Name: Riccardo MONTOLIVO



Club: ACF Fiorentina
Number: 18
Position: CMF*
Nationality: Italian
Age: January 18, 1985 (age 25)

Foot: R
Side: B

Length: 181 cm
Weight: 76 kg

Attack: 76
Defence: 65
Balance: 79
Stamina: 85
Top Speed: 81
Acceleration: 80
Response: 84
Agility: 83
Dribble Accuracy: 84
Dribble Speed: 82
Short Pass Accuracy: 85
Short Pass Speed: 83
Long Pass Accuracy: 83
Long Pass Speed: 85
Shot Accuracy: 76
Shot Power: 85
Shot Technique: 79
Free Kick Accuracy: 80
Curling: 83
Header: 71
Jump: 77
Technique: 86
Aggression: 75
Mentality: 79
Keeper Skills:50
Team Work: 85

Injury Tolerance: A
Condition/Fitness: 8
Weak Foot Accuracy: 6
Weak Foot Frequency: 6
Consistency: 6

CARDS:
S02 – Passer
S05 – 1-touch play
S06 – Outside Curve
S20 – Scooping
P08 – Pinpoint Pass
P13 – Long Ranger
P20 – Talisman

SPECIAL ABILITIES:
*Tactical Dribble
*Playmaking
*Passing
*Middle Shooting
*1-Touch Pass
*Outside

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO10n9I3uOA&feature=sub[/youtube]

Stats Explained:

Stamina:
Stamina has improved as improved over the last season, being able to consistently play the full 90 minutes with out being completely gassed.

Dribbling & Technique:
He is really good at dribbling the ball with accuracy and beating people to create space for a pass or shot. I would put him below Lavezzi(85), Zarate(86) & Hamsik(86) that Re-Arranged & GoonerLover66 have made, but I feel he is almost as effective in his dribbling moves. But his 1st touch is arguably better than Lavezzi(85), Zarate(83) & Hamsik(85). It is one of his best qualities, his ability for silky smooth touches. He can do things like juggle the ball while running almost full speed, but there is another side. Due to his lack of strength, he seems to have a hard time shielding the ball with his body. So he is does often get the ball poked away from his feet. But can usually get the ball back somehow. He will not beat people with his pace on the ball, if anything it would be due to his ability to change direction well, or his tactical dribbling skills.

Aggression & Attack:
Aggression is a tricky category for him, because he is pretty versatile in the MF. He can play as a Deep-Lying Playmaker, a Left-Sided Central MF, or an AMF. I feel this season with the development of Jovetic in the AMF role, he has not played that role as much and his attacking runs of last year and this summer are just a bit of a memory. I feel as far as attacking goes he is one of the more competent CMF/AMF players in the Serie A. Not on the level of Doni & Perrotta...but in the next class. He is very good when pushing forward, and is a natural AMF despite playing more a CMF role. Most of his shooting is around the outside of the box, but he does penetrate into the box as well. He is very good at attacking from the left-side and then cut the ball back to his right foot to either deliver that killer cross or a well placed shot. Very unselfish in the area. After trying out 78Att/77Agg, and I didn't like how effective he was. He was going too far into the box, and when he would sit at the top of the box he was too effective, and it was an easy middle shot every time. That is why I decided to put him at 76att/75agg.

Defense & Mentality:
Despite his lack of willingness to fight defensively, he does have nicely timed pokes and sometimes slide tackles to win the ball back. But definitely lacking in his positioning. Which can be harmful when playing a deep-lying MF playmaker role. I have to say his effort has disappointed for much of the season. For such a talented guy, it's like he's not even on the field at times. That is reflected well with his low mentality rating.

Agility:
He is by no means on the same level as Hamsik(89) or Zarate(87). But given his size, he is very fluid in his movements. His ability to change direction, and twist and turn is the reason for his effectiveness in his ability to shoot from angles, or to get space to make a shot or pass. He is able to beat stronger defenders by his ability to keep the defender from getting into a physical battle. He maneuvers well to keep his distance. I know that Red gave Mutu an 83 agility, which was justified to be only that high by his lack of size. Montolivo is (+1cm) & (+1kg). I would probably rate them pretty similarly, but they will use their agility slightly differently. I don't think the slight difference in Height and Weight is enough to put him at an 84 agility. I know that on PSD, they were passionate about Mutu being at an 85/86. So on that database I would probably have Montolivo at an 84 easily.

Shooting:
In comparison to Hamsik, I think these stats stand pretty true. He does more cheeky goals than Hamsik, but is not better at getting shots on target under pressure. As most of his shots are from outside the box, he tends to score less, but also has some outstanding "highlight shots". But it should not be ignored that most of his shots are not on target. Having him on par with Cavani in SA seems very reasonable. Plus I gave him both *MS & *1-Touch so he can still provide those highlight goals.

Passing: Things people likely see in highlights is that he makes good killer passes under pressure. Can make awesome chip long passes like his assist to Gilardino in recent weeks. Good job of picking out teammates runs down the sideline or through the middle. But by looking more in depth into his passing this is what my analysis is:
He is a playmaker who seems to go for the killer ball at every opportunity. And he isn't quite accurate enough on his long passes to pull it off. But he does have special looking Long Passes, very pretty with nice curl and well weighted. But he doesn't have world class passing accuracy yet.
My analysis for his short passing game: Good quality "simple" MF passes. Just gets a bit off the more complicated the effort usually. In other words: He makes simple passes look really good, and when he attempts to make really good(complicated) passes the result is simple(or not an especially high rate of success).

In Conclusion: He is a playmaker in the works. Currently would be one of the worst Playmakers in the list of Serie A playmakers. But with a lot of potential in this area.

It hasn't been raised yet, it is being discussed. 69 for def is WAY too high for Montolivo. I have no comment on iniesta.

Raised Def up to 62

Notes vs Chievo:
CMF 18 Montolivo - Great goal from distance 1st goal of season/really nice LPassing this match/

Watched the game live and didn't take notes, but probably the best he has ever looked. His reading in the midfield was outstanding. He seemed like he was everywhere in the Midfield and reacting faster than others. Plus, it solidified my original thoughts on his speed. If you guys want to lower it, it is your database. But my Evo-Web speed stats will not change. 1st time I've felt he is a true playmaking prospect. Needless to say, I am pretty excited by this.

wouldn't be if i were you. He keeps this up he's gone in the summer or next. Believe it . And who said anything about his speed stats? I reckon his TS could be 82 actually. But wouldn't swear on it. Glad he's performing at a higher standard and making his presence felt in midfield. You think his passing could soon go up? His and C. Zanettis?

This is what I found in this thread, but I've heard people mention with ladders and discussing other players calling Montolivo's speed stats OVERRATED. So I just wanted to say that they aren't

And Ron if they sell him it will be for a bagillion dollars like Aquilani was, and then we could buy up 3 or 4 quality players adding depth for Europe But seriously I think the MF is being built around Monto, and finally I feel like its a good thing.

He'll have two years left on his contract coming summer though. I believe Aquilani had a lot more left...

you just love ''i told you so's'' don't you? About passing, your analysis looks right. Although I do think he can pull of nice ground passes from distance, just not consistently. What about removing playmaker from brackets? Is it possible that with his low mentality (and perhaps we could lower TW) he won't be much of a catalyst for the viola?

I mainly like "I told you so"'s when I make a good set that I watch closely and people doubt it But I didn't know it was you and zuo who questioned it in this thread.

ah but surely you'd rather we critique your stats rather than let them be. They may be some instances in which you are wrong and we are right Any thoughts regarding the return of playmaking*? He's been a playmaker from the beginning, a trequartista behind the front two, hence the comparisons with Antognoni (legendary viola playmaker). Reducing TW and maybe even attack would reduce his effectiveness if that's what we're worried about.

Yesterday done his 33 official match of the season...and we're still in early february.

He needs to wrap like this, then he is up to the Champions League tired.

No, I really like his style of play
and I am looking forward to his duel with Schweinsteiger

Yesterday was probably his best match in the fiorentina shirt. simply astonishing. passing was exquisite,ruled the midfield for all the 90's....tried some cool *Tact dribbles....and even gain back possession a lot of balls,but really like i've never seen from him. really,i am still shocked for how fiorentina lost yesterday. simply unbelivable.....roma didnt see the ball for all the match. for everyone who says that De Rossi is the best italian midfielder and Monto just some class......see this match. De Rossi was a ghost.If Monto play somewhat like this for again some time....i think we could move him on Consistency 6.
And Playmaking shouldnt be optional...is just like he plays....spraying passes horizontally.
And probably just SA/ST....in real life he's not that deadly.
The only thing that worries me it's his speeds.is really all about DS all the speed you can see in him.But probably the only real thing is his ACC...what makes me feel he's not fast is his showing without the ball. he can't recover players well or match up well like other players 81/80 do. with the ball he seems just more comfortable,but it's a DS thing.With the speeds montolivo with the ball is faster than Santana,Pasqual...both players that,well or not,have to play on the side with pace. Montolivo's game is not about pace. he could be deceptively faster?sometimes,but imo is about DS. He's faster on the ball than Pandev?.. Also,if he maintain like this,some little tweaks could go up in other ares.

Yeah, if he plays 2 more games like that I'll be buying his jersey. He was so impressive. But I'm not sure what exactly you are suggesting. I'm pretty comfortable with the stats in the 1st post, and I've used them a lot and they feel good. I'll need to convincing

that game was really astonishing. I've seen only the last 30' and i'm sorry i didn't see the rest... both teams were playing really good (even though fiorentina was making the game)... it was really a CL match level.

Roma didn't do much for the previous 60' min...totally outplayed. But they got the win. Cruel sport

Just For start Viola's update,Montolivo's "Carding":
-S02 Passer
-S05 1-Touch Play
-S06 Outside Curve
-S20 Scooping
-P08 Pinpoint Pass
-P13 Long Ranger
-P20 Talisman

Unfortunately,there is nothing like Tactical Dribble for replacement....and he's not a Trickster,nor a Mazinf Run/Incisive Run.
I just hope that some Stars are really hidden. cause Monto really deserves *Tactical Dribble.

Are you getting these from the Serie A Card Ladder Thread? Or coming up with them yourself?

Mostly of them taken from the card thread. the thread is for P cards only and S cards are basically the conversion of the stars. for monto i added Scooping just cause i noticed that he tends to do this silky chip short passes.

Anyone have doubts on this?

Also vs Bayern fortunately showed some kind of injury A after some really BAD tackles came back in field and played to the end.
Wasnt really at 100%,but got better and better as time passed....Condition 8 is really what he needs(and has) with this(right) Stamina rating.

Also,at some point of this season if he dont destroys all,he could be finalyl on a Consistency 6 rating.