Serie A: Palermo vs Juventus [April 6th, 2008] (9 Viewers)

[Cronios]

Back to the goals:

First one was a shot from the edge of the box curling onto the far corner. All keepers would make sure to cover the near post and the middle and thats what he did. Thats was a great shot and thats that.

2nd was a free header from 6 yards out. So Amauri put all the power in it and he could only touch it for that reason. Chiellini saw Amauri coming before the cross then completely left him, gigi should let it go in so the kid would learn!

The third was a freak shot and by the time gigi saw it, it was too late as there was too much traffic in front of him. Just have a look at the reply from the back where cassani was shooting. I would agree with you a bit that he could've tried to jump for it.

I dont care about the ratings its just that we should have a certain level of expectations from our players and if they exceed it than thats alright but that shouldn't be the norm.

I ve spoken with a keeper coach, some years ago about the goalies positioning.
The keeper should follow the move of the ball more than the player and the reasons goalies move closer to cover the near post, is because that they can efficiently cover every angle of the posts,equally, thats the idea behind it!
Just try to draw two imaginary lines from Amauri's position to each and every of our posts and place Buffon right in the middle, IMO Buffon was too close to the close post, he should be one more step to the left, if he was there, he could try and intercept that ball and i wouldnt say that shot was curly enough to go off the straight line with the long post, if it was, then indeed there was nothing Buffon could do, i still havent watched the game to a full resolution TV and i may be wrong here....

For the second goal, i didnt accuse Buffon, Fontana blocked a much harder ball from Treze, using his reflexes, good positioning and his luck.
Buffon wasnt there, the ball changed possession too fast and he wasnt in a place to react, it was 100% Chiellini's fault

But for the third goal i think Buffon could do, much much better than that and i believe, even you agree with me

Nice thought on punishing Chiellini, but i m afraid that our team here took that blow, more than every other one, we lost our last chances for a direct CL qualification because of this!
Every one should try and do his best, our team is full of average material and a few champions, we expect from our champions to do the difference. Buffon yesterday had a sub par day, he conceded 3 goals and cleared one or two, that doesnt chances the fact, that he i still the best keeper on the world, but i am only worried of his current form and his back problems.

 

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[Alen]

Who Amauri??
You get it wrong, Amauri plays for a mid table team, they use him as a CF, but if he joins us, he wont the CF, he will join Treze in the offense and Treze will be our main target man. Amauri will be brought to do Dp's,Iaquinta;s and Palla's job.

I'm not so sure about this. If we buy him he'll be our prima punta and we'll rotate him and Trez, imo.
Now, it depends on the manager, but unless we have some egoistic genius like Mourinho or Capello, i don't see Del Piero benched for Amauri. If someone has to fear his position it would be Trez.
Amauri is a CF but his advantage over Trez and Iaquinta is that he's actually very technical player who can do well as a SS. But in our case, i see our manager using him as a CF and only if it's an emergancy, he'll play SS.

NUT without the usual service and attention he has in Palermo, he wont have this assistance but he will have to face all the lack of creativity we suffer, plus the immense pressure in the team, he must immediately deliver or else, world champions like DP and Iaquinta will take his place. Amauri has never faced such a challenge, many players collapse when the do face such a challenge, esp at this age (28) IMO it is already too late for Amauri to try his lack in a very competitive team, if he was a couple of years younger, that would be ok.

Just look at Iaquinta and Luca Toni, these guys are fine examples, they played in the same league, they shines in their middle table teams and they switched to bigger ones too late, now its too late to make an impact.
And if you think that Amauri will help us resolve our creativity problems, think again.
Where was Amauri in the second half, when Palermo couldnt come forward, how many chances did he create?? How many times did he made the difference without the superiority of his team to back him up???

Again this is based on your opinion that he'll have DP and Iaquinta as his rivals while i think we're buying him to be our CF.
We played this season with only one pure target man, Trezeguet. It is well known that for the next season we'll need a back up for Trez.
If the attacker we're buying is Amauri then i doubt we'll buy him to be just another support striker, don't you think ?
And as i already mentioned, the advantage in getting someone like Amauri is the fact that he can work well in a partnership with a CF and in a partnership with a SS.

 

[Azzurri7]

The thing is that Iaquinta can also play as a target man Alen.

IMO, we should get Gio back.....having Trezeguet, Del Piero, Gio, Iaquinta and the 5th choice Palladino???

With Trezeguet and Del Piero, Iaquinta can replace David as a target man like he used to play with Udinese as for Gio can also replace Del Piero's position. The 5th choice should be some young primavara talent If not Palladino.

 

[rounder]

I ve spoken with a keeper coach, some years ago about the goalies positioning.
The keeper should follow the move of the ball more than the player and the reasons goalies move closer to cover the near post, is because that they can efficiently cover every angle of the posts,equally, thats the idea behind it!
Just try to draw two imaginary lines from Amauri's position to each and every of our posts and place Buffon right in the middle, IMO Buffon was too close to the close post, he should be one more step to the left, if he was there, he could try and intercept that ball and i wouldnt say that shot was curly enough to go off the straight line with the long post, if it was, then indeed there was nothing Buffon could do, i still havent watched the game to a full resolution TV and i may be wrong here....

.

I saw the replays many times and I can assure you there was nothing Buffon could do to prevent it . The ball was on it's way out and managed to somehow spin just enough to end up in the back of the net . It reminded me of Del piero's goals back in the 90's when he used score them from a simmilar position in a very simmilar way . These goals are simply goals positioning or even the most incredible reflexes in the world could do nothing about . Amauri took it brilliantly .

 

[Alen]

You're not counting on potential injuries, Rab. We were extremely lucky this year because none of our attackers were injured but it won't be very smart to gamble and hope that we'll be as lucky next year also.

Milan made such a mistake this year. They thought they have enough with Ronaldo, Inzaghi, Gilardino and Pato. But they felt the goal drought at the same moment when they lost Ronaldo for the season and when Pippo spent 5 months of the season injured.

Next year we'll have at least 8 more matches than this year and all 8 will be extremely tough against some of the best European teams.
If we don't buy a very good 4th attacker then we can only pray to God that Trez and especially Del Piero will stay injury free.

Plus, i wouldn't like Iaquinta to be our target man. His best record in serie A is 14 goals and not counting the penalty goals, his best record is 9 goals during the season.
Of course, Amauri isn't a goal machine either, but he was serie A top scorer last year until that injury, while this year he's in top5 goalscorers if we don't count the penalties. Amauri is much more profilic than Vinny.

With Del Piero+Iaquinta as our support strikers and Trez+Amauri as CF, we're a real force up-front.

Also, i think Del Piero-Amauri can form a great partnership. Both are extremely technical, both score a lot of goals and both are very intelligent football-wise. It will be impossible to stop both of them at the same time.
This being said, i still expect and hope Trez-DP to be our starting attacking pair but with Amauri we have many more options opened and we're well covered even if one of Trez-DP gets a serious injury.

 

[Azzurri7]

If Amauri will be brought to play as a target man like Trezeguet than thats something else. It all depends what role he wants to play. Personally, If the role he/the coach wants to play is similar to the role Gio is playing then I'd rather have Gio, whom can learn from Del Piero alot.

If like I said his role will be a target man then thats a diff story.

Anyway for the record, Del Piero praised Amauri yesterday hinting that his move to Juve would be a very good thing to the team.

 

[Alen]

If Amauri will be brought to play as a target man like Trezeguet than thats something else. It all depends what role he wants to play. Personally, If the role he/the coach wants to play is similar to the role Gio is playing then I'd rather have Gio, whom can learn from Del Piero alot.

If like I said his role will be a target man then thats a diff story.

Anyway for the record, Del Piero praised Amauri yesterday hinting that his move to Juve would be a very good thing to the team.

I agree with this completely.
I'll be against this move if we're bringing Amauri as a support striker to Trez. That will be a waste of money since Del Piero does the job perfectly while Giovinco can do that even more successfully than Amauri.
But like i said, i'm sure we're bringing him to play Trez's position and to be rotated with Trezeguet.

 

[rounder]

Amauri was out to prove a point last night and I think he did just that . He scored two great goals , one of which , was pure class . The point is , he got two chances and he scored two goals , if that isn't called clinical finishing then I don't know what is . There are better and younger strikers out there but now , I think Amauri will do .

 

[Vinman]

not crediting the coach for our superb second half is really ridiculous

Palermo was up 2-0 by halftime, and sat everyone back in the second half to absorb our attacks

real mastermind, that RUINeri

 

[Omair]

I saw the replays many times and I can assure you there was nothing Buffon could do to prevent it . The ball was on it's way out and managed to somehow spin just enough to end up in the back of the net . It reminded me of Del piero's goals back in the 90's when he used score them from a simmilar position in a very simmilar way . These goals are simply goals positioning or even the most incredible reflexes in the world could do nothing about . Amauri took it brilliantly .

Sorry man .. I have to agree with Cronios .. Gigi could've done better with few steps of good positioning .. I'm not saying it was an easy shot, hell it wasn't .. I'm a keeper myself (not comparing to that superhuman number 1 we have) .. but i say if he was few steps back and 1 or 2 to the left .. he could've had a better chance saving that wonder shot .. however, it's not the time to blame Gigi .. He's the best keeper there is and we should all back him up ..

 

[Azzurri7]

Alex rues Rosanero reverse
Monday 7 April, 2008

Alessandro Del Piero believes that his Juventus side deserved to take all three points away from Palermo last night.

The Old Lady were beaten 3-2 despite Del Piero’s superb double on the day he broke Gaetano Scirea’s club appearance record.

Rosanero defender Mattia Cassani decided the points in the dying minutes and it was a cruel blow for a Juve side that had enjoyed the better of the game.

“Even if it had finished as a draw, we would have had regrets,” Del Piero explained. “You can only imagine our state of mind after losing.

“We didn’t have a great first half and Palermo shocked us twice, but we managed to come back after the break and we made so many other chances.”

Del Piero saw a free-kick hit the woodwork and goalkeeper Alberto Fontana deny him a hat-trick.

“Sadly the post and then the 'keeper and our lack of accuracy in front of goal stopped us from getting a result,” Alex said ruefully.

“The sucker-punch at the end was a shame – they scored a fantastic goal and we want home empty-handed.”

 

[cunninlynguists]

Guys you are talking like we've already bought Amauri?
It seems so useless to discuss the front partnership when nothing is clear.
But okay I can understand that you want him so bad

 

[rounder]

Sorry man .. I have to agree with Cronios .. Gigi could've done better with few steps of good positioning .. I'm not saying it was an easy shot, hell it wasn't .. I'm a keeper myself (not comparing to that superhuman number 1 we have) .. but i say if he was few steps back and 1 or 2 to the left .. he could've had a better chance saving that wonder shot .. however, it's not the time to blame Gigi .. He's the best keeper there is and we should all back him up ..

I'm not saying his positioning was perfect because it has to be exactly that in order for him to have the slightest chance of saving the shot . However , Buffon was covering the right hand side of the goal as he didn't expect Amauri to strike it the way he did . If he did move a little to the left and Amauri struck it the other way , people would be saying he should have taken two steps to the right .

It really wasn't Buffon's fault .

 

[Cronios]

I'm not so sure about this. If we buy him he'll be our prima punta and we'll rotate him and Trez, imo.
Now, it depends on the manager, but unless we have some egoistic genius like Mourinho or Capello, i don't see Del Piero benched for Amauri. If someone has to fear his position it would be Trez.
Amauri is a CF but his advantage over Trez and Iaquinta is that he's actually very technical player who can do well as a SS. But in our case, i see our manager using him as a CF and only if it's an emergancy, he'll play SS.
Again this is based on your opinion that he'll have DP and Iaquinta as his rivals while i think we're buying him to be our CF.
We played this season with only one pure target man, Trezeguet. It is well known that for the next season we'll need a back up for Trez.
If the attacker we're buying is Amauri then i doubt we'll buy him to be just another support striker, don't you think ?
And as i already mentioned, the advantage in getting someone like Amauri is the fact that he can work well in a partnership with a CF and in a partnership with a SS.

Every single time i watched Amauri, i watched him as a CF, but most of his fans here present him as SS and someone who create chances, rather than finishes them.
(maybe because Amauri has not an impressive goal record to display)
And every single member that wants Amauri in our team, pairs him with an imaginary partnership with Trezequet, ala Treze-Zlatan and in the NT, with Toni-Amauri.
So i presumed that he plays as a lone striker in Palermo, because they actually have no other options (bar Miccoli)
If would sign him as a target man, that would really make sense tactically.
But on the other hand that would still mess with our balance up front,
Iaquinta and Amauri, are more or less the same tactical caracteristics,
they are tall and strong players, that can dribble and score, but not as efficient, as finishers, like Trezequet.
(and i really doubt that Amauri is more prolific than Iaquinta, Iaquinta had some competition while Amauri has his whole team on his back, but i believe that Amauri is a better player overall)
No matter how we see it, our coach will use Amauri the same way he uses Iaquinta, Amauri may better than Iaquinta,
but we were stupid enough to make the choice and buy him in the first place.
Canceling (sell him) this transfer now, would only admit our mistake!
Just like Iaquinta, i m sure that Amauri wont be as efficient with us, simply because that he wont have the same chances he has now in Palermo,
who ever will partner up front, there will be a competition and they will both have the same chances to score a goal.Not to mention the times he would spend on the bench. Amauri never faced those circumstances in his carrier and he might choke.
I personally believe that all three of them (Iaquinta, DP and Amauri) can both play an CF and SS role, DP is shorter that them but he has very good finishing skills/instinct.
If we take a look at Mutu this year, we will see how such a potential can be drawn in our team and how he can shine in a smaller team, with less competition and more chances to score.
On the other hand Henry, surely has less chances to score near Etoo.

If we have 2 CFs and two SSs then, that would be ok but more competition for the same places would be unwise.


Amauri is not a hard core finisher and this is exactly what we need!!!

 

[swag]

Palermo was up 2-0 by halftime, and sat everyone back in the second half to absorb our attacks

real mastermind, that RUINeri

C'mon, Vinman. Not that Ranieri was a genius out there. But 2-0 down, we actually changed pace and got back into the match to make it exciting and interesting. Under Capello, we just would have long-balled the second half to death to a 2-0 or 2-1 defeat.

Guys you are talking like we've already bought Amauri?
It seems so useless to discuss the front partnership when nothing is clear.
But okay I can understand that you want him so bad

Still don't want Amauri.

 

[Dominic]

Under Capello we would've never gone down 2-0 to begin with(barring a champions league encounter that is).

 

[JCK]

C'mon, Vinman. Not that Ranieri was a genius out there. But 2-0 down, we actually changed pace and got back into the match to make it exciting and interesting. Under Capello, we just would have long-balled the second half to death to a 2-0 or 2-1 defeat.

Blasphemy.

 

[Fred]

Well he earned it tbh, the guy has been playing his heart out in all the games and most importantly has recognised his short comings and try to disguise them. In his first game i saw a guy that always tries the audacious passes instead of just handing them someone who can actually play them. He has been playing to his strong points and getting stuck into everything.

I'm not disputing that, but i dont see a difference between this Sissoko and the Liverpool one, in Liverpool he used play his heart out and fly into tackles everywhere too. I just find it odd, that people used to call him a headless chicken, and now all of a sudden he's one of the best dm's in the world.

 

[Holdon]

I don't know why anyone is giving Ranieri any credit (though I don't blame him for this defeat, those goals were just freaky). It's like telling a surgeon he cut the wrong leg off, and after cutting the other leg off, thanking him for amputating the correct one.

 

[Alen]

I'm not disputing that, but i dont see a difference between this Sissoko and the Liverpool one, in Liverpool he used play his heart out and fly into tackles everywhere too. I just find it odd, that people used to call him a headless chicken, and now all of a sudden he's one of the best dm's in the world.

What's so hard to understand, Fred ?
You're here long enough to know that people like to talk about things they have no clue about and they like to repeat what someone else says.
Someone said that Sissoko is not a great player and that he's a bad passer and they started repeating that.

Why use your own head and why bother using your eyes when it's easier to let someone else do the thinking for you ?