You have to hit it flat in the middle with no swerve.

Not many players can hit a football like Pirlo. His technique is absolutely perfect. Looks so effortless.

Been reading that Gattuso will be spending time at Colney.
Nice.

Sweet. One of the best off-the-ball pressing players in modern football. Need to explain to some of our players why it's vital to do that.

Never ever liked him, from his Rangers days.
Can't explain why but have always thought he is a prize plonker.
Even when he was performing well at Milan, i felt the team carried him more.
All that gorilla chest thumping did not impress me!

It was weird, he started out life looking more like a creative force at rangers

Not that difficult looking like a creative force at Rangers though.

Sounds like a poor man's Flamini.....

flobaba wrote:

Sounds like a poor man's Flamini.....

Difference is Gattuso was undroppable in his prime.


Hmm, I see what you did there...

Claudius wrote:
flobaba wrote:

Sounds like a poor man's Flamini.....

Difference is Gattuso was undroppable in his prime.

😆

Gattuso was a little lesser version of Edgar Davids for me. A Davids with less technique and bigger lungs, perhaps. It was all about movement between the lines. The way they ran at breakneck speed for ninety minutes in every game was incredible. Davids did it to create room for himself though, because he had the skills to be creative (Ramsey is actually a wee bit like him at the moment). Gattuso did it to make room for others, like Pirlo and Seedorf. His insane pressing high up the field helped to define the way central midfielders have developed in the last decade.

If Flamini had half as much about him he would have been one of the best French footballers of his generation, rather than the guy with 4 caps at the age of thirty.

Why would Gattuso train at Colney? I must say that I don't understand the incentive.

I thought he was working on his coaching badges.

Surely he already has his coaching badges?

I would have thought that you needed a certain amount of qualifications in order to be a manager, in a top league anyway.

As far as I'm aware it's a learning experience. Think I read it described as an internship somewhere. Colney is just one of a number of places he is going for a short spell.

I don't see how he could already have his coaching badges. He only stopped playing this year and immediately took a management job. The program at Coverciano where they educate all Italian managers is three years long. If he's serious about it he'll go there at some point. You don't need three years of theory to get a FIFA licence on the other hand, but you still need to study. I think they give you six months or a year of leeway if you're already working as a manager, but you need to do it.

Reckon Davids was nandroloned to the eyeballs during his Juve days. His energy and workrate was not human.

Yeah, I think a lot of footballers were back in the nineties. Did you read Jean-Jacques Eydelie's book (and subsequent interviews in L'Equipe) about the scandal in Marseille? He claimed that they got doped up in the dressing room the same day as the Champions League final. The only player in the entire squad who refused to take anything was reportedly Rudi Völler, who was absolutely furious and had to be contained by his teammates because he was about to go apeshit on Bernard Tapie with his fists.

And then there were the Juve trials. And the strong connection between Spanish top flight football and disgraced doping doctors like Eufemiano Fuentes and Luis García del Moral. European football really stinks. Makes you wonder how much shit is still going on today. I don't think it's natural for some of these guys in Barca and Real Madrid to play 80 games each year where they cover ground in a way that's comparable to maraton runners.

That is a can of worms the football doesn't want to open though, it seems. Can you imagine if a couple of top, top players were suspended for 2 years?

Wenger has confirmed we've signed players from other clubs who were doped. Said during medicals certain players were found to have abnormally high red blood cell counts.

Yeah remember reading about Voller losing it. Strong rumours that there is evidence of doping in the 1996 Juve CL win but UEFA won't look into it as it has been too long. I believe this is the first world cup where there will actually be blood doping tests, absolutely astonishing that even in this day and age it isn't done yet in football. Wenger (who is victim of it in his Monaco days) has been calling for this for years now. Without naming names some Spanish and German clubs are still thought to be on it. I bet if the English clubs had been doing the powers at UEFA and FIFA would of personally overseen to the clubs being made an example of.

For those on twitter @giggs_boson is someone to follow about doping, he covers other sports as well but mainly talks about football.

Bayern and Barca dope, no doubts about it. Beckenbauer has openly admitted to blood doping back in the 70s.

I reckon that the vast majority of professional sportsmen playing at the top level are on something, in all sports.

The form of blood doping (or blood purification, rather) that Beckenbauer did wasn't illegal back then.

I don't think Bayern take anything to be fair. They are extemely vocal about these things. Their fitness can be explained by 34 league games per season, a winter break and only a single cup competition. Our players, by comparison, play an additional 15-20 games or so per season and get no winter break.

The Juve team of the mid-90's is always brought up and though they may be guilty, there was no doubting the quality of player they had at their disposal. They were amazingly good and beat teams using skill!
Premiership players, on the whole, do not seem less fit than most of those European clubs.
Even the all conquering Barcelona teams (2008/2011) did not prevail over manu due to fitness!

Klaus wrote:

I don't see how he could already have his coaching badges. He only stopped playing this year and immediately took a management job. The program at Coverciano where they educate all Italian managers is three years long. If he's serious about it he'll go there at some point. You don't need three years of theory to get a FIFA licence on the other hand, but you still need to study. I think they give you six months or a year of leeway if you're already working as a manager, but you need to do it.

Not a bad move if, unlike Stuart Pearce, he has grey matter between his ears.
I see him being successful at it, like another player i did not rate, Diego Simeone.

Fucking love those long passes from deep positions, really wish Arteta would do that.

It's not easy to do, and Pirlo is the best in the world at it.

Arteta spread the ball relatively well actually.

Yeah, he's fine. Not Pirlo/Scholes level but good enough.

He's good at what he does, but someone who could reliably release Walcott from deep would be incredible for our game.

Alonso is free in the summer. Pirlo too I think.

Yes, Pirlo's contract runs out this summer, he's been linked with Spurs 😆

Saw him last year at the Euros against England, his long passing technique is beautiful to watch, it's like he's throwing it with his foot.

I was at the Germany game in the Semis and Pirlo is just incredible. There is only so much you can see on TV, but in a real match his intelligence and positioning is top notch.

We should really have taken a punt on Rossi as was suggested here a year ago