I dont understand why Barusso hasn't played pretty much at all this season. We bought him so he can give De Rossi some rest and most importantly for his much needed physical strength on the field. I remember Spalletti moaning that we needed a Muntari-type player last year. He got one but why not use him. Its not just his strength but his speed, shot power and technique. Spalletti is the best manager I could ask for for this team, but he has to get his substitutions straight sometimes, as well as use all his cards and strengths he has on his bench.
Same words for Esposito. We can use his pace at least as the minutes die and when the opposite team is tired, he could offer a lot.
Bobo Vieri is on fire. My man isn't finished yet.
THE WOLF'S DEN - Tana dei Lupi I
Moderator: Lupa
by SPqR » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:39 pm
I still think the jury is out on Spaletti. Realistically, we were willing to raise statues for anyone that would help us out of that dreadful 17 coach season. Spaletti brought us out of hell and has firmly implanted stability throughout the club, but I'm not sold on the idea that he can take us to the next level and score either a CL or Scudetto......not that many coaches can.
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SPqR 
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by maro » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:14 am
Populusque, I half agree with you, but in a way which probably means that in the end I disagree with you quite strongly. One of the critical things about Spags is that he's young and therefore that he lacks experience. He hasn't yet encountered a number of the obstacles over which he will, in time, have to find a way to pass. So, for instance, I suspect that was the first time he's had a side play top-drawer Portuguese opposition? No doubt he's seen plenty of videos and knew what to expect, but this was the first time he had to go about finding a way of beating Sporting in Lisbon. Perhaps he didn't have the options on the bench to allow him to play differently anyway, but perhaps next time he'd play Brighi alongside DDR and Perrotta and rely on work-rate and energy just to bully the young Sporting players and give them absolutely no time on the ball. Or he'd play two up front and play a more direct style. His first idea was to try to impose our brand of football on them and it didn't work, whether that's because everyone just played badly or because the tactics were wrong, Spags has to evaluate. And it is, then, how he evaluates such questions and how he responds to his mistakes which will determine how far he continues to go as a coach and we with him.
He also has a much more significant problem to resolve at the moment, and that's that our team is based so heavily on teamwork, on everyone working together and firing together. We've talked about this before, but it's why we can look so fantastic when everyone's working well and so terribly when things start to come apart. We rely much less on defensive solidity and individual brilliance than just about any other top team in Europe. This has the extra complication that it means that players who come in have to understand the system and operate within it. We need, almost literally, a vice-Mancini or a vice-Taddei or a vice-Totti. This is, of course, the strength of this team as well as its weakness. When you start clamouring for greater tactical flexibility, then, you run the risk of getting us to correct the weakness by disabling the strength. This, for me, is another instance of Spags being confronted with a hurdle which he has to find a way of clambering over. It will be interesting if Vooch plays well and gets a couple of goals this weekend - for the very first time, you could argue that Vooch has enough form for a 4-4-2 (or whatever) to be a realistic option (though, of course, I agree with dibdib's comments on the end of last season). By the same token, it will be interesting to see what happens when everyone is fit. My sense is that Spags's first answer to this problem is that he wants everyone to know how the team plays and for the team to play in one, settled way so that everyone can know their roles and movement by heart. But then to be able to add different players into the mix who will interpret the same roles in their own slightly different ways: it's in this way that Esposito will add an extra tactical dimension. Spags will ask him to play the same position as Taddei, but he will run with the ball more often, look for the ball over the top just a little bit more often, look to go on the outside of his man a little more often. Until he can be properly integrated, though, these differences won't be able to add rather than simply distract. Whether Spags is right or not, of course, remains to be seen, but surely this is first go at solving that problem. If it doesn't work, we'll have to see if he can come up with another plan.
On Barusso, Kroo, surely the simple fact is that Spags doesn't think he's good enough. Perhaps he hasn't been helped by the horror run of fixtures and will be given a few more chances to integrate himself between now and Christmas. However, one senses that he was brought in to fill a role that Spags doesn't actually feel he can fill (tactically and technically). Sound like Faty, anyone? It's interesting, for instance, to compare the players we have to back up DDR, Pizza, and Aquilani and those Milan have - players like Emerdason and Brocchi sitting on the bench. Regardless of who one would prefer to have, you can see that Spags doesn't have quite the same proven alternatives. Brocchi, as 'tec and Mouldyknee will tell us, is limited, but you know his limitations and that he can do a particular job for you.
He also has a much more significant problem to resolve at the moment, and that's that our team is based so heavily on teamwork, on everyone working together and firing together. We've talked about this before, but it's why we can look so fantastic when everyone's working well and so terribly when things start to come apart. We rely much less on defensive solidity and individual brilliance than just about any other top team in Europe. This has the extra complication that it means that players who come in have to understand the system and operate within it. We need, almost literally, a vice-Mancini or a vice-Taddei or a vice-Totti. This is, of course, the strength of this team as well as its weakness. When you start clamouring for greater tactical flexibility, then, you run the risk of getting us to correct the weakness by disabling the strength. This, for me, is another instance of Spags being confronted with a hurdle which he has to find a way of clambering over. It will be interesting if Vooch plays well and gets a couple of goals this weekend - for the very first time, you could argue that Vooch has enough form for a 4-4-2 (or whatever) to be a realistic option (though, of course, I agree with dibdib's comments on the end of last season). By the same token, it will be interesting to see what happens when everyone is fit. My sense is that Spags's first answer to this problem is that he wants everyone to know how the team plays and for the team to play in one, settled way so that everyone can know their roles and movement by heart. But then to be able to add different players into the mix who will interpret the same roles in their own slightly different ways: it's in this way that Esposito will add an extra tactical dimension. Spags will ask him to play the same position as Taddei, but he will run with the ball more often, look for the ball over the top just a little bit more often, look to go on the outside of his man a little more often. Until he can be properly integrated, though, these differences won't be able to add rather than simply distract. Whether Spags is right or not, of course, remains to be seen, but surely this is first go at solving that problem. If it doesn't work, we'll have to see if he can come up with another plan.
On Barusso, Kroo, surely the simple fact is that Spags doesn't think he's good enough. Perhaps he hasn't been helped by the horror run of fixtures and will be given a few more chances to integrate himself between now and Christmas. However, one senses that he was brought in to fill a role that Spags doesn't actually feel he can fill (tactically and technically). Sound like Faty, anyone? It's interesting, for instance, to compare the players we have to back up DDR, Pizza, and Aquilani and those Milan have - players like Emerdason and Brocchi sitting on the bench. Regardless of who one would prefer to have, you can see that Spags doesn't have quite the same proven alternatives. Brocchi, as 'tec and Mouldyknee will tell us, is limited, but you know his limitations and that he can do a particular job for you.
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maro 
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by Lombardiamia » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:54 am
Jesus its so boring in here in the mornings. The only entertainment is Maro's essays.........which I never read BTW.
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Lombardiamia 
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by maro » Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:15 am
Lomba, I'm always reassured when you remind me that you never read my posts. I'd been feeling a bit guilty for a while, thinking that having spent so much time with us it was a bit shocking that you seemed to have learnt so little and still came up with the same load of bullocks [sic], post after post. At least this way I know it's not my fault.
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