Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

PLF said:
Although I woiuldn't list Almiron in there Ben as he barely ever played from what I remember.... and it was really in Empoli later on where he shone his abliities.....
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yep, you're right about almiron. although it was udinese which first "discovered" him, empoli was the place where he really emerged as a classy regista.

as for your zeman point, you're obviously right, zeman is a bit too radical in his views.... and, like all extremists, his logic is far from flawless. but then again, like all extremists, he's also sooo much more interesting!!!
for his razor-sharp mind, his punchlines, for his captivating "monnalisa-esque" smug, for his absolute respect for the game in his most primeval and romantic form, for his fair play, his almost childish honesty, and for his unmatched ability to "teach football"..... for all theese reasons zeman became an icon in italy.
the less italianish coach in the world fascinated the italians more than anyone else. the less cynical coach in history became a legend in the most cynical league in europe.
and despite having won pretty much no silverware at all in his carreer, wherever he coached, the fans loved him more than they loved any other coach.

like u said "if i were an owner and zeman was my club's coach, i'd feel like killing him every other match"..... and that's definitely right.
but the fans perspective is completely different. even though he doesn't win, they love him.... actually something very weird happen when zeman is coaching your team.
usually when a club is coached by zemanesque coach (wenger is the most appropriate example) u have some fans who still back him despite the lack of silverware, and some others who just get frustrated and would like to have a different coach.
in any case the club is the most important thing for the fans... the coach is just a mean, an instrument to help the club get some results.
with zeman the situation is completely different. they feel sorry for not having HIM winning silverware. the fans feel like they actually owe something to him, so they're not angry with the coach for not having a more balanced approach..... they're angry with the team for not doing enough to help the coach winning!!! it's just crazy!
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little side note: the wenger comparison is not really spot on. first of , coz wenger actually won lots of silverware and has been definitely more "succesful" than zeman in his carreer. second, because, despite being very offensive oriented, wenger's football is nowhere near as entertaining as zeman's football.
we might say wenger is a more "balanced and reasonable" version of zeman. he's a great football teacher, but not as much as zeman; his football is very entertaining, but not as much as zeman's football. he's achieved a lot more than zeman in his carreer, but speaking of personality, intelligence, charisma and "coolness", zeman just belongs to a different league. having said that, wenger is the closest thing to zeman u can find today, so that's why i picked him.
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allow me to repost this video (i already posted before) as it makes my point much more clear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iSP7cSL418&feature=related
even though zeman never won anything for roma fans, they still feel more grateful to him than to any other coach. they feel like they owe him something for what he gave them during his time as a roma coach.
they talk about "sporting conscience", and other concepts wich transcend the results. they didn't win anything with zeman, but the "ride" was so much fun that it doesn't matter to them. and we're talking about italian fans here (italian fans are often described as very cynical fans, who value the result over everything else).

roma fans had the privilege to have one of the greatests coaches in the history of the game: capello. capello represents the exact opposite of zeman.
zeman values the effort and the display more than the actual result, while for capello results come before everything else.
zeman is a football teacher, while capello isn't. capello has an unmatchable ability in finding the right balance, the right formula to win with every team..... while zeman never even bothered looking for such a formula.
capello will probably go down in history as the most succesful coach in the history of the game..... while zeman will be remembered as one of the greatest losers in the history of the game.
yet, and i can absolutely guarrantee that to u, ask any roma fan which one they loved the most, and all of them will name zeman.
and that doesn't just apply to roma fans. zeman had the same impact on the fans wherever he coached.
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on another topic, pretty uninspired display from palermo this week. but then again, i wasn't expecting anything different. the coppa italia match last wednesday had obviously the same effect an europa league match has on our sunday performances..... and cagliari has been on fire ever since donadoni took over.
and like i said last week (talking about udinese), one single bad result and we fell from 5th to 7th (we're actually just 1 point ahead of udinese right now).
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

ilfenomeno said:
I have much respect for Mazzarri, he helped Reggina to stay in Serie A with -15 points penalty (!!!), with him as a coach Cassano was shining at Sampdoria and now at Napoli he's doing great too. Mazzarri is a fine manager.
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yep. he's a very good coach. livorno, reggina, samp and now napoli.... he's always done well whenever he coached.
das ist das said:
I really doubt if he's a human. He's rather a machine to me. JZ
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seconded. what an absolute legend! :WORSHIP:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I love the rivalries and its atmosphere especially in Italy but why the hell does it get so boring when it comes to watching the clashes? any opinion about this?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Well it is a cup game so you normally expect a lot of attacking.

Adriano is useless btw. I hope he scores a goal to kick things up but his physical condition should have been better by now,
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Where's rfU these days? I'd like to read what he thinks of Inter's revival under Leonardo.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Das ist das! said:
I love the rivalries and its atmosphere especially in Italy but why the hell does it get so boring when it comes to watching the clashes? any opinion about this?
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if u're referring to this week roma-lazio... well, we're still talking about a lousy coppa italia match, so it's no big surprise if the game wasn't that exciting.
actually on this concern, i've noticed quite a pleasant change in italy, as in the last 4, 5 years, most of the derbys have been pretty nice games!....... even more surprising, i've noticed an opposite trend in england, where derbys (wich were usually the most exciting games) became quite dull matches. :?

there were some pretty nice roma derbys in the last few years.... some of the latest genova derbys (samp-genoa) were among the most exciting games i've watched in the last 5 years...... i can also remember some very nice milano derbys and the palermo-catania derbys are usually a goal feast (in the last 2 years, palermo and catania played each others 4 times; 12 goals weere scored in those 4 matches, with an average of 3 goals per match)

traditionally instead italia derbys were the least exciting games in the season (till a few years ago).... and they didn't just happen to be boring... they were supposed to be like that.
u see, like i said many times, italians don't really have a good sport culture (at least when it comes to support football clubs). italian fans don't have the same healthy approach to the games that english or germans usually have.
football here is something that permeates the fabric of society. and that has an impact on the way some games unfold... especially those derbys among clubs wich play in the same city.
loosing a roma derby or a genova derby for a fan means being exposed (for the nest 6 months) to the verbal teasing and the mockery of the "winning fans".

every italian club has its own "gathering places", many meeting spots spread all over the city. and in those cities like roma and genova (where there are 2 clubs) each group of fans has its own meeting places and areas (it might be a bar or a cafetteria... any sort of small shops).
well, the day after a derby, u can see the winning fans paying a visit to all those "loosing fans" meeting places. mind u, i'm not talking about violent fans wanting to start a fight here. i'm talking about normal people..... they go in those "opponent's bars and cafetterias" only to tease their rivals and have a laugh at them.
from a neutral point of view, it's quite an hilarious experience... watching theese 30, 40, 50 or 60 years old grown up men acting like silly childs and teasing each others, basking in the glow for their big win. and the loosing team fans obviously have to endure this: the fans etiquette demands it. they to take it like men and wait for the next derby, for the next chance to turn the situation upside down.

i personally know a a roman cassazione judge (the cassazione court is the most important court in italy, some sort of a supreme court). becoming a cassazione judge is pretty much making it to the top of the judicial ranks. so as u can expect this man is quite an important figure, one of the most respected persons in the roman community.
yet, this over 50 years old, very important, educated and sophisticated man, who also happens to be father of 2 children, has his ritual every "after-derby" day. he's a laziale, so, whenever lazio wins a derby, he takes some time off his very busy day-schedule to visit a butcher shop wich is very famous for being a romanistas meeting point. he goes there with a mocking smug on his face, just to tease the butcher (big time roma fan) and those other roma fans or ultras who usually happen to be there.

so as u can see the concept of football rivalry in italy isn't something that involves just a dozen of violent fans or a few hundreds of teenagers.... it doesn't just involve blue collars. white collars aswell (big time lawyers, doctors, politicians) are involved into this and enjoy teasing their loosing rivals just as much as, say, the local butcher.
now, if u watch this "from the outside", from a neutral perspective, it's quite fun and hilarious.... but for the fan themselves, it's a torture.

for a roma (or a lazio) fan it would be nice to have a chance to go teasing their rivals for the next 6 months........ but the most important thing is not having to endure the same treatment from their rivals. so if u talk to them the day before the derby, they will most likely tell u "yeah, it would be great to win, but the most important thing is not to lose".

the players, the club owners, the coaches, they're all well aware of this. they know they can't afford to lose as in that case, their fans will be teased by their rivals till the next derby..... so that puts huge pressure and heat on the players themselves. wich is why italian derbys, till a few seasons ago, used to be the most tactical and boring matches of the season.

as for the reason why this trend seems to be changing in the past few years, i have no idea. :))

ancelotti once told a story. back when he was a roma player...during the week before a derby... it was 7:30 pm and carletto was in his car, taking his young wife to dinner. he stops the car at a red traffic light, and then he hear someone talking to him from the car on his left, so he lowers the car window to hear him out.
"carletto what are u doing outside this late? u're supposed to be resting at home right now! we got the derby sunday!"
carlo kindly replied "resting? mate it's 7:30 pm! it's not even dusk! i can actually still see the sun in the sky! and it's not like i'm heading to a club or a discoteque, i'm just taking my wife to a restaurant"
so the fan from his car replied "yeah... but there's the derby this week!"
and then carlo "man, we're in tuesday!! the game will be on sunday! do u expect me to do nothing but resting for the next 4 days?!?" :DD
and the fan "of course not! u have to train and rest for the next 4 days". :LOL:

carlo said that guy was so sincerely worried about his phisycal shape for the upcoming derby, that he almost felt guilty for taking his wife to a restaurant.... 4 days before the match!
that's just to give u an idea of the ammount of pressure the players have to deal with in some italian cities (not all of them though. in cities like milano or udine or palermo, there's not such pressure on the players).
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Anyone see our coppa game against Bari? We fielded a full midfield and attack, but with Merkel instead of Seedorf. This kid has some talent and the goal he scored will definitely give confidence. Milan dominated, although there were 1 or two lapses of concentration at the back.

I like Allegri's approach to the coppa to bring more consistency and motivation in the players. Ibra and Robinho were up for it, and Ambrosini was having such an easy time that I don't think he broke sweat.

Anyway, Merkel is an interesting one - hope he gets more playing time and slowly replaces Seedorf. Check out his assist to Robinho too.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Not really, I wouldn't be surprised if we get knocked out. We're still a new team and are still transitioning into a new style of play. I think we'll be a major force next year. Spurs have been improving for a couple of seasons now, so I think they will be more organized and prepared for this kind of game.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

After watching Spurs game against Man Utd, I got worried a lot. They are a great team playing some fast football. They might be the most dangerous English team for Milan in terms of pace. I just hope we can get Pirlo back and get a a decent left back. Antonini again showed how stupid he is. Pato needs to lift his ass and make more effort. I liked what Gatusso did to him.

And great post Ben. Cheers for the info everytime.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I'd like to see Milan go through. The English media love to put down Serie A, especially the "old man's club" Milan and they've probably sensed this as another nail in Serie A's coffin.

It'll also be another chance for Ibra to silence the English critics, not that he didn't manage that, temporarily at least, last season against Arsenal.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Ben, that is perhaps the best and certainly the most enjoyable post i"ve read on this forum. Knowing this, i wonder why nobody used that for a move (well perhaps somebody did, but i'm not aware of it).

In Belgium there is a play (theatre) about the rivalry of two (now lowly) clubs from Brussels: Union and Daring (now FC Brussels, incidently the club i support, relegation fodder in second division). The play is baout two rabiate fans of the opposing teams: Bosman and Coppenolle. Their rivalry is immense they are not on speaking terms until their childeren fall in love with each other and want to marry (our Romeo and Juliet).
Twenty years ago both clubs for once where in the same division (by some strange coïncidence they same to avoid each others). And both matches were sold out and that despite the fact they were live on television.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Milanista said:
Not really, I wouldn't be surprised if we get knocked out. We're still a new team and are still transitioning into a new style of play. I think we'll be a major force next year. Spurs have been improving for a couple of seasons now, so I think they will be more organized and prepared for this kind of game.
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it's a tricky matchup imo. although milan is pretty much a "new team" i think they're slightly better than tottenham (but that really doesn't matter that much in an a 2 matches elimination round).
tottenham however are a very dangerous team to face in an elimination round, as (when they're having a good day) they can beat pretty much anyone....as opposed to milan, wich, despite being on top of serie a right now, is that sort of team wich (if caught in a bad mood) could be beaten by any team (and i really mean any team).... but that's probably down to the inexperience of some players (like u mentioned).
if i were a milan fan, what would worry my the most is having to play the 2nd leg in london, as that makes all the difference. it sure will be a good matchup to watch. :))
abou said:
I'd like to see Milan go through. The English media love to put down Serie A, especially the "old man's club" Milan and they've probably sensed this as another nail in Serie A's coffin.
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i gotta be honest, i really can't understand why all this hatred towards serie a. it's not a matter of chauvinism, as if that would be the case, then overpraising premier league would make much more sense than talking shit about serie a.
and it's not even a matter of personal taste (say english journalists just don't like serie a), as to like or dislike something u have at least to know something about it, whereas the english media ridiculous clicheès about serie a (like milan being an old players team) clearely show they know absolutely nothing about it.

when u criticise something u don't know, when u base your opinion on false preconceptions, then the only motive left is hatred..... but why?
besides don't they feel stupid vomiting such ridiculous bullshits without even bothering to checking out first? i mean anyone could just type "milan" on wikipiedia and realise how milan actually is one of the youngests top teams in europe. that is more than unprofessional. it's embarassing.
gerd said:
Knowing this, i wonder why nobody used that for a move (well perhaps somebody did, but i'm not aware of it).
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infact there are litterally dozens of italian movies on this topic (mostly commedies). it's almost a clicheè of italian commedies, the typical scene where a romanista goes to a laziale's bar and starts teasing all the lazio fans in there... with the lazio fans having to endure all the mocking because "if u lose a derby u're just supposed to take your fair share of jokes from the rivals".

i gotta say though, theese sort of scenes are even more funny in real life than they are in movies. :P
the funniest thing is that, being italian very passionate people, u would expect the "losing fans" to react badly to this sort of mockings. i mean, your team just won a derby and the day after u go (on your own) to a bar full of rival fans just to rub it in.... that sounds like a suicide!
but no, they just stay there and "suck it up"... they might be dying inside, but they just take the hit as a man, simply because they're supposed to (as if there were some sort of an etiquette code between fans).
unfortunately italian football rivalries are best known abroad for the violent brawls wich, every now and then, make it into the news...... but the truth is those violent episodes are quite rare, while the everyday life of an italian fan is usually full of theese hilarious scenes.
as for that theatre play u mentioned, there's an old '80s italian commedy whose plot is kinda similar.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I think most of the preconceptions about Italian football stem from ignorance, given the fact that there's so little Serie A coverage in England these days. There's also probably an element of bitterness, given how good Serie A's top sides used to be during the 90's and early to mid 00's, attracting a lot of the world's biggest and most popular players and often knocking out English sides in the CL. There's also the fact that the media likes to build up the Premiership since it's "our" league and hence tries to put down other leagues that it's in "competition" with, like La Liga and Serie A. The Daily Mail had this headline when it was covering the World Player of the Year award a couple of years back: The best players of the world (and Xavi): Ronaldo crowned king of football.

A good example is last season after Inter won the Champions League and most of the media painted this as being all down to Mourinho and they gave little credit to any of Inter's players. I think they probably also envy the Italian national side's record of four times winner of the World Cup.

There's also this funny quote from Andy Gray of Sky Sports after Man Utd beat Milan 3-2 in the semi-final first leg, a few years back:

Andy Gray said:
Forget the two away goals. With one swing of Wayne Rooney’s boot on Tuesday night the whole mindset of the tie changed in an instant. The pressure has been heaped on Milan, and I believe that Milan side is ordinary.

Not only will United get a result in Italy next week, they will beat Milan in their own backyard. I think they’ve got the Italians running scared - they’re not a great team and they know it.

Sure, Kaka is brilliant but go through the team - the keeper is dodgy and the back four is creaking and should hold no fear for United’s forwards. Anything else to be scared of? Pirlo? No. Seedorf? No. Ambrosini? No. Gilardino? Definitely not.
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As we all know, Milan thrashed (:CRY:) an, albeit injury-hit, Man Utd side 3-0 at the San Siro and went on to beat another English side, Liverpool, in the final. :LOL:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I completely agree.
English tend to overhype their players and copetition (we in Belgium do the same with some of our young players, but not with our competition).
Players like Gerrard, Cole (both), Ferdinand, Lampard and Terry are considered to be among the best in the world. Yet the national team is mediocre at best (ours is even worse, but at least we are aware of it). The only real world class English player is Rooney, unfortunately he's going through a bad spell.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

let's not turn this into one of those silly "leagues\national team comparisons guys. i'm a huge fan of premier league myself and i honestly think there are plenty of world class players playing in that league (some british and some foreign). sure i don't think premier league is the best league of them all..... but then again, i don't think any league in europe deserves to be considered as the best of them all, so...
as for their national team situation, not delivering well doesn't necessarily mean the players aren't good. they have some great players (although probably not as many and as great as british media think) and the best coach u can get.... but national team football is completely different from club football and having great players and a great coach doesn't guarantee great results (as italy proved in the last wc).

those quotations u posted abou are indeed a mind boggling display of sheer ignorance. and yeah, i also believe that chauvinism is involved in this madness to some degree.....
but still i find it hard to explain this attitude with ignorance and chauvinism. afterall a league isn't an athlete or a club.... it's only a series of events.... a league doesn't perform.... so how can u be a fanboy for something abstract as a league?

besides, even assuming such a stupid thing is possible, doesn't your reputation come first? i mean let's assume i'm a chauvininst, ignorant prick who writes for an english newspaper. protecting my own reputation would still come much before boosting "my league's" image and undermining other leagues reputations. i might be a "fan" of a "my" league (jesus, i feel stupid just saying that), i might despise everything that doesn't come from my mother land..... but still ME comes before my league.... my own reputation is more important to me, more valuable than my league's reputation....... so i could never get to the point of saying, well, that xavi isn't one of the greatest players in the world or that in 2006 pirlo wasn't a player to be afraid of....
how is people gonna take my points seriously if i come out with such statements? that's why i find it hard to believe this is about chauvinism. as chauvinist as someone might be, i can't see how anyone would deliberately jeopardize his onw professional carreer as a journalist and his own credibility, just to prove the point that "our league is better".

then u might say it's about ignorance, but even that wouldn't make much sense to me. i mean, say i am a football journalist, my job is to express my opinions on football related topics. this is how i make my living, by talking about football. so my credibility is a key asset in my job. would i ever risk to destroy my credibility, by talking about a player or a team or a league i don't know that well? hell no! i'd never do that. no matter how much of an ignorant i am, i'm still not stupid.
take ngog for instance. i've seen this guy playing about 7 or 8 times over the last 2 seasons, and i've never been impressed with his displays. infact, whenever i saw him, i found him so poor in so many aspects, i wouldn't even trade him with maccarone (wich is a 3rd backup in palermo). yet i'm not an idiot... i know 7 or 8 matches are hardly enough to rate a player. plus he seems to be having a pretty good scoring record this season, and many liverpool fan friends of mine keep telling me he might develop into a good player.
so, since the only thing i'm sure about, is that i haven't seen enough of this guy to really have a good idea of what kind of player he is, i would never com out and say he's rubbish..... i might say i haven't been impressed by him whenever i saw him, but that's as far as i will go with my judgement.....
and we're talking about ngog.... wich is a nobody compared to, say, xavi.

like i said, i just can't find a logic in this.... and i also can't understand how theese people manage to mantain their jobs! infact that's probably the biggest mistery of them all.

btw sorry for this off topic. and yeah, where the hell is rfu? :))
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

IMO ther are dozens of players like Emanuelson, he's nothing special.
On the other hand, that is not saying that he might turn out to be good for Milan.

I have a theory about this Milan team. I think Milan 'wastes' too much money on the Robinho's, the Zlatan's and the Ronaldinho's of this world (wages) and not enough on the decent 'ordinary' team players who turn out to be very important.

Madrid has Ronaldo, Kaka, Özil, but also Xabi Alonso
Barcelona has Messi, Iniesta, Villa, Xavi but also Busquets, Keita, ...
A couple of years ago Bayern Munchen had the fantastic Salihamidzich and now has Van Bommel, Lahm

IMO Milan's 'second rate' (i can't find a better way of explaining this, of course this is disrespectfull for these players) players are not good enough (and i'm not sure about the stars too, Zlatan is good, Cassano will turn out good, but i have doubts about Robinho and Ronaldinho was not a good transfer).

But since i rarely can see Serie A, i might be totally wrong...it wouldn't be the first time.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Ronaldinho rarely played this year, and was sold Gerd. Zlatan has surprisingly been a huge success and is doing great to lead the team. Pato needs to find consistency, as he's got 8 goals in 11 games.

Emanuelson was cheap and can play both in defence and in attack. His contract was expiring in June, so Ajax let him go for cheap rather than for free.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

I don't think Robinho could be considered a leading player, he's actually one of the "lesser" players, he grants constant movement and is technically sublime- too bad his inconstincency his limiting his performances.
The only doubt I have about the team are the reserves, side backs and maybe the keeper, but I hear Milan has secured Sirigu for the next season (probably bullshit, but a man can dream).
The reserves are not good enough to substitute the leading players, and the most important midfield players are all aging (Seedorf, Pirlo, Gattuso, Ambrosini). Sure, Milan has Flamini and Boateng, but yet misses a couple of really good players, or probably hopes for Merkel and Strasser development (they're also trying to get Poli which would make a pretty fucking good midfield imho).

As Milanista said, Emanuelson was incredibly cheap, 2 millions I hear, and Ibrahimovic is doing really really good, I don't remember watching a striker so dominant in ages.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Yeah Urby is nothing special but for that price!!? That's a f'n bargain if there ever was one!

The guy is a good player, fairly versatile, young still yet experienced, they got him for $2M since his contract was expiring this summer. Can definitely give competition to Zambrotta and Antonini or even provide width on the wing, for that price it's a great purchase.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Milanista said:
Zlatan has surprisingly been a huge success and is doing great to lead the team.
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you're surprised ibra turned out to be great for milan? now that's surprising! :P

the league table is even shorter than last season. the leading team has only 44 pts, the 2nd team has only 38, and from the 3rd to the 8th place there are just 5 pts (less than 2 wins). this season is looking more and more like last season...... i like that! :))
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Gotta say, Di Vaio is another late bloomer in our league. He was great in his mid-20's as well, but apart from that season at Parma, he was no where near as good as he is now. His first goal against Lazio was brilliant.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

lo zio said:
you're surprised ibra turned out to be great for milan? now that's surprising! :P

the league table is even shorter than last season. the leading team has only 44 pts, the 2nd team has only 38, and from the 3rd to the 8th place there are just 5 pts (less than 2 wins). this season is looking more and more like last season...... i like that! :))
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Your wrong there mate, Second Napoli has 40 followed by Roma that has 38. Then Lazio 37, Inter 35 (-1 game), Juve 35 and your Sicilians 34. From the 7th to the 1st theres a 10 point difference.
Serie A sure is the most competitive league in Europe, no doubt about that. Not the flashiest to the media but sure is better then the actual BBVA where Barça and Real are millions of years away from the others.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Isn't Cesena's keeper, Antonioli, in his early 40's? Reminds me of Lazio's Ballotta a few seasons back.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

Neoexodus said:
Your wrong there mate, Second Napoli has 40 followed by Roma that has 38. Then Lazio 37, Inter 35 (-1 game), Juve 35 and your Sicilians 34. From the 7th to the 1st theres a 10 point difference.
Serie A sure is the most competitive league in Europe, no doubt about that. Not the flashiest to the media but sure is better then the actual BBVA where Barça and Real are millions of years away from the others.
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Ligue 1 is the most competitive one. :SMUG:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season

bundi too is slightly more competitive than serie a imo (although serie a is seriously closing the gap with ligue un and bundesliga on this department).
Neoexodus said:
Your wrong there mate, Second Napoli has 40 followed by Roma that has 38. Then Lazio 37, Inter 35 (-1 game), Juve 35 and your Sicilians 34. From the 7th to the 1st theres a 10 point difference.
Serie A sure is the most competitive league in Europe, no doubt about that. Not the flashiest to the media but sure is better then the actual BBVA where Barça and Real are millions of years away from the others.
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actually you're right, napoli has 40 pts, not 38.... but everything else remains the same... from the 3rd (roma 38 pts) to the 8th (udinese 33 pts) there is a 5 points gap.
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as for la liga, yeah, we're probably better than la liga on the "competitiveness department" right now, but that obviously doesn't mean serie a is better than liga overall.... there's so much more than competitiveness to look for in a league (atmosphere, football quality, tactical variety and so on).

plus u have to take into account that this barca side is probably the greatest football team of the "sacchi era"..... infact this barca side is probably the only team wich managed to reach the same level of "almost perfection" of sacchi's milan. the blaugrana would destroy the competition in every european league (although they wouldn't win every match by such a huge goal margin here in italy). and as for madrid, they're one of the very best top teams in europe. they've spent an enourmous ammount of money over the last 2 years (and that's obviously paying off).... plus mourinho is doing an excelllent job......... actually excellent isn't quite enough (i believe what he's doing in madrid right now is the best job in his carreer).

and finally there's probably the most important factor to consider. the spanish game knows no strategy at all. the mere idea of "adjusting your gameplan according to your opponent" is sacrilegious in spain.
spanish consider football as some sort of a showcase. u have to display your own football and prove it better.... trying to neutralize your opponent with any sort of tactical adjustment is conceived as a "loser attitude"... an "unfair way to achieve victory".
every sunday, every team goes on the pitch and plays "his football".... now there's nothing wrong with that. actually that's great, as it gives the league variety...... but the problem is, that's all they care about... playing their own football, without changing anything, no matter which team they're facing. but when u only care about playing your game.... and u play it the same way every week, then the best team will always inevitably win, there's no chance u'll see an upset.

look at udinese or parma. they have their very own football identity, and they do play "their own" football every week. however it's never the exact same parma or udinese that u get to see on the pitch. every week there's something slightly different (from a tactical point of view)... variations on a same theme.
the udinese team we saw against inter was slightly different from the udinese we saw against fiorentina. the parma team we saw against juve was slightly different from last week parma....it's obviously still "parma's football", the big picture is always the same, but every week u can notice small (but decisive) adjustements based on the opponent's gameplan.

at the end of the day, tactic is what allows upsets. tactic is what allows the davids (like parma and udinese) to beat the goliaths (like inter or milan).
la liga is like a drag race. if u have more brakehorse power, u will inevitably win. whereas serie a is more like formula 1 (it's not just about having the best car, but also about having the best strategy).

so yes, there sure is a big gap between the top 2 and the other teams in spain. but that's not the main difference between serie a and liga. the main difference (imo) is that italian midclass teams try to "think of something" to compensate this gap every week, while spanish midclass teams usually don't.
 
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