soccerates
09-12-2005, 06:33 AM
4-4-2
............................Abbiati.....................................
Pessoto......Kovac(Zonal)...Cannavarro (man to man marking).....Z-man
.........................Emerson...............................
Camoranesi.........Viera.....................Nedved.....
.....Trezeguet.................Ibrahimovic...............
with a playmaker Nedved on the left, Camoranesi on
the right, Vieira a Nº8 centre-midfielder and Emerson a Nº6 DM both
containing the middle, a zonal marker CB Kovac and a man-to-man marking
CB Cannavaro, Ibrahimovic and Trezeguet up front.
Juve is tactically one of the best teams in the world, and very very efficient.
I think Chelsea is also very tactically wise but I think I'd take Camoranesi over the flashier Duff, Nedved is still more consistent and seasoned (when healthy) than Robben, and possesses a better left foot IMO. And Ibrahimovic and Trezeguet have shown they can play together something Drogba and Crespo have not, yet.
Ibrahimovic is a LOT better than Drogba.
If there's a 6 foot 4 inch football player anywhere in the world that can match
Ibrahimovic's overall coordination or ball control I sure haven't
seen him, this guy has uncommon motor skills.
Zebina hasn't convinced me that he is any better than Pessotto at rightback
However, Pessoto at his age is losing pace and he's not very aggressive compared to Zambrota, he's slow, a poor tackler, and for a full-back that plays close to Cannavaro he doesn't add strength or physical stature to the right side of Juventus defensive axis if need arises for Cannavaro to require
Pessoto's assistance in "doubling up" the marking of a tall physically strong opponent, Pessoto hardly adds anything to Cannavaro's game.
Plus his passing is average at best now. Juventus definitely needs a new
right-back come January. Maybe they should get ODDO before Milan does?
If we could add Nedved's physical conditioning to either Zidane's
or Del Piero's technical skills we'd have quite a player, a young
Dennis Bergkamp.
Kovac clearly is the zonal marking centre-back of the duo with the
faster, more aggressive Cannavaro playing between Kovac and Emerson as
the man-marker.
Kovac isn't a better player than he was last year anymore than
Patrick Vieira is but Kovac already seems tactically more disciplined
by the sheer presence of Cannavaro and Emerson while Vieira isn't a
DM like Emerson but more of a multi-purpose Nº8.
Playmaker Nedved falls to the flanks a job Queiroz already tried and
failed with Zidane at Real Madrid but Nedved is a much more dynamic and
energetic player than Zizou and much more aggressive and productive on
the pitch than the Frenchman.
Clearly Vieira acts as Juventus 2nd deep lying playmaker. While Kaká
and Pirlo "think" Milan's game from both sides of the midfield
line and allow Gattuso to win balls, at Juve Nedved "thinks" from
midfield onward, Vieira "thinks" it from midfield and a 60 yard
envelope around it and Emerson wins the balls or drops back to join
Cannavaro and Kovac as 3rd centre-back during counter-attack situations
The use of Nedved and Vieira as creative dynamos acting in different
positions on the pitch forces Empoli to apply pressure on them with 2
DMs and a right-back and truth be told Ibrahimovic himself adds his
fair share of creativity to the forward sector as well and manages to
congestion 3 Empoli defenders all by himself.
2 strikers: One is an undeniable (6'4) physical presence in the box in
Ibrahimovic and another a speedster in opportunistic Trezeguet who
rogues in and out of the box (but never too far away) looking to escape
the man-markings waiting for the more visible Ibrahimovic to distract
the centre-backs while he unmarks himself and awaits for the pass.
Vieira pass to Ibrahimovic who has 3 defenders worried only with
himself meanwhile "invisible" Trezeguet gets the ball and calmly
unmarked goes about scoring an easy goal while Empoli's coach wonders why
Trezeguet is unmarked, why? Because of Ibrahimovic. Capello is
intelligent enough to field 2 strikers of different characteristics, 2
different sort of centre-midfielders and 2 centre-backs of differing
characteristics, result a balanced team from defence to offence.
Of the forwards it's clear Trezeguet and Camoranesi are more fixed
tactically while Nedved and Ibrahimovic have more liberty and move
around quite a bit to escape man-markings and look for the opportunity
to provide the creative spark to the finishing sector.
Ibrahimovic often seems like a supersized winger with the way he drops
to the flanks outruns smaller men and toys with them with his peerless
ball control and dribbling.
Nedved takes the corner-kick, 2 defenders crowd Ibrahimovic, another
defenders marks the 1st post waiting for a left-flank Nedved
"recharge", Vieira comes unmarked from behind and easily scores the
2nd as everybody is more worried about Ibrahimovic, Nedved and
unconsciously now of Trezeguet as well and Vieira easily gets it in
there with no opposition.
Now's they're thinking, mark Ibrahimovic, Trezeguet, Nedved and
Vieira. When you think like that you're not likely to cross the
midfield line with ball possession
Kovac has really improved tactically, notice how he never moves more
then 30 yards in front of the keeper unless there's a dead-ball
situation across the pitch. He is clearly the CB that cuts all the long
balls coming into Juve's defensive axis.
This Juventus looks unbeatable until Thuram or Nedved get old but Kovac
and Cassano should provide semi-adequate short term replacements
although Kovac is no Thuram regardless of how many "tactical
injections" Capello might be shooting him up with.
Nedved is all over the pitch, it's tough for him to be the team's
creative reference when he's got such a free-role, some times his
excessive stamina can be counter-productive but he sure gives hell to
any DM or RB that tries to mark him. The left-footed Nedved is even
doing right-to-left diagonals into the box like a true right-winger,
incredible fountain of energy this old man.
Ibrahimovic's and Trezeguet's 1-2 short passes would be right at home in the Brazilian National squad.
Cannavaro is no zonal marker and it shows, he concedes corners whenever
he tries to sweep the small box of long balls, leave that to Kovac
lil' fella. Cannavaro is the perfect partner to Nesta though, who is impecable in that regard for Milan and the NT.
Juventus's defensive midfield is impenetrable as far as ground
passing but it does concede too many long ball passes as Vieira leaves
Emerson alone to pressurize the opposition from shooting from 50-60
yards out.
And the mix of Vieira and Cannavaro through the middle is a bad
combination as Vieira defensively doesn't pressure enough and
Cannavaro is too weak against long aerial passes.
Zambrota at times is very aggressive (not as bad as Ashley Cole
though) and Patrick Vieira seems to be the man designated by Capello to
close out Juve's left-flank. Ordinarily the CB on the left of the
defensive axis (Kovac) would be in charge of compensating the LB's
forward raids as we often see Gallas compensate Del Horno or Pavón
comically uncompensate Roberto Carlos but since only Kovac can sweep
aerial passes in the centre there is no way Capello lets him wander
around.
Empoli soon realises that:
1) They can't score goals with 60 yard shots through the middle.
2) They can't get ground balls through the middle of Juve's
defensive midfield.
3) They can't get past Zambrota or Vieira on the left.
Solution? Attack Juve's defensive right-flank where the harmless
Pessoto is there to extend the red carpet.
At the 25th minute mark Empoli gets through Juve's right-flank, does
a diagonal into the box and who's there? Cannavaro all alone, Kovac
was 30 yards ahead and out of position. Dr Capello needs to double the
size of the "tactical injections" he's giving Kovac. Thuram
wouldn't have been that stupid or naive.
Zambrotta and Cannavaro are by far the most important players on this
team, if both are out I doubt Juve can win games as comfortably as this.
Ibrahimovic is an incredible player, his technique is sublime, it's
hard to believe such a tall ectomorphic shaped player can have such
balance and mobility and still pass the ball with such precision.
He's not a pure goal scorer but there's hardly a striker as talented as he is and I doubt Henry would score as many as Zlatan does in Serie A.
Ibrahimovic may very well become the best player in the world in the near future, he has all the talent and ambition to get there. He is as versatile as a striker can be, he can be a pure Nº9 or be the creative 9 ½ that creates goals for the Nº9 he combines physical strength and stature with the speed, balance, ability to switch angles at high speeds and technique of a more compact player in a way we rarely see from such a a big man. Fabulous, fabulously talented player.
Empoli keeps penetrating Juve's right-flank with incredible ease and either diagonaling it or long-balling it into the small box. Where is Pessoto? I think I saw Pessoto touch the ball once during this game.
Patrick Vieira has brought his patented diving style into Serie A, he dives 10 yards after he's been fouled, give him an Oscar already for that delayed reaction performance. One added wrinkle we are seeing to PV's game in Italy is......dribbling, WOW, inserted into a league where Premiership styled long
passes are frowned upon (except by Udinese) we are seeing Vieira carry
the ball vertically 30-50 yards rather than his Arsenal form of "kick
it forward".
Unfortunately the concept of "lateralizing" the game is still abstract to Vieira. If Juve get Cassano and use him in a Totti-like role, it would increase this option to them immensely. I wonder why, Viera has done it plenty of times for Les Bleus but it seems at club level he's a one way elevator and can
only kick the ball forward never to the sides or backwards to maintain
ball possession or seek out the better passing options.
Capello's Juventus without Thuram or a good RB is a classic case of a
team that plays with "high pressure" meaning they pressure the
"high"/finishing sector quite a bit but are too careless in their
midfield thanks to Vieira who doesn't double up with Emerson and
their defensive sector where Kovacs and Pessoto aren't that good. A
good team pressures the finishing sector when they have ball possession
and pressures the midfield and defence when they've lost the ball,
this Juve without certain players is clearly a team better suited for
attack than defence.
Abbiati is beginning to understand he's going to see a lot of balls
come from his right and is beginning to come out to meet them to
compensate the lack of presence of 2 tall CBs in his small box or a RB
that can put defensive pressure on the right-flank.
Kovacs is leaving the box too often, Abbiati has no Juve players 30
yards around him in an 180 degree angle.
After 3-4 goals Juve's defence and midfield is getting too permeable
and soft. Defensively Juve is a much better team when they are 0-0 than
3-0, Cannavaro begins taking stupid chances.
When Juventus' has ball possession Kovacs and Cannavaro look like a
million bucks especially if they have Emerson to triangulate the game
with. But when they don't have ball possession there's a lot of
disscoordination in there, they have very little synch. I miss old man
Ciro Ferrara.
Ever since Mourinho took the job at Chelsea and Capello at Juventus
that I have been salivating at the chance of seeing these 2 teams go
against each other. Liverpool ruine that last year :sick: Frankly I'd pick Juventus to win, it's a more talented team overall and more seasoned as well.
Several of Chelsea's players have yet to convince me at CL level. I
think Chelsea is massively overrated because they steamroll the
Premiership but other than Cech, Ferreira, Makelele, Lampard and Gallas to be
honest I think they cannot match up vs Juve.
Mourinho is great and Chelsea is an extremely balanced and reasonably
deep squad but I hardly see them as the most richly talented squad in
Europe.
We'll see this season!
............................Abbiati.....................................
Pessoto......Kovac(Zonal)...Cannavarro (man to man marking).....Z-man
.........................Emerson...............................
Camoranesi.........Viera.....................Nedved.....
.....Trezeguet.................Ibrahimovic...............
with a playmaker Nedved on the left, Camoranesi on
the right, Vieira a Nº8 centre-midfielder and Emerson a Nº6 DM both
containing the middle, a zonal marker CB Kovac and a man-to-man marking
CB Cannavaro, Ibrahimovic and Trezeguet up front.
Juve is tactically one of the best teams in the world, and very very efficient.
I think Chelsea is also very tactically wise but I think I'd take Camoranesi over the flashier Duff, Nedved is still more consistent and seasoned (when healthy) than Robben, and possesses a better left foot IMO. And Ibrahimovic and Trezeguet have shown they can play together something Drogba and Crespo have not, yet.
Ibrahimovic is a LOT better than Drogba.
If there's a 6 foot 4 inch football player anywhere in the world that can match
Ibrahimovic's overall coordination or ball control I sure haven't
seen him, this guy has uncommon motor skills.
Zebina hasn't convinced me that he is any better than Pessotto at rightback
However, Pessoto at his age is losing pace and he's not very aggressive compared to Zambrota, he's slow, a poor tackler, and for a full-back that plays close to Cannavaro he doesn't add strength or physical stature to the right side of Juventus defensive axis if need arises for Cannavaro to require
Pessoto's assistance in "doubling up" the marking of a tall physically strong opponent, Pessoto hardly adds anything to Cannavaro's game.
Plus his passing is average at best now. Juventus definitely needs a new
right-back come January. Maybe they should get ODDO before Milan does?
If we could add Nedved's physical conditioning to either Zidane's
or Del Piero's technical skills we'd have quite a player, a young
Dennis Bergkamp.
Kovac clearly is the zonal marking centre-back of the duo with the
faster, more aggressive Cannavaro playing between Kovac and Emerson as
the man-marker.
Kovac isn't a better player than he was last year anymore than
Patrick Vieira is but Kovac already seems tactically more disciplined
by the sheer presence of Cannavaro and Emerson while Vieira isn't a
DM like Emerson but more of a multi-purpose Nº8.
Playmaker Nedved falls to the flanks a job Queiroz already tried and
failed with Zidane at Real Madrid but Nedved is a much more dynamic and
energetic player than Zizou and much more aggressive and productive on
the pitch than the Frenchman.
Clearly Vieira acts as Juventus 2nd deep lying playmaker. While Kaká
and Pirlo "think" Milan's game from both sides of the midfield
line and allow Gattuso to win balls, at Juve Nedved "thinks" from
midfield onward, Vieira "thinks" it from midfield and a 60 yard
envelope around it and Emerson wins the balls or drops back to join
Cannavaro and Kovac as 3rd centre-back during counter-attack situations
The use of Nedved and Vieira as creative dynamos acting in different
positions on the pitch forces Empoli to apply pressure on them with 2
DMs and a right-back and truth be told Ibrahimovic himself adds his
fair share of creativity to the forward sector as well and manages to
congestion 3 Empoli defenders all by himself.
2 strikers: One is an undeniable (6'4) physical presence in the box in
Ibrahimovic and another a speedster in opportunistic Trezeguet who
rogues in and out of the box (but never too far away) looking to escape
the man-markings waiting for the more visible Ibrahimovic to distract
the centre-backs while he unmarks himself and awaits for the pass.
Vieira pass to Ibrahimovic who has 3 defenders worried only with
himself meanwhile "invisible" Trezeguet gets the ball and calmly
unmarked goes about scoring an easy goal while Empoli's coach wonders why
Trezeguet is unmarked, why? Because of Ibrahimovic. Capello is
intelligent enough to field 2 strikers of different characteristics, 2
different sort of centre-midfielders and 2 centre-backs of differing
characteristics, result a balanced team from defence to offence.
Of the forwards it's clear Trezeguet and Camoranesi are more fixed
tactically while Nedved and Ibrahimovic have more liberty and move
around quite a bit to escape man-markings and look for the opportunity
to provide the creative spark to the finishing sector.
Ibrahimovic often seems like a supersized winger with the way he drops
to the flanks outruns smaller men and toys with them with his peerless
ball control and dribbling.
Nedved takes the corner-kick, 2 defenders crowd Ibrahimovic, another
defenders marks the 1st post waiting for a left-flank Nedved
"recharge", Vieira comes unmarked from behind and easily scores the
2nd as everybody is more worried about Ibrahimovic, Nedved and
unconsciously now of Trezeguet as well and Vieira easily gets it in
there with no opposition.
Now's they're thinking, mark Ibrahimovic, Trezeguet, Nedved and
Vieira. When you think like that you're not likely to cross the
midfield line with ball possession
Kovac has really improved tactically, notice how he never moves more
then 30 yards in front of the keeper unless there's a dead-ball
situation across the pitch. He is clearly the CB that cuts all the long
balls coming into Juve's defensive axis.
This Juventus looks unbeatable until Thuram or Nedved get old but Kovac
and Cassano should provide semi-adequate short term replacements
although Kovac is no Thuram regardless of how many "tactical
injections" Capello might be shooting him up with.
Nedved is all over the pitch, it's tough for him to be the team's
creative reference when he's got such a free-role, some times his
excessive stamina can be counter-productive but he sure gives hell to
any DM or RB that tries to mark him. The left-footed Nedved is even
doing right-to-left diagonals into the box like a true right-winger,
incredible fountain of energy this old man.
Ibrahimovic's and Trezeguet's 1-2 short passes would be right at home in the Brazilian National squad.
Cannavaro is no zonal marker and it shows, he concedes corners whenever
he tries to sweep the small box of long balls, leave that to Kovac
lil' fella. Cannavaro is the perfect partner to Nesta though, who is impecable in that regard for Milan and the NT.
Juventus's defensive midfield is impenetrable as far as ground
passing but it does concede too many long ball passes as Vieira leaves
Emerson alone to pressurize the opposition from shooting from 50-60
yards out.
And the mix of Vieira and Cannavaro through the middle is a bad
combination as Vieira defensively doesn't pressure enough and
Cannavaro is too weak against long aerial passes.
Zambrota at times is very aggressive (not as bad as Ashley Cole
though) and Patrick Vieira seems to be the man designated by Capello to
close out Juve's left-flank. Ordinarily the CB on the left of the
defensive axis (Kovac) would be in charge of compensating the LB's
forward raids as we often see Gallas compensate Del Horno or Pavón
comically uncompensate Roberto Carlos but since only Kovac can sweep
aerial passes in the centre there is no way Capello lets him wander
around.
Empoli soon realises that:
1) They can't score goals with 60 yard shots through the middle.
2) They can't get ground balls through the middle of Juve's
defensive midfield.
3) They can't get past Zambrota or Vieira on the left.
Solution? Attack Juve's defensive right-flank where the harmless
Pessoto is there to extend the red carpet.
At the 25th minute mark Empoli gets through Juve's right-flank, does
a diagonal into the box and who's there? Cannavaro all alone, Kovac
was 30 yards ahead and out of position. Dr Capello needs to double the
size of the "tactical injections" he's giving Kovac. Thuram
wouldn't have been that stupid or naive.
Zambrotta and Cannavaro are by far the most important players on this
team, if both are out I doubt Juve can win games as comfortably as this.
Ibrahimovic is an incredible player, his technique is sublime, it's
hard to believe such a tall ectomorphic shaped player can have such
balance and mobility and still pass the ball with such precision.
He's not a pure goal scorer but there's hardly a striker as talented as he is and I doubt Henry would score as many as Zlatan does in Serie A.
Ibrahimovic may very well become the best player in the world in the near future, he has all the talent and ambition to get there. He is as versatile as a striker can be, he can be a pure Nº9 or be the creative 9 ½ that creates goals for the Nº9 he combines physical strength and stature with the speed, balance, ability to switch angles at high speeds and technique of a more compact player in a way we rarely see from such a a big man. Fabulous, fabulously talented player.
Empoli keeps penetrating Juve's right-flank with incredible ease and either diagonaling it or long-balling it into the small box. Where is Pessoto? I think I saw Pessoto touch the ball once during this game.
Patrick Vieira has brought his patented diving style into Serie A, he dives 10 yards after he's been fouled, give him an Oscar already for that delayed reaction performance. One added wrinkle we are seeing to PV's game in Italy is......dribbling, WOW, inserted into a league where Premiership styled long
passes are frowned upon (except by Udinese) we are seeing Vieira carry
the ball vertically 30-50 yards rather than his Arsenal form of "kick
it forward".
Unfortunately the concept of "lateralizing" the game is still abstract to Vieira. If Juve get Cassano and use him in a Totti-like role, it would increase this option to them immensely. I wonder why, Viera has done it plenty of times for Les Bleus but it seems at club level he's a one way elevator and can
only kick the ball forward never to the sides or backwards to maintain
ball possession or seek out the better passing options.
Capello's Juventus without Thuram or a good RB is a classic case of a
team that plays with "high pressure" meaning they pressure the
"high"/finishing sector quite a bit but are too careless in their
midfield thanks to Vieira who doesn't double up with Emerson and
their defensive sector where Kovacs and Pessoto aren't that good. A
good team pressures the finishing sector when they have ball possession
and pressures the midfield and defence when they've lost the ball,
this Juve without certain players is clearly a team better suited for
attack than defence.
Abbiati is beginning to understand he's going to see a lot of balls
come from his right and is beginning to come out to meet them to
compensate the lack of presence of 2 tall CBs in his small box or a RB
that can put defensive pressure on the right-flank.
Kovacs is leaving the box too often, Abbiati has no Juve players 30
yards around him in an 180 degree angle.
After 3-4 goals Juve's defence and midfield is getting too permeable
and soft. Defensively Juve is a much better team when they are 0-0 than
3-0, Cannavaro begins taking stupid chances.
When Juventus' has ball possession Kovacs and Cannavaro look like a
million bucks especially if they have Emerson to triangulate the game
with. But when they don't have ball possession there's a lot of
disscoordination in there, they have very little synch. I miss old man
Ciro Ferrara.
Ever since Mourinho took the job at Chelsea and Capello at Juventus
that I have been salivating at the chance of seeing these 2 teams go
against each other. Liverpool ruine that last year :sick: Frankly I'd pick Juventus to win, it's a more talented team overall and more seasoned as well.
Several of Chelsea's players have yet to convince me at CL level. I
think Chelsea is massively overrated because they steamroll the
Premiership but other than Cech, Ferreira, Makelele, Lampard and Gallas to be
honest I think they cannot match up vs Juve.
Mourinho is great and Chelsea is an extremely balanced and reasonably
deep squad but I hardly see them as the most richly talented squad in
Europe.
We'll see this season!