Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

lazio just exploded against bologna. it's about time.

miroslav klose (injury-free) :WORSHIP:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

lo zio said:
pfft... if that's his secret, then the game isn't worth the candle.
... and don't u even try to pretend u disagree with me :P

btw that pictures-collage of zanetti seriously freaks me out :SHOCK:
if he wasn't such a fervent catholic i'd he's an argentinian dorian gray.
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Hehe. Has anyone looked in his attic yet ? :P

Il Trattore says he is coming back. Who knows ? So long as he get's a decent send off. He did his best to emulate to Facchetti. One of my favourite players and not just for his football but all that he does off the pitch.

Ruben Botta an Inter target has injured himself so this Internazionale curse seems to be able to reach across the globe to Tigre.....

Great to see our sister club Udinese doing so well and di Natale breaking more records.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

ALBICELESTE2010 said:
Il Trattore says he is coming back. Who knows ? So long as he get's a decent send off. He did his best to emulate to Facchetti. One of my favourite players and not just for his football but all that he does off the pitch.
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i'd say javier has already done enough to earn the same legendary status of facchetti. a real class act, on and off the pitch.
i admire his enthusiasm and determination, but i'd be very surprised if he could bounce back after such a serious injury, especially taking into account his age.
i'd love to see him back though :))
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

lo zio said:
i'd say javier has already done enough to earn the same legendary status of facchetti. a real class act, on and off the pitch.
i admire his enthusiasm and determination, but i'd be very surprised if he could bounce back after such a serious injury, especially taking into account his age.
i'd love to see him back though :))
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Just to have him a send off at the San Siro would be something. He is admired by fans of many clubs.

Do you think you've done enough to avoid relegation with your recent run of form lo zio ? :) Whatever happens it is going to be hard to keep of Ilicic.

With us now having links with Udinese a lot more of us have been watching serie A games and specifically those of the Zebrette.

It is disappointing to see the crowds at stadiums aside from a few games such as the Genoa derby. Is this financial crisis not just affecting the ability of fans to travel but also plans for clubs to move away from these communal stadiums to purpose built venues ?

That said Giampaolo Pozzo has already with the council of Udine set into motions to rebuild the Friuli stadium.

All the best to the Rosanero.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Oh man, Inter are just in a continuous downward spiral.... what an amazing 3rd goal by Lazio.

Poor Palermo too. Abel Hernandes thought he did enough to save Palermo, but immediately after, Udinese were back in the lead.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Super Mario scoring again. 11 in 11.

It's probably down to being happier in Italy and being the main man at Milan but it does make me a little hesitant about Cavani.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Why? Cavani won't have all the media over him like Balotelli, and he'll probably won't face a lot of problems settling in at City, seeing as they have plenty of South Americans.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Just makes me wonder whether defending in Serie A is what it used to be. Mario all too often struggled to get a kick over here.

Just a thought really, like I said it's most likely other factors.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

I think he's finally in his comfort zone. He's always been an extremely gifted player, he just needed the right environment to bring the best out of him.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Also, 5 of his goals are PKs. The man never misses.

He's simply absorbed Ibra's previous role in being the player we rely on. Not necessarily a good thing....
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

How funny would it be if Ibra returns to Juve and then PSG get Balotelli. :LOL: Milan would be in the exact same situation again.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

seems like Palermo gonna end up on serie b , what a shame I liked this but serie b gonna be more strong I guess :D hopefully Lecce gonna be there next season too , Lecce , Bari , Palermo , Brecia , Reggina , Empoli i'm looking forward to serie b for next season :D
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

albiceleste said:
Just to have him a send off at the San Siro would be something. He is admired by fans of many clubs.
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he definitely will get a "goodbye match". the man is a legend in italy.
albiceleste said:
Do you think you've done enough to avoid relegation with your recent run of form lo zio ? Whatever happens it is going to be hard to keep of Ilicic.
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quite the opposite actually. we've done everything we could to get relegated. this relegation (wich appears to be almost certain at this point) is nothing but the result of 2 years of poor management. our best players were sold and their replacements were nothing but "serie b material".... and our club owner has done everything in his power to fuck up whatever stability and sense of continuity with his staff changes (we had 5 different coaches this season alone!). we simply got what we deserved.
as for ilicic, he will most definitely leave, as we couldn't afford his wage in serie b. can't say i'm gonna miss him that much though. he's hugely talented, but also extremely inconsistant.
Godotelli said:
Just makes me wonder whether defending in Serie A is what it used to be. Mario all too often struggled to get a kick over here.

Just a thought really, like I said it's most likely other factors.
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mario and milan are still on "honeymoon" right now; his motivation is huge and he feels very involved with the team, as allegri is giving him an important role in this "young milan project". to fully evaluate mario's impact on milan (and serie a) we'll have to wait a few more months (once the novelty will wear off).
having said that, players like balotelli always give their best when they feel appreciated, and right now he certainly does at milan. besides it appears playing for milan has always been is dream (ever since he was at inter), so that probably boosts his enthusiasm even more.
and finally, u also have to consider balotelli played in quite a differnt role at man city. allegri is trying to turn him into a proper out-and-out striker (pretty much like capello did with ibra years ago), so he obviosly has more chances to score now.
also it should be pointed out that part of his goals came from penalty kicks, as stefano remarked.

as for your other question, yes, defending in italy is certainly not what it used to be, if your term of comparison is the 80s/90s period. the advent of zone defending (wich in italy occurred much later than in the rest of europe) marked a paradigm shift in the educational approach to defending. the old generation of trainers (who were the only reason of our superior school) got replaced by a new generation of trainers, who were completely focused on the tactical aspect of defending. that's obvious, as zone coverage turned defending from a 1 on 1 effort to a collective effort.
the problem was theese new trainers\football teachers payed no attention whatsoever to the fundamentals of defending (feet placement, body placement, tackling technique and timing), wich were what really used to separate italian defenders from european defenders.

as a result of that, today italian defenders have exactly the same weaknesses other european defenders always had; they have great understanding of the concept of defensive line (they know everything about the adjustments, the marking swaps, zone shifting and diagonal movements) but they also display an embarassing lack of the most basic fundamentals of defending.
so long story short, yes, defending in italy certainly isn't what it used to be. but that doesn't mean defending in italy is now worse than defending in england or france or germany or spain. it means instead that, whereas 20 years ago our defending school was far superior than any other school in europe, today the average italian defender is pretty much on the same (poor) standard of an average english defender (perhaps we still have a tiny advantage over the english school, but i'm not really sure of that).
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Aren't Palermo going to be screwed in Serie B with the new salary cap in place? Isn't that tough for players like Miccoli?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Really doubt Milan will sell an Italian player before even reaching his peak. We are not Inter. :LOL:
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Milanista said:
Aren't Palermo going to be screwed in Serie B with the new salary cap in place? Isn't that tough for players like Miccoli?
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not sure how the salary cap is gonna work out so can't really tell. however we don't even need a salary cap to confine our spending. over the last few years zamparini has been using palermo as a money milking cow, selling all our valuable players and putting all the money in his own pocket.... the fucker hasn't spent a cent on the market for years, so the salary cap probably won't make much of a difference for us.

besides miccoli is a goner anyway. over the last 3 years zamparini sold all those players who spoke against him (bovo, cassani, migliaccio, sirigu).... miccoli has always been one of the most vocal, whenever it came to questioning zamparini's moves, but it was impossible for zampa to sell him, as he refused whatever offer came in for him. now that we're going down to serie b, zampa will have the perfect excuse (salary) to get rid of miccoli.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

lo zio said:
not sure how the salary cap is gonna work out so can't really tell. however we don't even need a salary cap to confine our spending. over the last few years zamparini has been using palermo as a money milking cow, selling all our valuable players and putting all the money in his own pocket.... the fucker hasn't spent a cent on the market for years, so the salary cap probably won't make much of a difference for us.

besides miccoli is a goner anyway. over the last 3 years zamparini sold all those players who spoke against him (bovo, cassani, migliaccio, sirigu).... miccoli has always been one of the most vocal, whenever it came to questioning zamparini's moves, but it was impossible for zampa to sell him, as he refused whatever offer came in for him. now that we're going down to serie b, zampa will have the perfect excuse (salary) to get rid of miccoli.
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Can we have him ? ;) Zola and Sormani have links down there.
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Ben, I think there is a more even share of excellent central defenders between England and Italy, if you go by the talent that has come through, at least since the 2000's.

England had the strongest set of CBs at the 2006 World Cup, for example.

Do you think Italy's defending school has gone backwards or is it just that other schools of defending have caught up with them?
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

Shit, one of my favourite teams just got relegated from Serie A.
Sad day.

Also hope that Palermo bounce back...

Of course i'm not a real Palermo fan, so: don't be too sad Ben...
 
Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

i appreciate your sympathy guys, but don't worry about me. if there's anything this experience taught me, is that i'm not much of a fan.... football fans get sad or angry even when their teams lose a single insignificant game...... my team got relegated and i honestly couldn't care less. if i'm a fan, i must be a lousy one :P
and even if i were sad, just looking at andre's avatar would be enough to put a big smile on my face :D
abou said:
Do you think Italy's defending school has gone backwards or is it just that other schools of defending have caught up with them?
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it's the italian school that has gone backwards. most definitely. to be honest i haven't noticed any real improvement in the english school, over the last 20 years. the average english defender still can't tackle, nor mark. they still can't put their feet right when marking a player, they still can't force an opponent to shoot with his weak foot, they still can't time their movements (and tackles) by watching at their opponents waist.
english defenses improved a lot over the last 20 years, because the players are much more tactically aware..... but 1 on 1, english defenders (individually) are still as rubbish as they ever were, because they still aren't taught anything about technique, when they're youngsters (wich is something evident from the way they play).

u mentioned "excellent defenders". keep in mind though, that in order to evaluate a school u can't look at the "top of the class". excellent defenders, by definition, are not average. and only average players actually represent the quality of the school they belong to.
quick example: rio ferdinand is not a product of the english school, because if he were, if that kind of quality was actually nothing but the byproduct of the english school, then england would have plenty of defenders as good as ferdinand. ferdinand became the defender he is today because of his talent. sure he worked on his talent, and his coaches helped him becoming what he became..... but their contribution was minimal.....it was rio who did most of the job (better yet, it was his innate talent who did most of the job). rio ferdinand could have been born (and learned to play football) in romania, russia, italy, portugal, france... it wouldn't have made much of a difference. because pure talent always emerge, no matter the environment.

that obviously applies to every great player (no matter the role or the nationality). for years people have been glorifying the italian school because of nesta, cannavaro, maldini, baresi, bergomi, wierchowood... i always found that hilarious. how could anybody believe those world class players became so good because of our trainers and teachers is just beyond me...if nesta was nothing but the result of our school, how come we only had 1 nesta?
the truth is there's no trainer or teacher in the world who can develop a common youngster into a nesta. if there ever were such a trainer, then u would know his name...... everybody would, as he would be world-wide famous and all the top clubs in the world would be willing to pay any price in order to hire him (can u imagine an academy who can produce a nesta? WOW! such trainers would cost more than ibra and messi put together).
the italian school was indeed amazing.... but not because of nesta or maldini. those were particularly talented players and it was their unmatched talent wich got them so far. the italian school was great because the average italian defender was an excellent defender compared to the average english, french, german and spanish defender. that's why.
that's where u have to look if u wanna evaluate academy trainers and football schools trainers: average players. because that's where u can actually appreciate the impact of a good teacher. where there's no great innate talent, that's where u can really measure the actual contribution of a good football education to the growth of a player.

having said that, if u wanna evaluate the english school, forget about ferdinand, forget about lescott, forget about cahill or dawson, as none of them represent "the average english defender", the common product of the english school. u must look at upson, bramble, taylor. they are a reliable "quality-gauge" of the english school. theese players aren't really more technically evolved than the average '80s defender. they're more tactically aware, sure (and that is already enough to make them better players than their predecessors), but, technique-wise, they're just as rubbish as those who came before them.

the real change happened in the italian school instead. 20 years ago the average italian defender had barzagli's technique (well, almost :P ) and a player like chiellini, who is kinda the italian version of terry, would have never made it to the national team (i'm not implying terry is, or was, as good as chiellini. what i mean is that chiellini has, just like terry, a below average technique, wich is unusual for an italian international player).
today instead we have our own "terry" in the national team and the average italian cb is much closer to the average english cb than to barzagli.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread - 2012/13 Season

so how do our milanisti friends feel about allegri's possible departure? it looks like berlusconi really doesn't dig his football and he might be moving to roma or napoli this summer.
imo letting allegri leave would be a very bad call.
 
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