Serie A Thread - 2014/15 Season

Re: Serie A Thread

Lo Zio - my turn to apologise for not replying sooner this time! Sorry!

To be honest I think I'm just slightly intimidated by your 'epic' post!! It was really interesting to read and I don't really know what to say in response other than thanks for the knowledge lol!!
 
Re: Serie A Thread

It is now official – Alessandro Del Piero has extended his Juventus contract until 2010.\\:o/ “This was a decisive choice for my career and my life.”

He had been locked in negotiations with the club over a new deal for several months and at one point it looked as if he would end his decade-long stay in Turin.


However, today’s crunch talks found an agreement and pen has been put to paper on a contract until June 30, 2010.


“Today I made a decisive choice for my career and my life,” explained Del Piero. “Juventus have given me a lot and I want to continue winning here.


“The negotiations that took us to this signature were long and at times complex, but I wish to underline the effort put in from Jean Claude Blanc, Alessio Secco, my brother Stefano and Dario Tosetti, President of the Family Office who has been assisting me for 10 years.”


Brother Stefano is also Del Piero’s agent and he engaged in day-long talks at the club’s Turin headquarters today to find an agreement.


“I am relaxed and confident, because I share the project that I am sure will enable us to give our fans some wonderful moments,” continued the World Cup winner.


Juventus hinted in their Press release that Del Piero has indeed accepted a 20 per cent pay cut, which will go to 25 per cent for 2009-10.


“The agreement underwritten gives an economic recognition to a world class player, but also allows us to further develop the image potential of the captain in sectors and countries that are still unexplored, thanks to the full collaboration of the Juventus commercial structure.”

Sempre ADP
 
Re: Serie A Thread

jumberto said:
Lo Zio - my turn to apologise for not replying sooner this time! Sorry!
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i didn't log in lately, so it's ok, mate... we all have our life ;)


To be honest I think I'm just slightly intimidated by your 'epic' post!!
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lol! actually u're right, i should really work on my "summarizing ability" :mrgreen: When i speak italian or spanish i can be quite brief.... but when it's up to put my thoughts in english or french, it's a mess :lol:


It is now official – Alessandro Del Piero has extended his Juventus contract until 2010. “This was a decisive choice for my career and my life.”
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:applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:
IT WAS TIME!!!!
as i told u on msn, juveboy, i was really disappointed by Secco's attitude, during the negotiations.... that's not the "old lady's style" we all know and appreciate. :nono:

talking about Alessandro, he just showed us (once again) what A GREAT MAN HE IS!!!
his approach to the negotiation was so classy! U would never expect this kind of attitude from a simple football player; his coolness, his education, his style. a comparison with the camoranesi, nedved, and trezegol renewals would be embarassing for them, and would be such a good reflection of the clever, educated, polite, classy man Alessandro is..... what a great manager\director he will become, once his carreer will end (what we hope will happen as late as possible ;)).

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Satty, it was a pleasure to read your post.... as always, btw. I just can't believe u're 14 :shock: Your ability in getting inside serie a clubs issues is awesome... even for a 40 years old man...... u're really raising the level of this thread conversation..... no offence for all the other guys, i like u all :mrgreen::D.
i can't even imagine how good u must be in premiership talking!!!! :D

anyway, concerning lazio, we also have to say that they were quite unlucky, talking about injuries.
just to give u an idea....
theese are lazio's defenders
zauri, stendardo, cribari, de silvestri, siviglia, and diakitè.

the bolded ones faced a "more than 4 weeks injury" during the preseason.
stendardo won't be able to play before 3 weeks, diakite is out for still 2 months, cribari is playing with a special mask, lazio's doctors are saying that he's playing "at his own risk".... he shouldn't play at all, but there's nobody who could take his place.
lazio had to face the CL preliminary match with a cb couple composed by zauri ( a pure sideback) and de silvestri (a kid who just came from the youth team.... and he too is a sideback):shock:

Mauri, another lazio's key player, faced an injury during the preseason that didn't allow him to go through a decent athletic preparation.
and actually that's the real point. the preseason is the worst period for an injury, because if u don't go trough the athletic preparation during the summer, u won't be able to truly express yourself till jannuary (serie a clubs repeat the athletic preparation during the winter holydays).

moreover...
rocchi's performances were probably affected by the contract renewal negotiations and peruzzi is gone....
as u can see lazio has some "excuses" for those bad performances.

but one thing i really can't understand is the remaining players fitness conditions..... i mean, also those (few) players who didn't face any injury played quite bad till now..... why??? as i already wrote weeks ago, lazio athletic preparation was aimed to bring the players in their best shape for the beginning of the season (coz of the CL preliminary matches). So why also those players who went trough the "training camp" don't look fit????
i really don't know.
anyway, last season too lazio didn't have a great start.... they started playing that great football just after the winter break.... we all (except the romanisti, of course :mrgreen:) can just hope it will happen this season again.

Lotito sure make some big mistakes during the summer transfer market. lazio had a little roster last year too... now they have to play even more (coz of the CL) with almost the same roster. Kolarov was a nice surprice till now, de silvestri is considered as a phenomenal talent (in italy we all knew about him, even before he joined the first squad), and actually he showed some personality till now..... but of course that's not enough.

lazio needed:
- a good backup cb (they were looking for pratali, but the negotiations collapsed a couple of days before the transfer market ending);
- a backup for ledesma. he can't play 3 matches for week for the whole season, of course.... but lazio just can't do without him. each time he doesn't play lazio's light is turned off (i never saw a playmaker influencing so much his team performances);
- a foward who can take pandev's or rocchi's place when they're too tired. Honestly Makinwa is a joke. he's really similar to his friend martins; he's fast, but he doesn't know how to play football.

and then there's the goalkeeper issue. i already talked about it,so i won't repeat myself........but honestly, from peruzzi to muslera..... that's just ridiculous. peruzzi was a GOD; he was one of the few (casillas, cech, coupet.... who else?) who could get close to buffon.... i really can't understand what were they thinking when they bought muslera. :(
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talking about napoli, i absolutely share your views, mate. i have to say im really surprised by their results so far this season. but their results are not the most surprising thing to me. it's their football! it's good! it's beautiful! What the hell happened to Reja! :lol: that's not his football! Let's just hope we won't see the "old Reja" back again ;)
Lavezzi is really showing he has what it takes to play in serie a. i never saw a young argentinian adapting himself to our football so fast. and i already noticed serie a coaches are starting to "strategize against him", with double coverages (:mrgreen:).
zalayeta is finally showing what he's really about (after a life as a backup in juve), and i have to say i expected him to play that good.
the only bad news is Calaiò; he still didn't find space till now.... and that's a shame as he's a great player (he reminds me of the "old gilardino", that great foward who used to play for parma).

and there's one player who surprised me even more than lavezzi; Gargano. this little south american kid came here like a sweet nestling. nobody thought he could get in the starting formation; well, till now he's the only one who played every match, DOMINATING the midfield like an old, experienced central midfielder :shock::shock::shock::shock:
credit to Marino for this great buy :applause:

another key factor in napoli's performances till now is their defence. Cannavaro junior finally became that player he promised to be. he has been among the 5 best serie a cbs so far this season, and tonight he will get what he deserves; a spot in italy's defensive line (during south africa - italy).
His "empathy" with domizzi (another very good cb) is perfect, and those 2 guys are the perfect demonstration of what i was talking about a few days ago.

i can't say anything about lavezzi's and gargano's stats, Satty, coz, as i told u, i'm an asshole in stats-making :lol:

p.s.
Pogoss, Mad, PLF..... where r u guys??!!! it would be nice to read your thoughts too from time to time :)
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Hey Lo zio just to say I had sendd you a message- it is in two parts given the size....other parts cannot be posted due to your mail being limited.

So I have more to say in reply to your message (sorry I talk to much)
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Very impressed by Empoli today even if Milan were without Kaka and are struggling. It was a good game for the neutral despite only having one goal, though I am sure Milan fans will be very unhappy. Empoli moved the ball really well for me and I was very impressed by them (the first time I have watched them this year). They didn't show the defensive frailty that I would have expected from them, quite the opposite they defended very well as a collective unit. The last half hour the game was an intriguing battle with Milan pressing for the equalizer. Perhaps if Milan had Kaka things would have been different but all credit to Empoli, particularly the centre backs a great performance from them.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

vanzandt said:
but all credit to Empoli, particularly the centre backs a great performance from them.
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Didn't whatshisfatface say how shite the Empoli CBs before the match...

Good game, but it does look like 10 years from now Milan will be putting
out the same team.

They really need to freshen things up and not by sacking ancellotti.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

I agree, Ancellotti is a fine coach but give the guy some players! The Milan team is SO OLD now! I can't see them winning anything this season apart from the "Help The Aged" award.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Plan M said:
I agree, Ancellotti is a fine coach but give the guy some players! The Milan team is SO OLD now! I can't see them winning anything this season apart from the "Help The Aged" award.
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The thing with Milan though is that when on form and with their best starting 11 they can still play brilliant football. Seria a is beyond them given their lack of consistency and points total, but I would not be suprised if they went far in the champions league again if they get through the group stage. Whilst they most definitely need to allow Ancelotti bring in new players, I still think that they have an outside chance of winning the champions league if they can get past the groups.
 
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Re: Serie A Thread

Guys, although i'm a big fan of Italian football, i don't participate in this thread because i seldom see Italian matches.
I just finished "The Italian Job" by Gianluca Vialli and an Italian journalist.
It's one of the best football books i've ever read.
It's about the difference between Italian and English football.

Did anybody of you ever read it???
It's really interesting.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

gerd said:
Did anybody of you ever read it???
It's really interesting.
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is it? nice to know. i tried to collect some info about this book, by asking some friends if they thought it was worthy to be read... but each time they replied me they were about to ask the same question to me :mrgreen:
after reading your post, i guess i'll give it a try.... afterall Marcotti is a pretty good writer :)



Didn't whatshisfatface say how shite the Empoli CBs before the match...
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guys may i give u an honest, sincere advice? when u're watching a football match commented by an englishman..... just turn down the volume.... it will get a lot better.... and i'm not just talking about serie a matches... i'm talking about any football match... premiership's too.
i know, most of u probably didn't ever watch a football match italian-commented, so u can't get an idea of what i'm talking about..... but just trust me... no volume it's the best choice.
this doesn't wanna be an insulting or offensive statement, so i hope u won't get mad about it.... but honestly any people who ever watched a football match commented by an italian journalist (even our worse journalist) will tell u i'm right.
watching a football match commented by an english journalist is exactly like watching a rugby match commented by an italian journalist.... both of them just have no idea of what's happening on the pitch :lol:

talking about empoli's cb, the starting couple is usually Pratali -Vanigli.
Pratali is a very good central back (and by saying this, i mean to say that he's very good "for the italian standards", wich means that he should look fucking awesome to an english commentator :roll:). decent timing, excellent positioning.. he's not a great taclker, but he's very good in covering.
his rolemate Vanigli instead is not really a good cb. while pratali is the "standing cb of the couple", Vanigli should be the one who moves towards, to move the defensive line and letting the team defending "higher". but his timing isn't good at all... he doesn't care too much if he gets the ball or the opponent's legs and sometimes he misses the tackles too. but that's not a big problem for empoli, as there's pratali behind him to avoid vanigli's mistakes to bring bad consequences .
Little note: Vanigli was that "butcher" who messed up totti's left ankle before the wc, with that "materazzi style tackle".... and actually he's pretty similar to "the bad materazzi"... i'm talking about the old materazzi (i'm starting to think Materazzi has a twin, as the materazzi i saw last year is too fucking good to be the materazzi i knew).

there's another interesting cb who "plays" (but i should say "doesn't play") for empoli: Marzorati. this guy is a young talented cb, owned by milan. i'd like to ask Galliani why he's still keeping him at empoli; what's the point in sending a young guy to another team to get experience, if he doesn't play there too????

another member of empoli's defensive line who should deserve a mention is Raggi. he's not a cb, he's a right footed sideback. a very, very promising sideback. he plays for italy under 21 and he was one of the most interesting surprises last year.

raggi and pratali were followed by many clubs this summer: lazio, udinese, samp and palermo too. but once empoli sold almiron, they had enough money to keep both of them. there was also a controversy between Pratali and empoli's management. he badly wanted to join lazio, so empoli's management decided to let him playing with the youth team for a while, just to teach him something about humility and abiding the contractuals agreements.

now let's talk about football...


MILAN - EMPOLI
i have to admit i was pretty surprised by seeing Cagni's line up. a 3-5-2 formation against milan? Watching milan in the past few years, i realised the best tactic when u have to face ancelotti's team is putting pressure on the the sides, forcing milan's sideback to stay deep in their own midfield. Once u do this, Milan loose one of their most deadly weapons. Covering the only foward (inzaghi or gila) becomes much easier, because he can't receive crosses, if the sidebacks can't push. Pirlo too becoms almost harmless, when his main targets (oddo and marek) are forced to stay back. this way, milan can't open the game on the sidelines.... pirlo, gattuso, seedorf, kaka too, they all tend to play on the centre, so this way milan's gameplay becomes pretty predictable.

by lining up just 2 side-men, empoli gave up on putting pressure on oddo and marek, so this looked to me a weird choice by cagni... a loosing choice.
but then i saw milan's line up, and everything took sense. Ancelotti decided to play with 2 fowards (coz of kaka's absence). So by lining up a 3 men defence (with raggi acting like a cb), Cagni decided not to let inzaghi and gila going on 1 vs 1 situations against pratali and vanigli. this would have been prety dangerous, and, most of all, it would have given too much freedom to seedorf (with gila and pippo cutting outside carrying with themselves empoli's cbs and clarence easily penetrating into the box, for example).
with 3 cbs cagni avoided this risk.
then he filled the midfield with 5 men (who became 6 at the end of the match), precluding any kind of passing game by milan (with so much traffic in the midfield, it becomes almost impossible to pass the ball avoiding interceptions).
moreover buscè and moro did an awesome job on the sidelines, covering and pushing for the whole fucking match, and despite being the only side-men in empoli's line up, they still managed to keep marek and oddo out of the game (it's something really unusual to see a 3-5-2 formation where the side-men don't just get back to cover).

to put it simple, cagni decided for a very simple and conservative gameplan; nullifying milan's midfield and trying some counters. that's not what Cagni usually did till now, but afterall, what the hell, it was empoli vs milan... at milan's home; no matter how bad milan is doing, empoli still remains one of the weakests sides in italy (and this should give u an idea about serie a's quality ;)). in the past 6 years, when cagni went to san siro, he get 7 loss and a draw: we can't blame him for choosing this gameplan; he probably was just looking for a point.

anyway guys, don't take my words to seriously.... there were 2 friends and 3 fucking hot hostesses at my home (and mostly important, no girlfirends), so, as u will easily understand, i wasn't really focused on the match. :mrgreen:
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now just a couple of words about roma and palermo.

roma - napoli = 4-4 :shock:
what a fucking crazy match! it looked like a premiership match. great to watch, highly entertaining, but with so many mistakes by both sides. roma's defence missed some key players. mexes performance was awful, tonetto is almost dying on the pitch, as he played every roma match so far this season despite his shoulder's injury.... he badly needs some rest, as his performances are getting each week worse.
roma's midfield was pretty bad too. they didn't filter any ball and lost the ball possession too easily and too often. i have to say i noticed a step backwards in roma gameplay lately. sathurday (and yesterday too) we saw last year's roma. the team looks a bit too narcissist, they like themselves too much, and this brought to many silli defensive mistakes. and for a funny coincidence everything began when aquilani got injured. I'm not saying pizarro is a bad player.... i love him, but he's very different from aquilani, and with him, roma's gameplan changes too. add to this taddei's injury, perrotta's injury, tonetto (who is playing despite having some problems with his shoulders) and u will easily realise the reason of roma's just decent performances (lately). moreover cicinho has been quite disappointing; he's pretty good when it's about to push, but talking about covering, well...:roll:
and now it seems that also totti and esposito got injured.... not a good news.
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palermo....... what a mess!
as i wrote many times we should wait to see coulantuono's imprint.... but what the hell, we're almost in november! we should have seen (at least) some sparkles of colantuono's schemes. instead the team seems to play each week worse.
and the most impressive thing is that our biggest problem at the moment is not about tactic, is not about schemes. it's about the fundamentals!!!!
the guys just don't run.... never!
they don't run when they have the ball possession. nobody tries to get rid of the opponents coverage to receive a clean pass. and this brings to a boring, predictable game and to many silly lost balls.
and we don't even run when our opponents have the ball. we don't press! what the hell, i could understand if our players still would have some troubles in learning colantuono's schemes..... but it's not up to colantuono to teach our players how to press!!!!
talking about individual performances, migliaccio has been a disaster, so far this season. i would rather see a 50% fit guana than migliaccio playing beside simplicio.

simplicio still didn't realise he has to be our midfield's benchmark, since corini went away. of course he's a different player than corini, but he still didn't showed his football so far this season. it looks like he doesn't wanna take our midfield's responsability, wich is quite weird, as he showed a great personality in the past few years.

rinaudo is not a bad cb, but he's not the right man to play beside barzagli. their approach is too similar. we need someone who can attack the spaces (as barzagli is a standing cb) pushing toward the defensive line..... and we have that kind of player: biava. so why he's not playing??????
and better if i don't express my feelings about loaning bovo! ](*,)
the only good news is amauri. he's still far from reaching his best form (afterall he's really forcing the time as he recovered from 9 months injury in just 6 months), but still gives everything he has each time he goes on the pitch. if all the others would follow his example, we would be playing some good football now.
anyway it looks like we're the luckiest team in europe at the moment, as, despite our poor football, we still got a draw in udine. Udinese, reggina and livorno are the only clubs which didn't improve from last year... last year's udinese would have smashed us sunday :roll:....
next week inter will come to palermo. luck won't be enough against those monsters.... if we'll keep playing like this... we'll be destroyed :(
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did anybody watch fiorentina match? another great match by the viola... they're really on fire theese days.... well, theese weeks. i just saw the highlights and it looks like it was an awesome match :D

p.s. great! with all theese spoilers my posts look "almost" short! :mrgreen:
 
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Re: Serie A Thread

My good friend lo zio (you are one of the people i appreciate most on this forum).
After reading that Vialli book i understand your comment about English commentators.
Vialli and his co-writer are stating that there is a huge difference in the way Italian and English people experience football. No matter if they are fans, players, pundits and even coaches.
To English people effort is important. A player can be the biggest donkey on the pitch, if he runs a lot and never gives up, he's appreciated. The typical flair player who is rather lazy but can decide matches with one spark of brilliance isn't considered a star player in England.
Italian people are obsessed with results. To them it doesn't matter if a player shows much efforts on the ptich, it's all about being effective.

Other differences:
At the end of season if a team who as nothing to win or to lose must play against a team that is in danger of relegation then Italian and English teams will react different again.
English teams will try to play it "fair": they will try to win that match...
According to Vialli and his co-author this seems "rude" in Italy. Italian teams let their relegation treated adversary win...

This explains something i read in another fantastic football book: The miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe Mc Ginnis.
In that book US author Joe MC Ginnis follows minnows Castel di Sangro (a tiny village in Southern Italy) for a season in Serie B. It's a long battle against relegation, but with two matches to play Castel di Sangro is sure to avoid relegation. One of their last matches is against other relegation candidates and Castel di Sangro (to the astonishment of Mc Ginnis) loose that match on purpose. Mc Ginnis can't understand that and is indignant. Castel di Sangro (team and village) are astonished that Mc Ginnis is indignant and what should have been a happy end, ends in tears...a great book...but Vialli could have explained this to Mc Ginnis.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

gerd said:
My good friend lo zio (you are one of the people i appreciate most on this forum).
After reading that Vialli book i understand your comment about English commentators.
Vialli and his co-writer are stating that there is a huge difference in the way Italian and English people experience football. No matter if they are fans, players, pundits and even coaches.
To English people effort is important. A player can be the biggest donkey on the pitch, if he runs a lot and never gives up, he's appreciated. The typical flair player who is rather lazy but can decide matches with one spark of brilliance isn't considered a star player in England.
Italian people are obsessed with results. To them it doesn't matter if a player shows much efforts on the ptich, it's all about being effective.
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u have no idea how true is this mate ;)
after reading this, i guess "the italian job" will be my next "must buy book":)


At the end of season if a team who as nothing to win or to lose must play against a team that is in danger of relegation then Italian and English teams will react different again.
English teams will try to play it "fair": they will try to win that match...
According to Vialli and his co-author this seems "rude" in Italy. Italian teams let their relegation treated adversary win...
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well, Gerd, there's some truth in this too. but it's not like our teams let their relegation treated adversary win, really.
it's more something that concerns the mental status. and it's a consequence of what u wrote before.
english care about the effort.
italians care about the result.
so when a team has nothing to win or loose anymore that big factor, "the result factor" runs out. so this team won't give his best, while the one who is fighting for his future will obviously play like that were their most important match.
when 2 teams face each other with such a different mental status, the result is pretty obvious; those who want to win will win, those who don't really care, won't.

talking about this aspect i'd say that we italians have not a real fair sport culture (unlike english people). afterall sport is not about "results", sport is about "efforts".... and that's the only big difference between sport and life :mrgreen:

but there's something worthy to be pointed out. the loosing team fans will always boo their own players, when they'll see they're not giving their best at the end of the season, just coz they're safe (like it happened last year in livorno).

of course that's a bit of a generalisation, but is not far from the truth :)

there are also many other differences between english and italy.

many italian players who played in italy (like zola, montella, corradi) told us how different is english attitude when the team is not doing well.
zola said that during his early days at chelsea, the team was doing really bad. after every match zola was mortified and sorry but his teammates used to tell him "what's that bad face, mate, don't worry". then he replied "we lost, should i be happy? our fans will be mad!". and they replied "why should they? we gave our best, we're just having a bad period, it's not the end of the world" and infact, when he met chelsea's fans in the streets, they were all kind and sympathetic with him. he said he was surprised by the fans reaction to the team losses, they kept saying him "don't worry". hang on! next week it will be better!".... while in italy the fans would have insulted him.

u see? that's that lack of sport culture i was talking about. sport is not about results, it's about efforts, but still we italian don't seem to realise it. :roll:

another big difference is the training factor. every italian player who played in england said that in england the training sessions are much more soft than in italy.... but that's pretty normal as italian training sessions are known as the toughest in europe.
but then there's something i can't understand; why do the premiership players seem to be better athletes than serie a players????
that's something i still didn't understand.


you are one of the people i appreciate most on this forum
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u too are one of the people i like most on this forum, my great belgian friend :);)
... and i guess many people here shares my feeling about u, as u're one of the most kind, smart, clever and nice persons here.
but now don't try to kiss me, as my girlfriend is pretty jealous :lmao:


EDIT: btw, Gerd, when i was suggesting not to listen english commentators, i wans't referring to their apporach to football, to their way to experience football (as the english approach is usually much better than the italian one, as i wrote before).
i was talking about their football knowledge... wich is honestly realy, really poor.
just to make an example. here in italy we all are crazy about bergomi and marcheggiani lately. bergomi, especially. his football knowledge is something really unbelieavble. he's like a football teacher. he might talk for 90 minutes telling u things u never heard before. just unbelieavable. each match commented by him is a football lesson.
i mean i consider myself a decent football connoisseur, but still every time i hear him, i learn something new.
i'm starting to think i'll have to take some notes during the matches commented by him :lol:
but anyway also talking about all the others italian football journalists, if u would have a chance to listen to them, u would realise how deeper is their knowledge and how higher are their standards, talking about football matches commenting.


SECOND EDIT: last sunday del piero scored his 221th goal (:shock:) just a couple of hours before his first son's birth :D congrats alex!

and also another baby was born last week. his name is Aitor Antonio Puerta:D
welcome to the world, Antonio, and may life be kind with u and your mother :)

i know it has anything to do with serie a ..... but i don't care :mrgreen:
 
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Re: Serie A Thread

I have a lot to say on this but not the time ti say it for now. Wow impending big post :lol:

I might have some disagreements for people here but they are not so bad and the world will still continue to turn Haha.

Lo zio I have sent you posts...again too many words:lmao:

I have one part of the post remaing and will send when you have deleted and hopefully read first my other posts :lmao:
 
Re: Serie A Thread

lo zio said:
guys may i give u an honest, sincere advice? when u're watching a football match commented by an englishman..... just turn down the volume.... it will get a lot better.... and i'm not just talking about serie a matches... i'm talking about any football match... premiership's too.
i know, most of u probably didn't ever watch a football match italian-commented, so u can't get an idea of what i'm talking about..... but just trust me... no volume it's the best choice.
this doesn't wanna be an insulting or offensive statement, so i hope u won't get mad about it.... but honestly any people who ever watched a football match commented by an italian journalist (even our worse journalist) will tell u i'm right.
watching a football match commented by an english journalist is exactly like watching a rugby match commented by an italian journalist.... both of them just have no idea of what's happening on the pitch :lol:
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I couldn't agree with you anymore regarding English commentators, I can't fucking stand them. I was actually going to start a thread about it because I was thinking about it the other day and I was wondering what the standard is in other countries (I think I will it later actually). They never say anything of any use, they constantly quote inaccuracies, very often biased towards certain teams dependent on the situation and overall are just a waste of space.

The co-commentators and pundits are even worse.. almost always an ex-footballer or out of work manager who knows jack shit about football. I'll start that other thread before I go too off-topic on this one!!

I'm definitely going to check that Vialli book out, sounds good. Thanks gerd.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Well Ben, this is a response to your spoiler about Palermo - why did you put that in a spoiler anyway?

Last time they were truly amazing up until Amauri's injury in December of last year. Their football was excellent. Swift, and often unstoppable counter-attacking, was the gameplan and was simply a delight to watch - it reminded me of the football Man Utd (my english team :D) was playing at that time :) However from then (maybe not instantly) Palermo went downhill swiftly. At this point in the league though I was watching Roma and Milan primarily and maybe another random match in the weekend if I was bored :p Roma - as they are my Italian team, and Milan for Ronaldo :D

So to hear that Palermo are in somewhat of a mess does come as a shock to me, especially as I was so genuinely impressed by them in both our 2-0 victory over you Ben :p and the 6-0 thrashing that you delivered to a team ( I can't remember at the moment who they were). Maybe the writing was on the wall with the whole scenrio with Guidolin, which was just embarassing might I add :roll: That whole situation upset me a little, as up until that point I liked Zamparini for his forthrightness and intelligence on how to run a club on a modest budget. Still, the job that Colantuono did at Atlanta (who have an amazing youth academy by the way) was highly respectable, similar to the one that Reja did/is doing at Napoli right now, so you'd think that at Palermo he would thrive. So far the club's results have been quite good, Palermo are sitting in fifth place - just three behind Roma, and eight from the top.

So Ben, how exactly are Palermo doing badly? This is an interesting question because I think it may relate to the discussion about effort and results that has just happened. I do wonder about how frequently the words effort and results appear in your description Ben :p
 
Re: Serie A Thread

well, Satty i can easily understand your surprise, noticing my disappointment about palermo's performances.. afterall, looking at our results, we might look ok.... but that's not the truth.
do u remember palermo's first half against roma? that's how we have been playing since then.
no pressure on the ball carrier, no pushing on the sidelines, no fighting spirit at midfield and no "phosphorus" at midfield (coz loosing corini, we lost our "brain").

our fowards are not supported by the midfield, so they don't get any clean ball. we're not playing on the sidelines, despite colantuono's football is mostly based on the sidelines. and that's because during the market we didn't buy sideline players. colantuono asked for bellini, but zampa didn't want to pay too much for him, so the deal broke. now we're playing with cavani and breciano on the sidelines, wich is ridiculous as they're not side players; infact both of them always cut inside. by doing this, they don't give space to simplicio, who can't push as he would.
migliaccio isn't playing at his usual levels. at the moment he's the shadow of the player we saw last year in atalanta. he doesn't break the opponent's game, doesn't intercept any ball and misses too many simple passes, wich brings to many ball possession losses.

our cbs are great but they're both "standing cbs". both of them, barzagli and rinaudo just wait for the upcoming fowards, they stay too deep in their own box. we need a "pushing cb" to play beside barzagli, someone who runs toward the fowards, putting pressure on them and moving upfield our defensive line. if u always defend too deep, no matter how good are your cbs, sooner or later they'll make a mistake; the opponent's fowards will gain confidence, coz nobody puts pressure on them, and sooner or later this situation brings to a goal.

simplicio is playing bad too. he can't play like corini used to do, as of course he's a different player; but till now he didn't even play "his football". he doesn't push (also because there's too much traffic in front of him - cavani, bresciano and miccoli -) and he can't even try some big openings, as our players don't run when they don't have the ball; they don't even try to get rid of the opponent's coverage, so there's no chance for them to receive a clean ball.

our left side is a total mess. pisano and capuano aren't even the shadow of grosso. they're not good in pushing and not enough "cool" to cover properly.
on the right side, zaccardo is always alone, coz cavani always cut inside, so it's a pretty easy job for the 2 opponent's side players (the sideback and the sidemidfielder) to stop him.

a total mess, mate.

i know we still got some good results. but it's just about luck. we managed to get a draw against udinese at their home, wich is great. but if u would know "how" we reached this result u would understand my complaints. at the end of the first half we were ahead by 1 goal. but if u take a look at the match stats, u will see that we just had 1 scoring chance (the one that brought to our goal), while udinese had 7!!! and the same goes for all our other matches so far this season. against milan we had an immense luck, as milan could have won that match easily. against empoli we had no luck and i have to admit the result (3-1) was pretty fair. we dismantled livorno, that's true. but honestly livorno (and siena) are the only really weak teams in serie a this season, so winning that match wasn't really a great feat.

without udinese's draw and milan's win, we would have 8 points today.... and this should be our real position, according to what we did so far.

but i'm not really blaming colantuono for this. because, as i wrote before, our biggest issue doesn't concern the tactical setting. our players just don't run. they have no will, no hunger. and u go nowhere without hunger in serie a. it's impossible for colantuono to see his players playing his football..... actually it's impossible to see them playing any kind of football, until they'll start running, until they'll start acting as athletes.
once they will start moving along the pitch, then maybe we might be able to appreciate colantuono's football. and then, if we still won't see colantuono's football, we will be able to blame colantuono for this.
but now the main guilties are the players (i'm saying this to point out i'm still confident in colantuono's abilities).

as u correctly say this is related to the efforts\results talking. till now we got the greatest results with the minimal effort, thanks to our luck........ but sooner or later luck won't help us anymore..... :(

it would be great to talk about zamparini and guidolin, as i would have many things to say about them.... but i guess it would make my post even bigger.

let's just say that Zamparini is a very very smart manager, who is a bit too impulsive. sometimes he lets his passion overwhelming himself :roll:.
but he's a very clever man ;)

talking about guidolin, i can easily tell u he could have been one of the greatest coaches in history. his ability in reading the flow of the game is absolutely unique; his ability in making adjustments during the game is unbelievable (sometimes it seems like he can predict the future) and his tactical knowledge is awesome (on the same level of capello or lippi).....
...but football is not just about tactic; it's also about "men management". and he's awful, talking about this aspect. he just can't handle big dressing rooms; he just can't work with more than 16\18 men.
and coz of this huge flaw, he won't ever become a great coach :roll:

this is just a (very) brief analisys of theese 2 controversial carachters... but i guess it's better if i just cut it here.
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Catania - Sampdoria
Empoli - Atalanta
Genoa - Fiorentina
Lazio - Udinese
Milan - Roma
Napoli - Juventus
Palermo - Inter
Parma - Livorno
Siena - Reggina
Torino - Cagliari

many great match this week :D
genoa - fiorentina could be an awesome match. i've got high expectations on it :D
 
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Re: Serie A Thread

I also think some of Palermo's transfers are questionable. They sold many key players that they should have held on to to become a strong Serie A team. I agree with Corini's loss, which again, was a huge mistake that could have easily been avoided. I think now Amauri and Miccoli are the only 'sparks' at Palermo right now... the rest of the team is very solid but the 'spark' isnt there.
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Milanista said:
I also think some of Palermo's transfers are questionable. They sold many key players that they should have held on to to become a strong Serie A team. I agree with Corini's loss, which again, was a huge mistake that could have easily been avoided. I think now Amauri and Miccoli are the only 'sparks' at Palermo right now... the rest of the team is very solid but the 'spark' isnt there.
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well, yes and not.
i mean, palermo is still a hell of a team, if u look at our roster. simplicio is one of the best central midfielders in serie a; zaccardo is one of the best right back in serie a, and he can be a damn good cb too.
barzagli, well, i guess there's no need to point out what a great cb he is. and we got also many others good cbs, like biava, rinaudo (not considering bovo and dellafiore who we loaned :()

guana is a great versatile midfielder and migliaccio could be such an useful player (if just he would start playing like he can).
fontana is a hell of a keeper, despite his age (and i would really love if all those guys who celebrate boruc's magnificence would watch palermo.... and see what it takes to be a real great goalkeeper :mrgreen:).

but it doesn't matter how good your players are.... if they don't run on the pitch. :roll:

loosing di michele and corini was really sad... but
miccoli could still work pretty well beside amauri...
and talking about corini, well colantuono told him he wouldn't have been a starter this season. he didn't accept to be a backup and so he asked to leave us (at least that's what they say now).
anyway we can't really complain about corini's miss. we knew colantuono's football didn't require a playmaker since we chose him as our new coach, so......

the real problem is that we didn't buy those players colantuono needed. we are too weak on the left side; bellini would have been a really important buy for us.
and it would have been really important to get semioli too!!!
with those 2 players colantuono would have been able to play his football..... let's just hope he will be able to adapt this team to his football...... once our players will start acting as athletes :roll:
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Well it seems Palermo is not having the best of seasons, or at least one of their fans isn't happy.
You were talking about Bellini lo zio...as i seldom have the chance to watch Italian football, i only know Bellini from his virtual self i.e. PES and Football Manager...if both Konami and SI "captured" him correctly, he is a great player...
 
Re: Serie A Thread

Where this kind of referees come? could somebody explain me? Game was absolutely ruined by this referee. words can't even describe, how furious i am at the moment.. damn
 
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