To compliment the prospects thread. Who still deserves a chance come the euro 2016 under new management? I've included the squad in the poll. Pick everyone you think deserves another shot at the national team. I couldn't include all the players so I dropped Pirlo, Buffon and Paletta from the poll. The first two due to age and I'm assuming retirement. The last because thinking about his hair makes me sick to my stomach.
With Pirlo and Buffon dropping out, not a single player on this team "deserves" anything. De Rossi and Marchisio are probably the only two I would say deserve a spot in the side. Immobile- Has a lot to prove because he was absolutely horrible in this tournament. Show us that you aren't a one hit wonder/one trick pony. You are horrible. Perin- We will see Abate- Hope not, he is terrible Barzagli- One of the better players this tournament, but will be old Bonucci- OLD Chiellini- I really hope not, I can't stand him De Sciglio- 1st choice LB as it stands Darmian- 1st choice RB as it stands Cerci- Probably Aquilani- NO Candreva- Probably De Rossi- Captain Marchisio- Starter Motta- Hopefully never again Parolo- Has a lot to prove Insigne- Has to prove he isn't a one or two season wonder Verratti- 1st team Balotelli- Has more to prove than anyone after today. He was terrible and he should feel terrible and there will be a major backlash against him in Italy as there well should after he embarrassed himself and Italy with his effort against Uraguay. Cassano- No
Balotelli is done with the Azzurri. De Rossi called him out for not being a real man and deservingly so. Mario completely disrespected Prandelli, a man who showed him such faith over the years and was awful and lazy this tournament I want Buffon to stay and continue to be our leader. Zoff was 40 when he lifted the Cup... De Rossi and Marchisio are most likely locks to continue and provide some leadership. Same with Chiellini. And the crown is passed...from Pirlo to Verratti. His time is now.
I don't want to make excuses for balo, but I don't think he's done with the azzurri. As bad as he was the team and prandelli was worse. I saw milan tonight,not italy. The team can't rely on one player, that's never worked for us. There was no attack from the midfield up, and no wing play cuz we had 5 defenders on with no wingers. It was a mistake to play in this formation with pirlo and veratti and than balo immobile. Those players essentially do the same thing.
I don't think Balotelli will get the boot for good. But whoever takes over as manager would be stupid to rely on him as their #1 like Prandelli did. Right away I'd be testing other alternatives such as Rossi, Destro, Immobile, and even Berardi to lead the line. The problem with Prandelli is he was always set on Mario. And these players were not given enough opportunities to prove anything.
De Rossi has called Balotelli out. Mario showed disrespect to his teammates and Prandelli on his way out. There is no way he is coming back to this team....the players won't have it. All thanks to his attitude, not his performance (as poor as it was) on the pitch.
sad to hear this about balotelli. for once it looked like he had a good relationship with his Azzuri team mates. he's such a cry baby its not even funny. he used the racism thing so many times but when he is accepted he still b*tches and moans....some people are just spoiled and whiny. sad to see another good italian player become like him and cassano. moving forward, the 3 man midfield should absolutely be marchisio-veratti-de rossi....at least for the next 4 years defense, fullbacks need lots of work attack needs more experience...i called it before, prandelli took way too many new comers for this tournament.
Again IMO the major problem was Prandelli, I don't have issues with any of the players other then Cassano. (still don't know why he was present). Prandelli had his chances and now he's gone. Lets just see who can replace him.
I'm still livid, but I do think we will be back much stronger in 4 years. This tournament taught us that Sirigu is pretty darn good. What once was a weakness at LB and RB now may be a strength. Darmian and De Sciglio have a bright future. They are best, however, used in a 4 man defense where they can penetrate using overlapping runs. They are not pure wing backs in a 3-5-2 able to just beat people off the dribble all the time. My boy Verratti showed his worth today. He really took command of that midfield. Too bad we didn't play him vs Costa Rica. There is a lot of reason to be optimistic about our up and coming talent. We definitely have to find a couple young CB for the D, and we really could use someone like a Gattuso to pair up with Verratti. Up front, there is a ton of up and coming talent so I'm not that worried there. It's too bad Prandelli shit the bed this tournament. This wasn't a super elite team, but there was enough talent there to do damage.
I just could not believe my ears when the Italian media was calling for Cassano this Spring. I just couldn't see it. At Parma he was decent, but he was still out of shape and had lost 2 steps. So, what does Prandelli do? He not only calls up Cassano, but he plays him at critical times and thinks he can be a one-man show upfront. As I said before and after the Costa Rica game. You can get away with one non-athlete on your team (ie. Pirlo). You can't get away with Cassano, Motta, etc as sloths on top of that. It will kill you every time.
The future is uncertain -- that doesn't mean it's bleak. Italy should start with Sirigu as their first-choice 'keeper, and test Perin and Scuffet as options for the future. Verratti is the player to build the midfield around. That is obvious. He is a fuoriclasse with skill, audacity, and personality to spare. De Rossi has something left to give as a holding midfielder, though he could move to center-back eventually. Whoever the new coach is needs to find international class strikers. Balotelli is 23; he could still mature. SES, Berardi, Rossi, Destro, Insigne, and Immobile should get some looks in upcoming friendlies and qualifiers. Darmian looks like a real find. De Sciglio I'm less confident in -- he seems to have regressed since the Confederations--but hopefully he makes the left-back role his. There's a desperate need for new center-backs. Chiellini and Barzagli were good (Barzagli more so) but never at the level of Cannavaro and Nesta, and Italy have been defensively shaky since at least 2008 as a consequence.
Give up the dream with Balotelli please. De Rossi (the future captain of the team) publicly blasted him today. He didn't do that without the approval of other core players. These guys will never welcome him back into the locker room. He's overrated anyway. Domenico Berardi is the player we need to start featuring from here on out. Talent wise he is superior to every other forward you mentioned and can become the superstar we are all looking for. Immobile and Insigne have the most upside out of everyone else. SES is a wimp, Rossi is injury prone, and Destro has his own attitude problems. Yeah I wanted Destro for this WC due to his form, but he's strictly middle of the pack moving forward. A possible 5th string guy for the Azzurri is his ceiling.
just use marchisio as striker. lol this team lacked a proper striker. thats why rossi was needed. cassano, cerci, insigne are all set up guys, only pure strikers were balotelli whos a jackass and immobile who was way too inexperienced. if immobile had played more international matches or maybe confed cup, he woulda been better. also i think prandelli lacked the motivational skills after euro 2012 i feel like he never got to inspire these players anymore.
he could be mature, but most of people are not expecting. agree. one of the problems is prandelli only believed in balodumbi since day 1 and didn't give any chances to other punta
ALL THE SENATORS FROM 2006 NEED TO GO! IT IS SAD TO SEE THE BOW OUT IS DISGRACE, BUT PRANDELLI'S IDIOCY HAS LEFT US NO CHOICE! TIME TO REBUILD FROM THE GROUND UP.
Balotelli & Cassano outcast at WC By Football Italia staff The Gazzetta dello Sport lead with the claim that the Italy squad was at odds with Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano for the entire World Cup. The Azzurri crashed out of the tournament at the group stage after losing to Uruguay in a controversial 1-0 loss. Claudio Marchisio was sent off, whilst Luis Suarez was seen allegedly biting Giorgio Chiellini in the second half. But despite these disputes, the sports daily indicates that the national team were, in fact, doomed from the start. The pink paper believes that Balotelli and Cassano, two of the squad’s morecolourful characters, were jettisoned early on by the remainder of the group for their behaviour. Gazzetta does not go into detail, but believes that the senior members of the group were not impressed by the pair from their training camp at Coverciano, through to the defeat in Natal on Tuesday. Daniele De Rossi was fuming after the final whistle, supposedly referencingBalotelli in his statements, insisting that Italy needed “men, not Panini stickers of players”. It now looks difficult for Cassano to carry on in the famous blue shirt, whilstCorriere dello Sport reported that the Milan forward is set to take a ‘back seat’ with the national team – with Giuseppe Rossi promoted to leading the line.
He should have never worn it again after Euro 2012 to begin with, or after getting into a fist fight with his coach at Inter for that matter. What I just read proves to me that Prandelli had no idea how to create unity within this team.
There is so much wrong with the Italian team at the moment - I just think we are kidding ourselves sometimes and thats why we are not getting anywhere anymore. Looking at some of the other powerful teams going around in the world cup at the moment -I really get where we are in the ratings, seriously guys, we are not even top 20 anymore - there is so much firepower and star quality in other teams. I love Buffon and Pirlo, but we need to rebuild from the start and its the clinging on attitude that we have had now for so many years that has returned us a fat zero. Where are all the Cassano experts now? Would he be picked for the NT, why not, etc etc - kinda laughable now those whole threads - he did nothing and looked tired from the first moment he stepped on the park. A couple of little chip passes here and there, not even one dribble, in fact nothing even worthwhile writing about. Just an old man in a young mans game, he was so outdated. Unfortunately Lippi stuffed up by not picking Cassano when he was at his peak and now we just got the old man left. We all know Lippi ballsed up that one. And Immobile looked so 2nd rate - says something about the state of our game back home if Mr cant touch the ball is our leading goalscorer. Cerci aka "offside"was a joke. I just saw a repeat of Brazil match and looking at Neymar and thinking about the guys that float around our forward line, it makes me cringe. How can we ever criticize any other team anymore - when we only scored 2 goals in 3 games? I mean have you seen how some of these goals are being scored? There are wonder goals happening left right and centre and we cant even score more than 2 goals in 3 matches. Immobile did nothing at all at this world cup. Lots of people hammering Balo but at least he did score a goal. Here is the point - no other forward scored - in fact - none even came close..... can we even think of any other forward that had a chance on goal.... even a half chance..... fact - none of them did a fat zero except spend a lot of their time being either offside or having the worst first touch I've seen at any national team level. So Im reserving my judgements of Balo at the moment - he is still very young and I cant really remember the midfields giving the forwards a heap of chances either. They spent so much time stuffing around with the ball passing it back and forth basically wasting time. Our defense looked weak - we conceded goals to every team we faced and you know what? Even if we had of crept through we would have kept conceding goals because that's what Italy does now. Even the minnows can score against us now. So just really disappointed with the NT now - I would keep Verratti, De Sciglio, Darmian, Marchisio and obviously Rossi ( now theres one that should of been picked) and the rest should be moved on. De Rossi going on about Balo...... question.... what did DDR do in this world cup.......still thinking....Balo can at least score a world class goal, DDR doesnt do much anymore and I know a lot of people will argue with me over this but DDR makes my list of "players to keep" but he is just on there for leadership and captain qualities.
The problem is not the players but with the manager i.e Prandelli. Compare Darmian,Cerci and Immobile when they play for Torino and Italy.You can see vast difference.It's the managers mentality that is important.Prandelli style of football is grandpa style which did not suit the three abovementioned players.
I'm still not sold on Immobile. Lacks technique and dribbling ability. Appears to be a bit of one-dimensional striker and a pure #9/goal poacher.
He did do that one nice play (reminded me of him and Totti) which would've set up one of the classic team goals only for Motta to **** it up. But yeah, we obviously need to start again and only keep a few vets like De Rossi and Marchisio. Even keeping Chiellini around worries me as a backline leader. His theatrics are ridiculous. If the ref doesn't make a call within 10 secs, stop rolling around and holding your head -- it just annoys everyone. Even his teammates weren't buying it after a while. Immobile needs a good season at Dortmund. It's a bit limited to have a poacher around who doesn't even have height for aerial play. Better to go with Destro.
I think Destro offers more in the air than Immobile (jumps higher), but I guess their selection will depend on how they are doing at club level mostly.
Cassano did well I thought yesterday, he was atrocious vs CR but who wasn't. He did what he could and was making things happen.