i know theres a thread about him already but it goes way back to WC days, i wanted a thread to see peoples views of him so far considering the handful of games he's had...few friendlies and few euro qualifiers my thoughts are a mixed feeling, he got results in euro qualifiers when it mattered but they were against weak squads and serbia game was ruined by stupid serbs...but the friendlies have been horrible as far as results. Is this guy on the right track? cAn we get a list of all the players he's brought to the squad so far? with very few international dates u dont have much chances to play around with ur team. I appreciate seeing new players but u do have to build a core for your team. I think he doesnt give a chance to some of the new players, especially the strikers, when the problems is midfield. Forwards; Players like borriello, balotelli, rossi and even quagliarella and pazzini havent been given solid chances. If i remember correctly they always get subbed out cuz something didnt work out. Was it their fault for the team not creating enough chances? too many times people criticize forwards when the problem lies somewhere else. sure they might have a few bad touches but u have to look at WHY...maybe they were triple teamed, maybe they didnt have help...u look at other successful forwards who score and look at the guy assisting the ball or how the play was created, thats where forwards thrive, not just throw the ball and say hey make something happen, i think italy NT has been spoiled by previous forwards like vieri, baggio and them.... i didnt like how Rossi started as captain for first time ever, then subbed at half time, thats not how u build confidence in ur player who u want as captain for the future. Midfield , ive seen a bunch of new players get tested but then like yesterdays game, he resorts to the oldies when his original plan didnt work. Now in a meaningful game i can understand but was that necessary for a friendly? i think he shoulda stuck to the new players and if he was a real coach at half time he would fix things. But to immediately change players at half is a sign of a scared coach. A good coach would talk to them at half and give them another 10-15 min. in 2nd half to see if things change and if not, then sub the other players. Players like aquilani, palombo, candreva and them need to play more often and have confidence of the coach, not just get swapped around, get invited one game, not the other...u have to build a midfield Defense, now in defense we've seen some new players too but it seems like he keeps changing those guys as well. I think players like cassani and cricito should've been starters cuz they had some chances before and they did pretty good. Why not continue the flow and give them more confidence? bringing in new players and starting them and then when things go bad they lose confidence and u lose confidence in them too. I think some new players need to come in as subs, not be starters. overall what im trying to say is, he's not sticking with certain players and swapping them around, he keeps bringing new ones and hoping one would shine. I prefer him picking like 8 mids and keeps swapping different combos to see what works. You cant expect cohesion if u keep throwing in new players that never played before together.
I think its a bit too early to be judging Prandelli,since hes only been in charge for 3-4 mths? So far,i like that he has dismantled the 2010 team and brought in fresh players.Like i said,its much too early,have you seen the results of other teams? Argentina 1- Brazil 0 Sweden 0 - Germany 0 France 2 - England 1 Portugal 4 - Spain 0 The sky is not falling,we are just in the process of turning the ship in a new direction.
Prandelli needs to figure out what to do with the midfield. Our first priority is finding a functioning system that operates without Pirlo in the mix. I’m not saying we should get rid of him completely, but we will be screwed if we stay overly reliant on him. He is getting older and if he becomes injured, we must have something in place that works. It seems as if Italian wingers are almost non existent these days, so I say we give players like Abate or Giaccherini a chance on the wing. We have quality forwards who are doing well in their respective leagues, so as long as we figure out the midfield problem, goals should in theory come. I also believe our defense is good enough to compete against top teams, the fullbacks just looked more exposed than usual yesterday because of poor tactics. We need a discussion on the midfield. Thoughts?
did u watch those teams? results arent so much the case, its how the games are played. Brazil and germany played very good games, spain created some chances too, england has just been lame so dont count on them. But u also cant go by what happens to others, u gotta worry about ur own progress. I dont see much difference between this team, lippi's and donadoni's, thats what worries me
I agree but no Italian midfield will function at the highest level without a 'Pirlo' calibre player. I still think Lippi's 06 set-up was perfect for an Italian team. 1 deep playmaker, 1 pure DM, 1 Box2Box, 1 Winger + No 10. - No.9. The 2nd half, we went back to this system, only Mauri was our winger. And i'm sure if Aqui had played in the Pirlo role, he would've looked more comfortable than in the first half. A true winger is the main concern right now to give the balance. Someone who can out dribble his man... I'd cap Schelotto or even Abate and see how it goes.
I like the approach he has taken to the squad. He made it clear that he was looking to focus on injecting youth into the NT, and he's stuck by his word. This NT was long over due for a rebuilding phase, and Prandelli is finally putting it into effect. I also like the fact that he is emphasizing on calling up players based on MERIT. In other words, if you're in form, you'll get a look, regardless of what his personal relationship may be like with the player in question. His tactical decisions have been somewhat suspect, but at the same time I can't be too hard on him for that just yet. He's been expirementing a lot with different players, and is obviously still trying to figure out who works best and within what setup. I say give him another year before we really start to question his efforts. We are afterall at the top of the group at the moment, aren't we?
It's too early to tell. He's only coached, what 4 or 5 games? I like what he is doing with regard to rebuilding/injecting youth (Forza spoke well about this above) but his results are far from spectacular besides the win over Faroe Islands.
I really can't remember any coach who's results were "spectacular" from the get-go though. I mean, Lippi's early results during his first tenure were actually rather dreadful (2-0 loss to Iceland in his first friendly), yet the Azzurri then went on to being undefeated in for 2 straight years. We may not be blowing the competition away, but we're not getting our asses handed to us either, which is something to build on.
Of course, I was just saying, since this is a thread critiqueing Prandelli, that his results have been unimpressive so far. Whether past coaches had a similar streak or not is besides the point.
Well, I think people were only kidding themselves if they were expecting him to immediately turn this NT from the lump of crap that it was, into something inspirational. Right now he's essentially rebuilding things from scratch, while making use of the few veterans we have left that are actually still of great quality. It's gonna be a bumpy process, but I'm confident it will pay dividends in the end.
Yea me too. I feel every national team that has pretty much passed a generation of talent has to go through these periods at some point or another. Unfortunately for Cesare, it should have been done the past four years and he is stuck with it.
The problem we have is that there is no talent ! This is the worst period that I can remember in over 20 years. People talk about the situation in 86 and how similar it is, the big difference is that we had the three foreigner rule and we had unbelievable talent.
The talent situation really isn't as bad as people are making it seem. It's just a question of giving it the opportunity to develop the way it needs to, and incorporating the proper tactics that make the most out of this talent. I wouldn't mind seeing Galloppa and Nocerino eventually given shots in Prandelli's squad.
i didnt expect him to do that but what i do expect is a bit of consistency on player selection. Rather than just calling up whos been hot for a few weeks, he needs to find out who will work for his system and how they perform with the rest. i think italy has a good selection of players who just need more time and chances, he'll never find his team if he gives 30min. to some players every few months. For example, what happened to cossu and other players who took up WC spots over others like rossi and borriello? i know that wasnt his selection but bringing players for ONE game and then never bringin them again is a complete waste. He keeps sub-ing out forwards; rossi, balotelli, quagliarella, borriello, etc....when it should be midfield and defense. That right there is wrong cuz ur not giving a chance to your forwards to show what they're made of.
I think that Cassano's recent falling out with Sampdoria threw a huge monkey wrench in Prandelli's plans in attack. I have no doubts that he was looking to forge an attack comprise mainly of Cassano, Balotelli, and Pazzini. Unfortunately things haven't gone according to plan though, as Balotelli got injured in his first match with Man. City, Pazzini has struggled to find consistency, and Cassano is now frozen out of club football at least till January. This of course only made it more difficult for Prandelli to resort to establishing his preferences up front.