France was a bit lucky on their goals. Chiellini shanked the first one. On the second, France shanked a ball that ended up going to the box and headed to Giroud. On the third, that cross was shanked and found the near post. Still poor defending by us. Not acceptable. The team certainly didn't have the energy they had at the Euros. Lots of jogging around as we usually do in friendlies. The guys didn't look hungry. That's what happens though when you don't play the young guys.
Barzagli too looked like he aged 10 years over the summer. He was slower than my nonna (and she has passed). I thought Rugani looked much sharper coming in. Montolivo is a waste of space. I didn't understand why Ventura played Belotti with Pelle`. That was tactically stupid. They were too close to each other. Belotti thrives with someone off the ball serving him up. Gabbiadini would have been much better. (Or an Insigne if he had been called.) Bonaventura simply lacks pace....and he knows it. He couldn't beat the French defenders because they were quicker and so he stubbed around out there. He also looked quite nervous. Positive day from Florenzi...he sparked the left side. De Sciglio was good defensively but he doesn't get forward as much as I'd like.
We lost, but don't start bashing Ventura. He was experimenting, and honestly Chiellini always starts the season very shaky. Last season and the season before, I remember both Azzurri and Juve fans bashing Chiellini at the start. Also we all know Astori. He shouldn't even be on this team if you ask me. If Bonucci was there, France wouldn't have scored any of those goals very easily. Also keep in mind the defense isn't as aggressive in friendlies and rightly so. This is not a good time for them to get injured. What did impress me was the crosses today though. We only scored once, but some crosses were deadly. Guys I told you Bonaventura is not that good, especially in CM. He is ok on the wing but Giacherinni is better and works harder. However Marchisio-DDR-Verratti should be our starting players when Marchisio comes back. De Rossi was again quite impressive and so was Verratti. Florenzi and Candreva worked really hard and are useful. Eder and Pelle as well, again they aren't that impressive players, but they can link up and read stuff with the team well. However I do think its time to replace them, but this was only a friendly.
I thought Verratti was also strong. He kept possession well and he was much more direct than I remember him in the past. He had a couple great balls over the top that Parolo and Pelle should have done better with. Not sure why DDR is starting over him when DDR was a zombie today.
You thought DDR was good today? I didn't. He thought his pace and timing was very poor. He had a lot of shaky passes in the middle and he should have been quicker to transition to offense on most of his balls.
I'm not going to bash Ventura because I thought the score should have ended 2-2 on the run of play. Teams were more even than the scoreline. However, Ventura is a victim of his own callups. He called up FIVE prima punte...Pelle, Belotti, Immobile, Pavoletti, and Gabbiadini. Gabbs is the only one arguable who can play seconda punta along with Eder. The result today was obvious. We didn't have enough creativity to supply Belotti in the second half. Too many long balls and crosses to nowhere. There was no one other than Verratti to break people down on the dribble. We missed people like Insigne, Berardi, El Sha, etc who could break defenses down on the dribble. Arguable Bernadeschi could have helped but he rotted on the bench. It's early and I'm going to give Ventura a chance...but he looked a little lifeless out there. We could have used more passion and anger at the end...rather than rassegnazione.
I'm really not happy to see the likes of Eder, Pelle and Tonto on the pitch, this is alarming and i really hope it was just an experiment because those guys do not belong on the NT. Why is Barzagli on the team? I thought he retired? I love the guy but it's time to move on, no Berardi, no Gabs, no Insigne no SES. No idea what this guy has planned but he needs to pull his head out of his ass.
I saw some of the first half. Not impressed with who was out there. Ventura is making a mistake trying to continue/build on what Conte did. Change now, including allowing Barzagli to retire. Now is the time to start making changes, not when the WC final tournament starts.
France has a high quality team so it was always going to be a difficult game, but Italy relied too much on effort and lacked quality which made it difficult to create scoring chances from combination play and dribbling. My concern is that - unless more energy and creativity is brought in to the team - it might prove difficult to score against more modest opposition. It was disappointing to see Ventura revert to so much of the (very) old guard to start for this friendly because I expect they will be the ones who start on Monday against Israel too.
Hopefully this is just an evaluation period for Ventura. Can't have Montolivo ever wearing an Italy jersey ever again.
Nope, watch it again and look at where Kurzawa's eyes are looking. He was definitely going for goal. He's be on a tear this season scoring goals for PSG.
B-but we need to play 3-5-2. We need CBs to harmlessly pass around the back until Chiellini tries a move. Verratti's the only one that could salvage this thing atm.
I don't think so. The idiots in the media praised Conte's Euro team when in truth, it was not much more than a bunch of guys hustling. So Ventura got in his mind that he needed to continue what Conte developed. He needs to develop his own side with a new group of players.
4-2-4 is his usual game, same as Conte before he went to Juve. he needs to adapt the team to the best players he has on offer and a reversion to 4-2-4 might prove interesting. Candreva was immense today.
A youth movement really needs to happen now. Unacceptable to have players like De Rossi and Montolivo playing in these games. And with all the firepower suddenly emerging in Serie A, it really is unacceptable for forwards like Pelle and Eder to get these starts. The group of players on the pitch today would certainly make me question if we really can qualify for the next world cup
De Rossi really? He still has quality. I can understand the rest of the ones you mentioned though. What was really unacceptable was Astori though.
I'm not sure why we are picking on Astori when Chiellini had his worst game ever in my mind. Astori looked shaky with his passes at times, but wasn't horrific. Chiellini looked like he just walked on the pitch after an all-nighter in Ibiza. DDR looked tired and slow as did Barzagli. They were playing against guys 10 years younger and much faster. It showed. ---- Ventura is caught between a rock and a hard place. He badly needs to revamp this team with younger players. He knows it. But, he's got a VERY risky WCQ group with a tough road match against Israel coming up. There simply isn't much time to integrate all these new players and build a team with 3 days of practices. So, I'll give him a pass for not revolutionizing us in one week. The FIGC though needs some more friendlies...and needs them against some mid-level competition to help build the younger players confidence. Falc is right....we can't wait til May of 2018 and then toss in Berardi, Belotti, Romagnoli, etc all in at once. Kudos to Rugani for a bright first showing. I thought he showed a lot of grit out there. I went back and looked at the 3rd French goal. Donnarumma gambled. He thought there is no way he'll shoot from that angle and then took a step off the post to stop a cross. You just can't do that. He does that quite a bit in Serie A and sometimes it pays off, but you have to trust your defense to cut those crosses off. He'll learn. He's still young. That's what friendlies are for.