We rely hugely on Del Piero. It's no coincidence that our recent run of decent results coincided with our captain being in good form. At his age, it isn't that surprising that he looked tired out there today. Maybe he shouldn't have played for as long in the second leg against Ajax as he did.
Obviously, that was a very poor result and everyone seems to have gone into the standard post-loss "crisis" mode, but I think we played well in the first half. We defended anything Palermo threw at us with ease and looked decent going forward. We did lack some width (De Ceglie didn't seem to be getting forward as much as usual) but it was a positive first half that we could and should have built on in the second half.
The second half went badly wrong though. Without Amauri, we don't have the option of going more direct and playing it up to a target man. This, combined with that fact we have almost no width at all, meant we were very one-dimensional in our attempts at breaking Palermo down. All we could do was pass it through the middle. Diego was at the centre of this but his team mates did very little to help. Sissoko was the one getting up in support of Diego, DP and Trez but moves generally break down when the ball is passed to Momo. There was very little movement in our attacking third. Candreva had a pretty good first half when he played wide-ish on the right. He didn't really get involved in the second half though. Trezeguet never really got involved but he didn't get any proper service and was even reduced to coming deep to get the ball, not Trez style at all.
What is Diego supposed to do when Del Piero isn't on top form, Camoranesi is injured, Amauri is injured, we don't have wingers, and our fullbacks don't get forward with any effectiveness? Can anyone tell me why he was subbed off for Zebina? If Zac was trying to make some point, that's stupid.
Miccoli's goal was a great piece of skill by a quality player.
We all know the weaknesses of our current team but I'm still pretty confident that we'll achieve our new objective of finishing fourth. If do we that we have something to build on for next season. I just hope we invest wisely this summer and don't panic buy one big name. I also think we'll beat Fulham over two legs.
Obviously, that was a very poor result and everyone seems to have gone into the standard post-loss "crisis" mode, but I think we played well in the first half. We defended anything Palermo threw at us with ease and looked decent going forward. We did lack some width (De Ceglie didn't seem to be getting forward as much as usual) but it was a positive first half that we could and should have built on in the second half.
The second half went badly wrong though. Without Amauri, we don't have the option of going more direct and playing it up to a target man. This, combined with that fact we have almost no width at all, meant we were very one-dimensional in our attempts at breaking Palermo down. All we could do was pass it through the middle. Diego was at the centre of this but his team mates did very little to help. Sissoko was the one getting up in support of Diego, DP and Trez but moves generally break down when the ball is passed to Momo. There was very little movement in our attacking third. Candreva had a pretty good first half when he played wide-ish on the right. He didn't really get involved in the second half though. Trezeguet never really got involved but he didn't get any proper service and was even reduced to coming deep to get the ball, not Trez style at all.
What is Diego supposed to do when Del Piero isn't on top form, Camoranesi is injured, Amauri is injured, we don't have wingers, and our fullbacks don't get forward with any effectiveness? Can anyone tell me why he was subbed off for Zebina? If Zac was trying to make some point, that's stupid.
Miccoli's goal was a great piece of skill by a quality player.
We all know the weaknesses of our current team but I'm still pretty confident that we'll achieve our new objective of finishing fourth. If do we that we have something to build on for next season. I just hope we invest wisely this summer and don't panic buy one big name. I also think we'll beat Fulham over two legs.
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