Re: Serie A Thread - 2010/11 Season
Come on Ben, Palermo isn't that bad to consider Serie A disappointing this year
of course, but u see, it's not just about palermo. i mean, what's been the main feature (probably also the only feature) of serie a over the last decade? the quality of the football played on the pitch.
we don't have more
stars than the other leagues.
our
top teams haven't been on par with their foreign counterparts. sure milan now is coming back, but over the last decade the only real top italian team has been inter, whereas epl and la liga had more to offer on this department.
the
atmosphere also isn't as exciting as it is some other leagues. when it comes to games' atmosphere bundesliga and epl are much better, especially when u follow football on tv (from the stadia serie a can still offer some great folklore).
and what about
competitiveness? well we haven't shown much more competitiveness than la liga and epl..... and bundi is so much ahead of us on this department.
so what are we left with? the football. the overall quality of the football
played by all the teams in serie a has been absolutely amazing from 2000 to 2009. no league has offered as much quality and variety as serie a, when it comes to football.
in no other league u can witness such quality football displayed by poor teams as in serie a. think of the football cagliari, empoli, parma, cesena, bari, catania have displayed in the last decade. and the same goes for midclass clubs. palermo, udinese, fiorentina, genoa, lazio, samp..... their football has been so much better than their english, spanish, german counterparts' football. mind u, i'm not saying italian midclass teams and poor teams are "better" or "stronger" than their foreing counterparts. i'm just saying they've been playing better football (wich is a different thing).
in the other leagues, every season there are a few midclass and poor teams wich display some great football..... but in serie a
each and every midlcass team and poor team has displayed some great football.
and (even more important) no other league has offered the
variety serie a did. the great thing about serie a was that every team (wheter it was a midclass team battling with the top teams, or a poor club, fighting to avoid relagation) used to play its very own football.
each team used to play a different football, and that's something we can't say about epl, bundi or la liga.
but now this doesn't seem to be the case anymore. last season was already quite disappointing, in terms of football. sure udinese was a joy to watch and palermo has been amazing for the first half of the season. but what about the other clubs?
napoli has assembled a great team, and they deserve all the praises for what they achieved, but we can't really say their football was particularly nice to watch. and the same goes for lazio. sampdoria has been absolutely awful, genoa, parma, catania and fiorentina have played quite an anonymous football (the same kind of football u would expect from an english or a spanish or a german midclass club) and the poor teams (except cesena) have played the same ugly and boring football english, german and spanish "bottom of the table" clubs usually play. i think we have lost our trademark.
and i'm afraid this season is going to be even more anonimous than the last one. some teams have lost some key players (like udinese), some others have been completely dismantled (palermo)..... fiorentina and genoa don't seem to be improving their football at all. sampdoria isn't even here anymore. roma and inter seem to be a huge mess.... juventus have completely reshaped their starting 11 once again and the teams wich got promoted from serie b don't seem to be very exciting to watch.
the great thing about serie a was that u could watch any team in the league playing and have some fun. think of the other top leagues..... almost nobody watches bottom table or midclass teams unless they're fans or unless those teams are playing against a top team. few people would watch a birmingham-stoke match or a saragoza-malaga match, because, let's be honest, their football is quite dull..... in serie a instead u could watch an empoli-cagliari game or a cesena-parma game or a sampdoria-genoa game or a palermo-catania game and witness some absolutely fantastic football. amaizingly the quality displayed by those small teams was often superior than the quality displayed by the likes of inter or milan or juve.
but now i'm not sure this is the case anymore. that's why i believe this is gonna be a pretty disappointing season, speaking of football quality.
of course i hope i'll be proven wrong though.
milanista said:
Who will you be backing in terms of the 'big'? Milan, I hope Or maybe Napoli to make it more interesting.
i'm usually neutral when it comes to the scudetto race. i guess i'll root for the team wich shows the best football (wich will probably be milan). concerning napoli, they certainly improved their squad (a lot) but i believe they will struggle this season. having to focus on 2 competitions (serie a and CL) can litterally destroy your season.... especially if u're not used to it (wich is napoli's case)... i'm inclined to believe they will disappoint in champions league and won't even be able to repeat themselves in serie a.
..... but, once again, i'd love to be proven wrong.
seriously how could they not know forlan had already played in CL with atletico!! i'd love to hear how branca justified himself to moratti "oh man, i guess i was too busy working on my tan to notice forlan was cup-tied".... besides how can a team director take his holydays in august is just beyond me. august for a football team director is like tax season for an accountant..... why moratti even allowed branca to be missing during the most important period in a director's season? that's just crazy.
