The CT made the right subs and had the right ideas. This falls on the players. It’s not like he stood on the sidelines and made no effective changes. Poland is a tough team.
Di Biagio is a ********in retard, just like all italian coaches, Mancini included.Ive never seen an Italian coach lose so many games over the last two years and keep his job, never mind going out in the last two tournaments. Unprecedented. It was essential for Mancini to call up Kean and Zaniolo and then bench them completely for both qualifiers in June, sent them to the stands, not even good enough for the bench!(Zaniolo twice,Kean once) Why???? If they are not good enough yet, fine, they could have played a part in 7 matches at the U20 world cup. Dont give me that bullshit that they are too good for that level, let them ********in prove it. At the very LEAST should have been with the u21 camp from the beginning. The Tonali decision is even stupider. He barely featured for the U21, was finished his season in early May when Brescia was promoted, had three weeks off before the U20 tournament. That was a tournament he should have been at for sure. He should have been with the U20s first and joined the u21 later just like Pinamonti. What a waste. Tonali was NEVER going to start for u21s, Barella and Pellegrini coming down from the seniors was decided months ago and theyre not coming down to sit. That shitty captain Mandragora has a guarenteed spot as well(his miss in the first half is unforgivable) he's been average in Serie A and crap in both these group games and then they throw in Tonali for him in a last ditch effort at a miracle. Talk about hanging someone out to dry and putting someone in a tough position. Yeah lets take off the only player who scored, Orsolini, and leave a hack like Cutrone on lol. Cutrone is only good off the bench,not a starter on any team, Milan or this one. Kean over Cutrone any day of the week Zaniolo is in poor form for months now, I'm glad he is suspended for next match.Orsolini is a much better player, and should have started the first game in his own stadium.We need to play our best in form players in short tournaments, regardless of age or "experience". We have to run up the score against Belgium now, and hope Spain wins narrowly over Poland.
Di Biagio is pure garbage. We've known this for a long time. We win the first game against Spain and he changes FOUR players out of the lineup. This team already was going to struggle to find cohesiveness since we had a lot of players from the Senior team coming down inserted at the last minute. Pick a lineup and stick with it for God's sake. Most of you won't remember, but it reminds me of Euro 96 when we won our first game and Sacchi changed like 5 players for the second game which we lost and it cost us the group in the end. When you know you will have a team park the bus--which we all expected with Poland--you need a midfielder capable of unlocking them with precision passes. That is NOT Rolando Fckin Mandragora. I was afraid Gigi's fetish for him would cost us and it did. If he was going to change any player in his lineup for the 2nd game, it should have been Tonali in for Rolando who was SHIT against Spain. No surprise he missed the sitter tonight. BIG mistake subbing Orsolini...the one player capable of delivering crosses from the right side. Only Gigi Di Biagio can waste this much talent. Now we have to win and hope to just make it out of the group stage in our home country with a loaded team. VERGOGNA.
All I know is ive been hearing the saviors are coming from the "italian youth" since Giovinco and Balotelli were playing together. Ill believe when I see any of these guys playing for top sides. The only players I see with potential right now is Kean and Meret. Tonali needs to play in Serie A before I can make a call on him. Orsolini reminds me of Verdi.
Tonali was interesting. I can't wait see him in a game where the other team doesn't park the bus. Let's see how he plays under pressure. 1141461345969291264 is not a valid tweet id
These fools who go around telling everyone how to coach have never coached in their damn lives. First, this is an organic game. Things happen, most out of your control. Second, players are not robots or PlayStation objects. This is not basketball or American football where a play gets called and the team executes it.
I always feel like managers or coaches always get too much blame when things go bad and too much credit when things go well. This is applicable in any sport IMO.
But, why tinker so much when you have a winning squad? I don't know any successful national team in history that didn't have a core of players always playing together for a period of time. These guys play together so infrequently. They need time to build chemistry and then you go and change everything up.
Well if our top talents played together on top teams like in the old days we would not even have to worry about that...
Di Biagio should have been fired after the 2015 under 21 euro tournament, why is FIGC so loyal to a coach that has failed over and over. The most talented Under 21 team in 20 years are about to be eliminated in the group stage, unacceptable
Well, there is a lot of talent there. Meret, Mancini, Chiesa, Barella, Zaniolo, Pellegrini, and Kean all have been good enough get Senior squad looks and they are very highly valued on the market. Many of them have European experience as well. That differs greatly from the last few editions of the U21s where the players were often Serie B caliber or struggled to get playing time on their squads. Then you have someone like Tonali who was only 18 this year and many observers felt he was the best midfielder in all of Serie B. I'm not saying this is the 1996 U21 team...but there is quite a lot of talent there playing high level calcio.
Pellegrini desperately needs to add the ability to score a goal to his game. He does a lot of things well, but he is a truly awful finisher. Hopefully that can happen. I think Zaniolo's real position is basically where Pellegrini plays for the U21s. I doubt Dibiagio tries it if Italia makes the knock out phase but he definitely should. Barella has been solidly subpar this tournament. He probably is just tired at this point.
Guys don't lose hope. If Spain beat Poland (very possible) and we beat Belgium we still have a good chance. I expect Spain to beat Poland by like 1-0 or 2-1 which would send us through if we beat Belgium.
There's also a small possibility we go through as second and I believe for that to happen we'd only need to beat Belgium. It wouldn't matter what happened in the Spain-Poland game. But of course at that point we are relying on the other two groups second places to be below us on points and prob GD.
Spain vs Poland game might matter but for us to be third, Spain vs Poland would have to end in a crazy score with a lot of goals, like 6-4 Spain maybe.
I don't have words for how bad Di Biagio arranged the squad tonight. Locatelli AND Mandragora? Due registi who are too close together and slow down the play a ton. The result? Long ball city that is easy for Belgium to defend. Cutrone was very poor in the first half as well. Lots of bad touches when he was in the box. To me, Demarco is a much better player than Pezzella so I don't understand that move either. Nice that Barella put us up at the end, but it may not matter as Poland decided to take the day off.
Love how Poland just rolled over and played dead. They were walking around like they were ready for vacation. Italy needed to bury one of the two sitters vs those kielbasa's to not leave it up to chance.