Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season
yep, Alberto is not a prospect anymore. last season he proved he can be mentioned along with europe's best players in his role: snejder, gerrard, diego, iniesta, fabregas..... actually he did even better than many of em in the last 2 seasons.... but he has been pretty unlucky so far, as he lost many months, not only last season, but also the season before, thanks to serious injuries (funnily, both times he got injured playing against man utd)... both times those injuries came right when he was about to find that consistency who could finally boost his confidence and make him a leader (even though i can't really see him becoming a leader, coz de rossi has such a huuge personality).
players like alberto represent today an endangered species. football is becoming too fast, and the raise of the pace forced all the pure "numbers 10" to move somewhere else. most of them are becoming wingers or attackers. diego, ribery, van der vaart, kakà, ronaldinho, totti. they were all forced to change position, in order to find some space, even though they're all world class players....
and those few who didn't change their role caused serious issues to their coaches (benitez had probably terrible headaches in the last few seasons, trying to find a way to line up gerrard without compromising his whole gamplans (and however, even gerrard often moved to the right).
some other players moved backwards (like deco, pizarro, fabregas, ballack, pirlo...)
there are just a few "fantasisti" who didn't change their role at all. iniesta, hamsik (i'm starting to realise he's not a central midfielder, but a pure fantasista), riquelme and alberto (there are probably a few others i don't remember right now).
the problem with this kind of players is that, in order to fit any kind of line up, they have to become the "core" of the team.
their coaches have to "build the team around them". this is quite a risky decision, especially for a top club (and it's probably the reason why rafa didn't do it with gerrard).
putting aquilani instead of perrotta in roma's starting line up, for instance, completely changes roma's football.
i hope spalletti will have the guts to change roma's dna, according to aquilani's specs for 2 reasons.
first, coz alberto is a young world class player, who could form, together with de rossi, the best midfield partnership in the world and roma's spine for the years to come.
and also coz roma's magnificent football could be close to its end.
the sidebacks, the cutting midfielders and totti were the main assets of roma's football. Now cassetti and tonetto (also coz of their injuries) didn't performed at their best level last season (and i can't see them doing in in the future). cicinho might be a good replacement for cassetti.... but riise won't ever be able to do what tonetto used to do 2 seasons ago.
totti too can't give anymore the same contribution; his legs, his ligaments, his ankles, there isn't a single part of his body wich is ok.... moreover he's getting old.
and as for the cutting midfielders, perrotta isn't as reliable as he used to be 2 seasons ago.... too many injuries.... and the same goes for taddei.... not to mention they sold giuly, wich was one of the stupidest moves of this summer (together with riise's signing).
menez and baptista are very good players but they cannot do what taddei, perrotta and giuly do. they're different kind of players.
moreover once u play the same football for about 2, 3 years, it comes the moment to change, in order to keep the players motivated, and also to avoid your opponent to get used to your football, to detect his weak spots, to strategise aganist you.
now roma has a good young spine. mexes and juan in defense, aquilani and de rossi at midfield... and i can see okaka, cerci, rosi and virga having a brightest future. so i think it's time to say goodbye to the great roma we admired in the last 3 seasons and to start building a new team according to the players spalletti can count on right now.
afterall spalletti is pretty lucky. he can count on 2 of the greatests talents in the world (de rossi and aquilani. De rossi is already the greatest in the world in his role..... and by a huge gap) in the most important position (centre midfield).
anyway, by saying this, i'm not saying that roma's cycle is over. unlike milan, roma is still a world beater, and as soon as all those injured starters will recover, they'll be playing their nice football again. the thing is, if they don't start thinking about changing their football, in a few years, they might find thelselves in the same situation milan is right now. and if aquilani won't have a guarranted starter's spot this season, he might seriously start to think to move somewhere else (juve, inter and real madrid would do anything to get him).
talking about roma roster's depth, i don't think it's really thin. sure they haven't 3 teams, like inter, but the squad is pretty much complete. the thing is no club could easily face so many injuries in the same time (perrotta, taddei, juan, mexes, cassetti, totti, pizarro). and what made the situation even worse is the fact that the new signings still need time to settle. that's probably the reason why the squad might look thin.
talking about roma's most promising prospects, Sabac, rosi (u proved u have a very keen eye and a good memory by mentioning him
, okaka and cerci deserve a mention.
Aleandro Rosi is now on loan to livorno. it was a good move by roma, as this allowed rosi to get that experience u can get just when u have a starter role. Fantastic player. he has the same huge personality and the same unbelievable "tactical sense" de rossi had when he had rosi's age. he's doing great things for livorno, and he's going to be a huge asset for roma in the next 10 years (he's just 20 right now).
Alessio Cerci was by far serie b best player last season (wich is crazy when u think how young is he and how many great players could be found in serie b last season). now he's on loan at atalanta.
In my honest opinion this wasn't a very smart move. alessio playes on menez role. is has the same age of jeremy (21) the same great technique of jeremy, but he's more practical, more tactically educated than menez. jeremy sometimes seem to overdo things, trying to show how good he is. besides he doesn't have the same "position sense" cerci has, and he comes from a different league.
so roma spent 10 millions euros to cover a role wich could have been covered (even with better results, maybe) by a player they already had.
i have the feeling roma went looking for big names this summer, rather than players who could have coming handy (baptista, jeremy, RIISE!!!).
Stefano Okaka is another great prospect. an all-around foward, with a great balance, pace, a very good technique and a fantastic feeling with the goal. he was in loan and modena last season, and now spalletti called him back at roma. despite being so young (he's just 19) he might become that tall benchmark foward roma has been looking for in the past few seasons. together with balotelli, giovinco, rossi, pazzini and maybe acquafresca, he'll probably be fighting for a spot in italy's national team, as soon as he'll be old enough.
Valerio Virga (22 years old) is another very interesting prospect for roma. he's a midfielder who usually plays on the centre-right midfield. he was on loan in palermo a few years ago, and i was quite impressed by him (even though he played just a few matches in coppa italia). very good player..... not as good as cerci, rosi and okaka though.
And Ben what do you think of Pepe(Udinese attacker) comes across a very underrated, do you reckon he can step up in class?
Pepe is a very nice player indeed. he was a palermo player a few years ago.... but didn't manage to find enoug space (he had to fight with toni in order to get some playtime :-pp).
i like him a lot, no doubt about that.... but i don't think he will ever do "the next step" and become a top class player....
but then again, don't take my opinion too seriously.... as i used to say the same about fernando torres and chiellini, up till one year ago :-pp
I think Queiroz might have had a large hand in that.
it still surprise me to think what an amazing football manchester has been playing in the last 2 seasons, as i never expected both ferguson and queiroz to be that good. so whoever he was the arteficer of this man utd (sir alex or carlos) it was a huge surprise for me
).
(anyway i'd still like to say i always remarked the gap between mourinho and the likes of ancelotti or lippi).
