sorry if i misunderstood. i thought you said you agreed with Alessio who seemed to think Aqui’s goal was not impressive, only just someone who got lucky being in the right place at the right time. if you meant otherwise i just missed it.

i do think Aqui has had a couple of good games under Donadoni, but you have to remember that he was often played wide where he does not work well.

Provenzano,

did you mean Pirlo would be the “1″ in the 4-3-1-2?

But he also created two chances that DDR and Gila should have finished.
Anyway, he has to keep performances like that coming.

Bash is also right about Montenegro. Their back four sucks badly but the rest is good and Vucinic/Jovetic/Vukcevic is easily on par with the likes of Gila, Pepe, Christmas, Toni etc..

He showed he does deserve a place on the squad (not necessarily starting eleven). But like I said.. it’s his first great game for Italy and was hero for the day, week, till March.. But my whole point is that he needs to keep it up.. Aquilani hasn’t proved the doubters wrong yet.. they know he has potential and my point is that he needs to put on more of these dominant displays (not necessarily score 2 a game) so we can truly say he achieved this potential. There is little doubt in my mind that in 2012 we will see Aquilani, De Rossi and Montolivo starting in Italy’s midfield. But this is only the start for Aquilani.

Vucinic is their best player, true.. but he’s part of the team that has performed admirably (both as part of Serbia) and now as a stand-alone country. Montenegro are no Armenia or Albania or San Marino.. They are on the level of Norway, Ireland, Bulgaria, even Scotland (possibly). I didn’t expect more than a 3-1 win, and since Montenegro had a good game a 2-1 win is fine.

it is helpful to hear what you think, in this case in regards to Cassano. I have not seen him play in a central position, but if you think he would be better there then this actually would make the formation better.

4-2-3-1

Dossena—-Cannavarro——Chiellini—-Zambrotta
———–Aquilani——————-—-DeRossi————-
Quagliarella—–Pirlo—–Di Natale/Balotelli
——————–———-Cassano——————————

Buddy Guy -

finally someone who agrees about Toni and Gilardino.fortune gave Toni 2 yellows, but what has to happen to Lippi to get him to take Gilardino off?

Provenzano –

i agree wholly with what you say about Totti and the azzurri formation. your 4-3-1-2 sounds interesting, but i am not clear from your discription what players would be where. maybe a diagramme would help?

Alessio & Bashar –

a tap-in and a deflection for Aquilani … if anyone and their mother could score it, why couldn’t Gilardino? or why didn’t any of the other strikers for that matter? you can minimize Aquilani’s importance all you want, but it only diminishes the abilities of the others.

Gilardino had so many more opportunities to score (in this as well as the last three) but failed to. Aquilani, a midfielder, had few chances but drove that one home. as for the deflection, it does not matter. the guy took a shot on goal and it went in. more than i can say for Gilardino who could barely get a shot and missed 3 golden opportunities with nice service balls.

also, note that Gilardino has been played more and had more opportunity to prove himself this campaign, and Aquilani looked great when he was fielded under Donandoni despite being played out of position.

bottom line :

Aquilani deserves to be on the team. Gilardino does not.