Dominic said:
yet I still feel Thuram could've intercepted Comotto's crosslby getting in front of Ferrante. Though I guess it's just a matter of perspective and interpretation.
it really is a matter of perspective and interpretation, so i feel the need to explain my self,
i used to play as LB and i have my personal exp on defending,
i was very good on calculating the ball traiectory and on man to man marking,
i know the best way to stop one attacker is to forbid him the contact with the ball from the very beginning,
BUT as a winger my duty most of the time was to guard a space not a player,
so were Cap's orders now,when a defender doesnt pay full attention on one attacker then he can hardly cover the distance betweem them in a dangerous moment and intercept a ball getting his way, he has to stop him after the contact with a ball and then risk to commit foul wich is in some cases worst than a goal,
IMO Ferrante was the most dangerous Ascoli player and Cap sould have put a player on him,(but he hates man to man marking) this was a tactical error/detail Thuram paid.
Another thing is that on a similar case of 2 attackers running with a ball and a defender between them,
there is always the way to precalculate the position of the players
and send the ball to meet the person behind the first,
sending the ball past the player closer(defender) of the crosser
where he(defender) cant reach it using the current speed
and that was exactly the case here,
Thuram covered the direct line between the two Ascoli players,
the cross sould be beyond Thuram reach,
not too far to other side, Zebina controled
and neither too close to the keeper(thats why DP didnt scored in similar cases)
this was just a perfect pass, there was no way our players could reach the ball
and they didnt have the option to bring down the player either,
as Thuram cleverly did hundreds of times in the past,
because Ferrante was in a firing position.
So thats why the best solution is,
to stop such a cross to happen at all
and that was Zambro's fault here,
i blame him, as i would blame my self in a similar case,
that winger was free to get to a good position for the cross,
he had all the time to do it as it sould
and he did it perfectly.Camo did a similar to Treze
but as a pass that was even harder.
Zambro wasnt there because he was surprised
and he was surprised because one of his teammates(Vieira or Nedved)did a mistake, a wrong pass,
that eventually costed one goal to our team,
thats why football is a team play, one player alone cant win a game but he cant loose it either,
his efforts might win the day but his mistakes might lead to disaster too...
defenders are the most underrated players in the game IMO,
they can save the day 10times(like Thuram did today)
but people will only remember the goal, the one who scored it(it doesnt matter he got owned 10times to do it, Inzaghi)
and the one who let it happen,(keepers often pay the bill)
well i judge everything...
and in my eyes Thuram did 10 individual positive contributions for the one colective/tactical mistake
and as long noone can dribble him i trust him...