champions League with him next season.


 * To be honest, I respectfully disagree about Sarri, but I do concur that we didn't play well under him, and not at all in the way that he proposed we play, and I also agree that although we won the league title, it was a lot closer (although to be fair Inter got a lot stronger and had Conte, and Atalanta have been really impressive), and we didn't do as well in the Champions League and lost the Coppa Italia final and the Supercoppa, but I fel like it's only his first season and he deserved more time, and it wasn't only his fault. I do understand that you like many aren't convinced by him, and that he hasn't won a lot in his career, and that this wasn't a great season and Juve are a top team who need people to delivery, which is all fair enough, but personally I liked Sarri, and I thought it was a bold choice to appoint someone with an attacking and exciting playing style considering that many fans were upset with how we played under Allegri, even though he did well overall. And despite everything we had similar results as we did last season under Allegri; we went out a round earlier in the Champions League, but once again to a weaker side, and we still won the scudetto, and we reached the Coppa Italia final at least only to lose on penalties, and although this season we lost the Supercoppa, we lost quite a few of them under Allegri as well. But that being said we also struggled in Serie A against some teams that weren't great, and as you said, we didn't play as well as we expected under Sarri this season, but as I said before, I don't really think that it was just his fault; I think we didn't have the right team, especially seeing as we lack a good midfield who can control games, and this is also an important part of the defensive aspect of his game as well. And I know that some people are saying that it's his job to adapt to the players he has, but then again, if you want to propose a sysem like this, you need to be adamant about it as it's a lot of work to implement, and even an amazing coach like Guardiola took a while to get City to play that way even with all of his financial power, and although they both have lacked a plan B and been excessively stubborn at times, they have to be to make their system work. From what Sarri showed at Napoli with how he made the team play with the right players, and with what he did at Chelsea in a season despite not having a great team, I think that he deserved more support from the board and to have his contract renewed. We don't have the right players for him, and the board didn't buy anyone suited to him aside from De Ligt, and I'm positive that this next season would have been different.


 * We don't have great wingers, as Douglas Costa is very good on his day but inconsistent, undisciplined, and injury prone, while Bernardeschi is a total lost cause, and should be sold I think. Higuain now is past it, which is a shame as I was hoping he could play the Benzema role this season, and then we don't have any other strikers (giving away Mandzukic was a bad decision, because as a back-up he would have helped and he always comes through in big games, so he would have been great in the drssing room). Dybala has been good, but goes missing in big games, Ronaldo is also good, but isn't getting any younger and needs good service, and our defenders are still solid (but this season we conceded a lot more goals because of our midfield, and the back-line needed to adapt to Sarri's zonal defence, and there were new young players who needed to adapt and injury probelms as well). Bonucci is good but still has his mistakes, Chiello is amazing but injury prone and ageing, De Ligt is very talented but is young and still needs to mature, as is the case with Demiral, and Rugani unfortuantely has not lived up to his potential. Tek is great in goal, even though this end of season was a bit inconsistent, and Gigi is a good back-up. Our fullbacks aren't great; Cuadrado did a lot better as a right-back than he did in other roles I thought to be honest; I thought he was one of the better performers in that role, and a good solution by Sarri seeing as we didn't have anyone else who could push up in that role, but he still has his usual problems with mentality and decision making and he can't cross and defensively he isn't amazing, so I feel like he isn't ideal as a world class right back. I don't think he would have solved our problems playing as a right winger, as whenever he was played there I didn't think he added much. The Danilo for Cancelo switch, I feel like that was bad for both City and Juve, as Danilo is solid as a back-up, like De Sciglio, but not good enough to start, and Cancelo has struggled at City after playing quite well last season at Juve, despite being inconsistent (tactically hehas some problems but going forward he is great, skilful, fast, and can cross), and unfortunately Sandro hasn't been good for a few seasons now, dspite showing some glimpses of his true ability. But the real issue is the midfield. Bentancur is the only one who is good, but he also isn't Pirlo, so he can't do it alone. Pjanic could be the best midfielder in the world, but he cannot dictate play to save his life; I was hoping that playing as a mezzala he could do better once Bentancur was made the team's regista would help him, but it didn't. Hopefully the switch with a true and talented young regista like Arthur will be good, and I also am glad that we did that (but he's a Sarri type player who is skilful and circulates the ball, so Sarri's departure is all the more frustrating; mind you he is also inconsistent at times, but has a lot of potential and has achieved a lot already), Ramsey is solid all-round but not a player who wins you the Champions League and he's injury prone and earns too much. Rabiot is talented and showed improvements this summer, but started off terrible and he has a terrible attitutde and isn't worth keeping in my opinion. Matuidi is good in his role, but he's getting older and technically has limitations, although I would keep him for balance and for his mentality in the dressing room; the same with Khedira, who is also injury prone...I always liked him but I feel like it might be time for him to leave. Then we also lost Can, who was hainvg problems. We really need to do a major change in terms of transfers. We need to stop buying other teams' rejects and hoping they turn out well, and get rid of these types of players. But unfrotuatnely we don't have the financial power to compete with other teams for those truly top players. I was hoping that City's Champions League ban would mean that we could get players like De Bruyne or Aguero, and maybe a Cancelo return, but of course UEFA overturned that which is completely ridiculous. They got off on a technicality, but FFP, although I agree with it in theory, in the end it's hurting the smaller teams that can't hire lawyers to argue these cases, and will just accept the punishment.


 * It's a shame Napoli didn't go through against Barca, as they did a decent job, but it was always going to be tough. Hopefully Atalanta can surprise PSG. But going out to Lyon is disappointing. I'm guessing that we won't win the Champions League before Gigi retires now, as I think next year will probably be his last (but we've been saying that for a while now), but he's only a back-up anyway now. Anyway, fingers crossed for next season, especially as the Euros will take place. I don't know how it will work without a proper break...it won't be great for the players' fitness and rest levels. Hopefully Italy can be stronger by the time next summer comes around as well. Please stay safe and take care! Best, Messirulez (talk) 15:28, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

Oh for sure, it wasn't only Sarri's fault as it seems like some of the players lost a bit of their drive after the pandemic, but I find it strange that Sarri's attacking mentality produced a so little amount of goals per game. It already looks like Matuidi is going to the MLS so I think Juve may have a bit of an overhaul before next season. Yes, my problem with Cuadrado is defensive skill isn't the best so I find him making a lot of mistakes when it comes to that. But yes, Danilo is definitely not a starter. I think we need enhancments with those and mid. Juve should also have some foresight for defence has you said Cheillini and Bonucci aren't getting any younger and although I previously hoped that Juve would give Rugani a chance to get off the bench once in a while, he had that opportunity several times this year and did not perform well. Even under Allegri it seems that Juve's main tactic was to whip in crosses from the fullbacks which almost never works. Ronaldo has been disappointing with his headers for the most part - let alone his free kicks (he finally just got his first)! Mandzukic seemed like he potted many more when he was here. Honestly, Bentancur never stands out much for me either. He isn't world class by any means, but maybe without the aging Pjanic and Matuidi beside him, he can shine. Pirlo says he also likes 4-3-3 but says he can adapt if the players don't work well in it. Not sure how that's going to work out. Yeah, I read Buffon doesn't have an "obsession" with winning the CL anymore, but would still be nice to win it - I guess he has one more chance. About a month away from a brand new season, so it'll be interesting to see the developments to say the least. Stay well, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 21:51, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Was that not one of the worst displays by Juve you've seen in a while? I think Scenzny had 10 percent of the ball possession himself! Always with the passing back to the keeper. McKennie did absolutely nothing that game to feed the ball to our offense. But Morata also did seem out of place at the top. Cudrado was a lost cause on the left wing who always had to put the ball on his right foot to do anything. Rabiot and Ramsey did not impress as they had previously. Not sure as to why Pirlo didn't think of subbing Rabiot off sooner. He's fairly reckless at times just like a Matuidi you wouldn't want to have sit on a yellow for long. Chiellini and Bonucci were also pretty awful that game for the most part. Letting in a stoppage time goal is unacceptable. We were very fortunate to come out of that game with a draw, although in the last five or ten minutes it looked like Juve could've almost snatched an even more undeserved win, which is when Arthur got on. There were lots of coaching and player mistakes that game in my opinion that were very avoidable. If we are to have any chance against Napoli next week, there are going to have to be changes. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:09, 28 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi, Vaselineeeeeeee! I'm so, so sorry for such a late response! I hope you're doing well and staying safe! Yes, I agree that said match against Roma was terrible; the only good thing was the result in the end as we probably deserved to lose! And I was very sceptical of Pirlo's appointment because of possible games like this, despite the promising performance in the opening match (although against a weak opponent, and even Ferrara started out well), given his complete lack of experience. I thought the penalty given to Napoli and having us given a win was stupid as well to be honest; these are extraordinary circumestances, and Napoli shouldn't have been penalised for making safety a priority, and the game could have easily been postponed...mind you, I think they would have demolished us at the time, so it worked out in our favour, but I wasn't happy about the decision, and thought it was unfair to Napoli, and we probably shouldn't have taken the field out of sportsmanship, especially considering that several of our players had been sick already. I know a while has passed since then though, haha, and things have improved somewhat, even though there have been some other really poor performances, especially against a Barca side that weren't great and who were really wasteful, albeit being stronger than us (also, why couldn't Pjanic play like he has been at Barca during all his years at Juve!? Making runs into space, pulling the strings...), but the last match was good (albeit once again agaisnt a weak side), and aside from Barca we've been winning in Europe, despite not being brilliant, so hopefully we are growing gradually. I agree, Rabiot is inconsistent and has a poor character...sometimes he's great and other teams he's average or even dreadful...I would much rather than Arthur and Bentancur started, although I feel like they would need to play in a three-man midfield, maybe with a work-horse like McKennie, who seems promising, but not someone who can make a difference right now. Ramsey is also injury prone and inconstent, and Chiellini unfortunately is in a bad physical condition with all his injuries, while Bonucci is unreliable as usual. I also don't like Bernardeschi, and Chiesa, while he has some skills and runs a lot and works hard and is fast as well, I don't feel like he was money well-spent either, seeing as his delivery and shooting are also inconsistent. On the plus side, Arthur seems to be doing better despite not being in great shape, although I hope he can really take control of the midfield soon, and Danilo has really been a surprise in his new role. De Ligt and Demiral look promising although still somewhat shaky at times, but they are young, and Woj is still very solid in goal at least. I feel like our attack is still an issue, even though Ronaldo has still been scoring since recovering from Covid, and Morata has been playing well (very unfortunate with the offsides though!), and in the Champions League for us, like in the past, he seems to be a different player. Dybala has been out unfortunately, but hopefully he can build off of last season, and Kulusevski has had some glimpses, but hasn't been outstanding yet. Cuadrado is ok in his position I guess, like last season, and Sandro has been out, but I feel like this season we are rebuilding won't really challenge for anything, and that we likely won't win the scudetto...the young players we have haven't impressed me all that much which is a shame. Maybe we can win the Coppa Italia at best, and I guess we will look to make it past the group stage of the Champions League and qualify for the Champions League. On the plus side, even though the Nations League doesn't matter a lot, it was nice to see Italy make it too the last four and progress by playing well under Mancini, and to see Belotti finally hit double figures and Berardi score when given playing time, especially when we had last year's runners-up in our group. The Euros will be quite different, and we still lack an amazing team and clinical forwards, and we haven't really been tested against the top teams, but we have a decent side who really play well as a team, so maybe with a bit of luck we can have a decent showing in the competition. Take care and stay safe! Best,

Messirulez (talk) 20:56, 22 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Haha no worries, I knew you'd get around to it eventually! I'm still skeptical of Pirlo's appointment. There have been too many strange decisions. One that stood out was with Cudrado playing on the left earlier, to just today with resting Ronaldo. It seems we've become too reliant on him. We can't seem to win games without him, which is very, very frustrating as we have a very good squad on paper. Yes, so far it looks like the swap of Pjanic and Arthur has not paid off for us as Arthur has not lived up to that hype yet. Pirlo and the Italian media have been very critical of his vision. Even today, he didn't really have any good linkup plays. Chiesa, though, made a great cross over to Morata for the goal, and although we were unforunate to lose the lead just before half time by a give away, there's no excuse to be dropping six points from Verona, Crotone and Benevento. We were lucky Scezney made an excellent stop as well, but we were also unfortunate not to find the back of the net again as we had a few other good chances, but none were taken with conviction. I'm still optimistic about the Scudetto, although it really isn't looking good right now, I have a feeling Milan and co will lose some steam. As in Ronaldo, they are lucky to have Ibra. Bernadeschi looked better with Italy and his next couple games with Juve, but still hasn't realized his potential, and don't know if he ever will. With Juve making it into the round of 16 in CL by the skin of their teeth, I hope they draw a competitive side as I feel that if they draw a weak side, they'll end up losing somehow like with Lyon and Ajax (although if their performance against Barca is any indication, it will not end well regardless). Their still missing something, and given its been a couple months now without having found it, I think it'll be a long road ahead if they don't pick it up very, very soon. P.S. Although I do not share many of your political views from your user page, I appreciate that that doesn't change our friendly discussions about a game we both love! All the best in the New Year - we're going to need need it! <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 19:47, 28 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Hi!, merry Christmas! So am I to be honest...we have been very inconsistent, and we dropped silly points in Serie A, struggled to make it to the next round of the Champions League, but then we went and beat Barca in the Champions League to top our group... It's strange because Arthur played really well for Barca and Brazil two years ago, and he seemed like the better deal for the Pjanic swap, especially as he's young, and he does have the vision to pull the strings unlike Pjanic, even though in terms of someone who has the vision to create chances and provide assists I'm not so sure, as he resembles Jorginho more in some ways, which was the type of player I thought we needed to control games, but our chance creation might be an issue now with Ramsey as an attacking mid, and Dybala not well suited to that role (I suppose that he isn't in good shape so he's also struggled to get gametime and initially didn't impress...he has been a bit better, but still inconsistent, but I would also like to see him tried alongside Bentancur rather than Rabiot or someone else, and maybe even Bentancur and Mckennie in a three-man midfield rather than playing an attacking midfielder, as I'm not a fan of Ramsey; McKennie has been impressive so far...I hope he continues to do well), but Pjanic has actually been way better at Barca than he had been with us...go figure...one of their few positive notes this season I guess. Yes...there have been some strange decisions, like playing Danilo and Cuadrado on the left, although on the plus side Cuadrado has been amazing as a right wingback this season (how many assists does he have now!? He's finally learnt how and when to cross it seems!), and I was always critical of him (I suppose he had started to do better in this role last season, but this season he's arguably been one of our top performers), and Danilo has also been great as a right-sided centreback in a back three. Morata seems to be a good foil for Ronaldo at least. Yes, we aren't doing great in Serie A but it's still a long way until the end of the season, so a lot could change. Milan have a good side, and Ibra has been impressive with his goalscoring and leadership at his age, but they don't have a lot of depth, so I agree that they might run out of steam, although they might snub the Europa League (although who knows...it's the only title they haven't won and it would also guarantee them a Champions League spot and Ibra hasn't won many European titles either)... Yeah, to be honest, I feel like Berardi (who has been great and seems to have rediscovered his old form) should be starting over Bernardeschi with Italy, and Fede hasn't been great at Juve even though he's been a bit better at international level...a huge disappointment to be honest. He's more talented than Chiesa, who also isn't amazing either (and who I also think was overpaid and might not be the right player for us, especeially as his role seems to clash with Cuadrado's at times), but the latter has a bit more character at least, although he's half the player his father was (if only we had someone like him right now both with Juve and Italy...if it hadn't been for injuries and the fact that we had so many top strikers at the time, like Vialli, Vieri, Inzaghi, Signori, etc. and other good forwards like Casiraghi, Montella, Ravanelli, and Delvecchio, he would have possibly become the best striker in the world – as he demonstrated with Parma – ...he almost had it all...pace, technique, shooting, link-up play, vision, moveement, energy, power, and could shoot or score from anywhere, and he wasn't bad in the air for someone his size either, especially when it came to acrobatics). On the plus side a lot of Italian teams made it through to the round of 16 of the Champions League, and it was good to see Atalanta and Lazio go through, and maybe Immobile has figured out how to score in Europe now (although it was only the group stages; he finally also hit double figures with Italy). Shame Inter didn't make it through...they were unlucky once again, both with the group they had and in some moments of certain games...they've shown they have the ability to be competitive, and it's a shame they lost in the Europa League final last season. Hopefully we can pick things up domestically after the break. The Champions League is still the dream, and I would take that over Serie A any day right now seeing as we've won it so many times, although it's still a longshot with how we are playing and the team we have to be honest (it's good, but I don't know if it's quite that competitive in Europe, although domestically we should be doing better with the players we have). It would be nice to pick someone up in the winter transfer window, but that always seems to be disappointing for us.


 * Haha, not to worry; while I am more left wing, I also have a bunch of friends who are conservative, so it's not a problem if we don't share the same political views...it's completely fine for me to disagree with people on fiscal issues or certain social issues...I suppose it's more when social poltiical issues that I care about particularly strongly reflect my moral views that it becomes an issue for me...I mean, I feel like until recently most major politicians were fairly moderate on both sides, and that these sorts of disagreements weren't so much an issue, as I have even noticed with certain family members (and even with dating; one used to say that politics isn't discussed on a date...now you want to know beforehand whether you agree on things that are important to you!); even Stephen Harper, although he tried to tap into some more extreme views during the 2015 election by banning the hijab, which hurt him I think, and although I didn't agree with him on everything, I thought he was a good prime minister for Canada overall. I mean...despite the criticism he faced on the left (and to be honest even Trudeau has faced similar criticism despite being a Liberal prime minister), it's not like he tried to abolish same sex marriage, and Canada weren't as heavily impacted by the 2008 recession either, so it's not like he compltely deregulated the banks, etc. as had occurred in the US under the repubblicans. And it's also not like a lot of American democratic presidents were particularly left wing either to be honest, even though bizarrely they are often painted as being socialists. And I also don't agree with equating every conservative leader to the more extreme populist leaders that have been popping up either...we still need to differentiate between them. But the problem now I think is that those extreme figures do seem to be coming to power in a lot of places (and even someone like Duterte is extreme while he is more left-wing, so while many of them are on the far right right now, it's an issue that transcends left or right in my opinion...and obviously I oppose dictatorships like those in North Korea as well, regardless of where the leaders' views fall on the political spectrum), which is what I don't like. Someone like Salvini in Italy, for example, what he says is dangerous and echoes a lot of what was said by Mussolini, so it frustrates me that given our history, he only has grown in popularity these past few years, especially when a lot of the dangerous rhetoric he says about immigrants were said about southern Italians beforehand, and when a lot of Italians who emigrated abroad after the war, as some of my relatives can vouch for, also had to deal with a lot of that same type of prejudice, so it doesn't make sense to me that this can still be going on today, but it's an unfortunate reality...


 * Anyway, I hope you and your family have a good Christmas season and all the best for the new year; hopefully it will be much brighter than this last one!

Regards, Messirulez (talk) 17:34, 27 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Merry Christmas! Yes, it's very annoying that we keep dropping points in Serie A that we should be taking. We're fortunate that Milan also drew twice against weaker sides that narrowed the gap a little, but even then, we're still two or three wins from away from them after the league took away our three points from the abandoned Napoli match. While I agree that maybe it was safest for Napoli not to play the match against Juve, but not having all the details, it seemed that Napoli did break the protocol the league had in place. Whether the league's protocol was a good or bad one is another topic, but it was broken so it seemed that it was the right call to award us the three points. And what Pirlo said today about feeling sorry for the teams like Genoa that had to play with players out that had covid-19 while Napoli get a pass, makes sense to me. Anyway, at that time it did seem that if we faced Napoli we may have been in trouble, but they did lose some steam. At least the upside is that we get to watch another high-caliber game, hopefully one that we will still get the three points from! The match against Milan on January 6 is going to be crucial. But yes, consistency is a pretty big issue Juve has right now. I mean you can't go from beating Parma 4-0 to losing to Fiorentina 3-0. That's just unacceptable at that level. That being said, I didn't think Juve had a particularly bad game as we were pretty unlucky with the red card, and then not having Valero sent off with a second yellow, and at least one real penalty shout. Milan were also fortunate not to actually lose against Lazio before the break, snatching the win at the end was a bit of a blow to us. Yes, Cuadrado has been really good so far this season and it's good that I think Pirlo realized that putting him on the left was a mistake so he's found his groove on the right again. Some of his crosses have been really good! McKennie has impressed in recent matches, and although being lackluster when he first started, hopefully he is starting to find his place. His goal against Barca was amazing, I'll give him that! It was also good to see Buffon start and get a clean sheet, and have Juve fire back three goals to go top of the group. Lucky that happened so we could get Porto - but Juve still have to be careful after what happened with Ajax and Lyon in the last two years - do not underestimate the weaker teams in Champions League! I'm still a little nervous about Porto as I hope the winning Juve shows up to play. Bernardeschi has been inconsistent to say the least, It's not like he hasn't been given chances to show his worth. Hopefully Chiesa doesn't turn out like him. Yes, it was good to see almost every Italian team move on to the next round in Europe, although many of them got tougher draws than us lol!
 * That's good to hear, many people can't be friends with people who have different political views than them, which I find odd because it just makes for more interesting conversation topics! Yeah, a lot of it comes down to social issues for me too, for which I am definitely more conservative. For example, Trudeau imposing a 50% quota for his cabinet to be female I find ridiculous. There are undoubtedly more qualified people for some of those spots that are being excluded simply because of their sex. Another thing he's recently done: give money to exclusively black entrepreneurs as part of a new fund. I find that to be the definition of racism... it is discriminating against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group in favour of another. One could make the argument that that group was more marginalized historically, but that shouldn't matter as racism is not a one way street. I don't want to get too far into the weeds here, but that's how I feel about identify politics, it just divides us even more when we keep categorizing people into an infinite amount of groups. Given your political userboxes, I was surprised to see you also like Always Sunny because that show is very off-colour comedy, but comedy I find hilarious, and comedy that people easily get offended at nowadays, and comedy that will probably be cancelled soon enough LOL! But I do care about various environmental issues, I'm just not sure that Trudeau's approach is the most effective. You seem to know more than most about Canadian politics, do you have family here or something? I don't keep up with Italian politics very much so I'm not exactly familiar with Salvini's rhetoric, but as long as the immigration is legal, I'm completely for it. I wouldn't be here in Canada if it weren't for my immigrants grandparents looking for better opportunities, and those same opportunities should be afforded to immigrants today. And with that, I bid you a happy New Year as well! <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:42, 27 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Hey!! I haven't seen you around very much on here lately. Hope you're well. A lot has happened in a few months eh, and none of it really positive. The Supercoppa was won but I'm afraid that may be the only trophy won this year. Lucky Insigne didn't score his penalty, but I must say I am not a fan of awarding a penalty for when a defender is clearly about to kick the ball and an attacker gets in the way of the shot and goes down. They did make it to the Coppa final but a hungry Atalanta should prove difficult. There have been a lot of silly points dropped in the league since the new year. Losses to Inter and Napoli and drawing Verona have hurt our chances. I thought last weeks win against Lazio would pump us up against Porto, but it looks like my worry about Porto was realized. Juve have been plagued with rotating injuries, but it's still no excuse. I don't think it's exactly Pirlo's fault. The competition in the league has just gotten a lot stiffer in the last year or two. I think that Chiesa was a great addition to the team and often seems to be one of the only players working. He does go down too easily often though, as does Morata, which is often really annoying. I think one of Juve's big problems is not having a midfield that has enough class to be on a team like Juve. I've said it before and I'll say it again that I don't think Bentancur, Rabiot and Ramsey have the caliber needed for Juve. McKennie has shown a lot of promise but is still very young. Arthur has also not impressed and I find him to be too soft in possession (which I guess is expected due to his stature) and often tries to spin around with the ball to lose a man and just ends up doing 360s and loses the ball. Kulu hasn't really impressed much either and has dropped off since he first started. Ronaldo also has a lot of goals, but few of them have come when Juve needed him to shine most. Now is when it hurts to see Juve give up local talent in the likes of Berardi and Kean. In Europe, Juve have gone out to poorer sides on paper with the likes of Ajax, Lyon and Porto three years in a row with three different managers... I'm beginning to think this club has a curse that cannot be shaken in Europe lol. Today's match was a rollercoaster of emotions. It's a real shame because Juve gifted them all their goals. The idiotic give away in the first leg, absolute shite defending on the second goal, and then today with the soft penalty and the free kick, whereas Juve's goals, all from Chiesa and one by Rabiot were beauts. The one time Juve don't friggin put Cuadrado under the wall eh!! Juve had several chances to kill it off, even with a man up for quite some time. Porto were fortunate though in the sense that it was a forward who went off. Still no excuse. Juve often has a problem killing off games. It's classic Juve though - gets a third goal finally but only after is essentially too late! So so frustrating. For the league, I think there is still a chance that Juve can pull off a 10th title but it's going to be difficult. All their effort is going to be shifted to that now which is the only consolation. A top 4 finish is a must at the very least. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 01:58, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

In your opinion, why did Juve only win two Champions League and why did Juve have an involution since the 2017 Champions League final? <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 17:42, 30 March 2021 (UTC)

Before answering this question, we need to talk about how these nine scudetti consecutive started. In 2011 Juve decided to appoint Antonio Conte as a coach. Juve had just returned from two disappointing seventh places with Ferrara, Zaccheroni and Del Neri. The squad that Conte had to coach is not very strong. Antonio Conte motivated and valued the team to allow them to win the 2012 Scudetto and to reach the Coppa Italia final. Vidal and Marchisio were helped by Conte and Pirlo and became top players. Vucinic and Quagliarella also become good players. Defenders and midfielders became top players. Juve spent very little for the defenders and even less for the midfielders but they became they managed to reach the 2015 Champions League final. The attack was the least strong position since Vucinic and Quagliarella weren't top players. The money that came from the quarter-finals of the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League allowed Juve to strengthen their attacking position by buying Tevez and Llorente. The Champions League the following year was unlucky due to the 2 points lost against Copenhagen and the 5 points lost against Galatasaray. Too bad we sacrificed the 2014 Europa League final to reach 102 points in the league. In the summer of 2014 Conte resigned and Allegri was hired. Allegri kept the 3-5-2 adopted by Conte and reach the Champions League final and win the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia after 20 years of abstinence. We must admit that we had a bit of luck because we took Borussia Dortumund and Monaco who weren't very strong. The squad of that year was at the end of the cycle and a revolution was needed. Dybala, Mandzukic and Khedira were bought, Morata becomes a reserve and Tevez, Llorente and Pirlo were sold. The championship started badly but Juve was able to do after 25 wins out of 26 games. The elimination from the 2015–16 Champions League began in my opinion on 8 December 2015, due to Morata who missed 99548949829792 chances to score and to finish first in the group against Sevilla. As a result we took Bayern Munich and we went out because of Allegri because he put the team that was doing 75 minutes of spectacular football back in defense. Bayern Munich took advantage of this and scored 4 goals in 45 minutes. The Coppa Italia was won due to luck. For example, in the semifinal we risked losing it after winning the first leg 3–0 and we won the final despite the fact that Milan played better. The 2016–17 season was the apotheosis of Juve's winning cycle. The Scudetto was won in December, the Coppa Italia was deservedly won and the Champions League campaign was fantastic. In the summer of 2017 it was necessary to understand that the squad needed to be partially restructured, giving up Khedira, Mandzukic and exonerating Allegri. The midfield needed to be strengthened as the 4-2-3-1 used the previous season left gaps in midfield. In the 2017–18 season, Allegri persisted in letting Mandzukic play, who gave no technical guarantees and put Dybala and Higuaín in midfield. Furthermore, Allegri's strange tactics the season unsuccessful and negative. The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer of 2018 had to be accompanied with a better defense and midfield and Allegri's sacking. Allegri continued to devalue the team even more the following year. The absence of a precise tactic caused the eliminations with humiliation from the cups against Atalanta and Ajax, the squad was not widely exploited and it was a shame as that year we could do the treble. The purchase of Ronaldo and de Ligt caused a weakening of the midfield and Rabiot and Ramsey were bought for free (they are not strong). Capital gains were made with Kean, Cancelo, Caldara and Spinazzola. The purchase of de Ligt made sense since he was 20 but doing a multi-year project with a 33-year-old footballer didn't make sense. After some years of suffering, Allegri is exonerated and Sarri is hired. Pjanic, Khedira, Bentancur, Matuidi, Ramsey and Rabiot are not top players and these midfielders prevented Sarri from imprint Juve with his mentality. Pirlo's Juve was worse than Sarri's and for the first time in nine years we won't win the Scudetto and we went out with Porto. We hope at least to win the Coppa Italia and to reach fourth place otherwise they would be problems. Let me know what you think of my analysis and if I have made any grammatical errors. <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 21:37, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
 * That's a pretty damn good summary of Juve's last several seasons! Your recount has resurfaced a lot of emotions lol. I'm surprised you can remember all of that - I can barely remember what I had for breakfast! I agree with pretty much everything you said. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 01:13, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

è finito il primo tempo della Juve col Torino. Siamo partiti bene e abbiamo segnato con Chiesa ma Szczesny ha regalato il pareggio al Torin. Dopo è spartita la Juve. Spero che col fuso orario non ti stai guardando la partita perché la Juve regala solo delusioni <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 16:53, 3 April 2021 (UTC) #PirloOut <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 19:27, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah I watched the game - it was at noon here. I seriously did not have high hopes for this game. Juve is out of it mentally. It's never failed recently that Juve always gift their opponents goals. Then they don't press until the last 10 minutes when it is almost too late. Hopefully Juve can get a midweek result against Napoli because it will be needed to be in top 4. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 00:26, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

If Pirlo is confirmed, I don't have three Sky, DAZN and Amazon subscriptions, it would be useless <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 07:04, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
 * I would immediately sack Pirlo and hire Sarri or Lippi to try to hit fourth place and win the Coppa Italia. <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 13:55, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Something does have to change, and the manager is always the easiest scapegoat. But when players are constantly giving up the ball off of stupid back passes that has to signal to management. Management aside, the team does not have the caliber players we need, epecially in midfield. It will be interesting to see what happens after Wedensday. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 20:15, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Arthur is an excellent midfielder as is W. McKennie. Unfortunately they decided to have a stupid party with Dybala and were punished. I would have given them a fine of at least € 750,000 and not exclusion from a game. I wonder why Pirlo doesn't let Fagioli play. In order not to let him play, he puts Danilo half wing. #PirloOut <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 20:23, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the party thing was dumb. McKennie is good, but I'm not a fan of Arthur, and never have been of Bentancur & co. even though it had a wicked shot yesterday after being invisible for most of the game. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 20:29, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Anyway, I wonder how many bottles of wine he drinks. He doesn't shout in the locker room, he doesn't make himself heard. it is shameful that a coach who has just taken his license coaches the best team in Italy. We are not talking about Chiellini and Buffon who must retire immediately. I always valued them until the Cardiff final, but now they have to understand that they have to stop. ' You who challenge the time zone and make sacrifices to see Juve don't deserve this massacre. ' I am dejected because of this shameful team since 2018.  We must exonerate Pirlo and recall Sarri . <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 20:51, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Yeah I feel that. Me and Messirulez have always been skeptical of Pirlo's appointment. How can they go from hiring him for a Serie C team to hiring him for the top flight team just days after passing his coaching exams. The higher management has consistently made bad calls. You're right that Juventini do not deserve this. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 21:28, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

As a coach I would hire Spalletti. It allowed the Prescritti to reach two fourth places with a modest squad. He valued both Roma and Inter players. With him we could both finish fourth and win the Coppa Italia. is a coach who has the courage to argue with the Prime donne (for example Ronaldo). He would have the courage to replace Ronaldo and put senators Chiellini and Buffon on the bench. As an "interim" coach he is just fine. <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 20:00, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

After Ronaldo's ignoble gesture yesterday, he will be unpleasant to me forever. Throwing away the shirt of the team that pays you is shameful. He never passes the ball, he is selfish, arrogant and self-centered. He only looks to his personal bests. He reduced the number of goals scored on free kicks. He raised the costs of the team. He is 36, a little too old. He is controversial when he is replaced and takes about 55 million euros gross of salary. <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 13:20, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * 1) PirloOut <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 15:10, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

In my opinion we will soon return to the times of Del Neri, Ferrara and Zaccheroni. The cause is not Pirlo but Agnelli. We didn't have to buy Ronaldo for marketing. With him we have not won either the Coppa Italia or a CL quarter-final. <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Dr</b> <b style="font-family: Verdana; color: #6633FF;">Salvus</b> 21:50, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

Re: Italy/U-21 6

 * Hey how have you been? Long time no talk! You hear about the new UEFA Nations League? I think this will be a cool concept to have a sort of league for national teams which can replace some meaningless friendlies as this tournament can be competitive to avoid relegation to a lower league group, and can allow you to qualify for the Euros. So Italy are with Poland and Portugal which will still be challenging, but hopefully we can qualify the regular way anyway! The only thing I find kind of strange is that very weak teams such as the ones in League D have the same chance to qualify the same as the tougher league groups like in League A. It would be honestly a waste of a spot for any team in league D to qualify, but the way I'm seeing it laid out on the wiki page is that one of them will qualify for certain through this route.
 * I didn't expect FIGC to not reach a decision on the president, so Fabbricini will be the commissioner for now I guess. I'm curious to see Di Biagio as interim manager for our March friendlies against some good sides, as he's been decent with the U-21 side. I think right now Mancini may be the favourite to take over the CT at the end of the season, but now maybe a return of Conte if he were to get sacked from Chelsea. I'm starting to see commercials for the WC on TV now and it is a painful reminder lol...
 * What I found really interesting this morning though was that Di Biagio is leaning towards calling up Balo...and Buffon! Balo I think would really be a no brainer at this point to once and for all give him a shot after 3 years and for Ventura for being so stubborn. Buffon, if he were to actually get a call, would be the surprise. I mean, he did say that he would never not reject a call up from Italy even when he was older and retired for good, but would it really be the right call? We do have Donnarumma who has proved he is more than capable of taking over the reigns. Man it would be nice to see Buffon play for Italy again, but he won't be at the WC regardless, so I think at this point I don't think that should really be an option. We'll see within a couple of weeks I guess. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 20:57, 8 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi, not too bad, thanks, how about yourself? Yeah, the nations league is interesting but it's also a bit annoying as I have a feeling we still might not take it seriously, although if you think about it friendlies make no sense, except for allowing managers to try out new things. Yeah, I know...things are taking forever at the FGIC as usual. I saw Di Biagio would be in charge for the friendlies, which will be interesting to see for now with a young new team, but I don't know if I'm crazy about him as an option for our next manager to be honest; he was a very good player, and he could both defend and create in midfield, and often it's those type of players who make the best managers as they understand both sides of the game, and it's true that the under-21 side did quite well under him, especially at the last European Championships, but considering the talent we had I think they could've done even better against some of the weaker sides, especially in the 2015 European Championship, so I'm not sure if he would be the best decision to take on the role permanently, especially given his lack of experience (and we've seen what happened with Ventura because of his lack of experience in big matches), but hopefully he will only be in charge briefly, or maybe he will prove me wrong in the friendlies, although it would be sort of difficult to judge his effectiveness from those games if he does do well (sort of like how Ferrara looked like a good choice for Juve when he won the last two games of the 2008-09 season but was a terrible manager the next season). I've heard some rumours regarding Guidolin; I think either he or Mancini might be good, probably the best decisions at the moment considering that Ancelotti has declined the offer, although Guidolin and Mancini haven't been active for a while now, so I'm wondering whether they would be as good now. We'll see if Conte gets sacked or not by Chelsea (recently the players said they supported him even though I think he was in danger of being let go), but I have a feeling that even if he does, he won't want to take charge of Italy again just yet, but we'll see, and he would be good right now I think. Yeah, it really sucks we won't be at the World Cup...I'll still watch the big teams, but it's not a nice feeling and won't be the same, especially as it was already a rueful experience watching the knock-out stages of the last two tournaments, in which we didn't feature, so this time it will certainly be even worse...maybe I'm hoping Messi that can win it for Argentina at least, as I like him (and out of the main favourites I don't really want our main rivals like Germany, Brazil or Spain to win it; France, even though they are also our big rivals, I wouldn't mind as much; I definitely don't want England winning it either, mainly because I lived in England for a while, back when Serie A was still the best league and the Premier League was still very much developing and mostly made up of older Serie A players, and I had to deal with students telling me every week how boring a league it was and how the Premier League was far more exciting, which was so frustrating...haha) and hopefully Dybala and Higuain can have a decent tournament as well, which would help them mature with Juve in Europe. Yeah, Balo probably deserves a chance for some friendlies after playing well for some time in France, as we've said, although it's difficult to know what you will get from him unfortunately, even though his performances for Italy have probably been mostly positive overall I would say and he has good scoring record even though he has also disappeared at times in other games. I saw that about Buffon as well; we'll see what happens with him. I get what you mean and I'm also of two minds about ti, as it might be nice as a last bow, as the games don't really mean that much (although then again it's a bit of a downer to go out in a friendly after not qualifying for the WC, even though his last appearance in the playoff elimination is also equally depressing, so I'm not sure which would be worse! haha), and then maybe Donnarumma could take over as the starting keeper when it counts for the Euro 2020 qualifying campaign (which will be tough), but it does seem odd to call him back up now when he said he was taking a break, if not completely retiring, even though he said he might still be interested. Having said that he's still very sharp and one of the best Italian keepers, while Donnarrumma still needs to improve even though he's undoubtedly very good and promising. Regarding Buffon it's probably his leadership which is most important to the team above all, so maybe he could be called up but not play, although that also seems a bit of a waste; maybe he and Donnarumma will both play a match (we have two games, right?). It would definitely seem odd for him to say he was retiring and then come back though, but I guess it also depends whether he will stay on with Juve or not, too (hopefully if he does, that will be due to a Champions League victory). Hopefully Chiellini will stay in the team because I don't see too many leaders/possible captains otherwise, and I would like him to have a decent World Cup with Italy before he retires. Hopefully Juve can beat Tottenham, which won't be easy; unfortunately Matuidi, who has been a rock in midfield, will be out, but Benatia has really grown and De Sciglio has also been improving, so we look much more solid at least defensively, and Pjanic has also been taking control of games more even though he also has room to improve, while Higuain hopefully will be able to replicate his recent scoring form in Europe as well!

Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 22:27, 9 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Yeah we've got two games end of March. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how Di Biagio handles the two friendlies...maybe it can turn out like Simone with Lazio being an interim then doing well and then leading on as head. But yeah, probably unlikely. (shame Lazio couldn't hold the lead against Napoli). It may very well come down to Juve-Napoli in April. If they keep it up we'll be on track for a record points year. But yeah, I'm afraid of Italy still not really showing up to the new tournament, but hopefully the incentives they've put into the tournament will be enough. But yeah it is a tough call on Buffon, and Chiellini like you say, so I wonder what will happen. I think for Italy, Buffon, sadly, should be done, as yes, playing a few more friendlies is pointless. But I'm beginning to think more and more that Buffon will continue one for Juve. He doesn't seem ready to leave yet. And hopefully we can get one step closer tomorrow against Tottenham! <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 23:17, 12 February 2018 (UTC)

Hi! Ugh, where is Balotelli in the squad Di Biagio named!?!? This is actually so frustrating. He has performed better than over half of the forwards he called. Verdi, seriously? I guess it makes sense to get Chiellini back as I could see him playing for a bit longer, but I didn't think he was actually going to go through with calling Buffon. As we've said, it is really hard to say whether it is right or not. I wonder if he'll actually play him though or is just having him be part of the squad for experience. We'll see. I hope Italy tries to give a lot of effort in these next couple friendlies as they are against good teams and sort of have a better showing than they last did. I heard the FIGC wants to decide on a new coach in the next 15 days, so lets see. I don't think we've seen any change. I was out on the town so didn't see Juve-Spal, but seriously how could they draw?! Spal is an 18th placed team and we're in a scudetto battle, these are points you cannot leave behind. Man, Real Madrid was probably the second worst draw we could've gotten. We're going to have to play a lot better if we want to have a chance at revenge. It just seems too early to be facing them. I can't believe how friggin lucky Bayern got again drawing Beskitas and then now Sevilla... I guess that's how it is, we were pretty lucky ourselves with the draws in 2015, so it's our turn now I guess. Roma getting Barca is hilarious, they always get them hahhah. Even though Madrid basically blew PSG out of the water, we should still have a chance. I heard a report, although nothing official, that Buffon has decided to retire at the end of the season, so again, it would be nice to move on. Hey did you see that TFC-Tigres game? It was a late one over here since we've had the time change earlier, but it was so intense!! The Volcano lived up to its name, but we stood up to it. We were knocking at the door the whole game so it was a matter of time we would score, fortunately off an own goal first, then another nice free kick goal by Gio even though Romero should've gotten there, that was a tough position to deal with it I guess. That proved to be necessary, as we couldn't seem to close out the damn game! Even when they then needed 3 goals to move on it wasn't over till the last second! That penalty he gave was kinda BS though, but it was basically over at that point. Now playing Club America will be tough, but I hope we give a good fight. Especially since TFC haven't been in good form in the league so far with a derby loss to Montreal today. God I hate their fans. Altidore almost equalized in the end there, but was cleared just in time before rolling in. Fingers crossed. cya. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:28, 17 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I know; he's been playing well, although it seems like he's still been causing problems from what I've heard and will likely be leaving at the end of the season, but it's been his best season yet and he's had some interesting offers, so considering we aren't going to be at the World Cup and will only be playing friendlies and that Di Biagio hasn't yet been made our full-time Italy senior squad manager, I really don't see why he isn't giving Balo a chance at least. Yeah, I think Chiellini should maybe stay on a bit as although he is getting older, he isn't all that old for a centre-back and has still been playing well for Juve and we could definitely use his experience and leadership alongside Bonucci and Rugani or Romagnoli, who still all need to develop even though they're talented (Bonucci seems to be doing better now with Milan at least). In spite of my earlier ambivalence over recalling Buffon, maybe for the time being calling up Buffon was the right decision, as Di Biagio rightly said that even if he doesn't play, he needs him to unite the team in the dressing room, and he's still important off the pitch, so he might just be there for experience, as you said. I think he might end up playing though, as Donnarumma was injured against Arsenal I beleive, or maybe Perin will play, which would be good for him to get more experience after all these injuries, as he's also immensely talented, but I'm guessing that Gigi will probably feature in at least one of those games – maybe against Argentina – as a final farewell, probably because the Play-offs were a bitter way to say goodbye to the national team, although it's not like a meaningless friendly is much better, but still...I'm still not sure what to believe regarding his retirement, as I've heard both sides of the story, some saying he hasn't yet decided and others saying enough is enough. He does seem to have slowed down a bit now in terms of his speed when rushing out and his reflexes and diving and seems to be a bit less reliable in his footwork decision making, which worries me a bit, as I don't want him to perform badly considering how amazing he has been through his career, and he's also being rested more frequently in Serie A, and Allegri seems to be starting him more in the Coppa Italia, so maybe he isn't really seen as the outright starter anymore (Buffon did even hint that he is no longer the best keeper at Juve anymore), so maybe after this season he should call it quits, unless he wants to stay one more year as a back-up and play in the Coppa Italia, and a European or League game here and there, possibly to equal some more records; he's had an amazing career regardless of whether he manages to win the Champions League (three finals don't lie), although I'm still hoping we can get the medal for him before he retires, and in that case, he said he might stay one more season as a back-up to win some more titles, and I think it's fair, as Szczesny has been playing well and is in his physical prime, so he probably deserves to start, and Buffon can still guide the team and play a few games here and there. I've heard Barzagli might sign a contract extension which does surprise me, as although he's still very good and inelligent as a centre-back, and moves quite well, he does seem to be struggling a bit more and has been exposed at right back against very quick, agile, and technical opponents, and I also want him to retire before he becomes a liability, as he's also been a fantastic player for Juve. Hopefully Italy will sign a good coach though as I'm still not too convinced by Di Biagio. We will see how the friendlies go. I want us to beat England, but I suppose they don't mean much even if we do play well, but I hope at least that they will be useful for the players that need to gel more and gain international experience. Yeah I can't believe we drew against SPAL; maybe we're saving our energy though, and the Champions League draw distracted us, who knows, but it's not a good result regardless, considering SPAL don't have experience and are struggling in the league, even though we were away from home, without some starters, and they defended the whole game behind the ball, as with the players we have we needed to find away through, especially if we expect to do well in Europe, but then again, it's better to make mistakes now, and in the past sometimes under Allegri we wouldn't play as well in the league, but we still did well in Europe and ended up winning the league title, so I suppose I would rather have that scenario occur. Yeah, Real are a tough draw for the quarter-finals, so I really hope we can beat them, get revenge for last year's final, so we can advance to the last four and hopefully go all the way this time; PSG, I'm not sure what happened with them, they just fell apart, sort of like we did in the second half of the Champions League final, and they just seem to not haev gelled in spit of all their stars, although they have also been unlucky not to qualify for the semifinals at times, but against us it will be different if we play intelligently and in an organised manner, and then we always need luck, but we can't play the way we did in the first leg or the first half of the second leg against Suprs. Real seem to be picking things up now as well, sort of like how they started badly last season and ended strongly, so it will be tough against them, as they still have an amazing squad. It annoys me that the two Italian teams got arguably the two toughest teams in the Spanish sides, and that the two English teams will be playing each other and will be guaranteed a team in the semi-finals, especially as their teams might end up doing well in the Europa League again now. Bayern got the easiest draw on paper, but Sevilla shouldn't be underestimated either, as they do have some talented players, and it's impressive that they managed to defeat Man U, who do have a good squad and spent a lot on many players (so much for Montella being a rubbish coach to Milan fans...they're in the CHampions League quarter-finals for the first time eve, in fifth place in the league, and in the Copa del Rey final! Sure, Gattuso has been doing better, but I new it wasn't all Montella's fault, and he had done well with Crotone and Fiorentina before). Yeah, I saw the Tigres–Toronto FC game; great result, and I'm really glad they made it through to the semi-finals and that Giovinco was able to get a goal with that great free kick (yeah, the keeper made a mistake and should've done better, but it was still perfectly placed by Gio, and it always looks easier than it is to stop those), and that he was involved in the own goal as well; even though he was quiet in the first half, he certainly picked things up in the second half and it was a great result away from home, and they did well with that performance against a tough opponent in an intimidating stadium, and yes it was an intense and tight game, and it was still open until the end, even though I think the second goal put the tie to bed for Toronto in many ways. I agree that the penalty was silly, and thankfully it was only awarded in injury time, because otherwise it could have really opened up the match; a shame that Bono couldn't get to it when he guessed the right way, as it wasn't a great penalty and it's disappointing that it went under him, but overall he played well and has been very solid for Toronto. I didn't see the MLS game against Montreal but I suppose with the new CONCACAF Champions League commitments, and the treble last season, that's probably been taking up most of their concentration, although hopefully they will pick things up in the league later as well and still have a good season and qualify easily for the playoffs, even though it will be tough to find the motivation to repeat a season like last year, with an unprecedented treble and the points record in the MLS regular season. The Champions League semi-final will be tough against another good Mexican side, and they've been unlucky with the draw unlike other teams, but hopefully they can go through and even go all the way now; they do have a good team now with Van der Wiel, Auro, and Aketxe, who provide some talent and depth to the squad, on top of their other players, so it would be amazing if they could win that as well after last season, and it would be amazing for Giovinco! Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 21:48, 18 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Hey what's up? I wasn't able to watch the Argentina game, but I saw the highlights, Buffon looked to make some decent saves, although his handling wasn't the best. Yeah, I think it was a fine call to have him back I guess, as the youngsters have also noted it is good to have someone like Buffon in the squad for support. I was able to watch a replay of the England game they showed on TV later and it wasn't great. Immobile missed at least 3 chances that should've been sunk all day long. We have to be more clinical. Balo could’ve scored any of those. We've gone almost 4 games without scoring a goal, and we were fortunate to get a penalty at the end there. We were caught whining about that foul and were caught out stupidly. I didn’t like how Parolo played either lately. I think since Marchisio is decently fit again he should be able to get some more chances, I don’t know why he wasn’t called...I guess he hasn’t had much time back on the field, but he would be someone good to have back. I guess that was Di Biagio's last game as the FIGC said they should have everything in order by late May. He obviously didn't prove he could stay, not that he would've anyway most likely. It's also funny that after we failed to qualify we actually went up in the rankings, but lose and tie in a couple friendlies and fall 6 positions to 20th place, I read on Football Italia they calculated; Italy's lowest in history. Let's hope for Juve and TFC next week. Happy Easter as well. Oh and also if you can find any source that says Italy also wore the "Davide sempre con noi" on 27 March for the England game as well (I could've sworn I could see it embossed on it yesterday's game too), could you please add, as the source there now only says for March 23 Argentina. Thanks. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 23:17, 28 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi; yeah, the Argentina game wasn't great for us; I know it was a fairly new squad with an interim manager, and we were technically facing a tough opponent, but aside from Higuain and Di Maria, most of the usual starters weren't playing, although a few came on in the second half, but Messi didn't even play either (and Spain also destroyed that Argentina side in their next friendly), and we were dominated for most of the game aside from a few glimpses of attacking potential, but we were mainly defending in our half for the large part of the match. Mind you, if Insigne and especially Immobile hadn't missed some really good chances, as you said, and if we had had more clinical forwards, the match could've also been different, and it's a shame Balo didn't play, yes. Buffon had a very good first half, and was our best player, and made some great saves to keep the score level, but his second half was mixed; I thought his handling was ok, as I don't remember him fumbling anything to be honest, and he made a couple of good saves in the second half, but I also thought that his age showed a bit on the goals, where he lacked explosiveness (especially on the first goal in which he didn't even dive, and on the second one I wonder if he made the wrong decision in coming out once again, even though he tried to correct his positioning, but he didn't have the athleticism to stop the shot, when it was on the near post...I'm not sure why he's been doing that so frequently as of late when he's always been so intelligent) and probably would've saved those shots when he was younger, even though they weren't quite as easy as they looked either, as the first one was screened and the second one was a very precise chip. Yeah, the England game wasn't great either, although it was better, and although England looked better at times, they also looked shaky as well on other occasions; I didn't see it all though, only the highlights mainly, but I agree that it was an annoying goal to concede as I think it was a weak foul, and we arguably also suffered a foul beforehand, but they took a clever free kick and caught us complaining about the decision – terrible defending on our part –, although I still think the ref probably could've called play back...I don't know for, but oh well. We got a lucky penalty as well, which didn't seem very clear to me, even from the replay, so at least that went our way in the end. Yeah, Parolo has never been that great in my opinion...he's alright, but not an amazing midfielder, sort of reminds me of a poor man's Dino Baggio (who was a good midfielder for Italy, and similar in terms of his his skillset, although he was better both defensively and offensively, but like Parolo was also not world class in terms of talent, but then again he was definitely way more consistent and decisive both for Italy and at club level); Parolo's ok defensively, he works hard, and he scores a few goals and has a decent shot, good movement, and is good in the air, but he isn't very skilful, creative, or notably quick either, and he isn't a remarkable passer, although his distribution is usually quite solid, so he's a bit limited at times, and he isn't a purely defensive work-horse like Gattuso who could really let a playmaker Pirlo work his magic. Marchisio is far better, I agree, but unfortunately he's had so many injuries and hasn't played very much, which is a shame, as he's so complete and a world-class midfielder on his day. In spite of his injuries, he's still quite quick, and can run and win balls, but his technique and passing are also great, and he still has good attacking instincts as well with his runs and striking ability. Yeah, Di Biagio didn't impress; I hope we get some decent as our full-time manager now. Yeah, that goes to show how silly the rankings are! Yes, Fingers crossed for Juve and TFC tomorrow! By the way, I found a source for the Astori article regarding the embossment in his memory under the Italy crest in the friendly against Argentina. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 03:43, 3 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi! Hope all is well. I thought Italy played a very good game away to Poland today (didn't see Ukraine although I saw the highlights and it looked like they played well too). They dominated possession and made Scezney make a few good saves, plus we hit the cross bar two times! I think Mancini up till now hasn't had a very good record, he might be testing out too many different things each game. Too bad Giovinco didn't play though - I thought since he called him up he should have played at least in the friendly. Too bad TFC didn't make the playoffs...the season started off so well with CL and weren't paying much attention in the league, picked up injuries and that came back to bite us even though we strove to make it in the end but fell short. Why does this seem like it's always happening to champions recently?! Anyway, Mancini also keeps saying the Nations League isn't very important as their goal is Euro 2020. Well, yes, but the draw is in December for the qualifying groups and these Nations League matches might determine team match ups if they are poor, so it is still important. Besides, why wouldn't you want another route to qualify for Euro 2020 by winning Nations League? Although they secured safety in group A by beating Poland at the death here, relegating Poland, it is still a pretty small chance to overtake Portugal to get into the next round. Even though Italy played well today creating a lot more offensive chances, they still made a few mistakes at the back which almost caused the only chance Poland needed to score. Verratti was finally back, although again he doesn't stand out like a Pirlo, I thought most of the passing was decent. Some of the crosses still need to be picked out better, but overall I thought it was a huge improvement from recent games. Hopefully they can get a result against Portugal and then get a decent qualifying group. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 21:40, 14 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Hey! Thanks, hope everything is well with you as well! Yes, it was frustrating to draw against the Ukraine, and fail to win yet again under Mancini, but I suppose it was only a genuine friendly, and I'm glad we managed to beat Poland, especially away from home, even though we left it pretty late! We definitely dominated possession and chances, and Poland aren't a bad side, although then again they didn't do very well at the World Cup, and we did risk at times as you said and we were a bit wasteful, but hopefully this result is a start. And I agree, our crossing needs work and our full-backs are probably still one of our weaknesses (even though Biraghi ended up getting the goal in injury time); I was also perplexed as to why we had so many high crosses when we didn't have anyone good in the air upfront or in midfield (no Immobile, Belotti, Zaza or Parolo, and several smaller players instead). Yes, Mancini has been trying out a lot of young players, which isn't a bad thing, and some of the usual guys like Chiello, Leo, and Verratti, etc. were there, but I also wonder if he should be using more experienced players at times (and some of them like Verdi still haven't played much for Italy; I also wonder whether Sirigu or Perin should start over Donnarumma, as I feel like right now they are better, more reliable and more experienced, and he is still quite young even though he's talented – Buffon was better than him at his age and wasn't starting yet either, although we did have some really other good goalkeepers at the time, although Sirigu and Perin are as good as well – even though he's tipped to be a world class keeper), especially as we do need to do well for Euro 2020 and we still are waiting on the qualifying draw (hopefully it won't be another tough group again), and it would make things easier to try and win the Nation's League as well as you said, even though I don't think it will be easy given our reputation for not taking non-tournament games too seriously. I agree that it will be tough to overtake Portugal, but hopefully we can. I thought that using Bernardeschi as a false-9 with Insigne and Chiesa was interesting on either side of him was interesting, as it allowed us to use a lot of skilful players and keep the ball (kind of like Spain under Del Bosque, although obviously none of them are at the level...). Yeah it's good that Verratti is back, and he does have some amazing qualities that make him world-class on his day, like incredible close control and passing in tight spaces, and he is more agile, dynamic, hard-working, and a better tackler than Pirlo, and he does take risks, but I agree that he doesn't really take control of big games like Pirlo, and he doesn't have his vision, long passing ability, or tactical intelligence (and obviously he can't really shoot or take free kicks like him). I really wish that the Jorginho-Verratti partnership would click because it would be amazing to have the two of them dominating games in midfield for us. If Marchisio were fit as well and did well in Russia, it would be great to have all three of them, as they can all defend, work hard and create, although I wish we had a De Rossi type defensive midfielder who could run, tackle, read the game, and pass, or even someone like Thiago Motta (although not so slow) to support them (maybe Florenzi, and I think he would do better in that position than as a right-back). Jorginho has been doing really well in England so far which is great, so I hope he can replicate those performances with Italy. Real shame about TFC not making the playoffs; I still can't believe it. I was hoping that they would make a comeback. I know they had injuries and were down about the Champions League final defeat, but I still feel like they should've qualified, as they did get some good new players. Oh well, what can you do. I was hoping Giovinco would play in one of the games, against the Ukraine at least, as he's still been playing well for Toronto, and it was nice for him to be called up, although a bit surprising and odd now that he's getting a bit older. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 03:47, 15 October 2018 (UTC)
 * Yeah I agree. Donnarumma had a couple soft games a few games ago, they played Perin for one game and he played a lot better, but then Donnarumma had a couple really good games after that. They are both really good. Secezney proved yesterday he was a top keep once again, although they din't have a good WC run, yes. I think it was ultimately the right call to give Secezney starting role over Perin at Juve. I look at Italy's squad every time they play and ask myself how can't this team be winning. Like they have a pretty good team on paper, they just need to click together better like you said. Yeah big disappointment with TFC, but I hope they can run at the CL again and come back strong next year. I also look at the team and ask how they couldn't win. I wasn't really invested in them a whole lot this year, people have been TFC should fire Vaney, others not, I don't really think it's a huge management issue. I mean Bradley did have to play has CB for majority of the season due to injury and he didn't really play well in that role. On a wiki related note, have you seen FIGC changed their website? As a result many of the external links and other sources to player's appearances and such have been broken unfortunately. I was recently reverted for adding the "0"|"0" for 2018 international caps on Giovinco since he was called up but never played. I left a message on Mattythewhite's talk page. It doesn't really matter to me, although I think it does offer some decent info if you were called up and not played or not called up at all for those years in between like "—"|"—" for Balotelli, Baggio, Zaza, or "0"|"0" for Perin. He says call ups aren't kept track of reliably, but we can see them technically from the bench on reports like Soccerway. I noticed FIGC was changed when I tried looking for play profiles, because I thought I remembered they kept track of call ups "Convocazioni" no? They have it by player filter now, but I can't seem to see the profile when I search can you? See here . Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 01:23, 16 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Yes, Donnarumma is still good, I agree, and young, but I also want Perin to gain playing time as he's good and just better and more reliable and experienced right now, especially as he needs to play and gain confidence as he isn't starting at Juve with Sczesny this season, who is also doing really well as you said. Donnarumma can't be started just because of being labelled the future Buffon; even Gigi didn't start at the 1998 World Cup despite how good he was! Yeah, I know. The Italy team doesn't seem all that bad (aside from full-backs), it's just that they don't click and none of our strikers seem to be able to score as much with Italy. Fingers crossed for TFC next year. I saw that the FIGC website has changed, which is frustrating. I fixed Giovinco's FIGC link; they have updated his page now with his call-ups this month, so I've fixed his stats. Best regards, Messirulez (talk) 14:29, 19 October 2018 (UTC)
 * That's true, Donnarumma got a lot of hype right when he started, and I think that's swayed the opinions of many. Hey why is the FIGC only listing 17 appearances for Giovinco? They're missing some games he played in. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:51, 19 October 2018 (UTC)


 * No idea; I think it's an error; hopefully they will fix it soon!

It's been a while since we had stuff to talk about regarding Italy national team! How was the win experience for you?! My goodness what a tournament! It was amazing how quickly the team was able to turnaround after not even being able to qualify for the world cup three years ago to becoming the champions of Europe! Right from the group stage Italy played with conviction. I think the players that had the best tournament were Donnarumma of course who saved many shots and penalties, ones that I'm not sure Buffon would be able to save anymore. He really impressed me! Chiesa had a great tournament and so did Spinazzola. I was worried when he went out injured. I think England's goal was a mix of Emerson's fault for backing off the crosser which gave him space to cross to Shaw who also was not picked up by Di Lorenzo. I think that early goal was more of a curse than a gift for England as early goals sometimes are. After 117 minutes Italy were the much better team, with much more possession and shots, so you could feel a goal was coming. Interesting it had to be a scrappy one in the end, but we'll take it given it would've been tough to go out like that being the better team on the day, and also beating the more difficult teams on our side of the bracket. The Chiellini professional foul was hilarious and makes for a great meme template looool. The penalties, what a rollercoaster of emotion eh? Goals, misses and saves! When Jorginho didn't score his would-be game winning kick, that was a huge let down, but then when Gigio saved the next pen to win it anyway, that was UNBELIVEABLE! Absolutely amazing! English fans are so cocky man with the it's coming home garbage, using the laser of Smeichel, busting into the stadium and the racial abuse against the penalty missers - just terrible, so it was amazing to bring it to Rome instead! What's your assessment of Mancini? Do you think he can guide us to a World Cup win also next year? All the best, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 14:37, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Italy
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Italy. CAPTAIN MEDUSA  talk  18:53, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks for the note. I've redirected it back for the time being. Please continue to expand it at the draft ensuring the use of reliable sources. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 20:28, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Skateboard Page Edit
Did you have a reason for reverting my edit regarding a new non-abrasive material being used as grip tape on the Skateboard page? It was edited on 26 November 2019. Chasle03 (talk) 08:40, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The reason is because you did not provide any WP:Reliable sources and the edit did not seem to adhere to WP:Neutral point of view. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 18:24, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi, I understand better. I haven't found any Reliable sources or PR articles, but I do ride the grip tape and there are multiple reviews on social media about it. Can I quote directly from the company's website? It is fairly new, which is why I wanted to give the company some recognition. Could you let me know if this edit would be more acceptable? If not, what would need to be changed?


 * "In 2019, a new useful type of grip tape material was invented by a company called DKL Skateboarding. This material maintains similar friction and cost as sandpaper but is made of rubber and thus non-abrasive. The major advantage is that it won't rip skater's shoes as they perform tricks. A disadvantage is that it can become slippery with water or accumulation of dust over time, but unlike sandpaper, it can be cleaned with just a wet or dry cloth." Chasle03 (talk) 22:43, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
 * The company's website is a WP:Primary source, making it not the best source of non-biased information. Your addition still seems to have WP:NPOV issues. Wikipedia is also not a place for WP:PROMOTIONAL material. If you would like more info about this edit, I would suggest asking on Talk:Skateboard. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:50, 5 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Ok, do you mind taking a look at the below edit and giving me a second opinion? I can take it to the skateboard page once I hear back. While I want to give credit to the company who created this stuff, I'm not quite sure how to do that without sounding biased or promotional. Honestly, I'm not sure how to give credit without doing this. Is there anyway to do this? Also, I don't see any primary sources for anything about grip tape in the Wikipedia page, so maybe if I just stick to the basics it will be more acceptable.
 * "Grip tape can also be made from a new rubber material introduced in 2019. This grip tape material differs from sandpaper by being non-abrasive. The major advantage is that it won't rip skater's shoes as they perform tricks. A disadvantage is that it can become slippery with water or accumulation of dust over time but can be cleaned with just a wet or dry cloth." Chasle03 (talk) 20:43, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your cooperation and effort, although, I really don't see a need for this edit, or a need to give this specific company recognition unless they have been covered by secondary sources. From here, I would take your concerns to the Skateboard talk page, although editors there will likely echo what I'm saying here. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 20:47, 6 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for sharing your feedback and opinion on the matter. Just curious if you had a background in skateboarding or maybe a personal understanding of some of the pain points of a skateboarder who goes through a pair of shoes every month? Maybe you do or don't? I'm just trying to better understand where you're coming from rather than assuming things. Non-abrasive grip tape is a legitimate historical innovation in skateboarding. I would even argue a major innovation given the problem it solves. Ripped up shoes resulting from sandpaper is a fact. This new material solves it. The proof is all over the web. I do think it's worthy of sharing, but regardless of anyone's subjective opinion on what's worthy or not, it is a real and tangible innovation in grip tape. That's why it should be added as an edit. Chasle03 (talk) 07:46, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I used to when I was younger, but that doesn't have any bearing here. Check out some of the links I sent you at your talk page - Wikipedia is not a promotional medium or a medium that gives view points such as "advantages and disadvantages". If it really is all over the web - please do provide the links - that is what we need for info to be added here! Look at how the sections on trucks and wheels are written and maybe that will also help you. You can provide the links here and better phrasing and I can help you with the addition if that is true. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 16:18, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Italian ancestry map
Hi, I'm always using only seven different colors in these maps. I made similar maps for other ethnicities before. I think 7-20% can stay. I chose this range for the Top 10 most Italian regions, and to emphasize where they are most numerous. But if you really want I can replace the label by >7% (instead of 7-20%) or I can change the ranges to 6-10% and 10-20% (instead of 6-7% and 7-20%).

In case if you are wondering, these are figures for states and provinces included in the 7-20% percentage range:

1. USA Rhode Island - 20% 2. USA Connecticut - 19% 3. USA New Jersey - 19% 4. USA New York - 16% 5. USA Massachusetts - 14% 6. USA Pennsylvania - 12% 7. USA Delaware - 10% 8. CAN Ontario - 7% 9. USA New Hampshire - 7% 10. USA Nevada - 7%

If I update the ranges to 6-10% and 10-20% then Nevada, New Hampshire and Ontario will have to change color.

Best regards, Domen (talk) 22:29, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the response. Yes, I think that 6-10% is a good range, and can even break up 10-20 into 10-15 and 15-20. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 22:40, 9 December 2019 (UTC)

Antonio
An IP made some edits to Antonio and then you followed with some edits. I have reverted but realize some of your edits may be valid. Apologies. Please have a look.-TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 22:01, 16 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for catching that - looks like I hadn't. I just removed the unnecessary and excessive bolding. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 23:42, 16 December 2019 (UTC)

Merry Merry!

 * Thanks! You too! <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 16:06, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

Luppino family
The sources I found Scibetta was Luppino co-lead the Ontario faction for the Buffalo family. When Scibetta died Luppino took control. This is the same crew of guys under control of the Buffalo family. The early history of this crew starts with the disappears of Rocco. "Three Dons" and moves forward to present time.


 * pp.137 https://books.google.com/books?id=Pi08FdhWKI8C&pg=PA137&dq=santo+scibetta+luppino&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOrcCt2tTmAhVDSN8KHbH9BSkQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=santo%20scibetta%20luppino&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=ZO8jKSn25DAC&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286&dq=santo+scibetta+hamilton&source=bl&ots=r0nVol80xl&sig=ACfU3U2rEf33HWiifX0tj657yih7M_wmPQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpjs622dTmAhVChOAKHffZCxsQ6AEwAnoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=santo%20scibetta%20hamilton&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=9VgQmxnacM4C&pg=PT134&dq=santo+scibetta+hamilton&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifo7SR2tTmAhWIdd8KHfMxAlMQ6AEwAXoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=santo%20scibetta%20hamilton&f=false

I wont edit the page again. If you want to use the information. Vic49 (talk)  01:50, 27 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi. Thanks for the note - I was going to message you as well. It's good information - I just wanted to re-work it a bit; re-added. I don't think we should list Scibetta as the founder of the Luppino family as none of the sources say that explicitly - it seems like they had joint leadership almost right from the get-go, but Luppino is still the namesake and probably did have more power with founding the Camera di Controllo in the early 60s, I'm more comfortable leaving Luppino as the founder. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 16:49, 27 December 2019 (UTC)

Help with editing
Hi, I could really use some help adding entries to The List of fugitives from justice who disappeared article. I been working very hard as of late on editing and it is way too much to do all by myself and I could really use any help that I can get. Also I added a few Italians fugitives to the list, just like you wanted. Do you think you could help me with this? I would be very thankful for some help. Davidgoodheart (talk) 23:46, 28 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Hi David. I've also been pretty busy the last couple weeks doing an overhaul of dozens of American Mafia figures and events articles and am still currently trying to finish that up which will probably take me another week or so. I see you and some others had a brief discussion on the meaning of the terminology of the article. I think that before more additions continue, that should be clarified in the lead as it asks. You can list people you want added on the article's talk page, and I'll be able to take a look, but so will others if they notice it and decide to do it. <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 01:32, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Copyright problem on The Irishman
Content you added to the above article appears to have been copied from https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/01/11/business/ap-eur-film-de-aging-holy-grail.html, which is not released under a compatible license. Copying text directly from a source is a violation of Wikipedia's copyright policy. Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, some content had to be removed, and I paraphrased some. Please leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 18:16, 17 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your paraphrasing - tried to paraphrase a bit, but realize it probably was not changed enough. Regards, <b style="color:black">Vaseline</b><b style="color:lightgrey">eeeeeee</b>★★★ 21:55, 17 January 2020 (UTC)