Livorno vs Parma, The Biggest Loser Serie A Edition

By: Marco Stucazzo | October 27th, 2007

Livorno walks on the Stadio Taridini pitch Sunday with 2 points on the books. They’ve been on a week long retreat in Salsomaggiore where they can’t be harassed by pesky Livornese groupies and that irresistible Livorno nightlife and stay away from the excellent club scene. Rumour, has it that Ozzy Osbourne we’ll be playing the Picchi on Sunday. GC Camolese decided that a Ritiro was necessary. Fitness coach GP Vetrone was sacked this week and that says a lot about Livorno’s recent form.

A part from the injury and form troubles of Livorno, the cohesiveness of this unit is not one of their strong points this season. With such ’’ notable’’ arrivals as DTristan, Nico Pulzetti ,Erjon Bogdani , G. GiannniCheddda, and Vika$h Dhorasoo (French Indo-Mauritians represent!) Livorno need to Gel as quick as possible to be able to get out of the relegation zone.

They also have had to adjust to the departure of Cristiano Lucarelli, the Wayne Gretzky of Livorno. #99 and all but I would say Lucarelli is slightly less of a sell out than The Great One. (Did I just put a hockey reference in a Livorno post? Why yes I did, I’m Canadian eh!)
If the Tardini outfit continues playing like this, Ex-Amaranto Boss Mimmo Di Carlo will soon be joining Nando Orsi as a member of the Special Club of coaches with no team, at least the Club President is Marcello Lippi and the guy doing the public relations is Jose Mourinho. That’s a nice club to be in but Nando Orsi and Mimmo Di Carlo aren’t the type to earn that SKY or RAI commentator money. The Parma squad has a nice mix of promising youngsters and veterans. Ex Livorno mid, Stefano Morrone should start for Parma, his solid defense and knack for the occasional goal had been missing for Livorno this terme. The Midfield Duo Daniele Dessena and Luca Cigarini are mainstays on the Italia U21 squad and are hailed to be solid starters on the senior squad in due time. With De Rossi, Cigarini, Aquilani and Dessena the Azzurri have a nice future in midfield, but enough about our beloved azzurri squad. Francesco from the Parma Offside has a your GialloBlu preview right here

Prediction: Livorno 2-1
For once the Livorno squad’s play should get another coach sacked, but not theirs this time. Serioulsy, they NEED to win if not it will be a very hard mountain to climb to safety this year.

For Livorno to win me,i get the feeling Marco Amelia will need to look like this… Goal and all

Doobie-doobie-doobie-doobae!

Probable Squads:
Parma: Bucci; Zenoni, Paci, Couto, Castellini; Dessena, Cigarini, Morrone, Gasbarroni; Reginaldo, Corradi
Livorno: Amelia; Knezevic, Pavan, Galante; Balleri, A. Filippini, Dhorasoo, M. Loviso, Pasquale; Tavano, E. Bogdani
Bench: De Lucia, Grandoni,Giannnicheddda, Pulzetti, E. Filippini,Diamanti, Rossini
That’s right no sign of Diego Tristan.

La Gazzetta is predicting a 30% chance we see Grandoni instead of Dario Knezevic, but Aldo Spinelli lashed out at GC Camolese after last Sunday’s game for leaving the young Croatian out of the starting eleven. Nico Pulzetti may start over Loviso.

Even if this is his second game in charge, Giancarlo Camolese is already on the hot seat, being the Coach of Livorno will do that to you. The tactician tinkered with the squad this week, testing out Ale Diamanti behind Big Bad Bogdani this week. But he looks like he’s going to revert to the good old 3-5-2 that all relegation battlers seem to be using. The Livorno press says that Francesco Tavano has been looking all 2005 this week so he’ll probably get the nod ahead of Diamanti on Sunday. One of the Filippini twins should both be monitoring right flank and switching with his brother at half-time just to mess with your head.

Persian defender Rezaei is going to be looking from the bench(woo-hoo) and V-Money should be starting from the get go. I can’t wait to see how the Indo-Mauritian Frenchamn fairs up at 34 on this Livorno squad.

It would be an understatement to say that this is a must-win game for Livorno so i ain’t gonna say it, but the Labronici need to run like crazy for 90 minutes and hope that Lucca Bucci starts looking like Nelson Muslera. A tie wouldn’t be a bad thing but the Amaranti need to start collecting points against the mid to lower level clubs fast.

Onwards!