...I thought that Giaccherini especially was truly woeful, other than the pass to vucinic which led to the goal, his crossing, dribbling, passing were all atrocious. Basically playing to defend the right flank, run forward, and hope lichsteiner arrives soon or one of his crosses gets near a juve player. So far, the only thing to commend the little goblin for is his work rate. similar story with pepe, but simone has better technique than the goblinetto. With those two out wide, we are forced to play through the middle with Pirlo, who was world class in places, but also was wretched now and then, like most of the team yesterday. So many passes gone shamefully, not just slightly astray. I like the way we are attempting to play possession football, and this will, through its very nature, lead to more misplaced passes (as we are making more passes and still learning the new system), but MANY passes were not just a foot short, or a metre wide of their target, they were several metres wide or short. I can blame the passers, equally blame the players for lack of intelligent movement. Also Siena can be given some credit for playing so compactly, and hitting us on the counter with pace and useful passing/movement.
Vucinic's work rate is a disgrace to this club. He was beautiful on the assist, but several times I saw him lose the ball, the oposition player is standing literally 3 yards away, strolling with the ball at his feet, and Mirko simply turns away and sluggishly walks off, showing zero eagerness to retrieve the ball he has just lost. That is not good enough, and I will be very surprised if he starts the next game. He is not at Roma anymore, and in that kind of form, mentally, I would much rather see DP and Quagiarella fighting for that spot.
A scrappy win, which reminded me of our still serious problems with belief and confidence, for only after the goal did we play any decent football and looked like a team which believed in itself.
2 game, 2 wins, i wont complain, but it was a massive reality check after last weekends wonderful showing.