its not fun to cheer for Italy when all my friends roll out the Italians are divers meme and I have no honest rebuttal because its ********ing pathetic. We are better then this, its lazy, this is a lazy team and there is very little speed on this field.Romagnoli and Florenzi are very aggressive moving the ball forward and rest of midfield is just meh.
he is barely recovered from a torn groin and he is injury prone.... you dont risk that. dude is always injured and he needed surgery to fix it, he has not played much for PSG and is just settling back in, this is an aggresive hard game and your risking the entire qualifying campaign if you put him out there. We could get by without him, its the coaches fault for fielding Monty, Ciro, Pelle, Eder.... His calls up were shit too. The more things change the more they stay the same. People on this board are actually cheering and accepting a awful pk call that was reversed from the correct call. This is why people talk shit about this team, we used to not be like this... this type of play was not the norm. We have fallen. We need to get back to 2002 level of play, get fouled, so what... get up and keep playing. Ciro is disgusting, he dives all the time, he ran faster to appeal for a penalty then he did in any other part of the game, his touch is shit, he plays garbage balls and has zero creativity.
Belotti lots of energy. Romanogli also played well today with bonucci and barzagli solid. Decent from Florenzi and immobile. It felt like Italy only played 15 mins today in total.
Ventura had a dream, or nightmare, that Bonucci found Pelle with a 60m long ball at the 90th and we won 1-0. That's why.
your a fool if you think Ciro was decent. He has never recreated his form in Torino for this NT and he is on par with Balotelli in all of the bullshit minus all of the goal production. 2 goals in 16 caps.
Decent as in better than Pelle and Eder today. Eder was only half way decent. and Pelle was junk today. Immobile at least pushed through and got a yellow card drawn. But like someone else said, they were probably told to play that way in the first half. Little service to them. This entire midfield was garbage. Very luck to get a point tonight
Well, the negatives are pretty obvious so here are the positives: 1. We looked excellent after conceding 2. Vitolo's goal was the very flukiest of flukes - even at his age Buffon isn't going to concede a whole lot like that, ever 3. The youngsters did ok. Belotti was great and Romagnoli didn't look out of place next to the Juve defenders 4. We at least rescued a point, however little we may have deserved it 5. Montolivo got injured
Well after we went down we woke up and sparked into life. However Eder and Pelle really must go, and so should Bonaventura. We honestly must use a 4-4-2 from now on. For the future this is what we need: -Belotti-Berardi- -Bernardeschi-Marchisio-Verratti-Candreva- -De Sciglio-Chiellini-Bonucci-Florenzi- -Buffon- Anyway I think we deserved a draw. We lacked class in the first half, but did come back in the second half. I wish that goal would have counted, but I think it was the right call from the referee. I'll take a draw. Let's hope Albania beat Spain in a few days. Its certainly possible given how well Albania have been doing and Spain is not good. Seriously Spain didn't play any better than us, they dominated possession but did nothing with that. That goal was pure luck coming from a mistake we rarely make.
I'm not sure what some of you are talking about but that penalty was clear as day. Eder's ankles were clipped and you see his left foot going into his right. There was no question about it. Thank God the linesman saw it. If Spain finished in the first half, they would have been up at least 2-0. We sucked balls. I knew we would. I called it as soon as I saw that overly defensive lineup. They weren't going to string 2 passes together and they didn't. Once again we have an Italian CT that values experience and tactics over talent. Ventura was lucky as shit to get a draw today...no wonder he was celebrating at the end.
Heroes 1. Bonucci: He was immense in the middle nullifying Costa. 2. Barzagli: Really solid. 3. Romagnoli: Great debut. Who would have known...a talented youngster can actually perform when given a chance! 4. Florenzi: Lots of fight...especially in the second half. 5. Belotti: The game really changed when he came in. Spain's defenders couldn't deal with his size and pace. His effort led to the penalty. Nice job. Should be starting. Cosi cosi 1. Eder: Worked hard and earned penalty...but killed too many build ups. 2. DDR: Sucked most of the night but credit for a cool PK and the balls to take it. 3. Desciglio: Fought hard but not much to show for it. Dumpster Fires 1. Buffon: That whiff was very costly. 2. Pelle: Was useless mostly because we insisted on trying to play the ball out of the back on the ground. 3. Parolo: Maybe his worst game as an Azzurro 4. Montolivo: The best part of the night was his injury. 5. Immobile: I know some here will credit him for his "fire" but he killed and shanked a lot of plays tonight. 6. Bonaventura: Useless. Lots of possession given away. Lacking in initiative. Plays scared with the blue on.
To be fair to Ventura, when he took over in the summer I remember saying that I believed he would stick with Conte's formation and players until the November to March friendly break before trying to integrate his ideas, and it looks like that is what he's trying to do, but he hasn't got the movements and instructions down right like Conte had. So it looks like utter shit.
Going forward, we need a midfield with Candreva, Verratti, and Marchisio long term. I'd also like to see Parolo upgraded with better talent. Belotti should be starting along with a real seconda punta that can create havoc and run at people. When will Berardi be given his chance? On defense, the introduction of Romagnoli is a blessing. Really helps our defensive depth. Hope Buffon's age hasn't finally caught up with him though.
Conte preferred Candreva on the right and Giac in the midfield. Two players that can possess the ball. Ventura's lineup tonight was 5 defenders and two DMs. Lots of brick feet to go around. Ventura was even more conservative than Conte. That was a killer because it meant zero possession for most of the game.
Yeah, but the 352 and most of the usual suspects are the same, with the exception that Conte's team was much better prepared and had much better communication. Ventura's 352 looks very uncomfortable.
I want Ventura to hold himself accountable for what he said. Once Berardi is back from his injury, I don't care; he must switch to a 4-3-3. Insigne - Belotti - Berardi
Eder had a great touch to round Sergio Ramos as he caught him. Clear as day penalty and both captains of both sides ********ed up to give the other team a goal. Romagnoli was really impressive on his debut and Italy didn't play well until the end of the game. Spain never looked like scoring apart from that Vitolo chance. Spain had all the possession but never did anything with it, typical Spain. Immobile actually did well as a sub. And Eder was alright. Buffon is a piece of shit for that gaffer but he's still a legend. Hopefully he never does that again, Jesus he looks like an England keeper with moves like that
I saw most of the second half. Buffon had a howler but De Sciglio should have never let his keeper get in that situation. The defense let him down. The last 10 minutes was a team worth watching. Why could they not play that way the entire match? Ventura needs to take control of this team. No need to continue the Serie B tactics of Conte.
Move the time of clip to 5 minutes 49 seconds, before you do that, click on the circle gear icon and click on speed and make it at .25 which is very slow motion. the foul for the pk is at 5 minutes 50 seconds, Eder takes a touch right before his foot that does not play the ball is slightly hit, its very iffy and could be a foul, but lets be real, any man that takes a fall over another man steps on his foot is not a man. Also, Eder played too hard of a first touch, that ball was going out of bends and the defender cut off his angle of moving to the ball so he would not have even been able to try and get control of it, he knew this and decided to pimp him getting part of his foot slightly stepped on/hit.... its irrelevant tho because he already played the ball and it was too hard of a first touch. This team is better then this and has to be better then this because if your putting ur survial on last minute penalties, your going to exit any tournament. We used to keep our feet, we used to take a foul and keep going, we used to not be lazy... We dont have the talent the 2002 team had, but it doesnt mean these guys should strive to play the right way. The only players on todays field that made me proud to be an italy fan were Leo, Barzagli, Romagnoli, and somewhat Florenzi, everyone else on the field was poor with MDS, Ciro, Eder, Pelle, all very depressing. MDS gave the ball away so much, he was like another player for Spain.
Ventura needs to stop being a pussy and implement his methods, ideas and tactics right away. I don't recall any manager who took charge of the Italy job and didn't make it their own team immediately. Ventura is showing that he shouldn't be anywhere near a 4 time world champions bench. Oh and pelle refuted venturas hand when subbed off. Has anyone told him he is Pelle and not Messi? Anyone reminded he wasca laughing stock a couple months ago? Hopefully that puts to rest his Italy career if ventura has at least one testicle.