Poorest played win I have ever witnessed. Any sport. Any team. How many total SC penalties? There were plenty unaccepted over the 18 that were…game was a joke. Don’t know how I could be this mad after a win.— Steven Frith (@sctrojan22) September 30, 2018 This man has never watched Ventura's italy
For the first time in how many WCs though , (since 1990 ) ? and from my recollection the only reason why they had such high representation that far into THIS particular tournament is because their NT finally made it to the semis. Out of 108 players from the premier league in this WC , 23 came from the England NT. Spain had 78 players from their league in this WC ( 17 came from their NT ). Germany 62 ( 16 came from their NT ). Italy 58 and our NT didn't even qualify so think about that ...... France ( winners ) had 47 ( and only 9 from the NT play in France ). Also in this WC final 7 played in Serie A and 6 played in the EPL. You're missing some key points....or worse leaving them out. England also in my opinion only did so well because of the opponents in front of them. They were hardly impressive. Weak group. Just had to beat Tunisia and Panama and they were through and they barely beat Tunisia. Poor against Belgium , average against a Colombia ( without James ) needing pks and were fortunate against Sweden. Played a good first half against a tired Croatia team and then lost their nerve. But hey , thems the breaks and you can only play the teams in front of you. well this century started in 2001 and since 2001 Serie A has won the CL 3 times and were runners up 4 times. EPL has also won the CL 3 times since 2001 and were runners up 6 times. Not much of a difference IMO. In the EL the EPL has won it 3 times since 2001 and were runners up twice. Serie A zilch. Though I think it's fair to say no one really gives a shit about this tournament anymore since the early 2000's . Especially after the participants for the CL grew in the late 90's. And as far as league strength. Much is based on the current country ( not Nation ) coefficient results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient#Country_coefficient and the EPL and Serie A are neck and neck with Serie A a tiny bit behind as of right now. So make of it what you will. Italy does need new infrastructure and promoting itself better and restructuring ( especially when it comes to playing home grown talent ) but for all it's shortcomings they aren't far behind , at all. It's marginal really. What does that say about all the big money in the EPL up to now? Your argument has too many holes Also why don't you finally admit your an Italo- Brit , most probably 3rd generation , who supports Italy first and then England second in national tournaments and you prefer the premier league over serie A calcio huh ? ....it's sacrilegious by the way
At least Balotelli isn't in the squad.Give the little man a chance (for like the 10th time), then kick him off
At this point, it speaks less about Giovinco and the level of competition he plays in and more about our lack of attacking options currently
The critique wasn't of Giovinco or the MLS. It was exactly what you're describing: our lack of attacking options.
How about the lack of Italian players in the Serie A? I don’t get why no one ever wants to admit that!
Who doesn't want to admit that, I think we all acknowledge this. Why isn't Politano getting called up, hes playing in CL along with Piccini on Valencia. Belotti has turned into a disappointment, his incredible form from two seasons ago is long past, hope he turns it around but mi not optimistic.
What do youean who? How about 1/2 of the board? Every time I suggest or post about how there are many foreigners in the Serie A, someone has a fit. Then when they see a team like Croatia and France in the World Cup Final, they start crying. I still can’t get over how Italy didn’t make the finals. That was, is and will always be a disgrace!
not as good of an example... how many of those players play in the Croatian league lol i think its more relevant that we have italians playing in champions league... yes i know.. 2006 every player played in Serie A.. and that is ideal..but to get back up and running.. let's get the players playing champs league/europa league some more playing time
The point is, Italy have made France a viable team since Platini and Zidane after him. Now those guys were world class but looking at this years team, I can't think of great superstars. The same goes for Croatia which has become a super team because we let their players play over Italian players. Looking at Ivan Strinić, , WIvan Perišić, Marcelo Brozović, , Nikola Kalinić and Mario Mandžukić , I can't believe Ital can't come up with players of their caliber.
New thread for the upcoming matches: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/nations-league-italy-vs-poland-ukraine-friendly.2087618/
I don't know, maybe because the Croatian players are better than their Italian counterparts at their respective clubs?
You are right and they may in fact be better. Especially at this point as they are playing and Italians aren't. My main point is, how can Italian players get better if they are riding the bench , aren't playing, or not even employed on top teams? You have 7 field players on Juve and 2/3 are over 32 years of age. That is well beyond WC age. With he exception of the few primavera players on the rosters, Napoli has 3, Fiorentina 4, Inter 4 , Roma 3 or 4, Then you have Milan who is the only team who believes in Italians. With this low amount of Italians, you can't even come up with a national team pool of 25-30 players.
We already have a thread , this one , for the match against Poland....ya Meathead...uhh this is still the thread about matches for the nation's league, right? So far all nation's league matches have been talked about in here. The Portugal match was included in this thread , even though not in the title. I mean , we really don't have to divert attention away from this lengthy all inclusive thread to yours just because of a friendly against the Ukraine... you croat Also you creating a separate thread for that ( probably because you have nothing better to do ) is unnecessary. Friendly against Ukraine or not , that friendly can be included here in this thread. If you really needed the attention ( or whatever it is for you ) that badly and had to create a thread. Then keeping it focused and titled only on the Ukraine friendly would have sufficed.... No need to create separate threads and include the Poland match in your different thread as well So what do you think of Croatia in the Nation's league so far?
The nations with the most representation in the Champions League win international cups, including Greece in 2004 who were top 5 in player representation believe it or not. Players like Pellegrini and Cristante are gaining experience, would like to see Romagnoli and Caldara in the CL Chiesa etc. Still not a top 5 represented nation at the moment in CL, this is the difference. Insigne could have been closer to a Del Piero had he been at Juve in the CL for the last 7 years I’m sure of it.
Woukd like to see Insigne in a SS role behind Immobile/Cutrone. Mancini has really remade Insigne into a world class forward rather than a tricky winger. 4411 ———————Immobile ———————-Insigne Bonaventura—Barrella-Verratti-Bernar.. Criscito——-Chielini—Bonnucci—-Florenzi ————————Gigio That basically mimics Ancelottis 442 with one winger and three CMs Cutrone Chiesa Jorginho off the bench Besides the LB position this is very strong