I'm getting a headache just reading that forward lineup! Sad to see Gilardino go downhill these past few years, i hope he gets back on form because he definitely got some talent. 2010 was a disaster.
2006 team was better. They lacked a great striker, and were a bit ordinary in midfield, but that team had legendary defenders, great full-backs, and superb creativity from Totti and Pirlo working their magic. The 2012 team has a better coach, a great striker, and lots of depth in midfield. If Prandelli could get a great full-back and some more depth in center of defense, it makes you think his Italy could be a real force for the future.
Sorry but other than Pozzo Lippi is the best coach Italy ever had even with his debacle in 2010. I cant ever remember Italy losing 4-0 in a tournament and its a disgrace if you ask me.
Gazzetta's pagelle for Lippi in 2006 was a 10. A '10' is absolutely unheard of. The only other 10 rating I can remember was Toldo's performance against the Dutch at the 2000 European Championships. His tactics throughout that tournament, with perhaps the exception of the group fixture against the US, were superb. His substitutions against Germany were nothing short of masterful. Italy finished with five forwards on the pitch that night. It was Lippi who insured that that game didn't go to penalties. However fashionable it is to bash him now, Lippi is easily one of Italy's greatest tacticians.
To be fair, we were down 2-0 and playing with 10 players, I saw the harsh score coming from a mile away, not even Lippi would have been able to fix the situation.
Fair my ass. Lippi is one of the greatest coaches of all time. Prandelli is a non winning loser. You dont get points for style. The only that that counts is winning and Lippi was the first to win a Champions League and World Cup. Only Del Bosque has since accomplished this and Lippi kicked his Real Madrids teams ass into the ground with a Juve team that didnt have half the talent.
Lippi was a great coach no doubt. But Prandelli IMO is getting good results working with less. If Prandelli had Nesta, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Totti and Grosso in their prime I imagine he'd also have a trophy. One thing I will admit is that Prandelli's in-game management has sometimes disappointed. Lippi seems to have been more clever in his use of subs.
I thought I was salty about losing the final, but GEEZUS dude you're on another level now. I love Lippi for bringing us incredible joy in 2006, it was one of the happiest days in my life and will never forget it, but he's far from being perfect, did you see the group Italy lost to in 2010? Paraguay, New Zealand & Slovakia, like Seriously? Prandelli doesn't have the team in his disposal like Lippi's 2006 group of world class players, yes he did some mistakes but cut the guy some slack for bringing us up to the final with a group of players nowhere nearly as skilled.
I think it's far too early to compare Prandelli to Lippi, or take make over-arching assessments of Prandelli's work so far. Let's wait and see what his record is when he leaves the Azzurri. However, I will say that I'm still far from convinced by his 4-3-1-2. Montolivo, despite a couple of good/very good performances, is not a trequartista and neither is Tiago Motta. So far, he's also failed to get the best out of Marchisio when playing that system. I'll start to be more impressed if/when he finds a way to bring balance to the midfield. And I think your assessment of Prandelli's substitutions for this tournament is rather generous. But again, it's too early to make general statements about his managerial performance with the Azzurri so far. I just think alot of people are buying into the hype because the Azzurri has been rebranded as a "beautiful" attacking side. They play decent stuff, but again if people cared to remember, they often played good football with Lippi as well.
I'll cut him slack but he is nowhere near Lippi. People forget that Buffon got injured in the first half of the first game and he had Pirlo for 45 minutes of the last game. We all saw the difference in that half and the first time around he lost 1 game a friendly his first game. I think Lippi is the one who deserves some slack after what we saw today because he never lost a game 4-0 for Italy.
No, you have to call a spade a spade. Lippi was outstanding in 2006. He was a disaster in player selection in 2010..and his in-game management was very poor as well. Lippi is an all-time great coach, but he isn't perfect. No one is.
It's not too early to judge Prandelli -- he set out to base Italy's attack around the talents of Balotelli and Cassano, he wanted to recreate enthusiasm for the national team, and he wanted Italy to play good football and make a run at Euro 2012. He's achieved all of those goals--actually, he over-performed, in that we had our best qualification campaign ever for Euro 2012, then made it all the way to the final. He has done this with good though limited personnel. That's why I'm saying the 2006 team was stronger, yet Prandelli would be my pick as better coach. He is getting good results in a very different context from Lippi.
Based on yesterday's final, the '06 team is still better. Prandelli's team play with more flair but the current team is still inexperienced. Lippi's Italy wasn't as exciting but they still played some good football and they were the finished article. Mentally they were much stronger and had more fighters. Only Chiellini and maybe De Rossi have fighting qualities but the '06 team had the likes of Cannavaro, Materazzi and Gattuso. Players like Giovinco, Motta and Montolivo are physically fragile and Balotelli is still mentally fragile. In two years time, it should be better to compare the teams because I reckon that the current Italian side will be more refined and more complete.
Italy fans make me laugh. Nothing is expected of La Nazionale at Euro 2012--the team improbably makes the final--suddenly the Italian fans call the team "bidoni" for not winning that final. One thing is for sure, Italians don't deserve the great team they have. Look at the support the Irish got at Euro 2012 with a crap team. But Italy fans couldn't be bothered to travel and they had a far better side to cheer.
Italy 2006 obviously with the way we finished the final last sunday. 12 goals for, 2 against in 7 games, in 2012 6 for 7 against, but of course the final and the fact we finished the last 3rd of the match with ten men didnt quite help. We played some great football at the euro, very attacking. In 2006 we also did when we wanted to and had the right mix of attack and defence. I enjoyed this Italian team more, look how many shots on goal we had and that says it all. But the final, almost erases everything good we did. If Motta didnt go off we would have got a better indication of what might have been because Di Natale had 2 good chances before Motta came off and we were getting back into the game. That being said, I feel spain should have got a penalty anyway when it was 11 v 11 so perhaps a flogging was what we deserved.
For me, Lippi at the moment. He won and Italy's performance in 2006, short of two hiccups, both of which were unavoidable against with the own goal vs the USA and against Australia, Materazzi being red-carded, was superb. Lippi 2010 was just ridiculous. Stubborn, temporary insanity, or purposeful sabotage (to appease the conspiracy theorists in our midst ), have your pick. I don't know. I just kept thinking that you can't go from genius to idiot overnight, so I might be one of those leaning towards option #3 Still though, Prandelli has rejuvenated the team and aside from the final result, I really liked how they played and would like to see him continue to improve.
2006 had none either. However I do want to point out one thing. Aside from many fans who generally only watch tournaments are concerned, I think most seasoned viewers can agree that the 3-5-2 of Prandelli is not that far removed of the 5-3-2 that won Italy the World Cup in 1982. 1982 wasn't a degenerative defensive machine either. It attacked with flair. In Prandelli's system, apart from De Rossi being considered a third Central Back, his role is also not as far removed from the traditional libero role. Like I said in other threads, hindsight is 20/20, I really would have liked to see (now after the fact) the 3-5-2 in the final with De Rossi back in a similar position, cleaning up...er...sweeping
I think I mentioned in the final thread that a mate of mine, a "tournament" only fan, told me after the final that Spain was his 2nd favorite team now, claimed that he's not a band-wagon jumper either and that he's liked them for several years now (presumably the year beginning in 2008 ). These sorts of fans are ridiculous. The sorts of fans you're talking about exist in Portuguese and Brazilian communities that I'm acquainted with too. All is well when winning, nothing is well when not winning. I'm sure it extends further than that. It's a typical sports fan mentality really.