Inconsistently Impressive

By: Jeremy | October 26th, 2009

cossu2

Another shock weekend with a surprising result, this time in our favor as Cagliari used the homefield and a bit of help to edge Genoa in the latest of what will be many must win games.

The most important note of the week was the starting of Nene who scored on a PK to tie the game, but who still needs more time on the field to get Cagliaris offense rolling. His presence made the offense better even if the chances were still created and typically finished by the midfield players. Dont make too much of this rare start as a midweek game tells us Allegri wants to use the depth of the team to his advantage even if he is playing his strikeforce depth from the bottom of the deck.

Bad luck for both teams made this game a high scoring enjoyable one, but Cagliaris strength in midfield won this game as it will often have to do until some offensive stability is created.

Genoas first goal was total luck off a deflection where Marchetti had no chance. Cagliaris equalizer by my man Biondini came after a sequence of kicks following a clear offsides. Luck evened up. Genoas second go ahead goal could not have been teed up any better by Lopez who continues to find a way to gift easy goals to the opponents at the wrong time. The hand ball that lead to Nenes penalty kick was really unexplainable as the Genoa player did not know where he was and had no need to do what he did. Luck evened up again. The winning goal from Lazzari was probably the best finished goal of the day after Matris lucky flip giving Cagliari a great win. Lazzari would be a better strike partner then Matri for Jeda if Allegri is unwilling to play Nene.

You can call it luck or whatever you want, but the overall midfield pressure created those chances and the strength of the team which allows substitutes such as Lazzari to come in fresh without a drop off in team performance will win games like these. Cossu continues to be his brilliant self and if we keep him past the winter break, it will be a surprise. He will be with a big club next year but enjoy him as he really should be in the national team for the World Cup.

Allegri may have just played Nene from the beginning because we have a midweek game and he needed to rest Matri and Jeda. Despite the obvious, Allegri surely must see that he needs to give Nene a consistent run of games as his success is needed or we are more likely to lose games like this then win them. Dont expect Nene to start midweek against Lazio but if does not start next weekend, he truly is buried on the bench for the forseeable future.

Despite the win, the team is still too far down in the standings relative to the talent. There are holes with Lopez in the defense and Matri up front, but they can be fixed and a real swarming team does exist if Allegri will let them go at it. This weekend was just a taste of it, but it has to be frustrating to be able to come back twice and fight strong against the likes of Genoa yet we fail miserably against teams like Siena and Catania. If we had beat those two bottom dwellers we would be top four in the standings and that is not asking much. Very tough to figure our team out.

The race for relegation is shaping up and there are 3-4 teams that clearly have problems and Cagliari seems to be just above them even at their worst. That being said, we are relegation candidates until the team can put together 3-4 wins in a row.

With a midweek game on the road to Lazio, a team struggling and feeling like Cagliari that they should be higher in the standings, another tough game is in store for us so lets see how we respond to a confidence boosting win.

Overall we are probably 2-3 points lower then we should be at this point in the year. We have won a couple of games where draws may have been more the expected result and lost a couple of games we had no business losing, but with the overall talent in Serie A, midtable seems to be our ceiling simply because we are too inconsistent like most teams without great players in all positions. We are struggling because we are missing a striker and who we brought in for whatever reason has not been able to replace what we lost. This must be resolved and my thoughts as to what must be done have already been outlined in previous posts.

Its going to be a roller coaster ride for this team this year which should end up with us just safe enough to be happy. While safety should make any fan happy, some of us are wondering what must happen to take that step for a 6th to 8th place finish. We have to feel the talent is there and with a little tweaking, it is not an unrealistic expectation.

Lets go to Rome and take three points and put Ballardini on the hotseat. Why he left Palermo for Lazio is beyond me I dont care how crazy their owner is.