Not Good Enough

By: Jeremy | April 7th, 2009

For those of you who watched the Catania game, were there really any surprises? While I felt Cagliari would win, I thought there might be a little more assertiveness in this game as the team desperately wanted to show their rivals that they want a european spot. The end result was a typical Cagliari/Catania game. Very tightly played, no real threats from either side, and one goal decided it. Luckilly we got the goal even if it was not pretty.

There are multiple ways of looking at this game. Common sense says a win is a win. You get it and move on while preserving your place. Winning the game means you will have a chance to play a stronger rival for what could be a european place. You dont want to lose points to teams that you need to beat if you have higher aspirations. Cagliari achieved all of this and we as fans should be happy.

On the other hand, we are not in surivival mode as that has been achieved. If we are indeed looking to move up and gain a european place, we need to be better then we showed against Catania. With each of the teams we are chasing winning their games, we are in a place where there can be no let ups. We must perform each week and play in a way that causes teams to be a little concerned that they are facing us. We are not on that level right now.

No matter which way you look at this result, winning means we get to play a meaningful game the following week. We head to Florence to play Fiorentina who is trying to chase down Genoa and hold off Roma for the final Champions League place. They sit on 52 points while we are at 45 points. We beat them at home in the first half as a part of our run up the table. After that win, teams started to take notice of us and our play continued to improve.

While I stated earlier that Fiorentina would be lucky to hold a Champions League position, despite their slight drop, they are still a strong club and we must be much better then we were against Catania if we are going to beat them on the road. Even without Mutu, they will be geared for revenge. They have managed to beat Siena at home and Atalanta on the road the past two weeks. They have done just enough to win as we did against Bologna and Siena. The fight at the top is a much different battle. Wins are assumed and needed just to keep pace. A bad performance or two will see you drop quickly and can destroy team spirit. Ask Napoli about this.

So why do I seem a bit negative? Cagliari has clearly established that we are a good team and not relegation fodder. Therefore, all fans, including myself, need to change our mindset to that to a supporter of a winning team. Where we would be ecstatic in past years to eek out a win against Catania, now we must look at our performance against those who want the same european spots as we do. We are not playing as well as Palermo or Roma, our main rivals for europe, and while I think Genoa is overrated and Fiorentina has dropped, our recent performance is not good enough to beat any of these teams, Genoa match aside. The good news is that by winning these matches against the likes of Catania and Bologna, we get a game where things can click for us on just one afternoon and a win achieved. The win would be meaningless if we had not beaten the inferior teams previously.

Simply put we must step it up. Relying on sound defense and a crap goal by Matri will not get it done against Fiorentina. After that game we face Napoli and Sampdoria before we see games with Roma and Palermo, not to mention Inter. The team needs to improve its play, even if the play has been solid recently. We arent fighting teams like Livorno or Empoli for a place in Serie A next year, but we are fighting some good teams for a european place. Expectations are much different and the fans need to feel that.

Allegri should be complimented for his ability to get the team to win close games against inferior opponents, but he needs to find some magic to get Jeda and Acquafresca back on track so we can beat the good teams. If he cant do that and the players dont step it up, euorpe will remain something that is just a bit more then we can achieve.

The game next week is huge so lets get motivated to win it.