Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season
hey Zio, what formation have Palermo been playing this season? Has it been something like a 4-3-1-2, with Nocerino on the R playing as DMF, and Bresciano playing wide on the L?
yep, it's precisely a 4-3-1-2
that's the midfield shape
-------------simplicio
-bresciano----liverani-----nocerino
as for the dynamics though, this setup is something pretty unique.
a creative central midfielder playing as an advanced midfielder, a proper advanced midfielder playing as a..... well i can't really define bresciano's role.... maybe ballardini just invented a new role
and the upfront situation is even more surprising, as we basically hace no CF. cavani plays a role "a la rooney", while miccoli, well miccoli does what he does best: magic.
with cavani and miccoli continuously swapping their positions, bresciano and simplicio doing the same, and the 2 sidebacks pushing and overlapping for the whole damn match (mind u this doesn't happen each and every week, as we have our bad days aswell, like yesterday), from a tactical point of view, palermo looks like a well-organised chaos.
infact u can't really get an idea of what the hell is going on on the pitch, until u go to the stadium, and u get the chance to watch a match without being forced to follow the tv cameras point of view. it's just then that u realise there's a logic behind that chaos.
i remember the first time i saw ballardini's line up, i thought "this man is either an idiot or a genius".
As for champions league places, I'd rather see Genoa qualify. Wouldn't mind the Viola, but they had their chance last season, and Genoa play better football.
yep but that's not really fiorentina's fault.... how many teams in europe play better football than genoa? barca? yes. man utd? yes (but not on a regular basis)..... and then? who else?.
i wasn't able to follow ligue 1 this season, but concerning epl, liga, bundes and serie a, i cannot think about any other teams which played (on a regular basis) a better football than genoa.
mind u, i'm not talking about the strenght of the team here. there's no doubt, real madrid, liverpool, chelsea, arsenal, inter are better team than genoa.
i'm just talking about the quality of the football. the beautiness of the shape of the schemes designed by gasperini is just unbelievable, and the precision showed by his guys in applying his schemes is remarkable.
fiorentina's football this season wasn't as exciting as last season, that's for sure. but as i said last week, prandelli went through a revolution at midfield. the departure of liverani amplified the pressure and the responsaiblities of montolivo and kuzmanovic.... and, no matter how good they are, those guys are just 2 young to carry an entire midfield on their little shoulders.
this was an experimental season for prandelli and fiorentina (their first season with no playmakers). and even though their football wasn't as delightful as last season, their results speak for themselves.
and however, i think prandelli is very close to find the right formula to display fiorentina's midfield (wich was they key to their high quality football).
However they will need a lot of new players to come in, I don't see the likes of Rubinho, Juric (too old, too slow) and Sculli going far in Europe.
gotta disagree with u on that mate. sure they won't go far in europe next season (assuming they'll actually reach the 4th spot), but that won't be coz they're not good enough. that will happen because they won't be experienced enough to handle a champions league campaign.
and anyway that's cool. i mean they're not supposed to go through the group stage (for the reasons i explained 2 pages ago, talking about fiorentina's champions campaign this season).
and, concerning the signings, yes, they definitely need new players to come (not too many though, as that might have a bad impact on the dressing room... plus u don't wanna restart everything from the beginning, teaching your schemes, your football to 7,8 new signings).
and definitely those new signings must be better than the current players (that's the whole point of the growth process).
but not because the current players aren't good enough. afterall we all saw what theese guys can do. as a collective they're "top class". but also from the individual point of view they have nothing to complain.
rubinho and sculli are definitely champions league material.
yeah rubinho is no buffon, and he's not even as good as the likes of cech or casillas or julio cesar....
but the truth is that those monsters don't reprensent the champions league standards. they are the best u will find. 6 or 7 top class keepers.... out of 32 teams (those who partecipate to the champions league).
and as a matter of fact, most of those remaining 26/25 teams have goalkeepers who are on par, or maybe slightly worse (or slightly better) than rubinho. so he definitely deserves to be there imo.
the same goes for sculli. he's not a top class winger, not in europe, neither in italy. but he is (much) better than many wingers we see each year in champions league. sculli might not be top class, but he's definitely above average. and performance-wise, he's been one of the very best wingers in europe (not just in italy) this season.
coz at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how good u are. it's all about how good u actually perform.
i can count many wingers who are "overall" better than sculli in italy.... the thing is none of em performed as good as sculli did this season. camoranesi and di natale (just to make an example) are just on another class than sculli.... but throughout the season, sculli played better than them (and that's why u see sculli and not di natale in my top 11 in the last page).
the same goes for juric. i mean sculli is not top class, but he's a very good player.... juric, well he's been below serie a's average for most of his carreer.
and looking at his age u would think he's way over his prime. but the simple facts are that juric has been fantastic in the last 2 seasons. he formed an amazing partnership with milanetto last season, and an amazing partnership with motta this season.
yes he's old, but age means nothing when u keep playing that well, when u play better than most of the other teams (younger) counterparts.
and yes, he's slow. but pace is by far the most overrated factor in football nowadays. u can be much "faster" than a more pacey player, as long as your reading of the plays, your positioning and your timing are good.
xavi and liverani are infact as slow as juric (actually liverani is even slower), but still, u wouldn't say they're not champions league material just coz they're slow.
last week mourinho said something quite agreable, concerning cambiasso. he said he the fastest player he ever coached.
by saying that, he wanted to look smart, to surprise the journalists. he probably expected them to say "
wait a minute how can u say cambiasso is faster than... essien, for instance".
then he would have come out with his magnetic smile, saying, "
it's elementary, my dears and slow witted friends, u see the pace in football isn't just determined by how fast are your legs, but also by how fast is your brain".
thing is, the poor thing still didn't realise italian journalists are as tactically educated as he is... and so when a journalist replied "
yeah, of course with that positioning and timing cambiasso has, he would be fast even without moving himself".... mourinho probablt felt like an idiot.
anyway, long story short, a couple of days ago i discovered (thanks to the link u sent me in a pm
), taking a look at Gazzetta's stats, that juric is the 3rd best assistman in the league!!
this says it all imo. there's no question juric is not on par with the likes of aquilani, montolivo, dessena, migliaccio, guana, kuzmanovic (i'm taking as examples different kinds of central midfielders here).... etc...
but, performances-wise, he's been better than them this season. and at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is the performance. i'm pretty sure liverpool fans don't give a damn about what dossena did in the last 3 years... their only concern is dossena's performance now (just to make another example).
btw welcome on the serie a thread, rfu!
i'm sure u're gonna enjoy the conversation. besides we had no inter fans in here (till now) and that was no good at all
and sorry for forcing u to read such a long post, but if u'll become a regular here, u'll probably get used to it
)
Fiorentina were very impressive. Compact and robust, and full of determination. I think Cassetti should've been sent off for that foul on Jovetic - imo MOTM and has bags full of potential. Thought the 3-0 was a very nice goal and so was Vargas'. Montolivo's blind pass to Gila for that 3rd goal was awesome. 
