We'll be without Juve & Napoli players since they will be in Beijing for the coppa italia. So no Pirlo, Chiellini, Barzagli, Marchisio, Bonucci, Buffon, Giaccherini and Giovinco. For Napoli it's probably the end of the road for De Sanctis. We won't have Maggio available or Insigne (if Prandelli was feeling adventurous)
Great time to test some new blood! Hope he selects Verratti, heard great things of him and want to see how he'll do.
Prandelli's record in friendlies is remarkably bad. Prandelli competitive record: W 10 L 1 D 5. GF 26 GA 9 Prandelli friendly record: W 3 D 2 L 5. GF 8 GA 9 I would not expect great things from these friendlies. Hopefully we will show some good things at Confederations Cup and WC 2014 Qualifying though.
wow awesome friendlies...i agree its perfect time to inject new blood into these teams. I doubt england will bring all their guns either, their league will be starting then.
It's not necessarily a bad thing. Ogbonna, Astori, Ranocchia, Balzaretti is a decent backline for a friendly
Agreed. It is ok to use one central defender that isn't pacy..but when you have 2 of them back there with little pace, the defense can be carved up. Ogbonna has nice foot speed. One of the reasons Spain's defense was so good is that Ramos is pretty darn quick. He really helped close down a lot of chances for them.
By the way, keep an eye out for Marco Capuano from Pescara. He's tall, agile, and fast. Plus, he has good feet.
Would someone create an updated thread about the current youngsters or even a bit older players (who didn't play for the Azzurri yet) to keep an eye on for the Azzurri? I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable as some of you guys here otherwise I would have done so myself.
