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Why Giampaolo Pazzini Is The Perfect Man For Juventus
January 14, 2010
First of all, I'm not saying Pazzini is going to turn water into wine and be Juventus' all mighty lord and savior, but he does something that Juves strikers have failed to do—score. He doesn't need to come in the currently open transfer window (this season is basically down the gutter anyway so it would be ultimately pointless), but this summer Juventus need to consider making a strong push for the Blucerchiati and Italy striker.
Absence of Trezegol
While it seems Del Piero is like a fine wine and gets better with age, the same can't be said about Trezeguet. Just when it was looking like he was ready to be "Trezegol" again, he got struck down back to earth with an injury that will have him out to about early February. He'll return from injury fine, but it's still unknown if he will be able to refind the form that has led him to become Juventus' all-time foreign leading scorer.
Anybody But Amauri
Amauri on the other hand, to put it kindly, has been horrendous. When Juventus first purchased him all the guy would do was score. He wasn't playing overly good, but the man was putting the ball in the net, scoring 13 goals before the new year, including a brace against Milan on the Dec. 14. January hit and the opposite started to happen. He wasn't scoring but he was playing better than when he was scoring. Amauri finished with just one goal to finish off his remarkable start, but his play improved.
The question was which Amauri would we see under Ciro Ferrara . The scoring machine that didn't play outstanding, or the super star who performed well without tallying goals. We got a mix of the two Amauris we saw last season—and not a good mix.
Amauri hasn't been scoring (four goals on 19 starts) and he has been missing chances a Serie D player could be putting in. He has been playing with his back to goal, trying to hold up the ball and do all these tricks and flicks—something he wasn't bought to do. I wouldn't mind seeing him do these things playing as a Support Striker behind Iaquinta (Amauri and Iaquinta actually have some good chemistry, nothing like Del Piero and Trezeguet though), but he plays back to goal when playing in the striker slot, when we need him to play front to goal.
Iaquinta is Juves best striker at the moment. The former Udinese man is great in the air, has pretty good speed, and when he gets hot, he gets hot. His injury was a huge blow, and his return soon should be a big boost to the Juventus camp. One criticism I have of Iaquinta, as good as he is on one on one's with the keeper, and getting on the other end of through balls, he does have a tendency to miss sitters once in a while. While these missed sitters don't usually matter and just prevent him from finishing a hat trick or something, they could prove to be costly.
Simple as that for your simple p azz o
Pazzini is a perfect hit man—he keeps it simple. No fancy Amauri back to goal crap, he knows his role—and does it well. Currently he sits in seventh in Serie A scoring with eight goals to his name. Good in the air, which could come at a little surprise as he stands at 5'11", Pazzini is a fast, relatively young (25) striker finally getting the playing time he worked for so hard at Fiorentina . Fiorentina's purchase of Gilardino two summers ago, while a smart purchase, was kind of a slap to Pazzini's face. It basically said "we don't trust you to be our number one go to guy." That January he was transferred to Sampdoria.
Instant chemistry was built with the rejuvenated Cassano . Sampdoria have a fairly good team, but Cassano and Pazzini were born to play with each other. Cassano's creativity coupled with Pazzini's eye for goal makes them one of the most feared duos in Italy—and one could argue Europe.
But that brings another point. Some critics say Pazzini would not have success without a player of Cassano's vision and ability behind him. I feel that while Cassano does help the fact, he could have players like Diego , Giovinco , and Del Piero feeding him the ball, maybe all at the same time. I'm sure he would have no trouble transferring his Sampdoria success to Juventus. On another note, I would love to see both Cassano and Pazzini in a Juve kit, but that is probably asking for too much, especially on a team with Diego and Giovinco already. Let's just stick to getting Pazzini—for now.
Sampdoria and Pazzini have cooled off a bit lately (the former more than the latter), but there is no denying the man's talents.
With that said, I have no doubts that if Pazzo is sporting a Juve kit next year, he will not be on a short list that includes Tiago , Almiron , and Andrade (the same list Felipe Melo and Amauri are currently trying to play their way onto).
One reason I do have no doubts—Pazzini is a full blooded Juventino. History has shown us Juventinos will fight for the shirt, on and off the pitch. I know Pazzo will be no different.