This is where the rubber meets the road in terms of wage/spending gap to EPL. Maybe skill level is close but they're bigger, stronger, quicker in...
FIFA rankings determine seeds. In 2006, Italy's big rival in qualification was Norway, because Italy was seeded in the top 8 European teams. No...
It's mostly useless for the Euro Cup, but it's set up so to achieve a better FIFA rankings system. You can't game the system (like Poland were...
Immobile must be loved in the dressing room or something. Ever since the players snubbed Rossi so Immobile could get the final spot in the 2014...
Deserved it for playing a hack like Immobile. Every time he does his usual mediocre efforts, the players heads drop more and more.
Well Portugal plays again in a few days time. So if we win this, they could slip up against Poland (maybe tiredness, injury etc) and then we'd go...
Tonali's probably the next best midfielder (behind the starting 3) if you want to maintain the technical level.
Yeah that gameplan seems kinda familiar... I wonder how long before he calls up Tonali or someone with similar characteristics. Without all 3 of...
Well deserved. Mancini's been excellent in selection (imo) Went with the technical midfielders over the runners. Saw through Immobile pretty damn...
haha this is mental. can we have an ounce of luck.
I think we'll do it this time.
Sounded like Mancio was hoping for Chiesa to play more as a no9. Now it's a tough decision for the must win game. The front 3 created well in the...
Far too wasteful in front of goal. Mancini has to get them used to scoring 2-3 per game because they don't have the quality to consistently keep...
Big surprise. Pick the most talented players and suddenly we look good. Defensively the mid's a bit soft but not much we can do about that.
So it's really just Berna as no 10 in a 4-3-1-2? oh man its like my dream line-up:cool: let's see if it works now.
Um dude, these are literally world cup qualifiers for us. The irony is that it was this exact same game vs Portugal ~3 years ago that cost us an...
Sounds like the clubs/figc told him not to play anyone for 2 full games. Still a mess. Anyway relegation is meaningless. Points for FIFA rankings...
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Verratti will walk straight back into the team when fit.
At least we got real FBs this time. They've already created some danger. Zaza looking ok too.
I'd rather give Insigne and Berna another chance with an active no9 (instead of zombie Balotelli) And i'm still holding out hope that Mancini...
Yeah i don't know much about him other than he's described as a promising CDM. atm, Jorginho is more a regista and not really suited to this...
Not too upset. Didn't expect a lot from a midfield with both Gagliardini and Pellegrini. An inform Verrattti is essential. More disturbed by the...
I'll wait till 2nd half before i start to panic. There were a couple good signs from Insigne and Berna, but i can see why Mancini was calling back...
Well the new rankings system is in. We're 14th ranked Euro team, but need to be top 9 to get seeding for next WC....
Yeah they could be doing better. They should really have bought Verratti back and get him tuned up for the national team. Berna should just be...