Italy has 60 million people. We should have 20-30 players who are top class and we don't. There are some with potential but they still need to develop. There are some very skilled ones but poor athletes. There are others who are great athletes with poor skill. Serie A has become a bit of a chicken or egg scenario. Are there fewer Italians playing because they aren't good enough? Or, are clubs not giving Italians the chance (and thereby losing talent along the way) because they want cheaper foreign players? It's tough to say. I certainly look around and think we have more talent than our results would indicate. I think that has a lot to do with poor managing at the club level and now with Mancini.
I think its been completely idiotic that Quagiarella was ignored for Italy solely based on his age. He should have played against Sweden, has there been a more consistent Italian striker then him the last 3 years? I think not
It's funny, because I had been thinking that too. Quags has always been one of those guys who can create something from nothing - and we seem to have nothing at the moment. This whole 'too old' thing is going to cost this team a Euro spot. You can't just throw the youngsters in and say swim. Play the best talent. I don't care how old they are - you play to win, not develop. If Gigi does well in Paris, bring him back. If De Rossi leads Roma to success this year, bring him back. If Quags scores a bunch of goals, bring him back. If the younger generation can't force them out through results, then what kind of younger generation do the Azzurri truly have at the moment?? I just want to win. Enough of the bullshit and bring on the guys who can do that for us.
After the outcry to the media from the likes of Mancini and Pirlo about not starting too many italians, the lowest number of italians starting ever just occured this weekend only 83 players, shame on Serie A coaches and the whole system, there is no unity in Italy.
Yes but Mancini has 0 credibility making those claims. His Inter sides were notorious for truly being International and fielding few Italians. The change has got to come from above and some regulations need to be put in place. Easier said than done. But the issue is only getting worse.. at least 5 years ago you could make a list of emerging prospects...its one thing to see them not fully realize, its another when you cant make a comparable list today of talent.
This is the second (or third, I cannot recall exactly) season with the home-grown player rule (four from club, four from the league) which - as time passes - will improve things; FIGC is to be commended for that.
Can you really blame the coaches tho? The manger needs to get results. They need to win. Or else they are sacked. It's just conflicting objectives here. The coaches aren't here to try and find and develop Italian players, they are here to field the best possible 11 that they can field. If that means Italian born players that would be awesome, but I'm sure they don't care as long as their team is winning and they are employed.
Nicolo Zaniolo 19.. making his champions league debut and starting for Roma. 4 italians starting for Roma today.. Bravo! (El Shaarawy, Zaniolo, De Rossi, Florenzi) maybe another 2 off the bench? (Pellegrini / Cristante)
I credit Di Francesco for playing the young Italians. Unfortunately, I don't understand why he hasn't been playing Zaniolo in Serie A and then just throws him into the Bernabeu. Very odd.
And Bernardeschi was the best player for Juve today. I think Italy has that offensive player to build around. Hopefully Chiesa keeps improving, and someone wakes the eff up in the CF spot.
I've come to the conclusion that we're just not that good, things started to decline after 2006 and then it got very bad after 2010. We seem to do ok in the Euro's which essentially is a tougher competition than the WC. I just can't make any sense of it, i've been thinking about it a lot since the Portugal game, we just suck at the moment and no one fears us anymore. We're missing that swagger and talent is very hard to come by, there was a time that we had Baggio/ADP/Pippo/Bobo/Totti/Pirlo at our disposal, today we have not a single technical player or precise finisher. The fact that we've been beating this dead horse for about 8 years now with no much improvement is pretty disturbing, i really hope this new group of guys can develop some chemistry because we look lost out there.
There is a list of uncapped Brazilains in Serie A we could potentially use, some are quite decent: Allan - Napoli Gerson - Roma Dalbert - Inter Marlon - Sassoulo Toloi - Atalanta This is the future of italian football ladies and gents
Barella has been playing like that for over a year. He has it all...pace, speed, skill, vision, passing. His only weakness is that he is at times too aggressive and gets lots of yellows. Of course, no big Italian club buys him this summer. Serie A is a joke. If his name was Barellavic, he would have been signed for 50 million. Mancini didn't play him one second vs Poland or Portugal as our midfield was overrun. This is what I mean by bad coaching from Mancini. It isn't just about talent. It's about CTs recognizing talent and putting them in positions to succeed.