I am not saying we played well at all, but just saying not to mention, Conte used tons of players out of form. At the start of Euro 2016, Eder, Pelle, Motta, Darmian, and De Sciglio were completely out of form.
Just curious why you aren’t as high on him Nicky? Being a Fiorentina fan u watch him closer than us on a week to week basis.
Let's face it, the Zeman trio have turned into a bust. They are in their middle to late 20's and should be in the prime of their game. Too much expected from a good season in Serie B.
Falc is right. The lack of quality is apparent. The reason we did reasonably well under Conte is because his style is suited to maximizing results with industrious and disciplined players. Mancini, while a qualified and proper manager (unlike Ventura), has never done real well outside of situations where he had the best talent. He would have done well with an Italy side in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. I think we can only expect so much with the current crop. On a side note, Chiesa must start. Insigne has largely been useless for the NT.
I agree. And to be honest since Sarri is gone I'm kinda at a loss why he is starting over Mertens with Napoli.
Portugal if you can remember did nothing before Ronaldo came along, now hes starting on a big decline, Portugal will be back to the good ol days of the 90s and 80s...missing every other tournament
Midfield was poor. Exemplified by the anonymous performance of the two centre forwards Balo and Belo, there was no service through the middle. Only players who looked likely were the wingers Insigne and Berna who were cutting from wide. Jorginho is overrated. He cost us the goal.
Nothing against him. I want him to be successful, obviously. I just feel like he was better eighteen months ago than he is now. Hope I'm wrong.
Jumping on the Chiesa bandwagon now just bc he earns a bullshit penalty. He’s a completely different player to Insigne and he came into the field in a completely different tactical phase of the game. Poland were parking the bus for 70 mins out there. Players who are creative are vital and Insigne is the most creative player for Italy by a long shot.
Conte picked the best player available for each position which was slim pickings due to injuries, he also motivated the living hell out of each and every player! As stated above, Mancini is picking players that he "likes" instead of players that are currently performing well. The summer ruined Balotelli, he really doesn't want to play for Nice and it's showing, a whole summer with probably no training and eating focaccia. I used to be a Zappacosta fan but he's been terrible this year, why no Calabria? We did play much better in the second half but why wait so long before performing? Really disappointed in Insigne and Jorgi, i hope Verratti starts playing again soon and for the love of god start Chiesa.
Balotelli will still be defended by his deluded fanboys. His persona has always hidden his lack of talent. Should never have been on the squad to begin, hopefully thats the last of him.
First competitive match under a new coach and we didn't win? I'm shocked. There were no tactical changes when Chiesa came in over Insigne, just more work rate, industry and direct play from Chiesa resulting in more danger around the Polish box. Not sure why Calabria didn't start and I think Cristante is deserving of a place in the next game. Bench Balo, start with one of either Belotti or Immobile, guys that will run hard and get into dangerous places more often. It's not ideal, but it's what we've got and if Mancini can find a system that compliments them, it's good enough in todays world.
Hopefully he will get good playing time for Zenit and will be able to come back to Gli Azzurri. I feel he is a player that could still be very useful. Its not like we have many midfielders better than him. I honestly felt that the midfield has always been our weak point. Even in the strong days of our history. Other than Pirlo, De Rossi, and Gattuso, I don't remember any other world class midfielder. Well maybe we had one before I was even alive but thats all I remember. Back in 1998, and 2002 we were a world class team but our midfield was not that good if I am remembering correctly.
You are either ********ing stupid or a racist bigot. Horrible take. He is literally one of the top 20 most talented footballers in the world. He didn't have a preseason, and has played 60 mins of competitive football this season. Its incredibly harsh to judge him on one match.
So you need to be either clueless or a racist to not like him? lmao Ive been calling him out for years, not one match. Top 20 most talented footballers in the world Ive seen him live twice when he was relevant and he was overrated then. Poor attitude, doesnt work the box and minus pens is a 1 in 5 striker. Whoa, a top 20 footballer Go learn something about the game you donkey.
There were really only 4 matches where I felt Balotelli really worked hard: Italy 2-0 Ireland (Euro 2012) (Only came on in the last minutes of the game) Germany 1-2 Italy (Euro 2012) Italy 2-1 Mexico (2013 Confederations Cup) England 1-2 Italy (2014 World Cup) Other than those 3 matches, I was never impressed with him and called him out a lot.
lol tho to be fair, isn't everyone doing that in this thread? I've been here a long time.......never have I heard so many people screaming for Chiesa to start People just overreact over one game. It's September. It's the first competitive game under Mancini. This is going to take some time.
Having said that, it would be extremely disappointing to get relegated to League B in this Nations League because we should be better than Poland at least lol
New to this forum, but can someone explain how Zappacosta got onto the starting 11? Was there a time when he was good at soccer? Balo was turrible. Really bad. Its lolz that Freddy Church didnt start. If there is a more promising young talent in Italy then can he please, uhh, get called up too.
Well Zappacosta was very impressive for the U21 Italy team a few years ago. He did well for Torino too, but has not been in form anytime recently.