09-23-2015, 05:51 PM
Just for the record, I do not hate Zapata and I do believe alongside Ely they're the best to partner Romangoli at this point, but I do believe there are better options, Palletta for instance.
He's sure better than the past two season and keeping a rather consistent performance.
But let me explain. on both the Empoli and Palermo goals, he pushed up to recover the ball or atleast force a back-pass by the opponent, and in both he failed to do so which resulted in a great opportunity for Saponara and Hiljemark and also a goal.
In addition, his push to try and push Gilardino was simply wrongly timed, as he didn't even try tackling the ball and ended up holding Gila's back!
If you watch the highlights of both matches, you'd see how many times he failed to do this, only to see Diego Lopez pull off a great save.
DES actually was running alongside Hiljemark, and had we not tried to play that offside trap he would have stopped him. and replays show that no matter DES's position, Hiljemark would have been onside.
On Udinese's first goal, while he was adjacent to the crosser.. he failed miserably to stop his cross, he was close to him and actually allowed him the space and time to make the cross.
on the other hand, any good defender's inability to stop a cross would be because he's either too slow or atleast 1 meter away from the winger/striker or he's simply a bad defender.
for the second goal however, while we might argue that he was in the middle and had no fault on the cross and that the goal was probably offside(From the replays it shows D. Zapata and the ball were on the same line.), his Tactical sense failed him.. I mean, he was supposed to be our RB, so how he ended up being our LCB and Romangoli our RB is something I cannot understand.
While his standing tackle and his speed are his main strenghts, so far he has failed in both those aspects.
He's sure better than the past two season and keeping a rather consistent performance.
But let me explain. on both the Empoli and Palermo goals, he pushed up to recover the ball or atleast force a back-pass by the opponent, and in both he failed to do so which resulted in a great opportunity for Saponara and Hiljemark and also a goal.
In addition, his push to try and push Gilardino was simply wrongly timed, as he didn't even try tackling the ball and ended up holding Gila's back!
If you watch the highlights of both matches, you'd see how many times he failed to do this, only to see Diego Lopez pull off a great save.
DES actually was running alongside Hiljemark, and had we not tried to play that offside trap he would have stopped him. and replays show that no matter DES's position, Hiljemark would have been onside.
On Udinese's first goal, while he was adjacent to the crosser.. he failed miserably to stop his cross, he was close to him and actually allowed him the space and time to make the cross.
on the other hand, any good defender's inability to stop a cross would be because he's either too slow or atleast 1 meter away from the winger/striker or he's simply a bad defender.
for the second goal however, while we might argue that he was in the middle and had no fault on the cross and that the goal was probably offside(From the replays it shows D. Zapata and the ball were on the same line.), his Tactical sense failed him.. I mean, he was supposed to be our RB, so how he ended up being our LCB and Romangoli our RB is something I cannot understand.
While his standing tackle and his speed are his main strenghts, so far he has failed in both those aspects.