[Emir]

In the last few days/weeks I saw a lot of anti-Mihajlovic posts on this forum
"He is too slow", "he should be sold", "not close to a good defender", and so on.
I respect that everybody has a right of an opinion. My opinion is that whoever thinks Mihajlovic is a bad player doesn´t understand what football is about.
Please, please remember how many points Miha has won for us, how many important goals and assists are coming from his left foot. Then remember how many great games he has as a defender.
(Miha and Nesta were in central defence against Roma (4-1), after the game everybody blamed miha, nothing on Nesta)

In the last game against Valencia we had four defenders right? Gottardi sucked bigtime, but NOOOO everybody is blaming Miha.

Nobody said anything after the Juve-game when Mihajlovic made Inzaghi dissapear several times.

If you understand football, you will realize that 70% of our attacks are started by him. When you sit in front of the TV next time, hava a look and you will see Nesta/Negro/Pancaro and even Couto passing the ball to Miha, and Miha is starting an attack. This is valuable for the team.

No matter how good your defence is, you need to have a guy who vcan start a play, and Miha is the only one (maybe even Couto) in Lazio who can do that.
I don`t know about you, but I don´t wanna see Veron or Inzaghi going back deep into our own half to pick the ball.
Well there is much more to write about Mihajlovic, but I am sure that most of you won`t even bother to read this long post. Anyway...

FORZA MIHAJLOVIC


[This message has been edited by Emir (edited 07-04-2000).]

 

[Baz]

I agree, Miha is not the real problem in defence and he often contributes to our attacking. But honestly it could be worth trying another central defender like Couto on a regular basis. No matter what we are thinking though I think Miha is doing his last season as a regular in the starting line up, don't you think?

 

[Pomagia]

Like you say, Miha has contributed a lot to the victories so far, and without doubt he's the greatest placekicker. I've always admired and appriciated his skills and contributions, of course.

What I want to say the most is, basically, I agree with svennis in that Lazio should get another defender and keep Miha as well, and play either of the two according to the type of the opponent team and the situation. Like our midfielders, Miha could be one of the choices in the turnover-system. I would like Eriksson to stop sticking to only Miha.

If Miha was a STRIKER who didn't make goals by shooting but scored a lot of goals just by freekick and PK and assisted by corner kick, the problem wouldn't be serious or controversial. Because, regardless of the means, as long as he scored, he could fulfill the required job without bringing any damages to the team.
But he's a DEFENDER. That's the serious part of the problem. He's like a double-edged sword, cutting the opponents as a fatal weapon, and cutting ourselves sometimes.

I'm willing to admit that a lot of Lazio's goals are the fruits given birth to by his left foot.
But, on the other hand, I wonder why Lazio got so many great midfielders and has tried to get great attackers whom most of other teams envy. Why does such a team have to depend soooooo much on just one player in order to score? Can't such great and expensive players do without Miha?
Besides, as the result, this has caused another problem that Lazio has to depend too much on just one another player Nesta in the defense.

Considering these ambivalent facts, I should say, this Lazio is not well-ballanced as a team, and I cannot help thinking that Lazio made a mistake from the beginning, in the building of the team.
I want this team to have better-ballanced structure and effective tactics.

Don't get me wrong. I don't say we should get rid of Miha.

 

[Pomagia]

About a specific matter you mentioned...

"Miha and Nesta were in central defence against Roma (4-1), after the game everybody blamed miha, nothing on Nesta"

You're wrong. Wrong!
Indeed, some fans blamed Miha in this forum. BUT! That happened almost only in this forum, as far as I noticed around the time.
Outside, such as on papers, magazines, other newssites on football and by Lazio fans especially who live in Roma, that was actually Nesta who was by far the most severely accused.
For example, the ratings for him were the lowest on every place, the comments were the same, and at Formello the fans' abuse, attacking and throwing coins against Nesta were the hardest of all the players.

After other games, it's Nesta who is usually blamed when the defense has some problems or when we lost. I remember, even when Miha chased the opponent striker but couldn't catch up, a paper wrote that it was Nesta's mistake. It said that Nesta should have run, instead of letting slow Mihajlovic run. I've seen this sort of treatments quite often.

Seems like people take it for granted that only Nesta has to work hard as the central defender, and he is responsible for all the defense problems, and ,of course, for most of the conceded goals.

Please realize the reality outside of this forum.

 

[LELA]

Emir, I have only one thing to say. WELL SAID. You must have read my mind and the rest of the Miha supporters. I couldn't agree more.

 

[Emir]

Pomagia, in the bottom of your message you wrote: "Please realize the reality outside of this forum"
Well, thank you for the tip. You know as a matter of fact, I spend at least 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, "realizing the reality" of Italian football. So please don´t tell me that I live in a "forum world"!!!

Regarding your posts I think that you are right when you say that a team needs more balance in the defence. Another central defender would be great to have. But Miha needs to be on the pitch. I remember this season, when Miha did that stupid thing with his elbow and got suspended. We played two games without him, against Milan and Parma. We took one point.
In those two games we had more then 20 corners and lot of dangerous free-kicks. But, Miha was not there, and non of the situations were dangerous.
Anyway I think that Sven-Göran Eriksson is more qualified then us and that he is making the right choices. As long as he has a faith in Mihajlovic, I will have it as well. We (even myself sometimes) are spending to much time in "playing Lazio-coach".

FORZA LAZIO

 

[Lochness_Monster]

This was written by Emir:

"Anyway I think that Sven-Göran Eriksson is more qualified then us and that he is making the right choices. As long as he has a faith in Mihajlovic, I will have it as well. We (even myself sometimes) are spending to much time in "playing Lazio-coach"."
I disagree with you Emir,we are the fans of Lazio,we love and we support this team and we want to be on the top,so we are a big factor in the decisions that are taken.Ok Errikson is the coach but he can make mistakes as well.We have the obligation to help and advise in our way lazio,the players,the coach and Cragnotti.

By the way it's good that they are some people who see how valuable is Mihajlovic for this team!

 

[svennis]

To Emir:

No doubt that Mihajlovic is the most gifted defender in Serie A and possibly the whole of europe when it comes to attacking and gameplay - I haven´t seen a single post in here stating otherwise.

We are having problems in defense this season because of 2 reasons. 1) We haven´t got a good attack which pushes the midfield very high up in the field allowing the opponents to counterattack with a cut-through pass ( see Valencia, Roma and Verona games for details ). When we are caught on the counterattack Miha shows the weakside of his game, namely defending.

2) Our defensiv midfielder numero uno Almeyda has had a bad season with lots of injuries.

As long as we have a bad attack we will have a bad defense.

 

[sslazio11]

Are you all crazy ????
who scored the wining goal against chelsea ??? who scored in champions league phase 1 ??? against maribor and leverkusen ????? who ?? he has the greatest freekick shoot on the whole world ! don?t say nothing across mihajlovic cause he's the best ! mihajlovic all round the world....

 

[Reale]

I love SINISA,but you have to admit,his defending is just about average,nothing more,nothing less.
On the attacking side,well,he is just
"SIMPLY THE BEST"!!

SEMPRE E SOLO FORZA LAZIO

 

[Sasha]

How about Miha as a left-back with Couto and Nesta in the centre? Maybe it's crazy but it's just an idea. He could get much more involved in the attack in this position. We need this guy on the pitch no matter what because he has scored so many crucial goals for us and free-kicks, corners and crosses
are his speciality.
I think he would be excellent in this position. You might not agree but please let me know anyway without killing me!!!

 

[sslazio11]

now, I know you all r sick of me but I have to say IT. WHY DO YOU HATE SINISA ??? I am born i Country he is and he is most popular human in that country ( YUGOSLAVIA ) Has anyone seen match Yugoslavia - Croatia (2:2) ??? Sinisa had 2 freekicks - once ha passed really good bal to Milosevic who scored and than the other freekick - ke passed again but this time to Stankovic and he scored !!! What about that match in serie A last season ? Mihajlovic made HAT TRICK out of free kicks... Do you fans of lazio all hate SINISA or am I wrong... Please tell me...

FORZA LAZIO !!!
FORZA MIHAJLOVIC !!!

 

[JUAN F]

I think Miha rules!!!

JF

 

[Kafka]

Miha is one of the best Lazio players and I'm glad that people like Emir understand his worth. It's so easy to see defensive mistakes and goals scored. That's why people think of Miha as being inconsistant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Miha is VERY reliable in passing and starting the offense. In that area he's the best in the world.

To those of you, like Svennis, who repeatedly have said Miha should be sold: put someone like Sol Campbell or Jaap Stam in his place and see if we're as good offensively. For every time Miha makes a defensive mistake, he makes ten good plays offensively. That brings us more options to start attacks and gives guys like Veron, Nedved and Conceicao the chance to get quickly into attacks.

And the free kicks. He hasn't scored that many this season, but still in every team there's the fear of giving up a free kick to Lazio. That way they are more careful with their tackles which gives our players more time to pass or dribble. I've seen this many times this season.

Miha is slow to be a central defender, that's for sure. But he's also very smart and is not often caught off position. Beside his lack of speed I think the only fault with him this season have been Corner Kicks. I don't know what's wrong but we haven't had good corners all season.

 

[sslazio11]

Kafka - You just know what to say to make a men Not angry ... Thx for your support and yours too, JUAN F. I have three lazio shirts of Mihajlovic at home and I am very proud of them. When Mihajlovic scored against Chelsea, i was almoust crying... ( for happines...) .. I also love Stankovic as player, he is 20 Years old and he plays very well ... What about when he's 27,28 ??

FORZA LAZIO !!!
FORZA MIHAJLOVIC !!!

 

[nasty nick]

mihajlovic is the best
who is beckham when we got mihajlovic
forza mihajlovic
forza lazio

 

[DeBoer]

Perhaps this topic is old, but I (a rookie) nevertheless feel the urge to post my opinions.
The thing is that you can't forget what football is all about, witch I admit is easy to do nowadys when its so much money involved. But for me Miha is one of the greatest footballplayers in Europe, I mean, he is purely pleasure, an entertaining attacking-defense (!) player. He is one of the most fun player to watch in action, and I know he helps creating a lot of new Laziofans all over the world.
And for his weakness, or rather the Lazio defense-problem, I can't see that he is mainly to blame (eventough he looks kind of slow from time to time).
In conclusion, if he would leave Lazio, it would be a poorer club, a club without one of the most entertaining players in the world.

FORZA LAZIO!

 

[Kafka]

DeBoer, good first post. Miha is a great entertainer, which cannot be said about your namesakes.

 

[sslazio11]

Finally you said it...
Mihajlovic is the best and there's a lot MIHAJLOVIC fans in Europe. He is the starter of many attacks and he mostly passes the ball on your foot that you MUST score...

FORZA LAZIO !!!
FORZA MIHAJLOVIC !!!