Official: Ignazio Abate Thread

[forward]

Look at that determination and that face. Lulz

I think he was aiming for the face.

 

[benjamin]

Abate made Looney his bitch all night

 

[acerвιc wιт]

Look at that determination and that face. Lulz

Haha! Epic photos, dude!

 

[melanman]

I hope he gets the start against germany.

 

[R&B Milan]

I hope he gets the start against germany.

he will (maggio is suspended)

 

[benjamin]

he will (maggio is suspended)

Apparently he's injured. Hence his substitution last night

 

[Costanza]

He would start even if Maggio wasn't suspended, and he was substituted because of injury.

Both Milan and Juve have quality players next season. I wish for a repeat of 2003 in CL.

 

[MilanMB]

 

[Eccolo]

Are you crying because he did well or because that unfortunaly Italy is still in the Euros?

 

[AnTakTau]

He would start even if Maggio wasn't suspended, and he was substituted because of injury.

Both Milan and Juve have quality players next season. I wish for a repeat of 2003 in CL.

could it be Italian clubs back to business again???

 

[MilanMB]

Are you crying because he did well or because that unfortunaly Italy is still in the Euros?

i'm proud of him that he played well...

and i'm back on the italy bandwagon since cassano, monto, nocerino and abate are getting playing time. i hope they win the whole thing. and if they don't, i hope the juve players are the ones that fail miserably

 

[melanman]

i'm proud of him that he played well...

and i'm back on the italy bandwagon since cassano, monto, nocerino and abate are getting playing time. i hope they win the whole thing. and if they don't, i hope the juve players are the ones that fail miserably

exactly


but on a serious note our players (including pirlo for this arguement) are more comfortable playing top level football.

 

[voom]

Abate was great vs England especially in second half.I hope that his injury is not serious.

 

[Eccolo]

i'm proud of him that he played well...

and i'm back on the italy bandwagon since cassano, monto, nocerino and abate are getting playing time. i hope they win the whole thing. and if they don't, i hope the juve players are the ones that fail miserably

Thats the spirit

 

[BrasilianMilan]

Hopefully Ignazio will be fit against Germany, he's better than Maggio

But why can't he cross like that when playing for Milan??? If he did,

 

[crazy4milan]

IMO, the only really top crossers in the world currently are Maicon and Dani Alves, both are specialists, and have been proven over time. Abate isn’t even close to be a great crosser, but he IS a decent crosser, much more decent than what people like to make him out to be. I see him hitting at least 2 crosses on target in most of Milan games (and I make sure that it isn’t just an eye test, I tell it to the person who I’m watching games with to keep count ), he can hit them, and I believe that if Milan had more movement inside the area (taking advantage of someone's physical gifts), and a different style in midfield his ratio would go up, maybe not by much, he would remain in the “average”, but it would be more obvious (cause It would end in goals) by the naked eye of fans that watch the same team week in and week out (instead of occasionally watching other teams) and who prefer the grass of the other side simply cause Abate didn’t cost us 20 mil + no team fought for him in the market.

Fact is, most crosses go either to the other side of the pitch, end up in the keeper’s hands (a minority ends up in the stands, but there’s usually 1 per match that ends up there), the majority ends up in the defenders head (c’est la vie, the defenders have the advantage there) very few end up in the desired target, and most of the ones that end up in the desired target are due to…you guessed it, good movement from the forwards.
Accurate crosses per team (first two fullbacks per team, players with over 15 games)

Real Madrid
Marcelo 0.4
Arbeloa, Ramos, Coentrao 0.2

Barcelona
Dani Alves 1.1
Abidal 0.2
Puyol 0.1

Valencia
Mathieu 0.9
Jordi Alba 0.5

Espanyol
Dídac 0.7

Juventus
De Ceglie 1
Lichtsteiner 0.8

Inter
Maicon 1.7
Chivu 0.3

Napoli
Dossena 0.9
Maggio 0.8

Ac Milan
Abate 0.6
Antonini 0.4

Arsenal
Sagna 1
Andre Santos, Gibbs 0.3

Chelsea
Bosingwa 0.8
Cole 0.5
Ivanovic 0.4

Man Utd
Evra 0.4
Phil Jones 0.4/Smalling 0.3

Man City
Clichy 0.7
Zabaleta 0.4

Tottenham
Bale 1.3
Assou-Ekotto 0.7

Bayern Munich
Lahm 0.4
Rafinha 0.4

Borussia Dortmund
Schmelzer 1.1
Lowe 1.1

PSG
Jallet 0.6
Tiene 0.6

Montpellier
Bedimo 0.7
Bocaly 0.5

Lille
Debuchy 0.8
Bonnart 0.5

Ajax
Van der Wiel 0.3

Now, truth is it’s unfair to say this fullbacks suck or are terrible at crosses because of this, it's just a ratio, I'm not using the quantification of amount of crosses they make so there can be a sample problem in this ratio (though I tried to use fullbacks or players disguised as fullbacks who played over 15 games cause most of them will have a certain big amount of crosses done overall).

And obviously, there’s other things that come into play. For ex. Madrid plays more to Di María + Cristiano crosses than their fullbacks, more or less same goes for Bayern, Barcelona overuses their left side cause their RBs are older and can’t handle it (though also cause much like with Inter, Maicon-who apart from this has turned into a ghost in everything else as a fullback in the last 2 seasons- and Dani Alves are the only crossing specialists in the world and it’s obvious to take advantage of it, if the other teams had specialists like this two, they would play to them).

Juventus plays A LOT through crosses, mostly cause of Pirlo + the fact that they don’t have any other type of forward other than CFs. We all know Napoli uses wingbacks, so its also logical they have more accurate crosses. There’s some of this fullbacks that operate both as wingers and wingbacks (Bale stands out) and not so much as fullbacks (just disguised as such)…so also their ratio is bigger.

There's also a thing that I doubt I'll find anywhere, crosses aren't just the ones that go up to someone's head, they can be lower crosses to the feet inside the area, or they can be directed to outside of the box (with players that can take it from first intention). From watching Abate I would say high crosses (aimed to the head, you know the ones we usually see more cause they're the ones mostly used) are his weakest link (sadly yes those are the ones he tries out the most), BUT his lower crosses are actually well intended (which shouldn't be surprising, he is a good passer) most of the time (this are the ones he pulls more consistenly but doesn't do as often). But oh well that would only be interesting to look at one day.

Thing is, back to the original point, taking away different playing styles not just from the teams, but also the leagues, you can see that there’s an average range, between 0.4-0.8 where most fullbacks locate themselves in terms of accurate crosses. Like I said, if our movement was better inside the box, Abate’s accurate crosses would increase IMO to a 0.8 ratio (doubt it will get to more), still remaining in the average, but it would be easier to look cause likely we would be scoring off from them much more often than once a season. The crosses are being done, their accurate on average ranges for a fullback ("decent" if you will, nothing magnificent nor close to it but certainly not crappy), the thing that’s missing is that we're not scoring off from them.

 

[Tantalis]

Hopefully Ignazio will be fit against Germany, he's better than Maggio

But why can't he cross like that when playing for Milan??? If he did,

well abate doesnt seem to be the sharpest lad, maybe it just finally clicked. this season i can see quite a few abate --> nocerino poaches!

 

[Rickaka]

Good performance

 

[Curupira]

Played well IMO

 

[Master Smurf]

Does that number include all of his crosses that fail to beat the first man?

Just on watching football I can see that any mediocre English fullback puts in more telling crosses than Abate. Even guys without pace know how to find that angle to get off a cross and Abate still hasnt figured out how to do that yet.

He did have a couple gems in the last game though and if he can do that more consistently for Milan that would be a big improvement.

 

[Jivara]

Srna is a pretty good crosser who was not mentioned in ur list C4M

I think one of Abate's problems is that he does not know how to create space for a cross... lets say he receives a through ball heading towards the goal line... he is not good enough to control it and go on a 1vs1 duel with the defender and whip in a cross.

 

[SpartanMilan]

Abate would be a great EPL FB. If he played there the English would think he was the next great thing

 

[Sod-Lod]

26/06/2012 16:40 ITALY: MUSCLE STRAIN For ABATE

MILAN – The chief medical officer for the Italian national team, prof. Castellacci spoke today about the specific injuries to Italy players, in particular about Ignazio Abate.

He said, “Abate has suffered a reoccurrence of a strain to his left thigh and is undergoing appropriate treatment.

Our aim is to continue to the physiotherapy on all three injured players so that Abate, De Rossi and Chiellini are all available for the match against Germany on Thursday.”

 

[samir10]

He was stunning vs England. Than again it's only England

Perhaps I was wrong about him. There's still chance he'll turn into decent fullback after few great games in EURO.

 

[khuyag]

Hasn't he recovered yet?

 

[R&B Milan]

This man is about to own Iniesta. Trust me he will totally own him.

 

[Milan10]

This man is about to own Iniesta. Trust me he will totally own him.

Worst player of the match for Italy today?

Only Chiellini was worse, but he was saved further embarrassment by his injury...

 

[Redman10]

This man is about to own Iniesta. Trust me he will totally own him.

 

[belloefamoso]

Worst player of the match for Italy today?

Only Chiellini was worse, but he was saved further embarrassment by his injury...

abate is good, he is the most played in defender italia.
Ignazio Abate: 6

What is it about his head that opposition players’ elbows find so irresistible? Always seems to be in the wars.. Still, attacked with trademark vigour and put some tempting crosses into the box. Willing.

Andrea Barzagli: 5

One of the stars of Italy's campaign, but the man who is famous for never being flustered looked decidedly flustered for most of the evening and was culpable for most, if not all, the goals. Ragged.

Leonardo Bonucci: 5.5

Don't cry, Leo! OK tonight was more painful than those photoshoots you all do posing in the dressing room in your pants, but you've had a splendid tournament, and you were better than Barzagli...slightly. Exposed.

Giorgio Chiellini: 4

A defender going off injured early should be a disaster, in Chiellini's case it was a relief. Only on the pitch for 20 minutes, but what a painful 20 minutes they were. Dragged this way and that, shanked passes, exposed by Cesc Fabregas in the build-up to the opening goal. Blundering.
chiellini is the worst player. in my opinon it's exactly!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sage]