It is often said that the most important thing in a football team is not possessing the best 11 players, but having a ‘balanced’ line-up.
Anyone who has watched Barcelona this season will agree that their team is ridiculously unbalanced. There are too many creative centre midfielders in the ilk of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Deco, while the so-called ‘Famous Four’ of Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho (even if they have never all been fit at the same time) simply cannot all coexist.
Barcelona are perhaps the best example of why the balance in a football team is so important. On talent alone, there is not a team in Europe that boasts the creative and technical quality of the Blaugrana, yet unless they can triumph in the Champions League, they will again be winning nothing this season.
Milan could help to even up the Barcelona scales this summer by signing troubled superstar Ronaldinho.
The former European and World Footballer of the Year has had a miserable season, and has looked a pale shadow of his former greatness. Some argue that he has lost his pace and acceleration, others even say that he is completely finished as a footballer.
So would he be a good signing for Milan?
Well first of all, if there is one league in the world where a player who has supposedly lost a bit of speed can prosper, it is the slow-paced and tactically-orientated Serie A. The same accusations now being thrown at Ronaldinho were directed at a 32-year-old Luis Figo when he joined Inter from Real Madrid in 2005. However the Portuguese legend has been a huge success.
The friendly and elegant environment at Milan, coupled with all the Brazilians already at the club, would also help Ronaldinho re-find that smile he always seemed to wear on the field a few years ago.
The big question though has to be whether or not Ronaldinho and Kaka can co-exist in the same team. Both players, if you exclude the latter’s brilliant winner against Croatia, were extremely poor throughout the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Indeed in many people’s eyes it was the inability of Kaka and Ronaldinho to play together that was the major factor in the Selecao’s hugely disappointing tournament. Going into the four-week festival, the pair were labelled by many as the best two players in the world, yet they repeatedly took up the same positions on the pitch, failed to combine, and as a result there was just no attacking fluency to Brazil’s play.
Of course part of the blame can be directed at then Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira for not tweaking his system so that it could incorporate both into the same line-up.
Is there a system though? And if there is – would next season’s Milan be able to pull it off?
A 4-3-3 of Kaka, Pato and Ronaldinho would create another Ka-Pa-Ro, and would surely delight football purists, as well as terrify many defenders. However all three of these players are not going to help out in a defensive capacity, and when you add Clarence Seedorf to the mix as well, then you most certainly have a problem. Analogies to the Barcelona ‘Famous Four’ can certainly be made.
When you consider that playmaker Andrea Pirlo is far from the strongest in a defensive sense, especially when he is left isolated, this will leave Milan with only one natural defensive player in the middle-of-the-park, which will be Gennaro Gattuso.
The other alternative of course will be to drop Seedorf, and play Massimo Ambrosini. Everyone knows though that if Seedorf’s status becomes that of a squad player, it is better off selling him, otherwise the whole dressing room will be torn apart.
Thus the signing of Ronaldinho, as appealing as it may look on the outside, may actually present more problems for Milan than it solves.
Carlo Garganese
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翻译团's Lounge -> [足球]Can Kaka & Ronaldinho Play Together?