Felipe Melo (12 Viewers)
- Thread starter Zé Tahir
- Start date
yet again, the best player in a juve shirt yesterday...both in terms of spirit and potency/usefulnes in his position. I am starting to feel a little sorry for big phil these days, as he deserves to be playing for a better team..and competing at the top.
It will be disgusting and a definite sign of total ineptitude and an eagerness to destroy the club, if the management sell him whilst keeping marchisio and aquilani...
It will be disgusting and a definite sign of total ineptitude and an eagerness to destroy the club, if the management sell him whilst keeping marchisio and aquilani...
In the summer of 2009 Juventus proudly unveiled their latest signing, the €25 million capture of Felipe Melo from Fiorentina. The Brazilian International was one of footballs hottest properties after an outstanding debut season in Serie A and an excellent Confederations Cup with Brazil.
With Arsenal heavily interested in him it was seen as something of a coup by then Sporting Director Alessio Secco and that feeling only grew as Melo put in a number of great performances in the early days of that season. The away win over Roma is often looked upon as the pinnacle of last season and the midfielder had his most influential performance for his new club.
After that however the displays of both Melo and Juventus deteriorated from good to poor and then kept getting worse. Melo’s disciplinary problems also grew with yellow and red cards amassed at an alarming rate. The whole situation was compounded by his attitude to the fans, the player being openly critical of Juventus supporters in the press and insulting them in the stands on two separate occasions.
Part of the issue was not that Melo was playing badly but that he was completely the wrong player in the first place. At the time of his signing what Juve really needed was a deep-lying creator – a regista in the Andrea Pirlo mould – and Gaetano D’Agostino was the main target. When Udinese asked for far too high a fee for the former Roma man however, Secco switched his attention to Melo and him being a highly paid foreign ‘flop’ made the ideal target for the fury of fans as yet another year was wasted.
Most of those same fans would have had him as the first player out of the club in the summer, or perhaps at least a close second to Fabio Cannavaro. His abject displays continued during the World Cup and it seemed he was a lost cause, with only three men holding a different view. From the day they arrived Andrea Agnelli, Beppe Marotta and Gigi Delneri publicly backed the player on numerous occasions.
The coach in particular made a number of declarations, notably saying that “Melo is a leader, I have no complaints about him. He jokes in the dressing room and he is doing really well.” Many scoffed, but most could see the logic behind the move; to restore the players confidence and make him feel both wanted and important.
This tied in with the comments made by former Brazil coach Dunga who said “He’s a lad who needs to be made to understand. It’s right to speak to him a lot.” Melo clearly is a player who needs to feel loved by those around him and Delneri showed great managerial skill in handling him the right way when most had given up on him, including the Brazilian National Team where his ‘guilt by association’ with the old regime sees him still on the outside looking in.
Following some simply outstanding displays most fans and pundits can see him for what he truly is, a vital piece in allowing Delneri’s team to function properly. Again Dunga, a man who knows more than most about Brazilian mediani playing in Serie A, is seemingly being proved right again after his comments this winter;
“Melo will be the real great signing of this new Juventus. If he feels confident, he becomes super. Last year it wasn’t like this: You saw only 60 per cent of his potential”
Behind this transformation are some quite simple adjustments that have seen the improvements in other aspects of his game. He has returned to the accomplished ball-winner of two years ago and, aside from the mindless lashing out against Parma in early January, he has yet to put in a poor performance this season.
One major difference has of course been the addition of Alberto Aquilani, the passer so sorely missed last year. The two compliment each other perfectly, but to view it as Melo doing the defensive work and giving the ball to Aquilani is to do a great disservice to both men. The Brazilian has been returned to his natural mediano role but he has also improved his passing under Delneri, making good decisions and making the right pass with increasing regularity.
The coach has taken time to help the player regain his confidence and this support for a mentally fragile player has been returned in impressive fashion. Seemingly asking much less of Melo than Ciro Ferrara had to, Delneri is reaping so much more reward from the ‘good brother’.
With Arsenal heavily interested in him it was seen as something of a coup by then Sporting Director Alessio Secco and that feeling only grew as Melo put in a number of great performances in the early days of that season. The away win over Roma is often looked upon as the pinnacle of last season and the midfielder had his most influential performance for his new club.
After that however the displays of both Melo and Juventus deteriorated from good to poor and then kept getting worse. Melo’s disciplinary problems also grew with yellow and red cards amassed at an alarming rate. The whole situation was compounded by his attitude to the fans, the player being openly critical of Juventus supporters in the press and insulting them in the stands on two separate occasions.
Part of the issue was not that Melo was playing badly but that he was completely the wrong player in the first place. At the time of his signing what Juve really needed was a deep-lying creator – a regista in the Andrea Pirlo mould – and Gaetano D’Agostino was the main target. When Udinese asked for far too high a fee for the former Roma man however, Secco switched his attention to Melo and him being a highly paid foreign ‘flop’ made the ideal target for the fury of fans as yet another year was wasted.
Most of those same fans would have had him as the first player out of the club in the summer, or perhaps at least a close second to Fabio Cannavaro. His abject displays continued during the World Cup and it seemed he was a lost cause, with only three men holding a different view. From the day they arrived Andrea Agnelli, Beppe Marotta and Gigi Delneri publicly backed the player on numerous occasions.
The coach in particular made a number of declarations, notably saying that “Melo is a leader, I have no complaints about him. He jokes in the dressing room and he is doing really well.” Many scoffed, but most could see the logic behind the move; to restore the players confidence and make him feel both wanted and important.
This tied in with the comments made by former Brazil coach Dunga who said “He’s a lad who needs to be made to understand. It’s right to speak to him a lot.” Melo clearly is a player who needs to feel loved by those around him and Delneri showed great managerial skill in handling him the right way when most had given up on him, including the Brazilian National Team where his ‘guilt by association’ with the old regime sees him still on the outside looking in.
Following some simply outstanding displays most fans and pundits can see him for what he truly is, a vital piece in allowing Delneri’s team to function properly. Again Dunga, a man who knows more than most about Brazilian mediani playing in Serie A, is seemingly being proved right again after his comments this winter;
“Melo will be the real great signing of this new Juventus. If he feels confident, he becomes super. Last year it wasn’t like this: You saw only 60 per cent of his potential”
Behind this transformation are some quite simple adjustments that have seen the improvements in other aspects of his game. He has returned to the accomplished ball-winner of two years ago and, aside from the mindless lashing out against Parma in early January, he has yet to put in a poor performance this season.
One major difference has of course been the addition of Alberto Aquilani, the passer so sorely missed last year. The two compliment each other perfectly, but to view it as Melo doing the defensive work and giving the ball to Aquilani is to do a great disservice to both men. The Brazilian has been returned to his natural mediano role but he has also improved his passing under Delneri, making good decisions and making the right pass with increasing regularity.
The coach has taken time to help the player regain his confidence and this support for a mentally fragile player has been returned in impressive fashion. Seemingly asking much less of Melo than Ciro Ferrara had to, Delneri is reaping so much more reward from the ‘good brother’.
