Rebuilding The Azzurri for Euro 2024 and beyond

Gasperini would have earned consideration...no question there from my side. What he's done with Atalanta is nothing short of remarkable. I also love how he doesn't put up with crap. He nips player issues in the bud and speaks his mind if he feels unsupported.

personally I wish Pirlo would not have been black-balled from Juventus and Serie A. Great potential as a manager. Why he's been left having to manage bakalakaguru fatakakasuru is beyond me

 

And also, I have watched Atalanta play under Gasperini, and I just love the aggression, determination, and urgency from the players. I’ve never seen that in any other team before. He needs to be a serious contender, and definitely knows how to build a team from scratch!

I LOVED Pirlo as a player, but to be honest, I didn’t think he was the best coach for Juventus. We almost didn’t make UCL and were very lucky that Napoli slipped. Maybe he’ll be better as time goes on, but I don’t want him coaching Juventus or the National Team at the moment. He’s too inexperienced.

 

Bring Capello out of retirement!
Ancelotti
Spaletti

 

Prandelli is free

 

Great teams of the past had plenty of bad performances. Look no further than the Euro '92 qualifying debacle where we handed Germany qualification on a platter or Trap's 2002 Asian humiliation etc.

However, there's a reason why England hasn't won a meaningful game in Italy since the late '60s (until now), we have had generations of professionals at the national level who, whether they played poorly or not, knew how to get results no matter what. You take any iteration of the Azzurri between the '70s and early 2000s, and even on their worst day they still find a way to get a result against this England side playing at home.

We've lost our national identity as a disciplined side that strikes fear into its opponents. We knew how to wear other countries down, whether it was through tactics or our maddening defensive organization not to mention our ability to make the most out of limited opportunities on goal. We've abandoned all this in pursuit of a more "modern game style" which to be honest I don't even know what that means these days. "Modern football" seems to change by the minute.

Yes, we won the 2020 tournament and I'm not undermining that achievement but for a team to have such wild swings in results tells me that they're lacking in maturity and character i.e traits that we've always had in the past.

 

Yes and that all came when Serie A was at the highest levels. Now Serie A clubs are undermining italian youth soccer. It's been a decade since Italian clubs have selfishly broke the league. It's now starting to show at the International level. Perhaps not five years ago, but now the younger players are coming up and the older players who had that last resonate of top Serie A flight football is waning.

I had a similar discussion before about Italian football and I mentioned, it's affecting the football culture of Italy. In other words as you said "your national identity" That ingrain ability to understand Italian football and make it work, somethings not right at this moment.

 

Absolutely NOT! I’d rather keep Mancini if it’s a choice between him and Prandelli. Prandelli and Gian Piero Ventura; I never want to see them even close to the national team ever again.

 

I have a few things to say about our win in 2020. First of all, Insigne was at his prime then, and very key to our success. I feel like many people underrate and overlook Insigne because he stayed at Napoli and never played for a top club, but we was world class. Potentially comparable to De Bruyne in my opinion. Insigne really was a world class player that had great dribbling, skill, assisting, and shooting. Since he got old, we’ve never found anyone else that is world class and consistent like that in attack, and made us have to rely on Chiesa. Chiesa is phenomenal but he’s had injury struggle’s recently, and he can’t do it all alone. Especially with the system that Mancini had us playing.

The other thing we can’t forget is that Chiellini was a world class defender; one of the best in the world, and he and Bonucci really held a high line very well. Since Chiellini’s retirement; we’ve lost a hole that we haven’t been able to really fill yet. I feel like Bastoni could be a good option and replacement, but Mancini has not been using him. I also like what I’ve seen from Romagnoli.

And besides all that I addressed above, once we were past the group stage, we really did not look convincing in front of goal and couldn’t finish our chances. We dominated, played well, but we didn’t score. This is a serious problem, and the reason for that is because we lack talent and quality in attack. We should’ve scored 6 against Belgium and we only scored 2. We should’ve scored like 3-4 against Austria and likely 3 against England with the way we played against those teams.

All that to say because of our scoring problem, and the hole that Chiellini has left, we cannot play this Mancini style and need to revert back to the normal Azzurri style that’s been for decades: tight defense, midfield pressing, and counterattacking football!

 

I think veratti is exactly the kind of player England need. He walks into the team for me and obviously don in goal. Other positions are more debatable, barella with Veratti and Bellingham would be a nice midfield 3

I like Chiesa but our front 3 picks itself when rashford is fit

I thought Italy looked good for spells in possession and the goal was well worked with a nice first touch and finish. It was not comfortable at all. I think gnonto looked very promising too, he has great feet

I actually really like Italy and followed ac Milan a lot in the 90s and early 2000s so I hope u guys qualify. Not the same without Italy

 

Rice veratti and Bellingham

 

I'm late 40s I've seen quite a bit obviously. No doubt that the teams of the 90s and early 2000s had talent, but they also lacked truly great midfields and we never won a major tournament because of that. That's a fact. We were stacked on D and striker though.

What we had in the past was just a lot more depth of talent and players who had lots of exposure to CL and major European play. As long as our clubs keep failing to promote and invest (and play) young Italian talent, we are going to have struggles.

I'm not as down on Gli Azzurri as some. That's because midfields win a lot of games and we have a ton of talent there. It's the reason we were unbeaten for so long. But, Jorginho and Verratti are over 30 and Barella seems like he plays 100 games a yr and can burn out. We've got to let some of that young talent shine in the midfield because they have to carry us in the absence of great strikers and great central defenders.

 

Barella is extremely burned out at the moment, he plays a lot and plays hard.

Malta today, I know it's bad but I'm hoping we lose because the media is saying Mancini is walking on very thin ice. I'd rather just rip the band-aid off today.

 

The defence needs to be totally renewed:

Out: Bonucci, Acerbi and Tolói.
In: Bastoni, Gatti, Mancini, Casale, Baschirotto, Romagnoli.

 

Bernardeschi played last night for TFC against my Quakes.

Some friends and relatives who were at the game said he got a yellow card but still has quite a lot of skill and they said he played well.

Is he no longer going to be considered just because he is in MLS?

 

Conte pretty much spoke for all of Italy back in 2016 when he said something like "if you play in MLS there are NT consequences" He was talking about Giovinco.

 

Well it’s almost like going to Serie B.

 

Look, when an idiot like me (who is just a guy with an internet connection!) can see the imbalance in our midfield lineup BEFORE the last England match, identify specifically why it is imbalanced (slow, physically weak, two of the three midfielders will basically never shoot the ball) then all of the areas of concern where borne out during the match, then I think it is reasonable to conclude there is a problem with the manager. Based on his actions and comments, Mancini seems as stubborn as he is prideful. I almost feel like he is trying to troll us fans with his comments

 

Don't insult Serie B like that, Pescara's Primavera team will comfortably beat any MLS team including MLS all-stars

 

falvo gonna murder you.

 

That was back in 2015-16 and over 7 years ago.

The league has grown immensely since then.

Also, Giovinco when picked and while he was in MLS, actually had a good player rating in one game I saw.

Also at that time, Pirlo from when he landed in NY and 6 weeks after Juve's CL final, struggled and did for each year he played so this narrative of MLS being inferior is no longer valid.

I know the Serie B and other than maybe the top 7-8 teams, MLS is a much stronger league, more stable, better attended and pays a lot more than most teams in the Serie B.

Each team is now worth $500-$800 million and most have their own stadium.

No team in the Serie B and very few in the A can boast this.

Thiago Almada of Atlanta United played very well and scored a nice goal for WC champion Argentina the other day.



Atlanta alone draws over 50k a game.

No one in Italy can claim those attended numbers consistently.

It's not the Serie A but I'm betting Bernardeschi can still easily play for many teams in the Serie A.

I heard Berna was master class all over the field last night.

 

Yes, nowadays playing in MLS should not necessarily discount a player from being taken into consideration, even if it will be a factor. I suspect it is better than the Argentinian premier league and Retegui was developed there.

I would hope this point of view has now changed.

 

Matias Almeyda told me personally the Argentine Primera División is in complete disarray and they can't even pay their players.

That's why teams are always selling off players to Europe or abroad so clubs can stay afloat.

Things have changed and MLS as a league has grown..

Italy hasn’t really developed great Italian players in over 10-15 years so to keep saying MLS is this or that is disingenuous at best.

That is the span of most careers.

It’s not a great league like Europe’s top 5 but very few are.

I’d say it’s probably among the #12-15th leagues in the world.

 

Kane diving already, not even 10 minutes into the game vs Ukraine. Worse than Neymar, ugly piece of shit

 

lets hope he remains trophyless forever!! piece of shit