Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

[YoungGun_UK]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Will always remember him after the 2nd leg Semi in 1999, on another night he would have finished the game within 10 minutes but we all know that didn't happen

YouTube - Look Back: Juventus 2 - 3 Manchester United (Champions League 1999) Semi Final

 

[PLF]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

oh and btw stef, sounds like u were right about sabatini. zampa didn't openly admit it but a few days ago he let something slip out of his mouth "he couldn't handle my personality".....
.... for those who know zamparini that actually means "he was sick and tired of me bitching and complaining about the stupidest details and so he resigned".

i'm very happy it's not something that concerns sabatini or his family (that was my hunch).......as for zamparini, really i have no words left to describe how STUPID this man can be... it's just unbelievable...... where the hell is he gonna find a better team director than sabatini??? and after all the great deals he did for us!!! it's just unreal. that's even more stupid than de laurentis firing marino last season....

the craziest thing is that he actually proves to be a very clever president sometimes.... how can u be so smart and stupid at the same time! AAARRGH!!!

Oh dear!!

Zampa Zampa Zampa, never enough drama around with this guy!

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

About Gasperini - I always saw him as a good tactical manager, but not so great psychologically/emotionally. I think the ability to motivate your players and also place the team in an overall psychological state of mind is vital in order to be competitive. I also think Gasperini started to lose control of the team, which didn't help with the new signings.

Anyway, about Milan-Palermo. I didn't think Milan were that great. We had random patches of control, but I think this was down to individual players showing confidence and calmness, such as Flamini and Yepes. I also thought Abate and Seedorf had good games.

One thing that's working lately is the fielding of Boateng. He makes quite a lot of mistakes, but his movement is so effective. Pirlo and Seedorf are pretty lazy players, so when Boateng is around (or Ringhio/Flamini), he covers the empty spaces with his athleticism - don't talk to me about when Ronnie starts - the man just covers about 10m of the whole pitch, leaving massive gaps. Thiago Silva is clearly one of the best center backs in Serie A right now imo.

My biggest surprise is Robinho. 1 on 1 and he'll always win. He is also always going back to help out. He needs to improve some of his decision making though, when he's in the box.

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Balzaretti is tearing Catania a new asshole.

 

[rfU]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

very impressed with what i've seen from Pastore of late, very very impressed. That attacking trident with Miccoli and Illicic is coming along very nicely. Ben, could you comment on detail on Palermo 4-3-2-1 formation? I wonder if Inter could implement something similar as there is a genuine lack in quality attacking wide players.

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

What a good weekend for the big games. Lazio-Napoli, Juve-Roma, Palermo-Catania and Milan-Inter. None have failed to disappoint. It's only half time for the derby, but very open game.

Coutinho virtually changed the game by his entrance. Milan, overall, are playing very composed and slick football.

 

[Aboutreika18]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Rafa

 

[Jumbo_]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Gotta love the guy. It was always going to be hard taking over after the season Inter just had but he's having a mare.

 

[Zeem]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Can you blame him? He has not been perfect but Milito and Maicon seem like they don't give a fuck anymore, he has to resort to players like Obi,Coutinho, and Biabiany as starters, add to that the injuries including the keeper. Things couldn't go worse. Gasperini might find a job soon. How's Materazzi doing btw?

Milan played a good game. The new formation is very balanced and Allegri made it clear he will stick to it but Ibra seriously needs a rest and we have no player to replace him. Paloschi or Matri are needed in January.

Edit- Balzaretti finally called.

 

[*aLe]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

How's Materazzi doing btw?

Here in Italy we have a quote: chi di spada ferisce, di spada perisce.
It means who keeps wounding people with a sword, will die hit by a sword. 'nuff said about Macellazzi.

 

[Jumbo_]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

In English it's "Live by the sword, die by the sword".

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

TUTTI PAZZI PER MATERAZZI

 

[sattan_hussein]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I wish the best for the man, but he totally brought that upon himself, and not just from previous matches against the same Zlatán, but on the very incident. It is clear for me that he jumps before Ibra, who just reacts, and not being the nicest guy ever tries to counter the move by jumping even higher.

YouTube - Ibrahimovic Kung Fu Kick Materazzi Inter 0-1 Milan

 

[PLF]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Hahahah yeah as much as I dislike Zlatan, I dislike Materazzi even more! So for once I like what he did there.

I missed the other games but watched 2nd half of the Sicilian derby!! Oh man!! F'n AMAZING stuff!! Anybody who's not a fan of Serie A like a lot of the British population who regularly use stupid cliches like "Serie A - Italian football boring or slow.... " should watch that! lol Crazy!! And yes Balzaretti might be doping or something lool... fucker was running incredibly fast (he seems faster than Juve days) in 92nd minute!!

Ilicic kid impressive but seems very reliant on his left-foot and left-foot alone but I haven't seen enough of him yet to say this with certainty.

As for Pastore.... no words needed!

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

So, it feels nice winning a derby after 2 years. I think we completely deserved it. The first 30 minutes of the game was just Milan being too quick for Inter. We were flicking the ball across the pitch so well. I think this is Allegri's Milan.

Seedorf and Flamini were switching positions frequently and effectively. The Frenchman was offering so many effective runs, while Seedorf was keeping the midfield calm and focused with his movement and short passing. Robinho's positioning was also extremely effective in ensuring that our offence was hard to mark - he kept running into channels and opening up space for Abate and Zambrotta (I thought he had an awesome game. Great experience and constantly pressing against Cordoba).

Gattuso and Ambrosini were very hyped, although Ringhio was lucky to still be on the pitch - it was the right decision to take him off, even though he was awesome. It's good to see Ambrosini lead the team with so much confidence. Sometimes he has those games where everything he does is a mistake, but last night, I thought he helped to stop Sneijder and Coutinho (who arguably changed Inter).

In terms of attack, I thought this was Ibra's best game for us. His movement and ball control in the first half was destroying Materazzi and Lucio, and allowing Flamini and Robinho to enter the box. Even though he only really scored the PK, I'd give him a full 8 for what he was offering.

In defence, Nesta and Thiago Silva were phenomenal, especially the latter. He was EVERYWHERE and was winning EVERY ball.

I thought Inter lacked confidence, and were reflecting the personality of Rafa. Eto'o is clearly on form - he had initiative and something to prove - good for him, because I'm a huge fan. I thought Inter's line was far too high in the first half and Obi was being too muscled out by our midfield trio.

Anyway, I thought it was an entertaining derby, and like I mentioned before, we had some great games this weekend.

My derby highlights:

Thiago Silva - 8
Nesta - 7
Ambrosini - 7
Seedorf - 7.5
Ibrahimovic - 8
Everyone else - 6/6.5

Allegri - 7 - He made all the changes I would've made.

 

[Zeem]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Our defence was awesome last night. Inter didn't get into the box. It's all about the new formation. We are defending with two more men.

Anyone see Balotelli? He is spending more time in Italy than Manchester. Apparently he had dinner with Galliani after the game. I smell a January loan move unless Inter put in some kind of clause. We really need a striker now.

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I think its also down to having players like Boateng and/or Flamini starting - they're 'runners' that never tire.

 

[rfU]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I smell a January loan move unless Inter put in some kind of clause.

Already done Going on past experience, you really thing Moratti would let something like that happen?

Ibrahimovic - 8

I got to level with you, I thought Ibra was garbage. Apart from early on when Materazzi was off the pace (first game of the season), Ibra was rendered useless. Lucio read his ass like a book, anticipating every move or every ball played to him. The highlight was when he Cordoba jumped over him to make a headed clearance But I have to say, but a quality CB on Ibra and he will do nothing, all match long. The worst part about yesterday's derby was not losing but losing to a Ibra penalty.

T. Silva was quality though, the others not so much. Considering our form I expected to be completely out matched but that wasn't the case at all. In fact this Milan side is not that much better than last seasons. It's no wonder you lost Juve. When I heard Pato was out I thought we could take home all 3 points but fucking Materazzi....

Benito really took the piss with 4-4-2 rombo and then two CBs as side backs where the hell is our width going to come from? Eto'o alone? If a clueless winger like Abate can start a derby as a side back, why the hell can't Santon?

Thoughts on Abate's sending off? You guys could've notched up 1 or 2 second yellows actully, Gattuso in particular, and then Flamini's flying knee on Sneiper.

Anyway, I hear Moratti was livid after the match. That's a good sign cause usually we scrape by and the management turns a blind eye to our many problems. But now somethings has to be done. Januray can't come soon enough. Oh and yet another injury...

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Abate was stupid to react to that prick Pandev the way he did. If he didn't react, Pandev would've got the card and Abate would've still been on the pitch.

By the way, what did you guys think of the laissez faire approach by the referee? The Juve-Roma game was also quite free. I noticed that when a ref is like this on the get go, players know better not to dive about, leaving long periods of open play without stopping. I personally thought it was great!

 

[*aLe]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Abate was stupid to react to that prick Pandev the way he did.

Which is the only "good" thing Pandev did in all his match.

By the way, what did you guys think of the laissez faire approach by the referee? [...] I personally thought it was great!

Yeah, nice refereeing. Even if maybe he should have shown the 2nd yellow to Gattuso to be honest.

I think its also down to having players like Boateng and/or Flamini starting - they're 'runners' that never tire.

Totally agree. Of course I'm only talking about Boateng.
Flamini is just too fouly in my opinion to play a derby as a starter. And he missed an easy opportunity in front of a semi-open goal, reason why we had to feel the pain of risking conceding the equalizer each and every time Inter had the ball, until the very last minute. Yes he ran a lot, but a midfielder is supposed to do something else.
Not that he's a bad player of course, but he didn't convince me too much in this derby.

 

[gerd]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Will Benitez eat his panettone?

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

 

[lo zio]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

so berlusconi eventually found his personal hitman!

Will Benitez eat his panettone?

LOL! how do u know about that italian saying Gerd? guardian podcast?
anyway yes, people in italy are starting to raise this question.... especially after moratti's post derby interview. i'm quite sure rafa will stay until jannuary at least...... and i'm inclined to believe benitez won't get the sack this season..... unless he keeps going like that for the next 2 months..... if benitez won't actually have this inter team playing football in 2 months, then the situation might be different and moratti might start looking for some alternatives (spalletti? gasperini?).

rafa has some justifications... this team is probably close to the end of a cycle.... the treble obviously has a killer effect on motivation, and it's always tricky to handle the aftermath of the departure of a very "stressing" coach like mourinho.... and then there are the injuries to take into account.....
but even taking into account all theese factors, rafa still has been extremely disappointing so far.
yeah the motivational aspect might be a problem.... but not that much.... let's not forget that this inter team, as some of the greatest professionals in football. people like zanetti, eto'ò, samuel, milito, snejder... they don't need a coach to motivate them.... so i'm less inclined to believe that's a real problem..... and more inclined to believe they still don't know what the coach expects from them (but that's just an assumption).
and the injuries too are a pretty lame excuse..... i mean yeah there are lots of injured players, but in the last 2 months (8 matches) inter won just twice.... they scored 5 goals and they conceded 5.... 10 points in 8 matches.... that's almost a relegation zone ratio..... and no matter how many injuries inter had to deal with, they still can line up a competitive starting 11, so that just can't be a valid excuse for such a poor display.
juventus too had lots of injuries...... yet they delivered much better than that. and juve had also another huge handicap: they have a completely renewed squad... the players are still getting to know each others.... they're still learning del neri's football...... but they actually ARE learning... u can see juventus is getting each and every week closer to del neri's kinda team... they're starting to play del neri's football....
what about inter? can u recognize any sort of path... any sort of gameplan in this inter? coz i really can't. i just can't figure out what sort of football inter plays.... everything it's so random. it's almost like watching last season's liverpool! how can u turn such a great machine like inter into this!? i'm obviously aware that every newcoming coach has pretty much to restart from scratch..... but this is worse than starting from scratch.
no one expected rafa to have an instant impact or to keep this inter on the same path they were on last season...... but we're in november, and by now we should be seeing some progresses.... i'm not saying we should already be able to see "rafa's inter".... but we definitely should be able at least to tell what tactical path rafa decided to took... what kind of football he's aiming to... and right now we can't even tell that.
i think moratti will give rafa at the very least 2 more months to actually do something and sort this team out..... but if by jannuary inter hasn't started playing football, well....

By the way, what did you guys think of the laissez faire approach by the referee? The Juve-Roma game was also quite free. I noticed that when a ref is like this on the get go, players know better not to dive about, leaving long periods of open play without stopping. I personally thought it was great!

i prefere this kind of approach too.

very impressed with what i've seen from Pastore of late, very very impressed. That attacking trident with Miccoli and Illicic is coming along very nicely. Ben, could you comment on detail on Palermo 4-3-2-1 formation? I wonder if Inter could implement something similar as there is a genuine lack in quality attacking wide players.

yeah inter looks extremely narrowed lately. however palermo's width doesn't come from the trident. pinilla, ilicic, pastore, hernandez, miccoli, they don't give many benchmarks, but they don't even stay wide. the fullbacks are the ones who provide us width. they keep banging on both sides, creating some spaces for the upfront trio and for the central midfielder runs (bacinovic and nocerino especially).
it's very hard to stretch the pitch horizontally in the 3\4. the only coach who tries this sort of approach is del neri. it's much more easy to do it at midfield, with your fullbacks. sidebacks don't usually have to deal with the same tight marking offensive players have to deal with. so have them overlapping, tell them not to cut on the inside and that'll give your midfield and strikers some room to work with.... but of course u need fullbacks who can do that... mAicon certainly could... i'm not so sure about the other side.... if you're looking for width, u need both fullbacks to push... otherwise u're just shifting the center of gravity of the team on one side (and that won't give u any width at all).
i think that, with a good leftback and a little more quality at midfield, inter might actually implement something similar to palermo's system.... but we don't know if that's what rafa is aiming to...... and we also still don't know if rafa can do that...let's not forget delio rossi is a pretty good coach!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

some very nice matches this week. actually each and every week there are at least 3 or 4 potentially great matches.... but i got to say i was a bit disappointed by the football played by some teams in the last few weeks (especially napoli, cagliari and samp). this week instead was everything but disappointing. the juve roma match was absolutely great. roma was simply amazing.... i think ranieri got back in control of the dressing room, and now roma is officially back! however, even though roma pretty much dictated the plot of the game, juventus was almost as good as roma.... of course we can't expect that much from them (coz of all those injuries), but like i said before, juventus has a very definite football imprinting now. u can already see glimpses of del neri's football and that's great.... i'm telling u, after the winter pause, once del neri will have 2 more weeks to hold tactical training sessions, without having to worry about upcoming matches or injured players, juventus will be a machine!

the sicilian derby was very entertaining aswell. both teams didn't really play their real best football, coz obviously there was too much pressure on the players on both sides..... but still the quality of the football was very good and the intensity and the pace were exactly as high as u would expect in a derby.
i gotta say i really liked catania... they weren't as bad as the result might suggest.... i can already see giampaolo's touch on his new team... speaking of giampaolo, this men is a machine. he's coached 3 teams in the last 3 years (cagliari, siena and catania) and wherever he went he had his teams playing some good football. respect!

I missed the other games but watched 2nd half of the Sicilian derby!! Oh man!! F'n AMAZING stuff!! Anybody who's not a fan of Serie A like a lot of the British population who regularly use stupid cliches like "Serie A - Italian football boring or slow.... " should watch that! lol Crazy!! And yes Balzaretti might be doping or something lool... fucker was running incredibly fast (he seems faster than Juve days) in 92nd minute!!

Ilicic kid impressive but seems very reliant on his left-foot and left-foot alone but I haven't seen enough of him yet to say this with certainty.

and that wasn't even a stand out performance from palermo (neither from balzaretti)... we've actually played even better than that lately.
as for ilicic, you're right, when he came in palermo (3 months ago) he couldn't use his right foot at all. rossi is working on that. he gave ilicic a "brace" to apply to his left foot during training sessions.... specifically to force him to use his right foot. ilicic is enthusiast about this method and he says that his right foot touch has already improved...... to be honest, i still can't see such an improvement, but i guess it's gonna take some time.

and finally the milano derby was pretty good aswell. like i said last week, allegri is really leaving his mark on this milan..... and i like what i'm seeing!

ale: awesome avatar bro!!! ponte...stretto...messinaa!

 

[gerd]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Yes Ben, i heard that on the guardian podcast. They even mentioned Pastore and Palermo this time...

I agree with you on Inter. I can't understand why players like Milto, Eto'o, Zanetti, Cambiasso and Sneijder would have lost their appetite. What i think is that is extremely difficult to fill in after Mourinho. Certainly for another high profile coach with an outpsoken vision on football. It seems Mourinho is the great motivator who is able to win the drssing room over totally.
When Chelsea sacked Mourinho, they replaced him by low profile Avran Grant who was the friend of the players. That was clearly visible when Grant's Portsmouth played at Stamford Bridge. °layers like Lampard were visibly fond of Grant. Grant was the player's friend and not the big tactician/teacher that Raffa claims to be. I remeber Liverpool players telling they were fed up with Raffa because he constantly "teached" them the basics (the only one who liked that was Torres).
I think Benitez is a great coach who would do extremely well with Inter but not now after Mourinho and the treble. Mourinho is the coach who is capapbel to let his players believe that each and every one of them is the best player in the world in his position (if that player listens to Mourinho). After winning the treble you can't blame them to believe that.
Then comes a totally different coach who will teach them how to play football and that gives problems. I think Benitez lost the dressing room. Well not exactly, he never won the dressing room over...
Of course this is a guess...and educated guess, but still a guess...i could well be talking bullshit.

 

[Milanista]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Gerd, Eto'o certainly has more appetite than before. The man is hard to stop and is scoring all their goals. I think he wants to prove that he can score just as much as Milito if you play him up front rather than wide.

 

[lo zio]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

What i think is that is extremely difficult to fill in after Mourinho

yeah i certainly agree with that. the thing is mou is a very stressing coach. he likes to say he takes the pressure away from his players, but that's just bullshit. he actually puts huge pressure on his players, but he also has them enjoying that pressure, and the responsibility that comes with it (and i think this is one of his best features).

he's very close to sacchi and michels on this department (before anyone misundertand, i'm not comparing mou to michels and sacchi... those 2 are legends... i'm just saying that in this specific aspect he's pretty much like them).
both michels and sacchi were extremely stressing and demanding.... and when such a coach leaves, the aftermath can be tough, as the players will need someone who can keep them on a not so tight leash (otherwise they will most likely crack under the pressure).
but on the other side, u can't even not keep the players on any leash at all, as, after dealing with such stress and pressure, u can't suddenly make them feel too comfortable or they will not respond to u anymore (capello and kovacs did a great job in handling the post sacchi\michels era).. the thing is rafa doesn't seem to be keeping them at any leash at all. and that's not good.

if i had to draw an analogy, i'd say mou is pretty much like rough sex... it can be quite a nice experience, but it can't last for too long... and u need a more "low-profile" coach to come after him... rafa sounds like the right man.... but so far, he's been just too much "low-profile".
however i still believe rafa deserves more time to sort this mess out. and i still believe rafa is a very good coach.

 

[gerd]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Stef, i agree with you on Eto'o...he must be the exception in the Inter team.
Inter also need more players like Coutinho: talented, young and hungry players. What is happening with Santon? Is he still injured? To me he looked one of the brigthest young prospects in world football.

Ben, i also still think that Benitez is a world class coach. To me he just came at the wrong moment with Inter. I'm also not so sure if Moratti is the wisest and most clever president in Italian football, but that is only a sentiment because i 've never heard him talk. All i know about him is coming form news papers and television. They are not the best sources.

 

[rfU]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

juventus too had lots of injuries...... yet they delivered much better than that.

this is not a fair comparison. And then saying that we have enough depth to start a competitive starting 11.... would anyone here take Muntari off our hands? Even on a loan deal We're competing for top honors, not a top half of the table finish so comparing us with either Juve or Palermo makes no sense.

And why all this panic, we're 6 pts off top place, where were Roma at this point last season? Also we're 2nd in our UCL group... there's too much exaggerating going on. I'm glad Benito is calm about things and going on about his work. And for the umpteenth time, this is isn't the same inter as last season. First off, we were the underdogs in UCL, we counter-attacked our way to the top. No such luck this time round. Secondly, Roma, Milan, and Juve are more complete than last season, so it's a lot more competitive (not to mention Lazio). And with a depleted squad such as ours, we stand no chance. But we've done well enough to keep up at least.

i just can't figure out what sort of football inter plays.... everything it's so random.

I disagree with this. With a full squad at his disposal, we've seen what Benito has been trying to do: a much more technical inter, attacking, balanced, looking to play possession football. Problem is we haven't had much chance for continuity. Motta was an integral part of last seasons team and he hasn't played once so far. Stanko has been our lynch pin in midfield and played admirably, but he has only managed a handful of starts this season. Il Cuchu was our leader in midfield last season but he has been AWOL up to this point, even succumbing to injury for a little over a month. What does that leave us with... A clumsy Muntari and a overly defensive JZ4 (both have been injured this season already, and they are our midfield back ups ). Neither can pass more than 5 meters in a straight line so what can Benito do? Oh and did I mention we have an aging squad well passed its peak?

What is unforgivable is Benito's handling of Bale. He's easily managed by the likes of Bolton and Everton but the european champions As for the derby, we lost because of Matrix fuck up, nothing more than that. Here's hoping that Berlusconi doesn't feel the need to restrengthen in January because this Milan side is very beatable.

Anyway, Benito needs a bit of time. And luck. Just waiting til January, we need much more quality in depth, technical players who can actually PASS

yeah inter looks extremely narrowed lately. however palermo's width doesn't come from the trident. pinilla, ilicic, pastore, hernandez, miccoli, they don't give many benchmarks, but they don't even stay wide. the fullbacks are the ones who provide us width. they keep banging on both sides, creating some spaces for the upfront trio and for the central midfielder runs (bacinovic and nocerino especially).
it's very hard to stretch the pitch horizontally in the 3\4. the only coach who tries this sort of approach is del neri. it's much more easy to do it at midfield, with your fullbacks. sidebacks don't usually have to deal with the same tight marking offensive players have to deal with. so have them overlapping, tell them not to cut on the inside and that'll give your midfield and strikers some room to work with.... but of course u need fullbacks who can do that... mAicon certainly could... i'm not so sure about the other side.... if you're looking for width, u need both fullbacks to push... otherwise u're just shifting the center of gravity of the team on one side (and that won't give u any width at all).
i think that, with a good leftback and a little more quality at midfield, inter might actually implement something similar to palermo's system.... but we don't know if that's what rafa is aiming to...... and we also still don't know if rafa can do that...let's not forget delio rossi is a pretty good coach!

I'm impressed with how mindful the fullbacks are of their defensive duties. Maicon has been spoilt by Zanetti I think, he hardly even bothers sometimes. Don't you think Pastore would make a good support striker ala Van Der Vaart, playing a bit off the opposition defence? It would be even more impossible to mark him. Can you comment a bit on the attacking trident of Miccoli/Pinilla, Illicic and Pastore? Who plays where, etc

Inter also need more players like Coutinho: talented, young and hungry players.

He's done well, if he could just shot he needs time to develop and then bulk up a bit. But I've been very impressed with him thus far. Very impressed.

What is happening with Santon? Is he still injured? To me he looked one of the brigthest young prospects in world football.

After all his injury problems last season, we're taking it easy with him, easing him in rather than rushing the process and risk another injury. Also at the moment Benito has zero confidence in him. Especially after the Lecce game where he was poor and then that fuck up vs Spurs last month where he gave the ball away in his own half. He's in the italy NT squad vs Romania. He manage a few minutes. Also Ranocchia. Here's something I read on football-italia.net just now:

"The two (Bonucci and Ranocchia) played together at Bari and for the Under-21 side, while reports suggest they could be together again in Turin next season."

WTF! Like we don't own half his contract already

I'm also not so sure if Moratti is the wisest and most clever president in Italian football

He isn't. But he's loaded so for now there's nothing for us to complain about

 

[lo zio]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

this is not a fair comparison. And then saying that we have enough depth to start a competitive starting 11.... would anyone here take Muntari off our hands? Even on a loan deal

fair enough. point taken

And why all this panic, we're 6 pts off top place, where were Roma at this point last season? Also we're 2nd in our UCL group... there's too much exaggerating going on. I'm glad Benito is calm about things and going on about his work. And for the umpteenth time, this is isn't the same inter as last season. First off, we were the underdogs in UCL, we counter-attacked our way to the top. No such luck this time round. Secondly, Roma, Milan, and Juve are more complete than last season, so it's a lot more competitive (not to mention Lazio). And with a depleted squad such as ours, we stand no chance. But we've done well enough to keep up at least.

indeed u're right, there's no reason to get into a panic (however i wouldn't compare inter to roma... roma always starts slow and grows throughout the season. besides inter hasn't the huge ownership problems roma has)....
anyway the situation is still under control.... but 2 wins in the last 10 matches are certainly something serious for a team which dominated serie a in the last few years.
i remember mourinho too took his time to figure out how to have his inter playing.... but in the meanwhile, he still managed to have his team scraping some wins... what concerns the public opinion in italy is the lack of results AND the lack of a gameplan.
but afterall this league is getting more and more competitive each and every season and inter has some justifications for his recent displays, like u said.

I disagree with this. With a full squad at his disposal, we've seen what Benito has been trying to do: a much more technical inter, attacking, balanced, looking to play possession football. Problem is we haven't had much chance for continuity.

yeah, that was a very good inter indeed.... but was that benitez doing a good job, or was it just a good run by inter players? (i'm not being sarcastic here, i'm sincerely curious)... coz it was just for a few matches and then there was this huge regression in inter's football.
from your post i understand u believe this regression is due only to inter's contingent situation (mostly the injuries).. if that's the case, then there's hope for the future. i guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next few months

Don't you think Pastore would make a good support striker ala Van Der Vaart, playing a bit off the opposition defence? It would be even more impossible to mark him. Can you comment a bit on the attacking trident of Miccoli/Pinilla, Illicic and Pastore? Who plays where, etc

yeah i think that would suit pastore pretty well.... afterall that's pretty much what he's been doing so far in palermo.... however i'd define that as a mezz'ala rather than a supporting striker. anyway this is just his second season in serie a and the kid is still in the middle of his developing process, so we can't say yet exactly what he'll turn out to be (he seems to be heading in that direction though).

as for the setup of palermo's trident, it's kinda hard to assign a specific role to each player, as they swap and switch their position continuously.
ilicic acts as a "slingshot" playing with the defensive line from the right side (but he continuously cuts on the centre and swaps with the cf).
pastore plays a role a la van der vaart (like u said) staying a little behind the strikers.
pinilla is a fantanstic pick for the cf spot as he perfectly suits this team. not only he's big, strong and tall (wich allows him to "drag" the defensive line deep in the box, creating space on the 3\4 for the other 2 offensive players and the upcoming midfielder)..... he also likes to interpretate his role "a la rooney" (stepping back and creating holes for the other players' runs in the box). and finally he has a very good touch for such a tall cf, wich allows him to "dialogue" with other educated foot like pastore's or ilicic's or miccoli's.

miccoli has just started to fit into this setup (as a supporting striker), as he's just recovering from his injury, while hernandez hasn't played that much simply because pinilla and ilicic have been really on fire lately.
i reckon hernandez might fit into this system as a cf (he would give us more depth and flair and pace than pinilla) or as a supporting striker.
anyway i believe there's gonna be so much rotation in our attacking setup this season (precisely because all our options are really high quality options) that we'll hardly be able to tell who is a starter and who's not.
and depending on the players rossi lines up the shape and the "character" of the trident will be completely different.
a ----------pinilla
-----miccoli
--------------pastore
setup for instance would be completely different from a
-------------hernandez
---------------------------ilicic
------pastore
setup.

if palermo had the same kinda depth also in midfield and defense, this team might actually be a serious 4th spot contender. unfortunately that's not the case.

 

[The_Special_One]

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Some interesting news in today's Portuguese press. According to A Bola newspaper, Inter Milan board is considering André Villas-Boas for an eventual sack of Rafa Benitez.

Other news: Milan is preparing a 22,5 M€ offer for Fábio Coentrão.