Lippi... hope for 2006

[Azzurri1123]

"Marcello Lippi was born in Viareggio (Lucca) on April 11, 1948. His career as a football player was with Savona (in the C series league in 1969-70), with Sampdoria (9 seasons from 1970 to 1979, of which seven in the A series and two in the B series) and with Pistoiese.
His career as a coach started in 1984-85 with the Sampdoria youth teams, and after coaching Pontedera, Siena, Pistoiese and Carrarese, he started coaching in the A series league in 1989-90 with Cesena (released in 1990-91). He then coached Lucchese, Atalanta and Napoli (the team finished sixth that season) and, in 1994, Juventus. Lippi resigned as coach of this club the evening of February 7th, after losing against Parma (1-4) at the Delle Alpi stadium.
He won there league season title with Juventus, the Italian Cup ('95), the League Supercup ('96 and '98), Champions League ('96) and European and Intercontinental Cups ('97). He coached 275 matches in the A series: 121 wins, 84 ties and 70 losses."

For the whole article: (http://www.figc.it/english/primo_piano_05/primo_piano_05.htm)


Is Lippi the answer for the Italian NT?
He has handfulls of talent to choose from and although many veteran players may be exiting from international soccer (Vieri, Del Piero, Cannavaro, etc.) he has many rising stars (Italy won the U-21 EURO 2004).

Your thoughts...

[RandyNA74]

There is definitely the potential to get better. God knows it cant get much worse than 2002 and 2004! I do have several concerns, however. Firstly, Lippi being a former Juve coach may not break away from the establishment (i.e. he will insist on playing Del Piero etc. no matter how poorly he plays). That is really just speculation on my part, but I would prefer to know that the coach will truly play who is in form vice who has a big name. Our top players need to learn that their name alone is not enough to win a tournament, or even guarantee them a starting spot. My other concern is mentality. I hope Lippi is capable of motivating our "stars" far more than Trapattoni. I have been following Luis Aragones' assignment with Spain and am impressed with his comments so far, that he wants a hard working Spain full of players who understand that putting on the NT shirt is the ultimate objective. Many of our players seem to play on the NT as if it were merely a routine. I would like to see far more effort, far more hard work on the part of the players. And a lot less whining would be nice...