Watched the Juve-Roma match yesterday and I got to say Prandelli should give Grosso look over. Even though he is getting old he still plays like a 30 yr old. I still believe he should have been on Lippi's WC squad.
^^Don't let him fool you. He's been pretty poor this season. Yesterday's performance was out of the norm.
i love grosso and he can still be a difference maker but he is old and underperforms half the time. He should've been in WC 2010 squad along with 8-10 other players. lol lippi selection was a joke
Grosso has been nothing more than average over the past couple of years. I honestly don't see how he shoudl've merited a spot on the WC 2010, or why people think that he should suddenly be given a look by Prandelli based on one good performance against Roma. We're supposed to be moving FORWARD, people!
I was actually quite surprised Grosso was dropped from South Africa, he was one of the better players throughout qualifying; always showed up for the national team.
Me too, Grosso always stepped it up a notch with the NT. His exclusion showed how badly Lippi had fried his brain on his two year fishing vacation. It was obvious that if anyone needed to be cut from the defense it was Cannavarro.
I too don't see why people are hung up on Grosso. He had one good performance against a VERY MEDIOCRE Roma who lost their best defender to injury. I think Criscito and Balzaretti are way better then he is. Lippi made the right choice in excluding Grosso... but way too many other wrong, stubborn choices that ruined Italy in the WC. This would be like wanting to call back up Oddo because he has one good performance... come on now... be serious. One player, though a right back, I think should get the call up is Abate.. I've said it before, but he's been very consistent (barring one off performance against Palermo).
And replaced with who? Our CB situation was even worse than our FB situation. If Nesta was still at our disposal I would agree in a heartbeat, but unfortunately that clearly wasn't the case.
Come on now, we may not have had the next coming of Baresi, but there were plenty of Italian CB's that were in much better form than Cannavaro and had been in better form than him for several seasons since he joined Madrid. Cannavaro's form had regressed so bad that he made Bobby Zamora look like Baggio.
His younger brother for one, or Ranocchia who had great season last year and seem to be the building blocks of the NT's defense.
You know who has seemingly been off the radar, partly due to the league he went to, is Salvatore Bocchetti. I really admire him and I thought/think he can still be a solid part of the Azzurri defense. Unfortunately, he seems like he won't stay in the mind of the coach if he plays in the offseason of Serie A.
Ranocchia had a great season but barely any experience at the international level, yet we're gonna throw him right into the mix in the World Cup? Also, there must be a reason as to why Paolo was ignored by Lippi, and is being ignored once again by Prandelli. I doubt very much it has to do with politics.
Lippi had two years to integrate new center backs into the squad, but instead of doing what needed to be done he relied on the broken partnership of Chiellini and Cannavaro. That same duo who conceded 56 goals last season, and if I remember correctly that makes them about the 6th worse defense in the league that year. Freaking Atalanta who were regulated, conceded less goals. In Chiellini's defense he was playing well, while in contrast the rest of Juve's defense was just terrible in every sense of the word. Bonucci, Gamberini, Bochetti, P. Cannavaro, Ranocchia etc. were all in far better form than Cannasaur at the time, and a few of them had been for a couple years. Cannavaro's form after the 06 World Cup regressed at such an amazing rate, I find it shocking that people can defend his inclusion. Lippi didn't bother integrating new players in, and more importantly did not even remotely try to form a solid defensive partnership. He stuck with a broken system that was proven a failure both in the league and internationally. The "there was no one else" excuse does not hold up.
Italy should go through a youth movement and do what the Germans did to their national team, Italy should go with their youth and revamp their whole team and get younger, and Cesare Prandelli should use that youth model for the Azzurri and you guys will start to go places, trust me
Italy should be adding more youth there are some stubborn mentalities that have to be shrugged off. For example, the idea that older players are better because they are experienced and they can adapt better to a coach's tactical scheme.
Yes that's true but also the younger players too can adapt to a coach's tactical scheme just as much as the older players, if not more, and the younger players are faster and more exciting when it comes to playing style
yup def. its a way outdated mentallity that doesnt seem to be changing anytime soon. Most these big teams in italy dont play youth, hell i never see the likes of gianetti even on the bench at juve and he scored against man city in europa league this year.