++ [ originally posted by Don Bes ] ++
after watching the game i have to say that our biggest concern is Trezeguet.
Agreed there. Pretty worthless again out there today.
you can see it in DP that he is not the same, he has lost all the confidence.
As much as everyone's trying to cheer him on, you can sense he's dealing with a lot of mental blocks -- not just physical.
camo and emerson have been our best players so far and they showd that today, emerson was everywhere and camo owend the right side. zebina wasnt bad as well and gigi, thuram and zambrotta did excel.
i wanna be happy about this victory but the only good thing i see is that we won after losing twice. the problem is that we cant afford any more mistakes now.
Camo has been one of our best players, and this game was no exception. Emerson had a solid game as well. One of the things I think we particularly did well in this match was contesting a lot of balls in midfield. We disrupted a lot and won a lot of challenges with hustle.
Zebina had a couple of key defensive deflections... though mostly just sticking his lanky leg out to disrupt a longer, well-positioned pass. Probably saved us from real danger a couple times.
Montero and Pessoto held up well. I think Capello did a nice job with the players he fielded. The trident did address a few things well:
1) Fielding a potent attack while still putting our captain in the lineup (who has seemingly been playing a lot more in the midfield these days anyway),
2) With Nedved's absence, the balance of our best remaining starters does lean more towards a 4-3-3 or even 3-4-3 than a 4-4-2
3) Got a little more offensive mojo going for us, considering how lame we've been for weeks
I felt like we were far more threatening with the trident for what we lost defensively. I don't think I'd run it every match, though -- we'll burn out three of our four forwards very quickly, and Trez's form is pure crap at the moment.
And Capello's sub choices later in the match were good -- for where the score was and the quality of the players on the bench.
It was nice to see us not let up with the lead, which was key. But we still have one word that perhaps summarizes our problems this season:
finishing. In one interpretation, we haven't been making the most of scoring opportunities lately. In another interpretation, we've mentally checked out of the match with the lead and blown too many of them to draws.
Udinese's late goal was a reminder that we still have a lot of work to do on the second kind of finishing. Though today was a step in the right direction for the former.
Still, I'll take and savor this win any day against a quality opponent. Udinese have not been as in-form as the media have been saying, but they're still a solid, top-half-of-the-table squad.