Italian Football Thread III

Ronin

Milansochist
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Messages
13,041
Reaction score
2,480
Fav. Players
Maldini, Nesta, Gattuso, Rui Costa, Albertini, Serginho, Seedorf, Redondo, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho

fray

Casciavit
Joined
May 18, 2017
Messages
8,944
Reaction score
4,747
Napoli - Atalanta in an hour. Guaranteed to be a high scoring match.
 

fray

Casciavit
Joined
May 18, 2017
Messages
8,944
Reaction score
4,747
Napoli XI: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Maksimovic, Koulibaly, Luperto; Callejon, Allan, Fabian Ruiz, Insigne; Lozano, Milik

Atalanta XI: Gollini; Toloi, Djimsiti, Palomino; Hateboer, Freuler, de Roon, Gosens; Gomez, Pasalic, Ilicic
 

Goodfella

Milan Legend
Joined
Jan 20, 2011
Messages
14,796
Reaction score
1,470
Atalanta's success highlights how unambitious & scared most Italian teams play.
They get overwhelmed and take the typical Italian "precautionary measures", which is just where Gasperini wants them.
Zagreb, Shaktar and City don't have this provincial Italian mentality.
They're used to going in hard on their domestic opponents no matter what.

Atalanta aren't like Pep's Barca, where the worst thing you could do was to try beating them at their own game.
If your attack is good enough then you can go toe to toe and punish this Atalanta side HARD.

This is why they're also struggling against Lazio of all teams.
Say what you want about Simone, but he has a very un-Italian proactive approach and his unusual priorities created the most lethal attack in Serie A.
Atalanta also struggled badly against Spalletti's and Pioli's Inter's intensive approach, before their fatigue kicked in later in the seasons.

Arsenal fans still talk about the EL games against Milan, in particular the rare away win .
They still can't believe we sat back and allowed Xhaka to do his thing in peace at San Siro.
 
Last edited:

Qaas

Vi må tage det som det kommer
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
38,777
Reaction score
69,621
Location
Danmark
Fav. Players
KAKA, Maldini, Nesta, Dida, Inzaghi, Sheva, TSilva, R9, Raul, Casillas, Schmeichel, Messi, Zlatan
Yall actively watch other serie a teams play?

What is the point?
 

Jivara

Vero Milanista
Joined
Aug 16, 2006
Messages
12,729
Reaction score
8,585
Genoa look good under Motta, they play with grinta and patience. They've quickly inherited Motta's playing style, especially the way they build up play. I assume this is the style our directors had in mind when they wanted to restart the team. They deserved a lot more from that match, the ref in typical fashion bends over for Juventus whenever he has the slightest opportunity.
 

Colossus

Milan Veteran
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
Messages
1,819
Reaction score
205
Fav. Players
Zidane, Shevchenko, Ronaldo, Maldini, Nesta, Pirlo, Xavi, Scholes, Montolivo, Modric, Thiago Silva
Atalanta's success highlights how unambitious & scared most Italian teams play.
They get overwhelmed and take the typical Italian "precautionary measures", which is just where Gasperini wants them.
Zagreb, Shaktar and City don't have this provincial Italian mentality.
They're used to going in hard on their domestic opponents no matter what.

Atalanta aren't like Pep's Barca, where the worst thing you could do was to try beating them at their own game.
If your attack is good enough then you can go toe to toe and punish this Atalanta side HARD.

This is why they're also struggling against Lazio of all teams.
Say what you want about Simone, but he has a very un-Italian proactive approach and his unusual priorities created the most lethal attack in Serie A.
Atalanta also struggled badly against Spalletti's and Pioli's Inter's intensive approach, before their fatigue kicked in later in the seasons.

Arsenal fans still talk about the EL games against Milan, in particular the rare away win .
They still can't believe we sat back and allowed Xhaka to do his thing in peace at San Siro.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Their style is all about intensity and creating overloads in wide areas due to sheer workrate. There's no deft fleet of foot playmakers or brilliant dribblers that win games on their own.

Then their man for man defensive scheme can be broken quite easily by intelligent players or players good in 1 vs 1 duels. Ie Sterling

The second half of that Napoli Atalanta game was a great example of how you can press them hard, gain territiorial supremacy and then make intelligent runs behind their defense from multiple areas to create chances. Napoli should have scored far more than they did.

I think Atalanta's style makes them a small team killer, and a team that can push the big teams that can't match their intensity. But any team that can match their intensity, push them back and attack them can beat them badly.

Tbh, they remind me a bit of a poor man's Man City. When they loose, they loose badly. Even Pep knows how unbalanced his team is for CL games (later in the knockout stages albeit) and adjusts his lineups to add genuine midfielders to avoid getting destroyed by teams who have the ability to play around their press.
 

Sognatore

Milan Legend
Joined
Sep 17, 2012
Messages
5,757
Reaction score
2,107
Fav. Players
bosnian di marzio
I think it's a cool approach and a competitive and viable setup.
Just like Colossus implied, you can always adopt a different approach in games where the opponent is capable of taking advantage of your weaknesses.

That's the good thing about clear weaknesses, the fix is more obvious.
 

Qaas

Vi må tage det som det kommer
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
38,777
Reaction score
69,621
Location
Danmark
Fav. Players
KAKA, Maldini, Nesta, Dida, Inzaghi, Sheva, TSilva, R9, Raul, Casillas, Schmeichel, Messi, Zlatan
Atalanta in this years champions. Very very disappointed in them as I hyped them to some of my local friends.
 

CDarius

Milan Icon
Joined
Jan 25, 2017
Messages
3,769
Reaction score
6,182
Location
Romania
Good result for us in my opinion. I dont know if Cagliari can hold up there for too long
 

dcfcfan1

Milan Legend
Joined
May 21, 2014
Messages
5,672
Reaction score
488
Means fuck all if we dont beat lazio and naples at home

Shame we have to, since we dropped so many pts vs shite
 

Goodfella

Milan Legend
Joined
Jan 20, 2011
Messages
14,796
Reaction score
1,470
Inter's 2nd half collapse against Dortmund foreshadows how Inter's 2nd half of the season will look like - and Conte knows it which is why he's freaking out already know.

The league table on December 11 in Spalletti's first season:
 
ivWZsJ7.png
 

fray

Casciavit
Joined
May 18, 2017
Messages
8,944
Reaction score
4,747
Napoli's next game is at San Siro vs us.

Imagine if Carlo is sacked there, although the chances are rather that he might be sacked during the intl break.
 

Ronin

Milansochist
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Messages
13,041
Reaction score
2,480
Fav. Players
Maldini, Nesta, Gattuso, Rui Costa, Albertini, Serginho, Seedorf, Redondo, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho
What the hell is Cagliari doing. Imagine if they get CL this season
 

Goodfella

Milan Legend
Joined
Jan 20, 2011
Messages
14,796
Reaction score
1,470
A goal and 3 assists for Radja.

Simeone scoring against the team that sent him away.

Cigarini revived.
 
Top