Del Piero played quite a few games under ciro, and he didnt shine. I'm not saying the manager is the only reson for the turn around in form, no. Ciro was DP's good friend so obviously he would try his best for him. But you have to look at the bigger picture. Since Zac has come in, DP has played better, and thats not just a coincidence. Zac has changes something that has allowed DP to regain his old form, whether thats the tactics, or the mental aspect of the game I couldn't tell you, but Zac must be given some credit for DP's form.
I dont even think theres a debate to be had that we look more organised, i thought that was pretty clear for everyone to see. We play in waves now, the midfield come back to defend when we are under pressure and we close down opponents with structure. We dont have 3 players running towards the ball and leaving gaping holes all over the park.
With regards to the defence, if you are talking about our 3 man back line then you are spot on. That formation was hideous, and the players had no idea how to play it, we were lucky when we used that. Players like Zebina shouldn't even have a shirt. But when we've moved back to the 4 man d we look more solid and def more organised, theres still a long way to go, but under Ferrara these defenders were clueless,we'd be lucky to only concede 1 goal in a game before.
And of course we look calmer. Under Ferrara if we ever took the lead we'd concede in the next 4 minutes. The players were hugely nervous and it effected their play. Look at the games against roma, bayern, milan, bordeaux (i can go on and on) and you would literally see our defenders panicing whenever the ball came anywhere near them. In the last 5 games the players have been much calmer, we've reacted when we concede and when we score we look nowhere near as nervous. Yes we're scrambling around in the last 10 minutes, but I remember we ALWAYS used to do that even when we were successful. At least we can close a result out now