Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
Rocky, there's no need to get on the defensive
. no one here is having a go at juventus. When Abhishek or Rfu or Milanista or i criticize juve's market strategies, we don't do it with a biased anti-juve intent. quite the opposite actually.
we would like to see juventus on top of europe again (and as soon as possible), hence we express our worries about those moves we don't agree with.
we have no "anti-juve" sentiments, i can guarrantee.
melo is a very good player (and he might well become a great player in a few years), but in my opinion (and also in abhishek's opinion and milanista's opinion) he's not the kind of player juve needs most right now. and spending such a high amount of money on a player who isn't even on top of your priorities doens't seem to me the smartest play.
but it's just a friendly football conversation, nothing else. no one here wants to have a go at juve just for the pleasure of bashing on juve fans.
i mean i often (very often) criticize palermo's management too.... but sure i'm not a palermo hater
i express my worries about my team's strategies precisely because i care.
and milanista does the same with milan's strategies.
one of the best things about this thread is that there's no room in here for flamewars or silly anti-"
put club name here" arguments... it's just a bunch of guys sharing their own opinions on serie a's main topics.
so to make it short, don't get on the defensive, coz no one here wants to "attack" juve
Younggun said:
I thought Borriello would have been your striker this season? I actually think you have a very good team. I think a lot offensively will depend on Ronaldinho which is a bit of a worry but I do think you have a team which can win Serie A or the Champions League.
yeah infact the situation is not that bad. i mean there are some issues, concerning milan's strategies, but when u look at the team u realise they're not really in shambles.
with ambrosini, pirlo, gattuso and flamini they have a great midfield and the same can be said about their attack (pato, borriello, abate).
they also have some very interesting youngsters.... pato is arguably "the next best thing" in world's football...abate is one of the most interesting youngsters in italy... then there's antonini, who is another very good player... and about thiago silva, well i can't say anything about him, but according to what they say, he must be pretty good.
the big question marks are nesta and ronaldinho. if they will be able to perform, milan might even be considered as a title contender.... (but to be honest i don't think they will). ronaldihno needs to find new motivations and nesta needs to recover from his injuries...
both things aren't really likely to happen, but hey, in 2002 inzaghi was labelled as a finished players... no one (me included) believed he would have been able to recover after those years of bad injuries.... and yet he proved us all wrong.
and however, even without nesta and ronaldinho, if leonardo will find the right tactical formula, this still remains a very good team (but not as good as inter and the other european top clubs).
rfu said:
In regards, Cigarini, I see a problem with him moving to Napoli. Napoli have a mdifield trident of Blasi and Gargano, with Hamsik playing further ahead. Gargano is partial to a more central midfield role with Blasi playing as a defensive midfielder. Now Blasi will undoubtedly be dropped, but a combination of Cigarini and Gargano is too lightweight. Add Hamsik to the equation and teams like Inter and Juve will steamroll through them like a freight train. Either Napoli change formation or Gargano is dropped I'll be interested to see what other players Napoli bring in over the next month.
well imo napoli has 2 options right now.
donadoni has to decide where to put the "center of mass" of the team: across the midfield line or in napoli's own midfield.
this means that he'll have to decide wheter to drop or not that 3 men defensive flat line napoli displayed last season.
if he will drop that defensive setup, then he will arguably move to a 4-3-1-2 formation.
------------------santacroce-----------cannavaro
maggio---------------------------------------------------vitale
------------blasi-----------cigarini-------------gargano
-----------------------------hamsik
------------------lavezzi-------------quagliarella
with this system he would guarrantee some protection to the defensive line (thanks to gargano and blasi) and free cigarini from any defensive duties.
there's an issue however. this 4 men defensive line would be "fake" as the 2 men on the flanks are wingbacks rather than fullbacks. maggio and vitale can't give a great contribution to the defensive phase, as they're both offensive players.....but then again blasi and gargano could help them with double markings.
afterall every good 4-3-1-2 need some offensive sidebacks to work properly.
otherwise donadoni might decide not to drop the 3 men flat line defence... but in this case he will sacrifice one between gargano and blasi.
--------------santacroce------cannavaro------campagnaro
maggio------------------------------------------------------------vitale
----------------------gargano----------cigarini
------------------------------hamsik
--------------------lavezzi------------quagliarella
in this case the goalkeeper will get the same protection he had this season and the wingbacks will be free to cause havoc upfront...... but the team will lose something in terms of midfield filtering. i don't think this would be a major issue for the defensive line as those 3 guys can handle a lot of stress.... but the team wouldn't be able to put a lot of pressure across the midfield line.
i lined up gargano along with cigarini.... but it might well be that donadoni will pick blasi instead..... gargano has more quality than blasi and is even more dynamic.... but his positioning isn't good at all... as a pure defensive midfielder blasi would be the best choice imo.... it will all depend by what kind of midfield donadoni wants.
both options have their good aspects and weaknesses.... we just have to wait and see what donadoni will decide. of course if napoli will make new moves on the market, some new different options might pop up..... but i can't see De laurentis buying any more players... i mean he already made lots of great moves: de sanctis, zuniga, campagnaro, cigarini, quagliarella....
all fantastic signings... i'd say napoli till now has made the best market moves in europe.
however rfu don't underestimate cigarini's tackling skills... sure a gargano (or blasi) - cigarini midfield would be a bit lightweight (anyhow, as i said, that setup would allow donadoni to line up 3 cbs and those 3 guys are good enough to handle every kind of pressure).... but cigarini is a tackling machine!
i infact i've never seen a pure regista with such a great tackling technique and such a great timing
YouTube - Luca Cigarini - tackles, passes...
i'm not trying to prove my point with this video, as everybody could look great with a well done compilation..... but those tackles aren't something "unusual" for luca... they represent pretty much his standard tackling ability.
as usual, sorry gor the loong post
edit:
Martin my friend, it's been a while!! great to see ya in here.
it's a shame we didn't have a chance to talk lately, but just 2 days ago i logged in messenger for the first time
in months and unfortunately u weren't on line
2nd edit:
real madrid seems to be negotiating with udinese for d'agostino. both real madrid and udinese confirm the rumour to be true.
But what really made me hit the roof was finding out we signed Kerlon from Chievo 
thats not neccesarily a bad line up. Like Conte and Davids.
)
). One has to wonder how succseful such players would be in todays game. The only proof we have is players like Maldini who grew up and played in that era and were able to compete today
