Continuing Ian's plan of posting topics for passionate discussions, this thread is about Del Piero, and I expect it to get a fair bit of attention with all the Dp lovers and the DP bashers out there, especially Zizou.
We all know the brilliance of Juve's golden boy of before (pre 1998), but he has never quite managed to get back to his old self. We keep waiting for the odd brilliance of our captain to come, but it very rarely does, and if it does, it's almost never against the big teams. Lets face it: Del Piero is a choker. Altho he's our captain and he's expected to lead the way by example for the other players, he's never able to perform on the big stage. As the captain, he's supposed to be our go-to guy, the one that's supposed to make something happen when all hope is lost and morale is low. In that department too, he has failed miserably. I believe we have all seen this years CL games and I mus say that DP has failed to live up to his high standards set at the start of the season. Whoever says otherwise must be blind or biased. He was nowhere to be found in games against Barcelona and Real Madrid, and not to mention the Final against Milan. He missed the penalty against Deportivo La coruna that would have seen us go to the next round of CL. He seems to be lost in all the excitement, the pressure to win and the he runs away from the ball. When he does get it, you can bet your money, house, wife and kids he's going to lose it. Why? Because he's a choker! He folds under the pressure trying too hard to do whats expected of him but again failing miserably. How can you expect the team to take the heat if the captain, the leader cant? And this is not only a problem in the Juve shirt. We all remember the EC 2000 Final when Del Piero missed 3 clear cut chances to decide the game. This is what leadership should be all about: Skills, but also winning mentality, and coolness.
Take the captain's armband from him and give it to someone who deserves it, someone who will take the responsibility on his shoulders when it's neccessary: give it to Nedved, Thuram or even Buffon. We all know they deserve it more.
We all know the brilliance of Juve's golden boy of before (pre 1998), but he has never quite managed to get back to his old self. We keep waiting for the odd brilliance of our captain to come, but it very rarely does, and if it does, it's almost never against the big teams. Lets face it: Del Piero is a choker. Altho he's our captain and he's expected to lead the way by example for the other players, he's never able to perform on the big stage. As the captain, he's supposed to be our go-to guy, the one that's supposed to make something happen when all hope is lost and morale is low. In that department too, he has failed miserably. I believe we have all seen this years CL games and I mus say that DP has failed to live up to his high standards set at the start of the season. Whoever says otherwise must be blind or biased. He was nowhere to be found in games against Barcelona and Real Madrid, and not to mention the Final against Milan. He missed the penalty against Deportivo La coruna that would have seen us go to the next round of CL. He seems to be lost in all the excitement, the pressure to win and the he runs away from the ball. When he does get it, you can bet your money, house, wife and kids he's going to lose it. Why? Because he's a choker! He folds under the pressure trying too hard to do whats expected of him but again failing miserably. How can you expect the team to take the heat if the captain, the leader cant? And this is not only a problem in the Juve shirt. We all remember the EC 2000 Final when Del Piero missed 3 clear cut chances to decide the game. This is what leadership should be all about: Skills, but also winning mentality, and coolness.
Take the captain's armband from him and give it to someone who deserves it, someone who will take the responsibility on his shoulders when it's neccessary: give it to Nedved, Thuram or even Buffon. We all know they deserve it more.
