Where do we go from here? Post Euro 2012 thread

We made the final. It's not like we're in crisis. A little overreacting here. But it's good to think in advance.

 

I hope you are right. Isn't he back there now?

Yeah we made the final but we didn't really make it there all that easily. I mean we basically backed into the second round. Are we forgetting that we were all hoping and praying that Spain and Croatia would not pull a "biscotto" eliminating Italy? This coupled with the pk victory over England after a scoreless draw was far from convincing. The fact is, we scored 6 goals in 6 games and no goals in 2 games therefore, IMHO, I don't see how this can be a positive.

 

We created enough chances in the first two games to win them both. Certainly vs Croatia. Against England we dominated and thoroughly deserved the victory. If we werent creating chances, then id be upset. Prtugal scored 6 in 5, last world cup spain 8 in 7, Greece won euro 2004 scoring just 7 goals. Only in the final we can say was a disaster, the rest was a success and we played brilliant football.

 

Also in many cases teams dont make it there that easy. Spain got there via a shootout, look at their struggles vs Paraguay in 2010. France in 1998 got there via extra time, penalties, and extra time again in the semi vs Portugal 2000 and got knocked off vs Holland in their final group game. Spain missed a last minute pk too in the quarter.

Teams almost always ride their luck along the way.

Forza Italia!

 

To each his own but I guess we will have to just disagree because I seriously don't see how losing a final in the way Italy lost 4-0 is a huge success. I think we need major improvement in many areas. Just my opinion.

 

dont get me wrong the manner in which we got flogged annoyed the hell out of me. But I dont think we can erase all the good either before then because of one game. Against Germany and England, we were darn good. We were definitly tired in the final, and the early goal energised spain and the second goal all but sealed our fate. But before Motta's injury what if one of di natale's shots went in? a different ball game altogether. Once Motta went off I thought spain would get 1 or two more. Even before the injury tbh. But we were in the game for sure before he went off injured. That being said, Spain should of had a penalty when it was 11 v 11 so a flogging was probably deserved anyway.

 

IMO the best team should have very good depth in the bench to survive a long tournament, even though we had some good players e.g Nocerino that weren't even used, IMO we still lack quite a bit in that area, that's one of the main reasons Italy couldn't win it all.

 

Smashing Spain should be our #1 goal.

 

Prandelli needs to think like a national team coach and not a club one. He is asking for changes with Lega Calcio so that he can have camps and such. He wants to mold his team. The good national team coaches figured out how to use the parts at his disposal and make the team work. I never got that sense with Prandelli. For instance, he should have figured out that the 3-5-2 got the best out of Pirlo. Or he should have gone with a 4-3-3 to get some width. The trequartista did not work and there was something missing with the front line working cohesively with the rest of the team. And then his lack of player management of his roster killed us in the end. How many players did he use through the tournament?

 

all i gotta say is i hope rossi makes a come back. him, cassano, balotelli will be a deadly trio (if prandelli chooses to play that)

without pirlo....i can see a de rossi-montolivo-marchisio mid with cassano-balo-rossi up top

 

We don't have to thank Spain and Croatia. They did their duty.
Spain also won against Portugal at PKs.

 

I actually think having camps more often would help create cohesion within the group. As it is with each tournament, Italy gets together 3-4 weeks before and plays but most of of the players don't know one another. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. If they played together more often, they could actually create more of a club atmosphere and results might be different too.

Exactly but Spain and Croatia could have easily fixed the match with a 1-1 draw eliminating Italy.

 

You're one of those who called for Prandelli's head and predicted gloom well before Euro 2012, and you've never changed your tune. It's no surprise that you're still shitting on the team even after they made the final. We beat Germany (!) in the semi-final with Mario Balotelli scoring two of the goals of the tournament. The world saw that and it was a great thing, and there was little luck in making it that far. Prandelli put a good team together.

We're still in transition in terms of adding young players and need to address some things, but let's not begin re-writing history to say we had a bad tournament.

 

Having camps is a pipe dream. Clubs will never go for it. The way to get team cohesion is by picking a young core of players and sticking with them. We have to build a generational team that is used to playing together for years even though it isn't that frequent.

 

I think another very good sign is that Italy have not lost the ability to produce very good defenders and to defend well as a team apart from one crazy match. That was my biggest concern coming in to this tournament. When we defend well we always have a chance. I thought Balzaretti, Bonucci and Barzagli played especially well (apart from those we expect to play well like Chiellini). We did all of this without defensive superstars like we had in the past (Maldini, Baresi, Scirea etc...). Now if only we could finish, but I do think Balotelli will only get better and we have some bright attacking talent on the way. I am happy to report that the defense will clearly always be there.

 

on a positive note we have moved up to 6th place from 12th in the FIFA rankings. I don't care much for the fifa ranking but they do seem to help us when the pots are drawn for tournaments....when we have been in Pot A in the past most of the time we were drawn into a favorable group in the tournament. If we can stay in the 6th spot or do better I think we should be able to get drawn into a better group when it's time to draw the pots for the groups of Brazil 2014

 

I think that's what Germany's intentions were but they might have overlooked us in the process.

 

Guus?! He's more of a fitness coach than a tactician, and that's been my observation with almost all teams he takes over. Maybe we could hire him to get our players in better shape , but I'm happy keeping Prandelli over him for tactics!

 

When TF did I say a freaking word about Prandelli? To tell you the truth, I can really care less if he is coach or not because who he is the least of Italy's problems. I said before the tournament, I don't think Balotelli will lead us to the promise land and I stand by that statement because he hasn't proven anything to me but that has nothing to do with Prandelli. If you can, I'd lke you to point out and prove to me when I said anything against Prandelli.....if you can I'll take back anything I said about the guy but I don't remember ever posting about the man. The only post I can remember is in this post below...that's all I can remember.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/fire-cesare-prandelli.1907525/page-6

 

You cant blame balotelli. He gave us a good chance to reach the promised land as you put it, after Pirlo. We were in the final and had the opportunity, we didn't take it.

 

I don't know why its illegal or taboo to criticize the guy but Balotelli couldn't even shoot the ball in two different opportunities against Spain while Di Natale scored and had 2 shots on goal which almost resulted in scoring chances against the same team. He could very well improve but right now or at this point in time, I still think he is overrated and this is my opinion. Di Natale IMHO could have done the exact same thing if given the chance to be a full time starter. Don't understand what the big deal is in saying this because I also thought Inzaghi would have been a better choice over Toni in 2oo6 but its just my opinion which no one has to agree with even like what I'm saying but its what I strongly believe and I stand by it.

 

Di Natale couldnt even score with a one on one vs Germany to ice the game. That miss almost came back to bite us. No one said you cant criticise him, it's just unfair to bag our best forward at the euro.

 

He had 10 minutes to shine. He scored Italy's only goal against Spain and it was a beauty only 4 minutes after entering the game when your Balo stunk it up. If it wasn't for DiNatale's goal against Spain, Italy would have been eliminated 3 weeks ago.

 

Di Natale also choked in that penalty shootout vs spain 2008, and those 2 chances you mentioned, he should have put at least one of them away.

 

if,coulda, woulda, shoulda. If it wasnt for pirlo's free kick vs croatia, we would have been eliminated.