DeCeglie isnt good enough to play for Italy. In fact Molinaro is much better than him though most of my fellow Juventini think otherwise but his performance against Messi told you all you need to know.
Criscito is good for this team if you like a fairly static left back with marginal feet and mediocre speed who can defend ok. I'm sorry, but that's not the traditional standard we Italians have for LB. Whether it was Cabrini, Maldini, Zambrotta or even Grosso....we excel with a LB that can push forward and attack. That's not Criscito. I think we have to look closely at Santon for the left and De Silvestri on the right. Obviously we have to watch Cassani, Maggio, Motta, and De Ceglie closely as well. These will form the core of our terzini for the future.
I will preface this by stating that im not a huge fan....Gila was crap this WC, but who wasn't, really. He isn't that good at creating an isn't very quick. He is good at holding the ball up and is good in the air. People quickly forget - he basically qualified us for the WC by leading all scorers and played pretty well the last WC. It was also funny watching people bitch and bitch that he blows and needs to come off, only to see whoever came in replacing him to do no better. Hopefully Prandelli can get him the support he needs to thrive and help him be consistent.
Since when do we play Right footed players at the left-back? Criscito is a left footed so was Grosso in his prime in 2006 and Maldini is Left-footed/with a good right foot before that. Also, Criscito is 23 years at his first world cup, relax.
The problems of this team were many... 1 - No legitimate play maker or creative outlet behind the front men since .....Totti left. Pirlo is great, but he needs someone up front to connect with .....as evidence of his play with Kaka and now Ronaldinho at Milan 2 - The defense was sh!t, but more because their shield in the midfield .....was also crap and I'm talking specifically of DDR 3 - Marchetti sh!t the bed and let nerves own him .....Marchisio too and to a lesser extend Criscito. I big LOLOLOL at all the .....idiots out there that thought just injecting youth into this team would .....solve all it's problems. 4 - The luck factor was not with us and the refs/linesmen were not going .....to give us advantage in any calls, ever. .....a) The NZ goal was offside .....b) Quag's 2nd goal vs Slovakia was not Two sets of rules it seems. 5 - Being the notorious slow starters that we are, just didn't work without .....the right circumstance, and by circumstances I mean the right players .....and right mentality. This is Lippi's to blame. So let's see, not only is Italy the most penalized team in the world at international level with goals called back, but now they're letting other teams score goals against us that are blatantly offside. Remember Scotlands during the Euro qualifying that came a hair shred close to seeing us out of the competition? Now the NZ game. Wonderful. I hope those responsible get their due deserts in this life or next.
You know I loved Maldini though in all the games I saw him play with the national team, I hardly ever saw him really push up into the attack. Even with Milan, I saw him score maybe only once or twice. Seems like I saw Grosso and Panucci play more in attack and score than Maldini ever did....
A fan of his? You said that he's not big, not strong, not fast, not deceptive in his movement, not dominant in the air, not technically gifted, not a good passer and not a good finisher... So what is it about Gilardino that, despite all of that, inspires you to be his fan?
I agree, he didn't impress me AT ALL. Of course, the guy is still very young, and this was his first time starting at a major tournament, so I'm sure nerves may have gotten the better of him. One can only hope that this experience will only benefit him in the future though.
What good Italian LBs are there? And don't say Balzaretti as he will never get a sniff with Prandelli at the helm.
None that are currently in their prime. We just have to hope that guys like Santon and Criscito develop considerably over the next couple of years I suppose..
I can not name any other than Grosso....43% of the entire Serie A is Italian which is less than 1/2 the league.....the left backs are few and far between.....I'm willing to bet there aren't 4/5 Italian lb's in whole of the Serie A at all......therefore, if thats the case, and you need to pick your national team starter and reserve, where is the depth? Funny when you think about. Out of a possible 220 Serie A starters, 43% are Italian which equals 94 players. When you divide by 20 teams on average, there are 4.7 Italians per team. How in the world can we build a solid national team with that many players and that many foreigners? Its a shame really!
You what's even more said. Serie A is like the La liga all are players play with in our own league. in addition, the current reigning champions don't even have a starting italian and is coaches by a portugese
HAHA....the JUVELADRI making more excuses for there beloved LIPPI...First it was SERIE A doesn't have quality, now it's all those foreigners
Actually, being a juve supporter has nothing to do with it as I've been saying that for years. When they let in 3 foreign players per team (i.e. like when they allowed van basten, gullit and rijkaard on AC Milan) , I thought it was way too much. Now you have unlimited and its ridculous....They criticized Arrigo Sacchi for picking 95 players and even if a national team coach were to do pick that many again, there would be no way he could.
Some of the best talent Italy produced came off the back heels of a complete foreigner ban from 1966-1980. So what would be really wrong for the sport if foreigners were limited to 5 per team, other than giving the budding talent more time to mature in competitive situations, like Balotelli, Santon, Giovinco, Foggia, Forestieri instead of training more South Americans?
Fine, he's Argentinian born but at least to two Sicilians and the point was that he'll be representing Italy in the future not a South American team. He's not being trained to be sent back to another national team in other words. He's in no different a position as Rossi and Santacroce are really, and has had a majority of his development time in Italy. I see no problem with him playing for Italy when you have the likes of Pepe, Cacau, Deco, Aurelio, Alex, Eduardo, Naelson all Brazilians who have been naturalized for other national teams of the world.
