Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
meghni and del nero are not awful, rfu! inconsistant? yes, but talented... a lot (especially meghni).... i mean u might even describe meghni as a "below average player", given his inconsistance.... but then u'd have to redefine your entire quality ladder.... i mean u can't say meghni is awful and, just a few lines below, remark "the quality of premiership clubs.... there's some serious incoherence here
rfu said:
and premiership sides have much more quality depth compared with Palermo. La Liga sides can destroy anyone with their swift attacking football (ask Juve about that one ).
sorry mate, but i got to strongly disagree on this.
as for la liga clubs "swift attacking football".... well it would look a lot less attacking against some serious defenses.... besides don't put "swift" and "spanish football" in the same line... those 2 expressions don't really get along.... spanish football doesn't get along with any expression related to velocity or quickness.
however mate don't buy those clicheès about the attacking liga and the conservative serie a.... it's just a huge load of bullsh.. just do the math, and u'll find out the thruth.
last year someone brought up this topic and i replied putting down some number and stats wich speak for themselves.
average goal per match in premiership: 2.64
average goal per match in serie a: 2.55
average goal per match in la liga : 2.65
so it turns out that the gap between the "most attacking league in europe" and the "boring, conservative serie a" is 0.11 goals per match..... WOW! that's a lot! i'm sure every fan can certainly "feel", spot this gap during single league games. i can almost hear the average fan comments....
"
yeah it's not bad, but still this football is soo defensive... it would be so much better with, say, 0.11 more goals per matches... that would really turn serie a into a fancy league"
theese stats are about the 2008 season...can't find anything related to the last season.... but usually those numbers are always pretty much the same.
and btw mate, u can't use an august preseason friendly to prove anything! italian teams won't ever look good in summer. our league is the last one to begin and our fitness preparation schedule are aimed to bring the players in the best form on october.... i mean come on every season italian teams get spanked by anyone around europe in summer... doesn't that suggest u anything? tottenham tore apart roma last summer!!! it was 5-0 or something like that.... LOL!!!!!!
as for "the premiership sides having more quality depth than palermo"..... no. the only epl sides (beside the top 4 of course) which have a better roster than palermo (but then again having a better roster doesn't mean anything) are man city and tottenham..... everton and aston villa are nice teams (actually they proved to be much better than man city and tottenham and pretty much on the same standards of palermo.... but they don't have a better roster than palermo.. at all).
but then again, does that makes tottenham and man city better than palermo (serie a's 8th team)? No.
football is a simple game.... but really not THAT simple.. i mean it's not like playing a football videogame.... u sign better players--> your team becomes stronger..... it doesn't work like that... there are so many factors to consider..... the most important of them being "the football".
man city and tottenham wasted fortunes to improve their teams last season, and yet their football has been quite horrible.... actually football-wise we shouldn't even compare man city and spurs to palermo as they just belong to different standards.... chievo and torino would be a much more appropriate comparison at least if we stick just to the quality of the football....
but of course that would be silly as the quality of football is extremely important, but it's not the only factor... the quality of the players still means something and i'm pretty sure both man city and spurs will eventually realise how to exploit their potential and become good teams..... but playing better foootball than palermo did last season?.... that's a long shot.
another factor strongly tied to the quality of the football actually played by the teams is the coach. i guess we all can agree that fulham can't compete with the likes of man city and tottenham in terms of quality and depth... but fulham, unlike tottenham and man city, has a coach, a real football coach, and that's the reason of their succesful season.... and that's also why they did better than man city and tottenham.
seriously the only reason why u put man city and tottenham, along with aston villa and everton is because u just can't write them off with those squads they have..... but then again if i had to base my opinion just on "facts" (wich means on last season results) then the only clubs which deserve to be compared to palermo are aston villa and everton.
and that means comparing the 5th and the 6th best team in the epl to the 8th best team in serie a (and actually i'm not even sure we're the 8th best team, as someone could argue that lazio and samp are better than palermo)...
rfu said:
But looking at serie A... the fiorentina midfield currently has a big hole in it yet to be fulfilled after Melo's departure... Roma don't have a complete squad (no recognized CF, no replacement CBs, no replacement for Totti) one injury and they're a mess... Napoli don't have a complete squad either (no quality replacement for Hamsik, no legt wing-back; De Laurentiis said something about that that cracked me up - funny dude )... Udinese are strong and with a prooper CF (albeit Corradi)
well
fiorentina just filled that hole with a hell of a player (zanetti). so corvino sold melo to juve for 25 millions and a few weeks later he bought zanetti from juve for 2 MILLIONS!!!!
so now fiorentina is 23 millions richer... and they also have a better metodista than melo (zanetti), which they brought from the same club they sold melo to..... for 23 million euros less than what they got from juve for melo!
oh my God! that is so hilarious. i mean, i know odds are zanetti will be injured for most of the season.... but can u imagine, what if zanetti actually has an injury free season??!!
secco would probably kill himself
and however, even without zanetti, with donadel and gobbi (not to mention jorgensen
) they're pretty well covered.
concerning
roma, they definitely lack depth (but since they won't have to ply CL, that won't be a major issue), but i wouldn't say the squad is not complete. with totti and vucinic the cf spot is extremely well covered (not to mention that kid okaka who definitely deserves playtime this season).
for the cb they have a very very nice backup in andreolli (who has been on of the most impressive in the last under 21 competition)... however u're right on this, 1 backup cb is not enough, even for a team who will have to focus just on the league.
i really can't see how can u say
napoli has not a complete squad! they actually have so many good players they can field 2 different teams. and they also have so many versatile players they can display at least 3 different formations!!
so what makes u believe their squad isn't complete? the lack of a quality replacement for hamsik??!!
jeez mate they're napoli, not chelsea or real madrid! they're already lucky to have a mezz'ala like hamsik... u want them to have 2?!?! we're not talking about a champions league contender here mate. napoli actually has an amazing squad.
and the same goee for
udinese. yes quagliarella is hard to replace and corradi is definitely not as good as him...... but actually, if u think carefully, there's some logic behind this move.
replacing quagliarella with a player as good as him was simply of of the table for udinese, as such a player would be just too expensive..... but actually they don't really need a player like quagliarella. with all those great offensive players they have ( di natale, pepe, sanches, inler) what they really need is a tall cf who can catch passes, hold the ball and try some triangulations (to activate all those offensive threats).
now, corradi can't score to save his life..... but he's damn good at that (triangulating with wingers and offensive midfielders).... actually that's the only thing he's good at.
so i don't think they will miss quagliarella that much.
besides they still have floro flores, who is a very promising cf.
and however, if someone would tell me "it won't be easy to cope with quagliarella's departure", then i would reply that it wasn't easy either to cope with zapata's injury last season.... and yet they did pretty well without him.
with felipe and zapata, udinese has one of the very best cb couples in europe.... even better than many top clubs cb partnerships.
rfu said:
yeah, zenga is alright.... but the thing is ballardini is much, much more than that.
Its shame really, its a world cup year as well and Italy desperately need a player of his ability. And serie A in general, we have lost too many skillful and talented players in just one season 
But I agree with you 100%. But I'm both happy and upset about the transanction. I'm glad because Juve have lost a talented 'metodista' who is better technically than Melo can deploy more accurate passes, but I'm pissed becuase Zanetti is only valued at a measly 1.5 million euros... that's ridiculous! A lot of people don't realize how highly rated (and consistent, despite all those injuries) Cristiano once was (and still is). Forget Gobbi and Donadel, if Zanetti has injury free season Juve will live to regret this decision... hell, we should've never sold him. I also hear he requested the transfer, so who knows. Also Juve might make a move of D'Ago again because Sissoko will be out for a while yet.
And isn't Totti already injured? Vucinic isn't capable of carrying the team on his own. Huntelaar would've been a very good addition to the squad IMO, and VDV too. What about the players like Perotta and Taddei who are past their best. Andreolli (former Inter) will be loaned out I think. ROma are in the Europa cup this season, again they do not have adequate depth.