Italy needs three players of this class

For me, Baggio is just below Messi, Maradona, and R9.

For me, Baggio was better than C.Ronaldo, Zidane, Zico, Platini.

 

Cr7 Zidane absolutely not

 

At the current Italian Football system, a player could never become the likes of Baggio again. With more coaches prefer 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 formation, players that dreams or wants to become trequartista or fantasista are forced to play out wide or SS. However, there are young players that could fill those positions such as Pafundi and Baldanzi; Ambrosino is of this mold also. Some that are further out are Marco Nasti and Volpato.

Our system could still produce players like Pirlo. Look at Tonali and Verratti before him. Behind Tonali we have Ricci and Fagioli, also Alessandro Bianco and Amatucci not far behind. This is not the preference of the modern Italian coaches and trainers as they prefer a more traditional number 8: tall, mobile, vertical passing, and outside the box snipers.

Vieri is another player that we our system could still produce, but not many. Our system produces more players in the Gilardino, Inzaghi, Ventola, and Paolo Rossi type than the Vieri or Toni of the world. Usually players like this are frequently injured, but ideal for the current formation preference. Look at Scammaca and Lucca and coming this year Pio Esposito.

Before we dream of those players, we should focus at producing world class defenders first. Our current crop of defenders are good, but not great: Bastoni, Buongiorno, Scalvini, Comuzzo, Coppola, Gatti, & Ranieri. This is another position that is regressing in quality, may progress in quantity, because of the three-man defense formation preference.

 

Honestly, I just want them to stop playing with the 3-5-2 (which is really a modified 5-3-2) and start using a back four. The 3-5-2 requires a lot of runners and box-to-box midfielders. The 4-3-3 works well because the wingers don't need to be out-and-out sprinters; they just need to be quick over short distances to beat their man. We produce these kinds of players in our youth academy; we just need to be brave enough to give them a chance and not ruin their careers at the first mistake

 

A number 10 with vision is needed.

 

https://www.vi.nl/pro/luciano-valente-wie-belt-eerder-koeman-of-gattuso

Luciano Valente: who's going to make the first call, Koeman or Gattuso?

Luciano Valente also took Feyenoord by the hand against Panathinaikos. Things are moving fast for the 22-year-old midfielder who has many more big dreams. On Sunday, his first top match in the Eredivisie awaits, at home against PSV. Afterwards? 'Orange is a super big dream for me, but if Italy comes earlier, I will consider that.'

Koeman better call him asap.
Luciano Valente and Kees Smit are to me the key pawns for our future Orange Squad midfield.

 

exactly we can see that in the 2010s when we moved away from the two striker system that the Italian 10 does almost instantly.

We persisted with Cassano Ballotelli in a 4312 diamond in 2012 but it was clear that the 433 was superior at this point.

Players like Insinge Giovinco Giuseppe Rossi even later Berardi Chiesa would have been superb SS/number 10s in the previous era.

People forget that the south American 10 the Riquelme Aimar Maradona Ortega Ronaldinho Kaka Zico and even the french and dutch 10s Platini Zidane Bergkemp Seedorf Guiilit were more tru Attacking midifelders.

Italy never really had this type of player our number 10s were always more slight and what we call a trequartista or a 9 and a half. Zola Del Piero Baggio Cassano etc … Rivera was more of a true 10 and to some extent Totti but even Totti was more of a forward that could drop deep but not truly a midfielder.

This meant that when the 433 took over the likes of Insinge Giovinco Berardi were not fast enough or string enough to really dominate at the top level wide despite their technique.

We have tried to produce wingers but the 352/3421 is easier and so we see more wingbacks than wingers. We are always an injury or two away from not having any wingers.

I don’t think there is a clear solution but I would see what england did where they focused on producing strong technical number 10a and got Palmer Bellingham Rogers Eze Foden in a short amount of time.

This is what Italy needs as we have plenty of B2B and deep midfielders. We have been too influenced by Spain and Pirlo this past generation. This is not a good model because you may get a Verratti but this is not something you can duplicate.

 

It's incredible that not one football loving person noticed Luciano Valente said he waits for the first one to call.
You gave snail moving Koeman the time to slooooowly pick uuuuup the phooooone.

 

Italia is lacking a fantasy withdrawn midfielder / forward that can play behind the attackers and just ahead of the midfield.

Without this, we won't have any edge in any match that we play. Everything is just too flat and tactical to do anything special and differentiate ourselves. In an age where most teams play robotic, over tactical formations, this would give us a true competitive edge.

Instead, Italia has decided to follow suit and just play tactical formations with no fantasy, to the point where those players just don't exist anymore.

And it makes us grossly average and nothing any team should fear, including Moldova.

 

100% and then when you factor in the fact that you cant defend with the same brutality as in the past we are not able to be among the tippy top defences as you need athletic monsters that only Brasil and France have at CB to be an elite defender these days.

This means we can concede and we can struggle to create against anyone. Our strength is we are producing good midfielders but you need to wait for a Verratti Barella Jorginho situation to line up perfectly again and that is not reliable.

If we look at Argentina Spain and Germany who have been the best 3 nationals teams the last 2/4 years we see that they all have a advanced creative midfielder.

France lacks this and at times we see they cant create and are rigid but their depth is outstanding elsewhere. Portugal lack this and also they struggle to score in knock out games for going on 10 years now.

You are spot on. England also should be mentioned as a nation that managed to begin producing a modern 10 and this is the key we need to produce modern 10s not Baldanzi Pafundi not Raspadori Liberali types.

 

Yes you are 100% spot on, we have complete understanding between us on this topic. We are seeing the same things from our perspectives. You hit something that I had seen also but I have always had more trouble articulating the defense which is funny because I identify as a goalkeeper first and foremost. We have also lost our defensive identity. Italians always used to also play defense creatively and with genius level of play and ways to escape situations or defend desperately that we have lost as we've tried to play the modern formations.

Our defenders used to see genius ways to escape situations the same way our playmakers used to see the genius through ball one or two steps ahead.

 

You can go as far back as Antognoni what a player...we always had that player who just saw the pitch so differently than our opponents

 

Yeah Antognoni was a 10 but I see him more as a proto Pirlo .... it's funny the one era where we did not have this player was in the mid 90s early 2000s before Pirlo our midfield was a little flat yes be had Di Biaggio and Albertini but until Pirlo having that world class defence and world class attack still left us at a disadvantage at times against the French Dutch Argentine Brazilian midfields of that era.

In many respects the lineage of Verratti Jorginho Barella Tonali is actually one of of best runs of producing quality registas/B2B but we had a lot of bad luck with injuries and suspensions and career choices. Tonali and Verratti should have overlapped a tone and created the best midfield in the world where Barella could have been the third man.

In this case it would have been like Modric and Rakitic and Brozovic. I don't mean to make excuses but really it's a shame the way things have worked out in recent times considering we have produced a good amount of talent.

As for our defence it is hard we had so many legends but a big part of their success was how they worked as an orchestra. Im sure many would have been too slow for this era and someone like Romagnoli would have been a star defender in the 90s Serie A while the modern game exposed him.

The thing I loved about Mancini was he managed to use a modern 433 but set it up like a classic Italian ZonaMista where he had his 10/SS in Insinge he had his wingback he had his sweeper and stopper his regista his B2B his CF and his Attacking midfielder and side/wide midfielder.

We were so balanced and injuries suspensions coaching changes and being wishy washing using the Inter system really blew up all that hard work that should have been a new template to build on. It was finally a modern Italian system to put up against Spain and others.

 

Absolutely. I’m not sure how many realized that Insigne was our crucial valve. The midfield was great, but Insigne was the safety valve and the creative advancement between the lines. His tournament was tremendous.

 

Yes Mancini unlocked him as an inside forward with Spinazolla overlapping on the left while most of his career he was asked to play out far too wide which he didn't have the pace or strength for.

Mancini basically used Insigne the way Graziani was used in 1982 while Chiesa did more running as a true winger/side midfielder. Similarly Lippi used Totti this way with Camronesi playing wide/side midfield and Perotta as a B2B wide midfielder. This has always worked for italy for whatever reason even if the variations are slightly different.

 

Which Italian player he remind you of

BTW koeman a dumbass lol

 

A combo of Pirlo and de Rossi, with a touch of ...maybe a surprise...Baresi in his midfield actions.
Luziano though is still developing, so what the end product will be is still a question, but that it will be quality I'm quite sure about.