CB options are Bastoni, Acerbi, Romagnoli, and potentially Lovato (depending on his development). RB you are looking at Calabria and Lazzari in addition to Di Lorenzo. LB is Spina's job if he is healthy. Otherwise, it is Emerson, Di Marco, and maybe Pellegrini if he can make a name for himself at Juve this year.
Italy is pretty bereft of CB prospects right now but Bastoni seems like a 10 plus year stall wort for the Nationale and Inter. After that it's anyone's guess. Yes ideally we would need someone like Lovato, Matteo Gabbia Of course some guys tend to develop late so maybe there is still time for Rugani or Romagnoli or even Caldara to realize their promise. Unfortunately these guys aren't playing regularly for the Italian teams who make it in Europe, which imo is the biggest problem facing the Italian national team. A coach like Mancini can certainly even out those odds as we have seen but it would be nice if more Italians were getting regular playing time at the top 7 level in Serie A
Agree with that. Vieri from 1998 - 2004 was absolutely feared and capable of taking over a game by himself. Both of his world cups were epic...its a shame he wasn't healthy for Euro 2000 as that was his prime.
Forgot about Gianluca Mancini at Roma. very talented CB and has more of the Chiellini physicality to compliment Bastoni who plays more like Bonnuci. That could be a very nice pairing for the next 5 -10 years.
Chiellini didn't play due to injury. When called upon, he was always reliable. Juve's best central defensive pairing was him and de Ligt. I would say that Bonucci exceeded expectations based on how he played at club level this past season.
I think people might not be giving Southgate credit here. He did react, by doing nothing, because he knew it he opened up it was game over, over, over. Secretly he was hoping one of Sterling's runs And then falls Would have won them the game. The world over is over joyed Sterling wasn't able to fool another referee crew. But I think the Dutch referees, even if it were a different crew must have been thinking "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!" Sourhgates tactics brought them to a point where they could have stole the game. Good thing his virtue signal substitutions ruined his miserable plan!
True that athletes are going to get top notch medical care and rehabilitation. He should be able to start training the same time Witsel was, they'll both get the best of the best. Whether he's back in top form by then is another question. 17 months though? Barring any other injury, let's just say he will be back by then.
Vieri was a class bomber . Not many like him since, except for Luca who was close as a finisher on the ground and in the air. Hopefully we come across another soon , but will that again be at a time where Italy has exceptional fowards , defence and GK but the midfield could be better ? Even during those times where Italys midfield was considered good but not class , I still thought they had the capability to be class but were just used ineffectively by our managers at the time .
Pietro Calcio makes a good point, back then the midfield didn't play as fluid as the current one has. Often we would go over the top to the forwards and then fans complained about that. You build systems around the talents that you have obviously. Of all the Italian games of this tournament, only Spain was questionable in terms of the tactical battle between the coaches. The Spanish deserve credit for not just pressing high but because they can hold onto the ball well too, making their press n dangerous because you have to expend a lot of energy trying to get the ball back if you give it up. So Italy opted to go over the top in most cases when Spain pressed rather than risk trying to pass through them. That was different with England. England tried similarly with a higher press but there was less concern by our back line because they knew they could pass the ball through it, whereas with Spain they knew if they lost it, it would be tricky. Knowing your opponents strengths and weaknesses is obviously the key in the differences in approach here. That variability is a sign of a good team that can adapt. Mancini gets a lot of credit here and so too the players who recognized and struck to plans that worked. England don't have the same ability in the midfield to keep the ball. They pressed but they can't keep the ball like Spain and that's the biggest difference between the two. So while Spain packed their midfield to deal with ours, England packed their back line. I'm also sure everyone here would take Kane over Morata. We saw in the final when Kane doesn't get the ball, then Kane can't score and Kane finds himself on the ground more. I'd love a good bomber to put the cherry on top, but I can live with a midfield that plays like this one too, especially when it gets the missing pieces that were injured for this tournament.
I forgot about Gianluca Mancini on defense. He's always been a headscratcher for me. Some games he looks like a mix of Alessandro Nesta and Marco Materazzi. Other games, he makes some terrible mistakes on timing and anticipation. Roma gave up a lot of goals last year. Hopefully as he gets older he will be more consistent. He's 25 which is still fairly young for a defender. Maybe some Romanisti can chime in.
Our late 90's early 2000's midfielders were not that great. It's the only thing that held us back from multiple trophy wins. With all due respect, guys like Di Biagio, Di Livio, Di Matteo, C. Zanetti, Moriero, Tommasi, etc can't hold a candle to today's midfield. If 1998 Italia had today's midfield, they would have cruised to victory in the French WC. I've always believed that you can still win trophies with great midfields and average strikers, but not the other way around. Euro 2021 is more proof of that. We'd all love to have a young Christian Vieri on today's team but it's not happening. That doesn't mean we can't hoist the WC in 2022.
While international high level experience is important, I can't entirely agree with this. If we pile up all the good players among the top 7, Serie A will become less competitive. I kind of like the fact that many of our best players are playing for mid-table and even bottom-feeders in Serie A; it makes the league more competitive. And again, while international competition is essential to develop a player and give him experience, a competitive domestic league is also important for the same reason. Take the example of Brazil. They were a much more threatening side in World Cups when their domestic league was tops. Once the process of selling their top players to European clubs began, their national team suffered with a lack of identity, with the Brazilian style of playing soccer getting diluted. These days with the exodus of the best players, I think a mid-table team in Serie A can easily defeat a top team in the Brazilian league. While only 3 of our 26 national team players play abroad, it's the opposite for the Brazilian national team; only 3 play domestically. This has likely something to do with the fact that the Azzurra was a real team with a real identity, a real playing style, and strong friendships among the players, while the Brazilian national team was divided (even politically, with some players against the hosting of Copa America in Brazil during the pandemic and others indifferent to it), lacked cohesion, lacked team spirit and the will to win, and ended up losing Copa America to Argentina. So, even more than international experience, I favor a strong domestic league as a tool to strengthen a national team.
Exactly. I remember that even before the Euro 2021 started, I was talking with my son (who is extremely knowledgeable and tactically aware, from having played youth soccer as a very good right back until he suffered 3 devastating injuries which ended his playing days) I was discussing with him the potential for a title for the Squadra Azzurra, and lamenting the absence of a really reliable and explosive center forward, and my son was saying, "don't worry, dad, we have a world-class midfield which will make it very difficult for the other teams to beat us, and will enhance the performance of our strikers; I think we'll win it all." Well, he was right. In 2006 we had Pirlo as the midfield maestro... and it worked but Pirlo was slow. Today's midfield not only holds the ball well and overwhelms the opponent's midfield, but they are also fast, multiplying our attempts. Italy in most Euro 2021 games had a much higher number of attempts than the opponents. So, even if your strikers are not that great, if you try often enough eventually the ball goes in. Not to forget, a good and fast midfield not only increases the number of attacking attempts in 90 minutes, but also decreases the number of attempts available to the opponents. We ended up scoring 13 goals and conceding only 4, one of which through a questionable PK that Lukaku converted. That's a very good average in a high stakes tournament. It's also interesting to notice how our goal scorers rotated a lot. Other teams had strikers scoring 5, 4, and 3 goals in the tournament, while no Italian scored more than 2 goals, however we had many players scoring 2 goals each: Chiesa, Insigne, Immobile, Locatelli, and Pessina, and then Barella and Bonucci with 1 each. Do notice that many goals came out of players that are not the front 3. So, it confirms the issue that a great midfield can compensate for so-so strikers. Compare to Portugal: of their 7 goals, 5 were by CR7, and 1 each by 2 other players. No wonder they got bumped out early. They relied on one guy. We had several who were able to score including midfielders and defense players.
You're also leaving out names ( some of which only came shortly after 98 and some the same time ) like Camoranesi , Pirlo , Albertini ( same time ) , Donadoni ( same time ) Dino Baggio ( same time) Conte ( same time ) Fiore , Perrotta , etc Also DiBiagio was a class midfielder ( if you were watching Roma and Inter year in and year out during then , as I assume you were , you should know that . And Tommasi was very good from the Roma 2001 Scudetto team and 96 under 21 Italy champion ) Only going off the top of my head but I'm sure there are other players with their achievements which I am probably not including at the moment , but taking another look you dont think those guys above were capable of playing a similar possession style game given the right manager ? Ya know , instead of Sacchi , Maldini , Zoff , Trapattoni ?
IDK...Brazil is still a top international side...just as they were int he late 90's / early 2000's when Ronaldo was at Inter and Ronaldinho was at PSG / Barcelona. But yeah they are certainly not dominating like they were in Pele era. I think my larger point is that why are these top Italian sides so obsessed with bringing in the quick fix import rather than promoting native Italians? Look at Milan with Locatelli...they gave up on a class academy player WAY too soon and now he's about to be sold for 40 million. If some of these top 7 Italian sides played more Italian players, we could still have teams like Sassuolo and the mid table teams promote the next bumper crop of young Italians to showcase their stuff and provide the club a financial boost. Someone like Berardi for instance should be playing for a top 7 side and then Raspadori will take his place. It's clear these guys can play ...we just won the Euro playing guys like Acerbi, Berardi, DiLorenzo who was a serie C player a few years ago..Spinnazola who was a late bloomer, etc. These guys are out there and they just need to be given a chance.
You have a point. It is kind of disheartening that AC Milan's only player for the victorious Euro 2020 Azzurri was Donnarumma and he's already gone to PSG, leaving Milan with no national team representation (which couldn't be weirder), as opposed to the 2006 team when Milan contributed with Gattuso, Gilardino, Nesta, Inzaghi, and Pirlo. These days, AC Milan doesn't have a lot of Italians as starters... My favorite Milan players are all foreigners: Ibra, Rebic, Kessié, Theo, Kjaer... and I'm hoping that I will like the new Frenchmen Mike Maignan and Olivier Giroud. Instead of hiring an Italian, we have a dreadful Spaniard like Castillejo (who tries hard but just isn't that good; I'd hope we'd get rid of him; fortunately we have signed Tonali permanently, now). But my only point is that the solution is not piling up all the good Italians among the top 7 Italian teams, but having them spread around so that Serie A remains competitive which is also important.
I hear ya...my allegiance is to the Nationazale..so I really follow any team that plays Italians. A couple years ago I crapped on Inter but they have supplied Barella, Basotni, D'Ambrosio and Sensi (when healthy). Now AC Milan is on my crap list...lol. It's a far cry from the glory days but I hope it starts to turn around soon. The top Italian teams need to have an Italian identity. I'm convinced there's lots of homegrown players languishing out there who could easily be the equal of Castillejo for instance. it's all about gicing them the chance.
Fonseca played high risk and with young defenders you're going to have to accept what will come from that. Jose should really nail down his concentration and with more balanced tactics, he should be a wall this year.. He reminds me of a Materazzi type player while also showing the ability to play defensive midfield for a fill in and do it well enough to get by. Unless Roma progress back to CL I think he out grows the club very quickly and could be Juve or Inter bound.
Pietro, Pirlo, Gattuso, Camoranesi and Perrotta were after the time period I was thinking of. The real wasted WCs for me were 98 and 2002. That's where I thought our midfields were not up to par. Albertini was good but he didn't have enough around him. I don't rate Di Biagio as highly as you might have. Fiore was really good but more of an attacking midfielder. Tommasi was a really hard worker but lacked the quality feet you see in our midfield today. Sure, our CTs were not the most innovative in the world at that time, but I also don't think the midfield talent was there given how good our strikers and defenders were.
You rate him very highly then. He's got a lot of personality and I like that. Hopefully, what you say about Jose tightening up his game is true. Because he really does have mental lapses at times. The tools are all there. Materazzi didn't become an elite defender until his late 20s, so that may be a good comparison.
Italians in Top Clubs Look, in a perfect world, we should be seeing Juve, Inter, and Milan playing with 5-6 Italians in their starting lineup, but that isn't the case anymore. So, we have to live with this new calcio where we have to pluck players from mid-table clubs. But, as I've said before, I'm fine with that. The cream will rise to the top as it did at these Euros. What would trouble me is if the mid-table clubs start to get flooded with foreigners. Atalanta for example is an alarming sign. They always were a huge Italian youth pipeline and now they've become a foreign youth pipeline. That can be problematic over the long haul if we don't watch out. Fortunately, Inter and Roma have done a nice job of developing some young Italians and that has helped greatly. Juve and Milan need to do more of that. (Napoli and Lazio need to do more as well.)
I agree with you; like I said in an earlier post, we at Milan have too many foreigners right now, but at least, I'll remind you that we developed Donnarumma and he was the Euro Player of the Tournament and extremely instrumental in securing our title triumph so the entire Italian nation needs to thank us for that... Sure, he's gone to PSG but my point is, we developed him. Anyway, given that we've replaced him with Mike Maignan, it's another position where the starter will no longer be Italian. Talking about Milan Italians: I'm hopeful that Sandro Tonali will develop more into a great Italian defensive midfielder. He is 21 years old. I'm very glad that Milan finally signed him permanently for a 5-year contract. He is smart and has good technique. Romagnoli on the other hand is rumored to be willing to leave and go to Barcelona as he feels underappreciated and underutilized at Milan (this past season he had poor form and lost his place to Tomori; being totally outplayed by Lukaku in the Derby didn't help). Given that he has only one year left in his contract I think it's very likely that he will leave us. It seems like Maldini is eyeing Loic Badé to replace him but Lens are asking too much (21 million) - at this price he won't come. Matteo Gabbia is another young player we've developed but we don't seem to value him that much, and may lose him before he reaches peak form. I hope not. Andrea Conti didn't really work for us. We probably should get rid of him. Well, we still have Davide Calabria. I like him. He's a keeper. We also have Mattia Caldara, with a modest past season. Another product of our Academy is Lorenzo Colombo. He's 19. We'll see how he develops. Alessandro Plizzari, goalkeeper, is another product of the Academy. He is 21. Young Daniel Maldini, well, I wonder if he would be there if he had a different father... Oh well, he's still very young, 19 years old so maybe he will further develop and surprise me. All things considered, yes, we're more and more losing our Italian identity. It's kind of telling that after this transfer window, only a young and still not fully developed player, Tonali, may be the sole Italian flag bearer at Milan who is able to secure and retain a starting position. Oh wait, Calabria too. Anyway, for one of the 3 most traditional Italian teams to have only a couple of Italians able to be starters, is a disgrace. It's interesting to remember the history of the club: the very foundation of Inter Milan, splitting out from us, was because Milan wanted to only have Italian players while the people in the club who wanted international players left to found Inter, which is why Inter is called Internazionale. Dial up several decades later... and we have barely a couple of Italians left, able to start... Ironic. Talking about foreigners, I think we should get rid of Krunic and Castillejo.