Our biggest hole now is upfront; we need a first striker that is fast,strong and good in the air.
Since last season, teams have been overly courageous against us. They attacked us even on home territory as they started to believe they can get all 3 points thanks to Ferrara & the brilliant Zach. They did not defend deep, yet our impotent attack from last season was never able to take advantage of that.
This season, opponents thought the same but one thing is different, Del Neri. We are the highest scorers in Serie A, not because we have the best forward line but because teams do not park the bus in front of goal against us.
Unlike before, we now are able to control the midfield and pass creatively thanks mostly to Aquaman and Melo. Add to that, the speed of Krasic and Quag, we now are quick and effective upfront unlike last year. For anyone not defending deep, Krasic easily beats his man runs behind the defense are crosses it for IQ or Quag in the box where 2 or 3 defenders are in there at best maiing their job relatively easy.
Yesterday, Fiorentina treated us like the big team, (I bet a beginning of trend) we were and slowly coming back to. They defended very deep and got lucky scoring their goal. Krasic could not run behind defenses as there is no space for a "behind" and if he does manage to send a cross in the box... a team of defenders will be waiting there marking our strikers. the best we can hope for is for IQ to out-muscle or out-jump two guys atleast or Quag to flick the ball, create a mess and someone to kick it in (which was a repeated scene yesterday).
That is our game plan, and its the only thing we have at the moment. Either that or long shots. Even if we had Xavi instead of Aquaman.. who would he send a thru-pass to? the extremely slow DP and IQ? only Quag can do something with a killer pass but he is not THAT good.
We need a striker that is strong in the air, that can run very quickly and good finishing, not one that can create his own chances but one that can convert half chances (a young trezguet that is a bit faster than he was).
Ade does not fit that but has some of these attributes.
We need someone in January because teams will start immitating la viola once they realize our weakness upfront. Don't let the goal tally trick you.