Ajaxtalk

Juventus must decide - minnow or giant?

By Mina Rzouki
Thursday 03 March 2011

Evidently Juventus are suffering and everyone at the club has been blamed for the crisis with good reason. Management has been criticised for poorly conducted transfer campaigns, players have been accused of playing without passion and determination and the Coach has been condemned for his poor tactics. However, whichever way you look at it, the problem with Juventus is purely psychological. Everyone from the management down to the Coach and his players are suffering from the weight of this prestigious jersey and the pressure has become too much to bear as none of these people are well acquainted with the notion of infinite success.

Playing and indeed working at Juventus requires something more than talent – it requires mental strength. Unfortunately this mental strength is missing from all areas and as such, we continue to witness a psychologically weak Juventus acting as a provincial side that relentlessly falls prey to panicked dealings.

Starting with management, they arrived with a clear plan but succumbed to panic almost immediately and began to act hastily. Rather than stick with the current spine of the team and work on the areas that required bolstering, they changed everything too quickly and in doing so made several mistakes. One was unloading Diego for such a paltry sum. The most significant was the decision to purchase Jorge Martinez for such a high price. Beppe Marotta has since explained they overspent as they desperately required another winger in time for the Europa League qualifiers but if they analysed the player properly then they would have gathered that he is a type of winger best suited to a 4-3-3 formation and not to Del Neri’s 4-4-2 that focuses heavily on the work rate of the wingers. That ill-advised purchase was clearly the result of panic as were the purchases of Armand Traore and Leandro Rinaudo as full-backs.

With regards to the players, David Trezeguet put it best when he said: “Juventus need to sign three champions who are used to winning trophies, not eight who are used to finishing in fourth place.” Purchasing champions does not solely buy you outrageous flair - it buys you a strong mentality and the will to fight until the dying minutes of the game. In the match against Bologna, only Alessandro Del Piero seemed desperate to find a goal whilst the rest of the squad sank deeper into low self-esteem – typical for players unaccustomed to fighting for top honours. With a team that can no longer depend on Milos Krasic’s creativity, it is evident from the match against Parma, that they now doubt their ability to cope without individual talent.

As for the Coach, it appears he has also given into panic. Being a great tactician who is well versed in the art of psychological training will get you the job but staying true to your ideals and your vision of the game under increasing pressure and mounting criticism is quite the other. Luigi Del Neri is beginning to lose himself and by trying to adapt to the ideas of those around him, he has begun to lose games. The problem with the match against Bologna was that the Coach lost confidence in his methods. He attempted to be versatile by changing the shape of the squad and it resulted in a terrible loss as his high defence were left exposed yet again. What he should have done was stayed faithful to his vision.

However you look it, Juventus have two options. Either they continue to believe they are giants of the game by working diligently, ruthlessly and with composition as they add a champion to the ranks each year or they accept they are no longer a big team and rid themselves of the pressure. What will it be?

GangstaRiB schreef:Juventus - AC Milan. Tranen springen je in de ogen. Wat een nivo. Als je zou zeggen dat De Graafschap tegen Willem 2 aan het spelen was, zou ik het ook geloven.

Sampdoria stuurt trainer Di Carlo weg

GENOA - Sampdoria heeft trainer Domenico Di Carlo maandag ontslagen. De coach moet vertrekken wegens de teleurstellende resultaten.

De nummer veertien van de Serie A verloor zondag met 2-3 van het gepromoveerde AC Cesena. Het was de zesde nederlaag in de laatste tien wedstrijden.

'Samp' staat nog maar drie punten boven de degradatiestreep.

Alberto Cavasin is de opvolger van Di Carlo. Hij heeft een contract tot het einde van het seizoen gekregen.

Feest schreef:Wekelijks inzitten op een rode kaart en een penalty tegen bij Juventus en je loopt helemaal binnen....

'AS Roma moet weer één van de topclubs van deze aarde worden'
Maandag, 28 maart 2011 om 10:48

De overname van AS Roma staat op het punt om afgerond te worden. Thomas Di Benedetto, de beoogde nieuwe clubeigenaar, is maandag in Italië gearriveerd voor afsluitende gesprekken met het huidige bestuur. De Amerikaan heeft grootse plannen: hij wil met Roma ieder jaar de Scudetto winnen, een nieuw stadion bouwen en ieder seizoen zes nieuwe spelers kopen.

Di Benedetto lijkt de koop van Roma nog deze week af te ronden en wil de gevallen topclub er weer bovenop helpen. “Mijn droom is dezelfde als die van miljoenen supporters: Roma moet weer één van de topclubs van deze aarde worden, met een team die ieder jaar mee kan doen om de Scudetto en de Champions League”, zei de zakenman in La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Hoe kan ik het mooi verwoorden? Alle wegen leiden naar Rome…”

Di Benedetto heeft reeds een team mensen om zich heen verzameld: “Dit zijn mensen met veel voetbalkennis en weten wat er momenteel allemaal speelt in de voetballerij. Ik denk dat er in de zomer enkele spelers zullen vertrekken en er vijf of zes nieuwe jongens gehaald zullen worden. Roma is een geweldige club, maar de laatste jaren lijkt de club in een neerwaartse spiraal te zijn terechtgekomen. Daar willen we een einde aan maken.”

VZ

Hoeladans schreef:Jaja, klinkt goed.