Former Lazio and Inter striker Hernan Crespo presented tonight’s duel between Ciro Immobile and Edin Dzeko.
Speaking in Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport (via LazioNews24) earlier today, the former Biancocelesti and Nerazzurri forward first spoke about the Lazio talisman’s sense for goal.
Immobile you always find him in the heart of the area, ready to strike. Either with the right or with the left, always attentive to the manoeuvre or a possible rebound.
He is the classic centre forward who tries to take advantage of every opportunity to kick the ball into the net.
He’s also skilled when he has to fake to suggest a pass and then curl the shot. His diagonal shots are thunderbolts.
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He then touched on Immobile’s speed and ability to get past his man.
Immobile’s sprints are deadly. They break the legs of the defenders, also because Ciro has power and resistance to sell.
He knows how to protect the ball well with his body and then he is rarely passed at speed. And believe me, that’s not an easy thing to do.
The former Lazio striker compared to differences between Immobile and Dzeko’s style of shooting.
I find that Immobile is often hasty in his shooting and this is to the detriment of accuracy. It is the aspect of quantity that strikes in him, he is everywhere, he moves a lot and shoots a lot.
Dzeko is a sentence. He has a great technique, he shoots very well even without running.
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Finally, Crespo compared the vision of the match of both strikers.
Immobile moves above all vertically. He dictates the deep passes, sprints to stretch the defence and forces the defenders to chase him.
He works hard, he presses and runs, but he doesn’t participate much in the build up. Dzeko, on the other hand, is a centre forward with the game vision of a midfielder, an offensive regista.
Both Immobile and Dzeko have had strong starts to the season under their respective new coaches; the duo are currently Serie A’s top scorers after seven games, having netted six goals each.
The 31-year-old Immobile is just returning from a thigh muscle injury and will be hoping to immediately hit the ground running again this evening at the Stadio Olimpico, where he will face off against his former coach and mentor Simone Inzaghi.