Re: Serie A Thread - 2008/2009 Season
Milanista said:
08:30 Adriano closes his night club and goes to training, sleeps at the wheel
18:00 Adriano arrives, asking when dinner is.
theese are my favourites
But surely Quaresma has the potential, I think he's one of those players that hasnt found the right coach and team, Im sure at United he would have developed the way Ronaldo has.
if sir alex can turn a quaresma into a ronaldo, then he must be a wizard, coz those 2 players belong to different worlds. under every point of view (technique, build, pace, tactical education) ronaldo is just on another class.
let's make it simple ronaldo is today one of the very best wingers in europe (arguably the best). Quaresma isn't among the 20 best wingers in serie a.... that's the gap between those 2 guys.. rosina, pepe, defendi, cerci, langella, menez, palladino, brienza, sanchez, sculli, abate, camoranesi, ferreira pinto, gasbarroni, jankovic, lazzari, mancini, padalino, santana, semioli..... all theese players would deserve to be compared to c. ronaldo more than quaresma, as they're all better than him.
and as for the "environmental" point... honestly in milano quaresma found the best possible environment.
he joined one of the best teams in europe (at least roster-wise), full of great players, who have a great professional attitude (samuel,julio cesar, maicon, zanetti, cambiasso, stankovic, ibra.... even thought hey're all "gods" they all have a nice, friendly and professional attitude, so no way quaresma could feel unconfortable playing with them).
his coach designed a tactical system which did suit his specs perfectly. infact at the beginning mourinho's formation was a 4-3-3.
and even though balotelli constantly proved he's just a better player than quaresma in that role (under every point of view), mourinho kept trusting and trusting quaresma, without questioning his starter role for weeks (despite his rubbish performances)..... and honestly i can't even blame mourinho for this. he was the one who wanted quaresma in milano.... and even though the price was ridiculously high and moratti himself didn't want to buy quaresma, he kept asking so badly that, in the end, moratti had to say "okay".... so it's pretty normal that josè couldn't just drop him... not even after weeks and weeks of "amateur-like" performances.
so, to sum up, u have a coach who loves u, u joined a team which is the favourite for the serie a title and also one of the favourites for the champions league (even though i really don't think so), your teammates are all nice guys and the formation is perfect for u to fit in...... what more can u expect???
if u can't step up (or at least avoid to "step down") in theese conditions, then it just means that you're not good enough.
that's why i'm starting to realise this guy has no potential at all.
mind u, my opinion here is not 100% reliable. quaresma played 13 matches at inter this season... and i watched about 8 of em. plus 5 or 6 porto matches in the past few years... plus a some portugal matches.....
i guess i watched this guy playing about 20 times..... sure it's not enough to say i really know what he's all about. but it's enough to get an idea.
quaresma has been disappointing in every possible way so far, and my idea is that he's not going to get better.
i mean we're talking about a 26 years old player here.... he's already past half of his carreer... and we're still talking about his potential?! there's something wrong here.
i mean we don't even have to take a deep look to get an idea about quaresma.
- pace - yes he's pretty fast.... but then again he's a winger, so he's supposed to be pretty fast.... and in the end, he's not as fast as rosina, brienza or lazzari.
- dribbling - once again pretty good.... but once again, as soon as u take a look at his rolemates in serie a, the perspective changes. as a matter of fact, taddei, rosina, camoranesi, di natale, palladino, gasbarroni, santana... they're all way better than him in dribbling.
- technique - everybody keep talking about quaresma's touch.... but why? on wich basis people keep considenring him as a player with a "silky touch"? When i think about wingers or supporting strikers with great technique my mind goes simao, rosina, cozza, miccoli, pato, menez, cerci.... and i'm not even mentioning those who have a "top class" technique like ronaldo, di natale, taddei or camoranesi, as they're just too far from quaresma.
well all those guys i mentioned before have such a better touch than quaresma, there's not even competition.
there's a very simple exercise to "measure" a player's touch. pay attention to the distance between the ball and his foot when he's running with the ball.
this is the easiest and most reliable way to measure a player's sensibility, his technique.
since u probably all like to play football from time to time, u already know it; the faster u run, the harder is to keep the ball close to your foot. u must hit the ball with the right "cut" in order to avoid it to go too far, but of course, when your legs start moving quicker and quicker, and your muscles start pumping more and more, it becomes extremely tricky to give the ball that gentle "cutting" touch.
now watch ronaldo running with the ball, watch kakà or rosina or giovinco or camoranesi running with the ball. the ball is almost glued to their foot, no matter how fast they're running. then take a look at quaresma running with the ball........
and shall we talk about his ridiculous tactical ignorance? about his incapacity to keep it simple?
wingers all around the world play like quaresma plays till they're 21 or 22. they keep trying tricks, just to show how good they are, they try harder and harder, even when it would be much better to go for a simple play. this usually leads to many silly mistakes.... wich usually leads to the coach yelling at u.
but eventually u learn. u reach that kind of professional maturity and experience a 23\24 years old play should have.... and u start focusing on the game and not on your tricks... u begin to realise when it's time to show your skills and when it's more useful to keep it simple.
quaresma is 26 and still didn't realise this simple, basic fundamental.
and however wich are theese tricks we're talking about? a trivela??? sure not. u can't call "trick" a move which doens't work 99% of the times u try it, can u?
let me tell u something.
1 year ago (febbruary '08) italy and portugal played a fiendly in switzerland.
quaresma was lined up on the left side at the beginning.
well, for the first 45 minutes he kept crossing with the outside-right foot. of course none of his crosses reached the target. so, after the 4th consecutive wrong cross, i started thinking "why is he doing that?" i mean crossing with the outside is extremely difficult... and it's also
useless.... coz u're close to the goal line so a good cross can have just 1 possible trajectory (from the outside to the inside). if your cross has the opposite trajectory, then the defenders won't have to turn their backs to the keeper in order to intercept it and this will make their job much easier.
so why crossing like that?
the only reason that came into my mind was that maybe he had such a bad touch with the left foot that he had no choice (a winger on the left must cross the ball with the left foot and shot with the right foot)....
but then why crossing? if your a winger with a bad left foot touch, and u're playing on the left side, u can still cut inside and try a through ball or a shot. this way u will be able to use your right foot.
then in the second half i realised that was not the reason. scolari infact swapped him with ronaldo. quaresma was now on the right side, so he would have (finally) been able to cross with his natural foot and avoid using the outside.
but he didn't!!! he kept crossing with the outside boot (of the left foot this time).... and the result was even worse.
2 days after the match i had a chat with a portuguese friend. i told him "
what's wrong with this quaresma? why did he kept crossing with the outside?? it was so annoying".
and my friend told me "
what are u talking about? that's his special trick, his signature, his trademark move... it also has a name: a trivela".
so i replied "
wait a minute. u mean he does it on purpose? and u guys like it???? how can u even call it a special trick.... to describe a move as a special trick.... that move should be effective and succesful at least 3/4 times out of 10. amauri became famous for his no-looking passes because those passes actually reach the target (most of the times).... if he would fail almost every no-looking pass, then it wouldn't be a special move anymore, it would be just pathetic!"
i tell u, i can do the trivela aswell. i can easily cross the ball with the outside of the boot. the ball will end anywhere near the box of course...... but then again isn't this what quaresma does???
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