Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Waste of Money? He clearly isn't. You see he's really good even if playing bad... imagine when he'll start playing good :) you can't judge someone on 3 months... well you can but it shouldn't be enough to kick him in the arse.

Like for example Caceres who was thought the weak link of Juventus was their best in the last 2 matches :)

Melo though probably won't ever live up to his price. Even though I expect him to become a very good and useful player :) (not at sissoko level though, just below and in a bit different style)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

I saw the match, it's a litle bit easy to blame one player (Diego) when the team failed.
Ferrara also got punished for the substitution of Del Piero by the more defensive Poulsen...
I was convinced that Juventus would qualify, but in the end Bayern fully deserved to win (they already were the better team in the home leg...).

About Poulsen: things just don't seem to work out for him in Juventus. I think he made the wrong choice leaving Sevilla for Juventus. He was more appreciated in Sevilla and on top of that, at the moment Sevilla clearly is the better team...He deserves better than this Juventus. I consider him a very, very good player even if he didn't show it with Juventus...
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Ronnie scored again, albeit a penalty. How well has he done so far this season?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

hey where's ben pointing out that juve should've bought gaetano d'agostino? :D

as a german, I'd rather see him in a bayern shirt, though. they need him almost as much as juve does, their midfield only plays good passing football with that pinch of creativity and directness once in a full moon.

I am intrigued by how he (d'agostino) compares to xabi alonso.
I am an expert on neither of them but have seen both a few times.
I've got the impression that xabi edges gaetano in terms of sharpness of passing and creativity/vision and therefore in usefulness as a playmaker.
even if they weren't great playmakers (which they are, of course), I happen to think both of them still would be very useful defensive midfielders as in having positioning, tackling, intelligence as an asset plust possessing that bit of grit and determination.
what does everyone else think?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

The thing is, Juve didn't buy D'Agostino only because Udinese put up an high price for him. But then, if you're consistent, you shouldn't buy Melo for an even more exaggerated price :\

And yes, Juventus needed Gaetano more than Felipe. But probably even more good doctors/training field?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Gasperini has been linked with replacing Fergie for us.

Now that would be interesting. :D
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

It wouldn't happen, Whatever happens were going to get a "Big name" manager to replace SAF, other managers wouldn't be able to cope with the pressure of replacing him.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Ole? I couldn't see it. Maybe the one after but directly replacing him. It is growing though as a trend it seems.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

If FGDB achieve something in the CL this year, I think Blanc will be the new Man Utd coach. Such a class coach.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Bari - Juventus, what a game. I really enjoyed it, even though Juve ended up suffering counter-attacks a "bit" too much :( and that result is totally liar. I've never seen a Juve this good in the last months... probably because everyone is pretty pissed off :P a noticeable Poulsen wins the Juve MotM imo (and I always despised him)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

well mate, i don't agree with you: bari played a really good match yesterday and missed a lot of good chances. Yes, juve did the same but the result is liar because it should have been something like 5-4 or similar :).
I'm really worried for Cannavaro's condition and hope he'll feel better in June: he's always been an explosive player but now when he has to defend on a fast guy he suffers a lot, too often.
Not only Poulsen, but also Molinaro ( another one who's not so loved by juve's fans) played a very good match yesterday imo ..
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

I think right now, Trezeguet is clearly Juve's best striker. Amauri is so incredibly wasteful, and Diego has far too much pressure on him. Cannavaro has become clumsy in 1 on 1 situations - very Kaladze-like. Giving away silly penalties.

Poulsen was awesome and I thought Tiago had a decent game too.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Bari indeed missed a lot of chances... but their errors were at the "last dribbling" or "last pass", ours were always on the shot :( you can probably see it from the match stats... of course Bari played very well too, but I feel Juve played a bit better. Btw, Grosso did jump on that pk, even though Almiron was mad at doing that full speed slider :D

And no, I didn't like Tiago at all. He was one of the worst ones imo...
Cannavaro did look a bit worried in 1on1 but overall he wasn't SO bad :\
Molinaro played a decent match, not anything more...
Amauri is only a shadow of what he was last year... on the first goal he did this season he played a lot better the next match, but then started to play bad again... I think when he'll score he'll start to be back ;)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Anyone know who did the english commentary from the Palermo v Cagliari match? He is awesome!! The channel was "Super Sport"?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Woo fantastic Palermo!!

Milan were poor (Pato was especially bad) but a great win for Palermo!

Micolli :APPLAUD:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

1alz


Look at the number of teams on 24 points!!! :SHOCK:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

lo zio said:
a single phrase could sum up the game pretty well: great intensity, poor quality.
the thing is we can't expect much more from liverpool theese days. loosing xabi was a huge blow for benitez, and i believe this season rafa will have to face his biggest challenge ever as a coach: find a new tactical formula to cope with the lack of a regista.
a team can definitely play without a regista (man utd played without a proper regista in the last few years and still showed the most sophisticated football in europe, speaking of tactics)...... but when u got used to play with a regista, it gets damn hard to play without him. xabi has been for liverpool what pirlo is for milan, what xavi is for barca.... they're like a morphine dose; once u don't use it anymore, it's hard to detox.

just take fiorentina as example..... it was a hell of a challenge for prandelli to "detox" his players, when liverani left. he went for new a midfield formula with lots of muscles (melo and donadel) and quality (montolivo and kuzmanovic)...... wich is the same path rafa is choosing right now (with kuyt, mascherano, benayoun and gerrard).
it took one year to prandelli to teach his players to cope with liverani's absence.... and even today, fiorentina looks like a work in progress......
so i believe this is gonna be a very tough season for liverpool fans.

anyhow the game vs utd brings a very good news for liverpool fans; the fighting spirit the reds showed sunday proves that the players didn't loose their faith in rafa, they still suppport him, and that's very important imo.

now it's up to benitez to show this faith is well deserved; he must give a new tactical imprint to this team, and he must do it as soon as possible, coz, to be honest, this liverpool is very boring to watch, very predictable, very flat.
and it won't be easy to do it with lucas as a starter. the guy is finally showing some progresses, and his passion and intensity certainly deserve a plause..... but his passing game is so terrribly flat and predictable... and even defensively he still has a long way to go; sure he recovers many balls, but he also loose possession way too often. sunday he was pretty good, but to be fair, i'd say that's up to carrick and scholes bad performance.

liverpool's performance sunday pretty much reflects lucas situation. the team was great during non possession phases, showing a great fighting spirit and a very intense pressing that crashed man utd midfield (right now fletcher is a key assett to man utd)..... but as soon as they got possession, there was a serious lack of ideas at midfield.
lucky them, benayoun can provide all the creativity lucas lacks of..... but benayoun plays higher on the pitch.... while liverpool need a clever player deeper in their own midfield, if they wanna start playing some "logical" football.

right now yossi is liverpool's most important player. tactically speaking, he's even more important than torres (as he's the one who allows el nino to show his magic). the "dialogue" between benayoun and kuyt was great sunday (certainly the most interesting thing of the match), and if only those 2 guys were a bit more selfish, liverpool would be a lot more dangerous upfront.

the game versus man utd arrived with a perfect timing. after such a bad period, the reds had to show some guts, and the big game against their rivals was the perfect scenario to pull out that amazing fighting spirit liverpool is famous for. and if u add to that man utd's poor performance (they were simply awful, not only they couldn't cope with liverpool pressing, not only they didn't put enough pressure on lucas, who is liverpool's weak link, to force his mistakes... they weren't even able to create anything when they got the opportunity)..... this match became the best medicine to heal liverpool's pride.

but the problem is, u don't get to play against top teams every week.....it's easy to find the right motivation playing against man utd....... but in the league (in the long run) u don't prove yourself performing against man utd..... a real top team must find the same motivations, must show the same fighting spirit even playing against sunderland, west ham or bolton.
and since the reds lost xabi, they're gonna have to show even more fighting spirit than in the previous seasons, if they wanna cope with his absence.

i know this is not really a deep tactical analysis.... but that's because this match really didn't offer anything interesting from the tactical point of view to discuss about.

anyhow i hope this is a sign of things to come for liverpool. i hope the reds will keep playing with that intensity until rafa will find a new way to have his team playing.
afterall football is played with brain, heart, lungs and legs. if u ain't got enough brain, u can still make up with the other factors. ;)

sorry for the double posting, for the off topic and for the long post :P
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Like to bring this up. You've been absolutely spot on Ben. Not exactly happy about it, but it's so true. Don't know here Rafa will go from here.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Beautiful quote Abhi and of course amazing points as usual by Ben. It was so great reading this although it is off topic kinda as this is Serie A thread but thank you to both. I had fun reading it and couldn't help but as usual agree with pretty much all of it.

Gigi, thank you for answer about Fiore. Glad to see Stefano's doing well. :)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

you're welcome mate....i don't know if that channel can be wathed outside Italy, but at 8:30 p.m. today you can watch Stefano playing on RAI Sport: there's Taranto vs Cosenza,the monday postponement of serie C1 league (and if we win we'll reach 3rd position)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Uugh, I hate Valencia with a passion now. Was enjoyable watching Genoa pin them in their own half for much of the game.

jmg721 said:
Anyone know who did the english commentary from the Palermo v Cagliari match? He is awesome!! The channel was "Super Sport"?
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sounds south african. Did he have have an south african accent (might help if you know what one sounds like)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

New crazy 5-year contract for Totti! Lol

He's gonna be getting massive money loooong after he'll be of much use anymore. Sometimes you wonder if Francesco has done more for AS Roma or in some ways Roma the club for him....
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

PLF said:
New crazy 5-year contract for Totti! Lol

He's gonna be getting massive money loooong after he'll be of much use anymore. Sometimes you wonder if Francesco has done more for AS Roma or in some ways Roma the club for him....
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yeah, i can certainly see where u're coming from bro. that would be indeed a legitimate question "who was more good to who?" totti to roma or roma to totti?

anyhow i think we should look at it also from a different perspective. not only "who gave more to who", but also "who forwent to most" "who lost most from this marriage".
and as soon as u look at it from this perspective, the situation changes.

i believe it's pretty much established (atleast for those who truly know totti) that francesco is the most underrated player in his generation (and probably the most underrated talent in the history of the game). he's the only legend who never really reached the "legend status" in the eyes of most of the football fans all over the world.
some say that's because of his attitude (his spit to poulsen destroyed his image for ever), but i disagree.... as a matter of fact zidane, maradona and best showed the same contemptible attitude and the same lack of class and elegance francesco showed in his carreer.... and yet this didn't effect their reputation as legendary footballers.

i believe instead this is due to what platini called a "bad choice": namely remaining in roma, instead of accepting the requests he got from real madrid and milan.
i wouldn't really call this a "bad choice", as his "roman heart" played a big role in his decisions, so u can't really blame him for his choices...... but certaily it was this choice that made him the biggest "failure" in football history...... the only legend who never reached this status.

i'm absolutely sure that if we would ask to most of the football fans around the globe to "rank" world class players from francesco's generation and the current generation, everyone who hasn't followed italian football would put him at the bottom of the list.
from messi, c. ronaldo, kakà, pirlo, xavi to giggs, scholes, raul, del piero, bergkamp..... most of the football fans outside italy would easily rate all of them higher than totti... and that's because most of the football fans outside italy have absolutely no idea what a GOD totti was, back in the days when he used to play in his real role (as a trequartista).

let me make a simple comparison. everyone knows what a legendary footballer zidane has been through his entire career. and that's because, playing for juve and real madrid, zizou got a chance to display his immense talent on the biggests european scenarios.
totti never had this chance..... well actually he did have this chance (as milan and real madrid chased him for years), but he decided not to use this chance. he was well aware that, by choosing to stay in roma, he was basically giving up to his chance to get the recognition he deserved... and yet he had no hesitations in picking "loyalty to his club" over the eternal glory.

today no one (who didn't follow AS Roma closely in the last 15 years) would mention totti along with the "true greats" like maradona, pele, crujff, van basten, best, platini, zidane, baggio, rivera, etcetera....
and that's the price francesco totti payed for his loyalty.
if u look at it from this perspective, this last deal roma signed with totti becomes some sort of a "reward" for what totti "left on the table" by choosing to stay in roma.

and mind u, the guy who is writing this euology is far from being a fan of francesco. infact i always despised francesco's unclassy attitude.
PLF said:
Beautiful quote Abhi and of course amazing points as usual by Ben. It was so great reading this although it is off topic kinda as this is Serie A thread but thank you to both. I had fun reading it and couldn't help but as usual agree with pretty much all of it.
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thanks Sina and thanks to u too abhi. i'm really sorry things aren't going so well for liverpool. but sadly this was supposed to be a tough season for liverpool from the very beginning (since they lost xabi).... and some questionable decisions by rafa and some bad breaks in the injury\bad form department sure aren't helping either.
as for the off topic remark, Sina, i can say in my defence that it was abhi who asked my opinion about the liverpool situation, so i felt compelled to satisfy his curiosity :P

Gerd, as for the cavani and bertolo incident, they were approached by some thugs on a scooter who hit the suv they were driving. it has nothing to do with football anyhow.... those thugs weren't fans... neither ultras.... infact all the palermo ultras groups came out with a public statement, expressing their solidarity with cavani and bertolo and blaming those 2 thugs for what they did..... it was an unfortunate accident... but it has nothing to do with them being football players or with the fans.... our ultras aren't violent.

there would be lots of other interesting topics to discuss.... juve's downfall, palermo's great result against milan in san siro, those rumours about gasperini as sir alex's successor..... but i'm already late now.... maybe next time :))
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season

Thanks Ben...i was well aware of the fact that the Cavani-Bertholo incident has nothing to do with football...

About Totti - AS Roma.
I think the loyalty Totti has shown towards AS Roma deserves a reward. It is very unusual nowadays. That's the possible positive interpretation (and i hope this is the right one). There could also be a negative explanation, that Totti was well aware that it' s better to be a big fish in a relatively small pond...
I've seen Totti performing with the squadra azzuri and i must say he rarely lived up to the expectations i had about him...but like Ben already said, sadly i hardly have the chance to see Serie A football...

I have the same feeling about Ibrahimovic...apart from that goal against Italy at the Euro (in Portugal ?) he rarely was brilliant in Europe or with his national team...i still think both Inter and Barcelona made a mistake when swapping Eto'o and Ibrahimovic...and to me Eto'o is clearly the better player (but that's subjective).
 
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