Alberta Tampona Aquilani (28 Viewers)

[Osman]

Right now, Marchisio should be our only "certain" starter in the middle of the pitch. It's up to the others to prove their worth & claim that 2nd starting spot.

Melo has had more good performances then Marchisio, who's last game was the only one which he was good. So I'm not sure why he is the only certain starter?


And Aquilani simply should start if he is healthy, we shouldnt be in a hurry, but he is more talented and skilled then our other CMs, whats the point of having him if he doesnt get to start.

 

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[JuveJay]

Aquilani-Marchisio...give Melo a break, next game give Marchisio a break. We have Sissoko to sub on if needed for rotation. If we are going to ever have Aquilani at his best then he needs to start getting more game time. I'm not saying play him for 90 mins but start letting him gel with the team as they continue to grow as well. Why wait?

Chop and change the midfield every game?

 

[Hust]

Chop and change the midfield every game?

Not every game JJ.

For the next two games to give them a rest. We are still in 3 competitions as well big guy. Remember, if we don't rest Melo/Marchisio we will be stuck with them in EL because Aqui can't play, so you gotta be smart about which games and when you rest them. Just because we don't have many injuries yet doesn't mean we should overwork our midfielders considering they do the most running all 90 mins.


But not chop and change every game...

 

[Hust]

Melo has had more good performances then Marchisio, who's last game was the only one which he was good. So I'm not sure why he is the only certain starter?


And Aquilani simply should start if he is healthy, we shouldnt be in a hurry, but he is more talented and skilled then our other CMs, whats the point of having him if he doesnt get to start.

Exactly...one +rep to Oz.

 

[Buck Fuddy]

Melo has had more good performances then Marchisio, who's last game was the only one which he was good. So I'm not sure why he is the only certain starter?


And Aquilani simply should start if he is healthy, we shouldnt be in a hurry, but he is more talented and skilled then our other CMs, whats the point of having him if he doesnt get to start.

I'm not getting into this argument again. For me personally, Marchisio has performed (slightly) better than Melo so far.

As for the bit I highlighted: what's the point of having Marchisio if he doesn't get to start? What's the point in having Melo if he doesn't get to start? What's the point in having ...
Choices will have to be made & not every one will get the same amount of playing time. That's how it goes.

Whether or not Aqui is our best option in the middle, I don't know. Time will tell. Melo was supposed to be our best option in that position last season, and we all know how that turned out.

 

[JuveJay]

This is turning into a strange discussion, we have just won 4-0 with a strong central midfield performance and people want to change it. I'm all for rotating players when it is due, but not for the sake of it, just because we have a good player on the sidelines who needs some games. Team first.

 

[Hust]

This is turning into a strange discussion, we have just won 4-0 with a strong central midfield performance and people want to change it. I'm all for rotating players when it is due, but not for the sake of it, just because we have a good player on the sidelines who needs some games. Team first.

Yeah and we have also tied and lost with it.

How do you know we won't win 5-0 with Aquilani playing? You don't.

 

[JuveJay]

How do you know we won't lose 5-0, you don't? What I do know is that we won the last game 4-0 and those two midfielders were decisive. So we drew and lost with them, from Bari > Sampdoria > Udinese there has been a steady improvement on those two players which has been noted by many on this forum. I don't think now is the right time to mix up a winning team and thankfully, I don't think Delneri will either. I suppose if we don't beat Palermo then some smart ass will say that Aquilani should have played and would have made all the difference of course, but we can look at that game once it has finished.

 

[Hust]

How do you know we won't lose 5-0, you don't? What I do know is that we won the last game 4-0 and those two midfielders were decisive. So we drew and lost with them, from Bari > Sampdoria > Udinese there has been a steady improvement on those two players which has been noted by many on this forum. I don't think now is the right time to mix up a winning team and thankfully, I don't think Delneri will either. I suppose if we don't beat Palermo then some smart ass will say that Aquilani should have played and would have made all the difference of course, but we can look at that game once it has finished.

How do you know they will be "decisive" in the next game? No one knows. But we have (as Osman said) a much more talented midfielder capable of flipping a game on its head with one pass, so why not start him with Melo or Marchisio? We need solid, consistent and accurate distribution from that part of the pitch and Melo and Marchisio don't always do that. We will become very predictable to smart teams if we don't add to our dynamic.

 

[Osman]

Its not a risk playing Aquilani, I'm not sure why its being made to be such.

 

[Hust]

@JuveJay: I am +reping you by the way, I like your dialogue, finally someone that doesn't insult.

 

[Hust]

Its not a risk playing Aquilani, I'm not sure why its being made to be such.

He means it's more of a risk mixing it up when things are going well, not so much as Aquilani as the risk.

I agree though, it is time to play Aqui. That is the whole point of squad depth. Let's not overuse our players already when we are still in 3 competitions.

 

[Buck Fuddy]

Its not a risk playing Aquilani, I'm not sure why its being made to be such.

Who said it's a risk?

 

[Hust]

Who said it's a risk?

Hi.



Misunderstanding.

 

[JuveJay]

Did I say that? There is no way of knowing anything, so it makes any predictive argument completely redundant. I'm not predicting, I'm basing on fact, and that is the last game those two players played well and deserve to stay in the team. If we had lost or drew the last game, change it, no problems. Won the last game 4-0. Change it? Erm, why? It seems again that the answer is just 'because we have this talented player and we can', no other reason. We won't become predictable because we will change players around, when it is time

 

[JuveJay]

Its not a risk playing Aquilani, I'm not sure why its being made to be such.

It's not a risk, just doesn't make sense based on the last game. If we are struggling to create after 60 minutes then it makes sense to bring him on and then go from there, maybe then he'll stay in the team for a few games and people will be in the Marchisio or Melo thread saying they should play next game

 

[Dominic]

It's difficult. Melo-Marchisio is promising, but leaving a talent like Aquilani on the bench....

 

[Hust]

Did I say that? There is no way of knowing anything, so it makes any predictive argument completely redundant. I'm not predicting, I'm basing on fact, and that is the last game those two players played well and deserve to stay in the team. If we had lost or drew the last game, change it, no problems. Won the last game 4-0. Change it? Erm, why? It seems again that the answer is just 'because we have this talented player and we can', no other reason. We won't become predictable because we will change players around, when it is time

So if we lose 4-0 to Palermo you will say it's time? Besides, if we lose or tie it doesn't necessarily mean that Melo and Marchisio had a bad game it means the team didn't play that well. But, we need to play at a high tempo anyways against Palermo, they will be a tough team and the two mids M&M aren't exactly kings of possession, we will need to pass really well and keep possession otherwise the likes of Pastore will run all over them.

We did well maintaining possession against Udinese but it will be more challenging against the Sicilians. I would like to see someone with a bit more brains when the ball is at his feet. We will need to be at our best to unlock Palermo, they have a better team than Udinese and we need a player that can thread a needle.

 

[Buck Fuddy]

So if we lose 4-0 to Palermo you will say it's time? Besides, if we lose or tie it doesn't necessarily mean that Melo and Marchisio had a bad game it means the team didn't play that well. But, we need to play at a high tempo anyways against Palermo, they will be a tough team and the two mids M&M aren't exactly kings of possession, we will need to pass really well and keep possession otherwise the likes of Pastore will run all over them.

We did well maintaining possession against Udinese but it will be more challenging against the Sicilians. I would like to see someone with a bit more brains when the ball is at his feet. We will need to be at our best to unlock Palermo, they have a better team than Udinese and we need a player that can thread a needle.

That kinda limits our options

 

[JuveJay]

So if we lose 4-0 to Palermo you will say it's time? Besides, if we lose or tie it doesn't necessarily mean that Melo and Marchisio had a bad game it means the team didn't play that well. But, we need to play at a high tempo anyways against Palermo, they will be a tough team and the two mids M&M aren't exactly kings of possession, we will need to pass really well and keep possession otherwise the likes of Pastore will run all over them.

We did well maintaining possession against Udinese but it will be more challenging against the Sicilians. I would like to see someone with a bit more brains when the ball is at his feet. We will need to be at our best to unlock Palermo, they have a better team than Udinese and we need a player that can thread a needle.

Difficult, how can we pre-empt these things? I'm thinking back to previous games with Palermo, when they ran right through our midfield also, Melo - Marchisio definitely suits us better from that perspective but if we are trying to dictate play and they are getting more behind the ball and countering on the flanks then maybe Aquilani would come in and we would have Pepe protecting Grygera more.