i'd say the situation is pretty simple.
by now juventus is like a virgin piece of clay. it's up to ranieri to mould it, to find the right balance.
with so many new players and with just a couple of weeks to the beginning of the season, the easiest and the smartest solution is to play a simple, easy, basic football, so juventus by now absolutely needs a pure playmaker (like almiron) and a pure defensive midfielder (like zanetti or nocerino).
in this moment juventus defence is still too inexperienced, too "new" to bear the cost of a almiron-tiago midfield line.
ranieri already realized it (don't worry Don, he knows very well what to do
and that's the only reason why, in this moment, tiago is considered a backup.
when a team has so many new players or a new coach (and juve has many new players AND a new coach), playing without a playmaker is very dangerous. Most of the players still don't know "ranieri's playbook" and most important, many of them don't know each others.
so when they're on the pitch, they don't know where their teamates are supposed to be in every moment, they actually have to "look each others" and see where are they and what are they doing.... this takes time... 1 seconds, 2 seconds..... it's a lot of time in serie a. It also might happen to see them running along the pitch with no purpose, wasting their energies with no reason, just coz they ain't got a clear vision of the game and of their teammates.
with a playmaker everything becomes simpler. there is one man who is the fulcrum of the game, the ball (almost) always passes from his foot, and it's up to him to dictate the tempo of the game.
juventus has a playmaker, an awesome playmaker (almiron) a player who already knows italian football; so almiron at the moment is the most important man in juve.
but as i said before juventus defence at the moment can't take care of the defensive phase by himself, without an help.... they need a pure defensive midfielder.
but this is talking about juve current situation. in a couple of months, this piece of clay will become a team, ranieri will find the right balance talking about the defensive line, the defenders himselves will start to know each others and each player will start to foresee, to outguess his teammates movements.
when this will happen, juve will be able to bear a midfield line with camo, almiron, tiago and nedved (what a great midfield this would be!).
talking about tiago, i'd just like to say one thing. it took 6 months to start seeing platini's star shining in serie a. for his first 6 months everybody here in italy didn't understand if he was really a good player.
just give tiago a little bit of time, I KNOW he will surprise juventus fans. he just have to familiarize with the italian football, with his new teammates, with italy. moreover he has to feel confortable in juventus. As PLF correctly wrote (sure u got a great power of observation, mate
tiago has to be "cool" to truly express his abilities. confidence is always an important factor for a professional football player, but for some of them, is the most important factor; the more they feel confident the more they try difficult solutions; the more they have success in their solutions, the more they get confident. it's a vicious cycle.
so there's just one way to see the real tiago; letting him play and supporting him. but in this moment juventus needs are more important than tiago needs and by now juventus most important need is a pure defensive midfielder to protect the defensive line, and filtering opponent's plays (allowing almiron to do his work).
just six months, Don, six months and u'll start loving tiago (who knows, maybe in 1 year he will be your new avatar on this forum
.
he's a nice player. the comparison with lucho, is pretty good, PLF , they're quite similar (but i'd say lucho is more than "slightly better"). actually here in italy there's also one other player similar to tiago: de rossi (but de rossi too is better than him).
finally i find comparing different players like almiron, tiago and zanetti a useless exercise. they're just different.
zanetti is a pure defensive midfielder, he's not a passer, not a "cuts inside player", so he just can't be compared to almiron neither to tiago. they're all very good players.
talking about nocerino, i'd say sometimes an emoticon tells more than a thousand words: :shock: really impressive!
Bah, Palermo will get spanked in November instead.
well, let's put it this way; if we will get spanked
just in november, then i'll be a happy man
This backs up my arguement about Lazio's squad being average though. If it weren't for Rossi, coming in 6th might not have been within reach.
this proves u perfectly got what i meant to say, Don. but actually the coach IS part of a team, so if he can raise the level of a team, that team can't be defined "average" anymore
and afterall mate, lazio would be more than average even without rossi, we're talking about a team that could easily get a champions league qualification spot every year... if it just would play in another league
anyway as i said before, i don't think lazio will repeat those great performances they had last season..... when u have to play 2 matches per week, almost every week, the situation becomes very tough.
Shame for your Palermo, that Rossi is the Lazio coach .
rossi is a great coach imo... but i'm quite confident in Colantuono's abilities. this season will be a tough exam for both, palermo and colantuomo
. i still can't understand why french federation still didn't fired that pathetic loser.
