Comments on: Brazil Preview Part One: Goalie and Defense

By: lamagica

lamagica — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:26:30 +0000

yes, fact. when you are already a below average defender like legrottaglie, it would be hard to have an ‘epic’ collapse. it’s hard to play worse. his siena ‘glory days’ are behind him…lol.

By: alessio

alessio — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:47:56 +0000

Fact?

I only have to watch Juan get raped in the ass by Tokymoto or some Japanese striker from Catania. I haven’t seen Legro have an “epic” collapse like that in the last two years.

Juan is an average defender, that’s it. Or maybe the 8+goals conceded to Inter recently are because of Mexes?

By: lamagica

lamagica — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:24:01 +0000

fact – juan is loads better than legrottaglie. he may have been ‘average’ to you today but then again, it’s not like legro has been a pillar of consistancy himself. lets also not forget that legrottaglie has been utter junk up until last season.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:09:17 +0000

Juan is not better than Leggro, Canna, or Chiellini. Fact. He is very up and down. Did you see him today against Inter? Average if not just bad

Against Brazil we need to have a solid defensive base with good cover. I would come out with a 4411. Settle down the team and then start counterattacking. It’s how we have been so successful

Wonder if Lippi will call up the usuals are bring in more youngins to get a stern test

By: fg

fg — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:42:33 +0000

im not so sure their D has to be 4 world class players in a row with the attackers they have, but im sure you will cover that julian

By: Julian

Julian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:33:07 +0000

alessio- thanks for clarifying that.

Would you rather have a back four of Maicon-Alex-Juan-whoeverusuallyplayshere
or Zambro-GC-Canna-Grosso? It’s close but our guys are aging. Canna is more and more error prone as he gets older, Maicon is much better than Zambro overall, and Grosso isn’t getting younger. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- GC is the only world class young defender we have. We desperately need fullbacks, and based on that Brazil has the nod on paper. In reality I feel we should be able to hold them, but we need a younger, more talented squad, especially in the back.

By: Julian

Julian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:29:33 +0000

9 Champs league- out of those four that you named, only De Rossi is really world class and he still hasn’t quite shown the form that he had on Roma last year. Rossi is young and in due time he’ll be great, but he’s not quite there yet. Pirlo’s been a mess for months now, and I think you guys all know my opinion on Toni.

By: Julian

Julian — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:28:16 +0000

I hope I didn’t overstate things. Brazil is a very good team but I don’t think we should fear them. Their RBs are defo the best part of their defense- their LBs aren’t great and their CBs are solid (Considering I used “solid” like 3 times in that one paragraph I hope you get the point). So if I came off as sound as though I’m in awe of Brazil, I’m not.

But I’m not going to sugarcoat it either. Based on paper, they have a slightly better team than us, plain and simple. That’s more down to us transitioning right now than anything else. They have great offensive midfielders and wingbacks; positions we’re in dire need of. We have better defensive midfielders and centerbacks, and neither team has stellar strikers. But more on that in upcoming previews.

We still can beat them but we have to play well. We can’t play like we have in the past. The team has to start playing like a team and not like a discombobulated collection of individuals.

By: lamagica

lamagica — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:13:47 +0000

nope. juan is miles ahead of leggrotaglie in quality. juan and chiellini are relatively comparable but chiellini is still way too reckless in his challenges and a potential liability for conceding pk’s and edge-of-the-box fk’s. juan is noticeably more composed and skilled at stripping the ball from opposing players without conceding many fouls.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:57:28 +0000

I cannot wait for this game! Not only because of these ‘giant’ teams, but also because it means that WC qualifers are on the horizon, too. It will be interesting, that is for sure. I hope to see Buffon back with the Azzurri.