I'm having ambiguous feelings about all this.
On one hand, I share the frustrations with most of you whenever I watch Amauri lately. Terrible, frustrating, pathetic.
On the other hand, very few of you seem to look at this objectively. What someone pointed here regarding the crosses is true. What Zaccheroni pointed is also true. Amauri isn't happy about playing with has back to the goal and chesting long balls all the time. You can bet on it that he doesn't want to do it. He's simply forced to play like that in this team without width and movement.
It can't be a coincidence that he played like a beast last year in a 4-4-2 with so many options on the wings with Camo/Marchionni and Nedved/Giovinco. He was chasing and chesting long balls too last year, but after doing that the ball was moved to the wings, which opened space for Amauri to turn around and run with his face towards the goal, waiting for the cross.
This year he scored 4 goals and all came at the same time. The common thing for these matches where he scored is that Camoranesi played and we had width and crosses. When Amauri scored his only brace this year we played 4-2-3-1 with Giovinco, Diego and Camo in the team. He didn't need to play with his back to the goal and he was the good old.
Third, there is a huge difference between the crosses that come from open play and those who come from corners or free kicks. Just think, how many goals did Trezeguet score after a corner kick or a free kick? In his entire career I bet he didn't score more than 2-3. But how many goals did he score from open play after Zambrotta, Ale, Nedved or Camo crossed the ball inside the box?
In open play the striker has one, at most two defenders to beat, run away from them and get first to the ball. During set-pieces all the opposition is in the box and they mostly concentrate on the tall strikers, which is, fortunately for us, exploited by our defenders.
4th, look who assisted all the goals Amauri scored in his Juve career:
2008/09
1. Udinese -- Mess in the box, Amauri is there to score
2. Cagliari -- Marchionni, cross from the right wing,
3. Catania -- Giovinco, cross from the left wing
4. Napoli -- Poulsen, cross from the right wing, next to the corner flag
5. Torino -- Nedved pass, solo action by Amauri and goal
6. Genoa -- Grygera, cross from the right wing
7. Reggina -- Camoranesi, cross from the right wing
8. Lecce -- De Ceglie, cross from the right edge of the box
9. Milan -- De Ceglie, cross from the left wing
10. Milan -- Sissoko, one-two with Amauri in Milan's box
11. Atalanta -- Marchionni, free kick from the right wing
12. Sampdoria -- Giovinco, cross from the left wing
13. Real Madrid -- Nedved, cross from the left wing
2009/2010
1. Fiorentina -- Iaquinta, accidently passing to Amauri in the box
2. Siena -- Diego, from free kick
3. Sampdoria -- Diego after a corner kick
4. Sampdoria -- Camoranesi, cross from the right.
Of all the 17 goals he scored, 10 were after crosses from the wings, 3 were after crosses from set pieces, 4 didn't come after a cross.
Of the 17 goals 10 were assisted by the wingers. The wingers we don't have in these formations we play this year.
Oh, and none of his goals were assisted by Del Piero, nor did he assist Del Piero (except for the great goal Ale scored against Real last year). Obviously, this is another problem. Not only that we don't have wingers and width, but also Amauri-Del Piero doesn't work.
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