According to daily star we want Benatia to be signed for the game against Burnlry and apperently we are close

Edited August 12, 201411 yr by Bluerising

He's good defender and is just 27 years old. 30millions is justified price tag. Wouldn't mind him at all.

Bollocks!

if so it is f**king stupid of us to have sent kalas out on loan when he looked every bit the part.

 

zouma thus far has been appalling at CB. it's jose though, so nothing would shock me. defend first, score second. wait for it.

Remy better be signed straight after him then. 

Need striker after this. I love benatia he is a brick wall and with terry getting on and zouma not very experienced he's a very good replacement

Not going to happen, stopped reading at "According to daily star"

@OfficialASRoma: #DeSanctis: "You can't think that one player leaving will make all that much difference to the sort of season a team will have" #RomaAustria

I actually don't think we need to sign Benatia considering we have good depth in the defence as it is and versatile defenders like Ivanovic and Azpilicueta can play various positions if someone like Terry, Cahill or Luis is injured or suspended.

 

Ivanovic has the luxury of being able to play RB and CB. Azpilicueta can play RB or LB as he showed last season as well.

 

I think Terry and Cahill will occupy the centre back spots regularly with Zouma as back-up and Luis will definitely play on the left-back as Ashley Cole's replacement. Ivanovic and Azpilicueta will be fighting it out for the right-back spot unless Luis breaks down which would mean Azpilicueta plays on the LB again. 

It's quite difficult to see why we need to sign another defender at the present time. I think we have all our options covered at the moment and the defensive depth to challenge for the title this season.

Edited August 12, 201411 yr by Jezz

if so it is f**king stupid of us to have sent kalas out on loan when he looked every bit the part.

 

zouma thus far has been appalling at CB. it's jose though, so nothing would shock me. defend first, score second. wait for it.

 

Respectfully disagree about Kalas... don't get me wrong he had a good game, but he only played against Liverpool and even then his overall ability as a CB wasn't really tested because we parked the bus, i.e. Andreas Christensen would have looked the part in the same game.

Edited August 12, 201411 yr by the special one

Respectfully disagree about Kalas... he only played against Liverpool and even then his overall ability as a CB wasn't really tested because we parked the bus, i.e. Andreas Christensen would have looked the part in the same game.

Do feel Zouma has been very poor pre season though

Do feel Zouma has been very poor pre season though

 

Absolutely, from what i've seen he needs to work on his positioning... but he's only 19 and does appear to have immense potential - a season learning from JT can only help his game. Personally I think Brano can provide adequate cover for Gaz/JT so i'm not sure we need to splash out £30 mill for Benatia. I'd like to see Zouma given a chance if we need to park the bus or perhaps against 'lesser' opposition.

Edited August 12, 201411 yr by the special one

I know Cahill-Terry partnership was the best in the league last season but Terry is not going to improve any further he's only going to decline and in worst case if any one of them gets injured we're left with Zouma and Iva, the former is raw as we've seen in pre-season and I know Iva is solid and etc but he has not played in that position from long and the last time I remember he played there he made some mistakes which lead to goal.

 

So I really think Benatia will be a really good signing he's a solid defender and is 27 at his peak.

Absolutely, from what i've seen he needs to work on his positioning ... but he's only 19 and does appear to have immense potential - a season learning from JT can only help his game. Personally I think Brano can provide adequate cover for Gaz/JT so i'm not sure we need to splash out £30 mill for Benatia. I'd like to see Zouma given a chance if we need to park the bus or perhaps against 'lesser' opposition.

 

Well if you are parking the bus the last thing you want in defence is a guy that is prone to losing his man. The potential is there ovbiously and his physical attributes are crazy but he has a lot of work to do.

Hmm, we did not move to sign Mangala because his cost was high at 32mill, but we are willing to spend on Benatia?

 

Being after a defender rather than another forward, in spite of what our strengths and weaknesses were last season, does seem rather odd.

Well if you are parking the bus the last thing you want in defence is a guy that is prone to losing his man. The potential is there ovbiously and his physical attributes are crazy but he has a lot of work to do.

 

Theres no 'losing your man' with parking the bus. Theres no space behind the defence to run into, and its basically zonal marking. Thats why weaker sides use that tactic.

 

Youre implying that defending when parking the bus is harder, which is, frankly, ridiculous.

Edited August 12, 201411 yr by Lane

Is benatia worth the big fee? I've not seen him play that much. I would be very suprized if we spent big on a centre back that st homegrown or u21.

If any of you watched serie a last season, you would of noticed Roma overachieved a bit like Liverpool but Roma were good defensively and that was because of benatia, he reads the game like terry and he is very good at marking and heading. This will properly be terry last proper season. 30 million is a very good price for a defender like benatia.

I don't recall hearing much about him before which makes me think he's just had one good season. £30m is quite a lot, I would rather spend that on Mangala or Rojo. Or better yet just Omeruo, etc. 

We just spent about £12m on Zouma... Why buy another CB?

£30mil investment in a new defender who may or may not get game time if the JT/Cahill partnership is as good as last season. We have some decent prospects in the academy and out on loan. Why waste the money??

Benatia no way, rubbish paper talk again, we decline Mangala who was almost beating down our door to get in but sign the former instead? I don't think so, lets jog on.

I vant understand benatia or varanne stories. We have plenty of defenders. Personally I think Ivan showed in the game against Liverpool that he is fully up to central defensive duties.

I would be starting him in front of terry.

We clearly need more out and out striking options.

If we sell mikel we will also be short on defensive midfielders unless van ginkel can deliver a lot more than I have so far seen from him

The Benatia rumours are crap. Utd is after him and Roma are just trying to drum up some interest to increase his value. Not gonna happen

This was allegedly said by Mourinho after yesterday's game: "No. We are not interested (in Benatia). We have John (Terry), (Gary) Cahill, (Branislav) Ivanovic, (Kurt) Zouma, and we want to make (Andreas) Christensen, step by step, training with us, every day, playing a few minutes when it is possible, playing with the Under-21s and training with us as a first-team squad member. We are fine."