Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

But I disagree with the part where you said he's just talent and doesn't have the guts/character to be the guy someone a top-class team like Juve builds the team around. He DOES! Diego isn't just some silky moves. He's got character. He's got self-belief. He's got drive and determination.
i guess we'll have to disagree on this then. :))
but let me clarify something. i didn't mean to say juve has to find another player to build their team around... that diego is not good enough for that.

top clubs never build their teams around a single player. that's just not a risk u wanna take. but sometimes clubs have the enourmous luck to get themselves a fuoriclasse (fuoriclasse is a word italians use to describe those players who are just "on another class" those who are just "off the chart"). Each and every generation, all over the world, we have hundreds of great players, dozens of world class players and only 1 or 2 fuoriclasse.
today we have so many world class players.... but just 2 or 3 fuoriclasse.
pelè was a fuoriclasse, maradona was a fuoriclasse, zidane and totti were fuoriclasse.

the fuoriclasse has got an unnatural talent, an unnaturally strong character and the awareness..... not self-belief, not confidence.... awareness, wich is different. ibra is confident, balotelli and cassano are confident, diego is certainly confident.... but they're not aware.
they don't accept the responsability that comes from their talent. when everything around them is going smoothly, they show what they're capable of, they lead their teams to victory......

that's what diego did in bremen. he improved his game a lot. he improved as a player. and his great performances boosted his self-belief and confidence, turning him into an even better player. but that was in bremen, where the team used to play a system that perfectly suits him.
the situation in torino was different. the team was a work in progress and the system was not suited for a player like him.
so he did what every "awesome-but-still-human" player would do.... he didn't deliver.... his performances went down and that was a major blow for his confidence.... it was blatantly evident how worrried he was on the pitch. there were many games last season, when juve was actually playing good... and yet diego kept hiding himself behing flat passes. he was signed to become juventus fulcrum, and yet never took that responsibility.... not even when his teammates were actually playing well.

like i said, diego is an awesome player.... but he's not a fuoriclasse. a fuoriclasse doesn't let this happen. a fuoriclasse doesn't let bad performances compromise his confidence... coz a fuoriclasse's confidence doesn't come from his performances.... it comes from his awareness.
that's why a fuoriclasse usually plays his best game when his teammates are doing shit. when the other players melt (even great players like diego), the fuoriclasse raise his level, he steps up, takes responsibility of his role and litterrally carries the team on his shoulders.
that's what maradona has done in napoli. that's what zidane did in juventus and madrid.... that's what totti has done in roma.
totti has always played at his best when the team was doing bad..... he actually got to the point to reinvent himself for the team. at some point of his carreer, when he wasn't even that young anymore, he was asked to become something different, to undergo the most drastic role change in football.; from trequartista to prima punta (CF). and in one season he became one of the best cf in the world, winning the golden boot and giving a new interpretation, a new meaning to the CF role.

that's what it means to be a fuoriclasse. it's not just confidence... because confidence comes from experience. i'm very confident in my line of work coz i know i'm damn good at it.. and my past experiences, my successes, boosted and feeded my confidence...... but if u ask me to do a completely different job, then i won't have that confidence, that sense of security anymore.... i'm gonna have to rebuild that confidence again, by succeding....... and if i won't succeed, then i'll hardly earn any confidence at all.

fuoriclasse are different. their self-belief doesn't come from experience, hence it's not confidence. it's awareness. so when u put them in the worst possible situation, they won't let themselves down.... they will raise their performances!
when u put them in an unconfortable position, they will change themselves, change that position...... or they will instantly adampt themselves and make that "unconfortable position" their new favourite position!!!.
that's what a fuoriclasse is about. and diego most certainly isn't a fuoriclasse (wich is no shame though, as there were 10 maybe 12 fuoriclasse all over the world in the hystory of the game).

maradona wasn't just able to raise his game when his teammates didn't play good..... he was actually able to have them stepping up! he was able to make his teammates play better (like ferrara said once).
zidane carried real madrid and juventus on his shoulders so many times it's ridiculous. people praise him for his huge talent.... but the truth is, his silent leadership and awareness were even more impressive than his talent.
scholes pretty much reinvented himself in a different breed of player (almost a regista) when he was already an over 30 years old veteran!

so getting back to my main point, u don't build a top team around a single player..... never. it doesn't matter how great that player is. basing an entire project on a single asset is just too risky.... coz if that player doesn't deliver, if he leaves the club or doesn't live up to the expectation, then the whole project is lost, and u have to start again from scratch.

but sometimes, some clubs had the unbelievable luck of having a fuoriclasse in their roster. now, a fuoriclasse CAN'T BE SOLD..... there's just no price for him, coz u won't ever be able to replace him when he leaves. so u hold him no matter what.
if he fits well in your system, so much the better. but if he doesn't then u have 2 options.
- either he reinvents himself and finds a way to adapt to the new system (and if he can't do that, like diego, that's already a sign u're not dealing with a real fuoriclasse).
- otherwise it's gonna be up to u to change that system in order to fit in the player.

selling a fuoriclasse is just not an option, so if he can't adapt himself to your team, then u're gonna have to adapt your team to him.
and that's the very one case when u can do what is usually a huge mistake; building a team around a single player.
but diego just isn't that kind of player. so if he doesn't fit in your system, u don't change an entire team just to make him feel confortable and confident again.

u know me, Sina, i never judge a player on one season alone. i know better than that. and i'm absolutely sure diego will shine again. coz diego's got everything it takes to lead a team that suits him.
but the true fuoriclasse is the one who is able to lead a team that DOESN'T suits him, and that's not diego. :))
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

mmm, kaka is a world class player, but i wouldn't say he's a fuoriclasse. milan's system actually suited him.

de rossi is a fuoriclasse, baresi and scirea were fuoriclasse, maldini and baggio were fuoriclasse (and that's just to name a few italians).

but there were dozens of great legends, world class players, who still shouldn't be considered fuoriclasse.... like del piero, mancini, signori, rivera.
being a fuoriclasse isn't necessarily about being better. it's about being "different".

beckembauer was a fouriclasse, muller wasn't.
hierro was a fuoriclasse, raul wasn't
scholes is a fuoriclasse, gerrard isn't
javier zanetti and batistuta were fuoriclasse, valdano and caniggia weren't
and it doesn't necessarily means that muller, raul, gerrard and valdano and caniggia weren't good enough. they are\were all legends.... they just don't have that awareness that turns a world class player into a fuoriclasse....
..at least imo :))
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I don't know Ben, I agree with some of what you say, but to me Kaka made Milan suit him, a bit too much. Since his first game against Ancona, Milan completely changed their style and he just kicked Rui Costa and Rivaldo out of the team without much effort. When we were stale and slow, it was Kaka that ran on his own to score. When we lacked ideas, it was Kaka who generated new ones. For this reason, I value him as one of the few players that brought me some of the greatest Milan memories of my lifetime, so I will forever love him.

When we won the CL in 2003, we were a very slow moving team that revolved around Sheva's skill and Pippo's poaching. With Kaka, who joined the summer after, we were suddenly playing football where every single match was entertaining and our tempo was multiplied by 5 just because of his feet.

Before and after Kaka, we were so used to long balling it straight to our strikers, with Kaka, he transitioned defense to attack with ball to feet. His down fall was Milan trying too hard to force him onto the left/right wing to accommodate Ronaldinho. This was also with the many injuries he had.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

yeah i see what u mean ste... but u see, in my mind the fuoriclasse is unreplacable.
maradona, crujff, baggio, scholes, zidane, totti, baresi, scirea, beckembauer, pelè... they were most certainly unreplacable....
i just can't consider kakà as an unreplacable player...
...but that's just how i see it.
afterall we're just sharing our personal views in here. i might be right, u might be right, Sina might be right...... or maybe we're all wrong :P

that's a bit off topic, but i just saw sky new spot on tv.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKj1NbC-ccQ
best football advertising i've ever seen :))
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

To be fair to Juve, it's not that they couldn't attract Forlan. No one could!
Didn't Forlan say to Moratti that he was only a fone call away? Was like last week when he said that. Aguero's agent said he wouldn't go to Inter this summer that was on the day the mercato closed so we could make a bid as soon as January and he would come... He's been linked with us the day he went to Atletico in fact.

on the subject of the mercato no one noticed Inter haven't made one single signing this summer (save for Castellazi but c'mon :P) I heard we were close to buying Inler only for Moratti to pull the plug on Branca in the last minute. Now I think it has a lot to do with the 10-15 years of crazy spending (over half a billion :CONFUSE:)... then there's this financial fair play bollocks that's coming into play soon. I guess Moratti is just mindful of the fact and readying the club. That's what I'm thinking. Otherwise there's no other way to explain how we're sitting on 80 million plus (UCL money, Ibra money, Balo money, Burdisso, Quaresma...) I think getting our own stadium is paramount because right now we're paying rent to the city of Milan. Fuck that :P . Anyway I'm guessing by the 2011-12 season we will see a lot less activity in the transfer market, across europe.

All in all, it has been a frustrating week. not only did we give Roma the satisfaction of scoring against us, but then we lost to Atletico, a very winnable game and then to top it off we draw versus Bologna (in fact we've drawn every 1st round match up since 3 years ago, remember Bari last season? and what happened after that) then waiting until the last day of mercato being promised by Moratti that we would make a mega signing only for nothing to happen... the absolute worst part is seeing Milan in 1st place. How disgusting. I feel physically sick actually :)). Nice mercato by the way. Roma too (Borreillo + Burdisso)

Man, I hate int'l week, now we have to wait a whole week for serie a to resume. Haven't we waited long enough. Geez...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Mourinho :D And he'll drag Sneijder with him. For some reason these 2 always speak of Manchester United.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Well, I kinda let football go and AC Milan buys Boateng, Ibrahimovic and Robinho.

...Also, I don't know if Zio already answered that, but I want to hear some impression over the Juventus market session, who some italian newspapers praise as much as they praised AC Milan when they bought Van Basten and Gullit.
To my eyes, it's pretty mediocre (to be EXTREMELY gentle), but I also think it's more skilled people's job to judge something like that, I don't want to end up to give 100 euros to some Juventino because Pepe suddenly became the reincarnation of Garrincha.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I'm reserving judgment on Juve, they're definitely still a work in progress.

What's with the loan signing of Traore?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Argh Zebina was a frustrating player, very mistake prone and never concentrating. He also had several times were he would stupidly get into fights with the camera men! I will always remember him for his amazing goal he scored last season in the Europa League.

And I think De Ceglie plays best at a Wing Back role and is not the best at playing in a defensive role. His marking is dodgy and leaves a lot of gaps on the right flank for the opposing teams. He's actually quite good at crossing and dribbling at times but he lacks the balls to move up, Something Zambrotta had.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Classy response from Borriello:

He was asked if he was disappointed by the actions of Milan, and he said "No, they made certain choices and I made some too. I was tied to the club since I was a child, so I thank them. From today, it's a new chapter".

I really hope he succeeds, I really like him. Screw Belen!
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

yeah, marco is really a good guy, surprisingly clever too (for being a football player, i mean).

his classy "adieu" makes a huge contrast with diego's interview.
i'm sorry to say that, as i really like diego as a player (regardless what he did last season).... but seriously, what an idiot.
attacking the management for selling u... oh come on that's ridiculous. after the disgraceful season he had, he should at the very least keep a low profile, get back to his standards and shut the fuck up...... very, very stupid.

having a terrible season is something that can be easily forgiven... as everyone can have a bad season, especially if u consider what a mess juventus team was last season.
but not taking responsibility for his faults (afterall he was, along with cannavaro, melo and amauri, the main reason of that mess) and pretending he did nothing to deserve such distrust.... that's just pathetic.
i'm sorry but diego just lost my respect here.
amauri and cannavaro stated they're ashamed for their bad performances last season..... and meanwhile he's referring to himself as a "champion"?!?.....seriously, grow up kid, u'll never be a champion if u don't become a man first.

@ hey there, as for juventus market, we can't really judge it yet.. we're talking about 10 new signings, 9 new potential starters.... that's a complete team reconstruction, so it's impossible to tell what this team will be about.
the only thing we can say right now is that marotta has done a great job, coz he's given del neri pretty much everything he asked (and he asked A LOT!), but now we'll have to see if this team del neri has in mind can actually deliver (and it's gonna take an entire season to answer that question imo).
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I have some doubts about Motta (Juventus). I Can see quality in pretty much every starter (except Melo.. sry man) but with Motta i am quite shabby, specially after that game that Italy when they lost (?, or drew?! i don't remember) and he was quite crap and then Cassani replaced him and things changed. What im asking is if in you Italians opinion, could he be 'the choice' for Juventus?
Milan really reinforced their attack but aren't those wingbacks quite crappy in comparison to the rest of the team?

Just 2 question for you guys. ;)
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

No, I personally rate Motta very highly!

I think he's already a good player and still kinda young. He will get better as well.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I also rate our full backs that start. Antonini has really grown, and I think he'll have a very strong season. Bonera and Sokratis are two very good defenders, but both are mediocre at attacking. They've performed very well during pre-season, so I have faith in them. We also still have Zambrotta lying around somewhere.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I don't like Motta, against Bari he was really awful, with mediocre attack and crappy in defence, and let me say it straight, if you end up being Cassetti's sub you aren't really good af football.

About Milan, we kinda need a good right back, but we're in the condition where our only choices are Maicon and Dani Alves, since there aren't really good Right Back in the world apart these two.
Also, Antonini, despite being not so famous, is actually a fairly decent SB and probably one of the best in Italy, if not in europe, so, as I said, we just need a right back.

I'd give Torino's Ogbonna a chance, but I don't know if he's ready for Serie A.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I think we are trying to find a good young RB. I remember trying with Grimi,Mattioni,and now Bruno who is a RB according to the website.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Let's just hope Montelongo ends up being good, but I kinda doubt it.
I don't know, the fact that he's already 23 and doesn't play for Uruguay national team kinda lets me down.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

i completely agree with Sina on Motta. he's REALLY good!!! he's definitely gonna fight with cassani and de silvestri for italy's rb spot.
infact i rate motta as juventus best signing (along with bonucci). he's only 24 and he's already one of the 3-4 best rbs in serie a imo.
i reckon he's going to become a very important attacking threat for juve... and aquilani's "go to guy" for one-twos and quick passing combinations.
i haven't seen how he performed in the match italy played a few weeks ago (coz i didn't watch the whole match), but however, don't pay any attention to italy's summer matches... they're absolutely unreliable. ;)

hey there, the only reason why last season motta left his starting spot to cassetti, was because roma realised they couldn't have buy him out at the end of the season. so they decided not to make cassetti unhappy (as he was meant to be their starter again in a few months). besides cassetti had a very good season last year.

as for milan's sideback, they're certainly not "fancy" as their offensive teammates, but they're pretty good. antonini has done a good job in the last few years, and has a great chemistry with ronaldinho. papastatopulos is a good player aswell.
then they got bonera and abate (the latter isn't really a sideback, but he did a pretty decent job last season).
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

that's for italian speakers in here... sorry guys but it would take ages to translate it in english and i also doubt it would sound as funny as it is in italian....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHfiMvnDH88&feature=feedaso

i know this is old and there are plenty of different versions of this.... but that was awesome!

my favourite bit is when they say "but mein fuhrer the whole city napoli is desperate for loosing quagliarella"
"oh shut up, napoli fans were sad even when calaiò left, they're fucking clueless!!!"
occhio vispo marotta :LOL: quella fighetta di secco :LMAO: whoever wrote that is a genius!
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

YouTube - Nelson Dida 2003/04 ... during this period I thought he was the best in the world. Anyone remember how awesome he was? I remember Caressa saying "Buffon, Toldo or Casillas wouldn't save any of these shots... only DIDA can. He's too explosive".
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

He pissed me off when he fumbled in Smicer's shot in that final.

Beginning of the end for him.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

He's without a club right now, isn't he?

Yeah he had his moments. Great reflexes. Poor concentration and ability to handle pressure though. I for one am glad to see the back of him!
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Up and til around 2004, Dida was invincible and never dropped a ball like that so easily, except the Leeds incident once. After that, he was a liability and lost all his concentration, must've been something psychological. But between 2002-2004, he was arguably one of the best GKs at the time imo.
 
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