Italian Football Thread

[Dr. Pepper]

AC Milan coule be fairly strong again now potentially with some of their signings.

---------------------------------Abiatti------------------------------------------

Zambrotta------------Nesta----------------Yepes/T Silva-------Antoni/Jankulovski

----------------------Ambrosini-------------Pirlo---------------------------------

Pato------------------------------Ronaldinho-----------------------------Robinho

----------------------------------Ibrahimovic------------------------------------

Plus with a decent blend of youth & experience on the bench. The Rossoneri could be a dangerous team again in Europe this year.

On paper that looks like a team filled with creative flair and ridiculously talented attackers, but can this really be a coherent side?

Not one of Pato, Ronaldinho, Robinho or Ibrahimovic will work hard defensively and are usually most effective when they're free of defensive duties and effectively free roles. I can't see all 4 of them playing together and working well as a team. Maybe in attack we could see some brilliant moments, but defensively there's a lot lacking. Against an organised side (cough Benitez cough), they'll be torn apart.

 

[War]

On paper that looks like a team filled with creative flair and ridiculously talented attackers, but can this really be a coherent side?

Not one of Pato, Ronaldinho, Robinho or Ibrahimovic will work hard defensively and are usually most effective when they're free of defensive duties and effectively free roles. I can't see all 4 of them playing together and working well as a team. Maybe in attack we could see some brilliant moments, but defensively there's a lot lacking. Against an organised side (cough Benitez cough), they'll be torn apart.

Solid reasoning as usual Pepper. But do the 4 of them really need to do defensive work though?. If the back 4 & the DM (Ambrosini or whoever) are hard to penetrate - thus allowing Pirlo to give the front 4 those delightful passes, couldn't they still be a coherent side?

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Solid reasoning as usual Pepper. But do the 4 of them really need to do defensive work though?. If the back 4 & the DM (Ambrosini or whoever) are hard to penetrate - thus allowing Pirlo to give the front 4 those delightful passes, couldn't they still be a coherent side?

Well the problem is that it would leave Nesta+Silva+Ambrosini to cover on the counters. Both fullbacks will look to push forward as well. Pirlo will always be looking to make penetrating passes and the top 4 are in free roles. Nesta+Silva+Ambrosini, these three seriously lack pace as well no matter how talented. They would be extremely susceptible on the counter attack.

Teams that defend as a team, and as a unit are very effective. Look at the Man City v Spurs game. Man City had 7 defensive players, and 3 attacking players in free roles. Defensively they were awful (barring some individual heroics) and Spurs could penetrate all day long. But on the attack they couldn't create anything, despite having the creativity of 3 attackers who had no defensive duties whatsoever. But why couldn't they penetrate? Because Spurs, unlike City, defended as a team. They were a unit in attack, and a unit in defence, and that made them so much more effective.

There are a lot of quotes from top managers about teams should play as a unit etc, but I can only remember one from Capello where he says - "Teams should always play 1-10". I'm sort of paraphrasing because I can't remember the quote properly, but the point is still there. They should play as 1-10 because they are attacking as a unit and defending as a unit.

 

[mattfb]

Anyone see Fiorentina vs Napoli? Controversial goal and two straight red cards. Ended 1-1

First goal for Napoli was given even though the ball bounced off the line and went out again. Adds more fuel to the fire about goal-line technology unfortunately.

 

[Auwais]

Solid reasoning as usual Pepper. But do the 4 of them really need to do defensive work though?. If the back 4 & the DM (Ambrosini or whoever) are hard to penetrate - thus allowing Pirlo to give the front 4 those delightful passes, couldn't they still be a coherent side?

Shades of the horribly unbalanced Brazil '06 side, on paper at least.

 

[War]

Well the problem is that it would leave Nesta+Silva+Ambrosini to cover on the counters. Both fullbacks will look to push forward as well. Pirlo will always be looking to make penetrating passes and the top 4 are in free roles. Nesta+Silva+Ambrosini, these three seriously lack pace as well no matter how talented. They would be extremely susceptible on the counter attack.

Teams that defend as a team, and as a unit are very effective. Look at the Man City v Spurs game. Man City had 7 defensive players, and 3 attacking players in free roles. Defensively they were awful (barring some individual heroics) and Spurs could penetrate all day long. But on the attack they couldn't create anything, despite having the creativity of 3 attackers who had no defensive duties whatsoever. But why couldn't they penetrate? Because Spurs, unlike City, defended as a team. They were a unit in attack, and a unit in defence, and that made them so much more effective.

There are a lot of quotes from top managers about teams should play as a unit etc, but I can only remember one from Capello where he says - "Teams should always play 1-10". I'm sort of paraphrasing because I can't remember the quote properly, but the point is still there. They should play as 1-10 because they are attacking as a unit and defending as a unit.

Agreed 100%. Will be interesting to see how the find the right balance in this team then.

Shades of the horribly unbalanced Brazil '06 side, on paper at least.

Ye i see it for sure.

 

[War]

Milan derby a bit boring outside of the on field fighting.

 

[Haarithan]

LOl tbh pandev should have seen red. Poor abate, he had an outstanding match . But anyways kudos to rafa benitez once again for bringing a top class club in inter to the state of a middle class club like liverpool. I always knew this was gonna be the case ever since he started playing mind games with roy hodgson a couple of weeks ago. Since the its been a defeat at spurs, draw at home to brescia, draw at lecce and now losing to the fiercest of rivals

 

[JBlues08]

With all the injuries that Rafa has to deal with, you have to feel sorry for him. Having said that, perhaps he is trying to change too much from what Mourinho left behind.

As for the Milan derby, I thought AC Milan should have won more comfortably. They created a lot of chances to score the second goal especially in the first half. Only some last minute defending from prevented them from getting it. Didn't watch the second half though.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Some awful defending by Inter. I understand that the transition from the Mourinho to Benitez way is tough and they're on two different ends of the spectrum in how they want their teams to defend, but some of the defending was just plain awful.

I fail to understand why Benitez played Cordoba and Chivu as the full backs. Neither are very adventurous and Cordoba's very old now. Milan have been prone to attacking full backs all season, it just seemed logical to play someone like Santon instead.

 

[Haarithan]

Rafa definitely has hinted upon big name signings during the january transfer market (likely to see diego milito exit san siro) . But by that time, i guess inter would be way adrift of Milan in 5th/6th place . And the team that has impressed me a lot over the past 30 days has been AS Roma who have absolutely stormed their way back into this season with a string of stunning displays. Won 3 in a row and deserved to win at Turin. Totti , Vucinic, Menez , Riise all playing like a gem . Their Achilles heel is in their Goalkeeping arena where they play Julio Sergio .

 

[Haarithan]

Did anyone see the romania italy match yesterday ?? Great one for the italians to boast of for they were mightily impressive on romanian soil and created a lump of chances . 1-1 draw was slightly disappointing but prandelli take a bow for redefining the word 'talents' in Italian football culture. Heavily inexperienced side saw only Viviano , Aquilani and Bonnucci as the only boys who had previously represented the national team. Aquilani was terrific in midfield and thats one really positive thing . Second half saw some blood of experience on to the field and we eventually played even better and got the equalizer in possibly the most bizarre fashion (marica O.G ) . This is possibly italy's best result since the dreaded tour of south africa

Haarithan added 1 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

And LOL at benitez for cristian chivu limped off the field as early as 16 minutes

 

[m_vaughan]

Shocking performance by Inter. For a team that symbolised synchronised and compactness last season, this was an absolute disgrace. Rafa is quickly undoing whatever Mou had built there. I know injuries are a serious setback, but still.

Milan are a very average team. If they win the league it will be because Inter would have played way way below par.

 

[War]

Yea i reckon its Benetiz who is undermining what Mourinho did with Inter last year. Was stunned when i saw them @ 5th in the table.

 

[JBlues08]

Samuel Eto headbutt Cesar in Inter's 2-1 defeat to Chievo in a similar style to what Zidane did.

Eto Headbutt HD