Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
rfu said:
really, you under estimate Palermo. They're really belong in the top half of the table, around 6th or 7th position, but they've had problems including the injured Liverani and Cavani's shooting
that is way too generous mate. in an hypothetical power ranking i would put palermo at the 10th place, after inter, juve, samp, genoa, roma, fiorentina, napoli, lazio and milan.
the thing is, being the 10th team in serie a isn't the same of being the 10th club in other leagues (as i wrote many times). and that's why i don't think this is about underestimating palermo.
this is infact an absolutely normal approach for a guy who is getting in contact with serie a. u read about juve being destroyed by a team with 9 points, and, based on your other leagues experience, your first thought is "damn juve must have failed big time".... that's because this is what u would think if real madrid (second in spain as juve) would loose 2-0 to getafe (9 points as palermo).... or if man utd (2nd in epl) would loose 2-0 to stoke city (9 points like palermo).
when stoke plays against man utd, u will hardly see more than 2 stoke players beyond the ball line... as they will most likely park the bus in front of the box and try some long ball counters.... wich would make a 2-0 victory for stoke city quite a crazy result.
while in spain a 3-2 or a 2-1 would be much more likely than a total domination (like a 2-0) as getafe will try, regardless their opponents higher quality, to play his usual football, hoping to score at least once before madrid get its 3rd goal.
the 10th team in serie a instead, a club wich has 9 points (exactly as stoke city or getafe) is still a club which can display every week the likes of miccoli, simplicio, nocerino, liverani, kjaer, bovo, balzaretti, pastore (
).... and that's where the difference lies.
rfu said:
He's okay. Bolzoni was a much more refined player with better passing skills.
quite the opposite mate. bolzoni is on is way to become a good player.... Poli belongs to a different category. he's a legend in the making..... which, obviously doesn't mean he will actually become a legend.... as far as we know, 6 years from now, bolzoni might end up to be a much better player... or maybe they will both fail to step up....
but what we can say at the moment is that andrea poli is the hottest midfield italian prospect since de rossi (and theese aren't my words... theese are corvino's, marino's, marotta's and gerolin's words.... on a gazzetta dello sport of last season). after giovinco (3 seasons ago), balotelli (2 seasons ago) and santon (last season) he's this season's next best thing.
i mean, there's a reason if bolzoni has been loaned to frosinone, while poli stayed in serie a and already got 4 presences despite the competition of palombo and tissone.
and the most impressive thing of this guy is his personality. he is so cool, so composed, so ridiculously aware on the pitch, he looks everything but a 20 years old kid. u watch him playing along with an amazing player like palombo and u can hardly tell who is the newbie between them.
and it's not like he plays along the sidelines... he plays in the centre of the pitch, in the middle of the traffic and in the core of the game, where it's most difficult to keep your coolness and to find the right position. he has the same unnatural coolness cigarini has.
and that was about his personality. talking about skills, for passing, technique, vision, shooting, stamina and pace, Poli is just on a different level than bolzoni. his passing technique is just excellent, his ball control his already almost top notch, his shooting accuracy is very very good (his shooting power isn't that great yet, but that's absolutely normal coz, being 20 he's just at the beginning of the muscular growth process). his vision is nowhere as good as cigarini's one, of course.... but other than cigarini, i can't think of any other under 23 italian player who has a better vision (and this is crazy, coz he's not even a natural regista).
very good long pass, great through balls, great short quick passing game, he can use both feet.... if only his dribbling was on par with his other skills, he would be a little iniesta.
lazipho said:
i saw this Andrea Poli kid against inter, he played very well. he kept making good off the ball runs into the opponent's penalty box, seemed pretty fast and has some good dribbling. most importantly he continually tracked back and harassed the Inter midfielders and kept nicking the ball off them. Could you enlighten me more on this kid's game, lo zio?
his dribbling is pretty decent, maybe slightly above average, but nothing more (at least at this early stage of his carreer)... and yes, he has a very high "commitment ratio" so he tends to track back and try to help his teammates during non-possession phases... however talking about pressing and covering skills he still has a lot to learn. anyhow he definitely puts some effort in recovering the ball, so i can see him improving this aspect of his game in the next few years.
as for his role, right now he's just too good at too many things (wich is not a good thing in italy), so his coaches haven't yet given him a specific role imprinting.
he is a natural mezz'ala, namely an offensive kinda midfielder, wich is slightly different from a pure trequartista (just to make it easy to understand his natural role is gerrards' one, aquilani's one, iniesta's one, hamsik's one).
but he also has a great vision and a very good long passing accuracy, wich allows him also to stay deep and play as a regista (like pirlo or cigarini). in the next 2 years he will develop into a specific direction\role, but at the moment it's impossible to label him with a specific role.
jmg721 said:
Congrats on the big 3 points vs Juve Ben. It allowed me to not be too upset with Fiorentina getting screwed out of 2 points on a ball that appeared to go over the line. When will they allow for technology to step in on a play that seems easy to get right. Did the ball cross the plane of the goal line. It really shouldn't be subjective. Can't they make sensors like in hockey...grrr.
you're right jason. that's indeed the only technologic addition that i believe might actually be useful in football.
rfu said:
I read an interview by Zenga and apparently Palermo played in a 3-4-1-2 formation, with Migliaccio playing in defence alongside Kjaer and Bovo, Simplico and Bresciano as defensive midfielders, Cassani and Balzaretti wide, Pastore in the hole behind Miccoli and Cavani. I watched the game and I thought it was there typical 4-3-1-2, with Simplico starting out in the hole and Pastore wide left, and then Pastore playing in the hole, Simplico playing as the regista and Bresciano out wide?? I'm so confused. Anyway it was a great game... Cavani finally got one on target And Sirigu, where'd he come from?
jason pretty much replied to your question
as for sirigu, i got to say i'm sincerely impressed by him. it's quite a few years i hear this kid sirigu is meant to become a great keeper.... but, to be honest, i already heard this about so many keepers (who eventually failed and never step up) that i don't even pay attention to theese rumours anymore. let's hope he'll keep going like this.... for now, putting rubinho out of the starting formation, well that's already an extraordinary achievement!
rfu said:
It may have been in reference to Melo's touches on the ball. He tends to over elaborate on the ball and get dispossessed easily. But for me he has been quite disappointing so far this season, Juve would've been much better off with D'Ago.
i'm pretty sure melo will improve (a lot!) in the next 2 years and fix the major flaws in his game.
what really amazes me is how on earth juventus (which already got marchisio, sissoko and poulsen) thought he could have been an useful addition to the team.
and even more crazy than that, how for God's sake, at 25 millions, they thought it was a good investment.... especially since they thought 24 millions were too much for xabi alonso (last season) and 20 millions were too much for d'agostino (this summer).
it just makes no sense. however big news for juve; cobolli has been removed from his president role.... maybe this means secco is the next one on the departures list? maybe marotta taking over as juventus general manager next season?? that would really be a great news for juve fans.
speaking of boards revolutions, de laurentis appointed montali as napoli's new general manager.... what a joke!!!
please sir alex, one more season, just one more season!
really, you under estimate Palermo. They're really belong in the top half of the table, around 6th or 7th position, but they've had problems including the injured Liverani and Cavani's shooting 
. Poli has good energy tho, always running and full of effort. Anyone heard of Rene Krhin with Inter? Good box-to-box midfielder currently playing as a regista. Only 19. Hopefully he'll get more playtime under Mourinho.
