It's our biggest, and maybe only hole in the starting 11. Who should play right back as we head toward the World Cup? Bonera was out of form last year for Parma, but he's never embarassed himself with the azzurri. The same can't be said for Zaccardo. Panucci has been mentioned as a stop-gap measure, though some seem to hate his guts beyond reason. What about Damiano Zenoni of Udinese? There've gotta be some other decent right backs in Serie A, not to mention who ever's playing for the U-21 and U-20. Who should be the guy?
Well, there's Marco Motta of Udinese, but I don't think he'll be called up this year since he's young. We can hope that Federico Balzaretti, who Juve nabbed from Torino, becomes a reliable right-back (but most probably won't play much this season unless he moves somewhere else).
Marco Cassetti of Lecce and Massimo Oddo of Lazio are the best choices. Please Lippi, don't bring back Panucci!!
I don't want to see Panucci back in the Italian national team he never performs well. I like Oddo and Bonera but Bonera's form for Parma has been inconsistent. Zaccardo? He has totally ruined his chances of being called up again by his performance against Ireland.
Lippi and Panucci despise each other ................ I do hope the man is Marco Motta. But IMO the position is open, it will go to whoever can emerge as both a defender and a threat going forward. We don't have someone with both those qualities at the moment.
If we are not convinced about Bonera, Zaccardo, Cassetti, and players of the like, we might as well just call back Oddo. He's not great, but at leat you know you'll be getting a solid performance out of the guy. I can live with having a so-so RB, who I can be assured will not make Zaccardo-like mistakes.
No team at the WC will have a brilliant player at every position. England--Neville at RB and Robinson at gk. both mediocre; Argentina--weak g.k. (Lux), Figueroa; Brazil--Lucio, a fool-hardy CB; Roque Jr. shaky; Germany--only Ballack world-class . . . some real clunkers like Huth and Kuranyi. Etc. I think RB is now our 'achilles heel', also that our CBs lack cover outside of Barzagli. But you have to think that no team is bringing a perfect XI. And I hope we can still solve our RB dilemma.
Totti has to be one of the all-time great p.k.-takers, both for the Azzurri and for Roma. Can anyone remember Del Piero missing a p.k., by the way?
I think Oddo can work for the NT under the right conditions. He's the best of that group coming forward down the wing. You can't play him with say Camo as the RM....but if your fielding a couple worker midfielders that can provide some toughness on the right hand side then Oddo can provide the flair. Basically play a midfield with Totti, Pirlo, Gattusi and a second ball-winner and have the wing play come from Zambrotta and Oddo. For me Bonera isn't good enough going forward while I dont think Zaccardo and certainly Motta are experienced enough yet.
LADIES AND GENTS....i think the most elegant solution would be to move Zambrotta to right-back and have Grosso at left-back. also - i wouldn't be surprised if Maldini comes out of retirement - say 25% chance if he has a great season at Milan. http://delucasoccerblog.blogspot.com/
I don't think Maldini will come back, but I agree about Zambrotta. He's versatile enough to play either side, and he's naturally right-footed to boot. Then suddenly you have Grosso and Chiellini - two stronger choices than any of the RBs being discussed in this thread - battling for the left back position.
Terrible solution. How does Zambrotta deserve to lose his spot as starting LB? Let him play in the position he's made his own.
No ancora ........... It's true we have tons of depth at LB, but Zambrotta plays LB for Juve, he's made himself a left- footed player (as Maldini did once) and no one deserves the position he wants to play in more.
It's not that he doesn't "deserve" the position, but I'm sure he would understand if the overall quality of the team increased if he made the switch. And while on the topic of Maldini, he played a lot of games on the left side of the midfield during his national team career, even though it wasn't his natural (or strongest) position.
I agree that Zambrotta would likely take a hit for the team and play RB if it made the overall team stronger. I'm sure he would rather play RB for a world champion Italy than LB for a quarterfinalist-defeated-on-penalties Italy.
Zambrotta's never played RB, though, so the Maldini analogy doesn't work IMO. Perhaps Lippi could try the move in a friendly. I'm worried we'd lose something though.
He did start off as a RW, so it wouldn't be too much to ask. Although I agree that we could potentially lose something by putting him on the right. Who knows. That's why Lippi gets paid the big bucks.
We have a sure thing with Zambrotta as LB: he's great in that role and he's made it his. You trade him for a merely decent LB, in Grosso, and at the same time you have no guarantee that at RB Zambrotta will be better than Bonera or whoever else we can use there. Remember that for years now GZ has been playing as a left-footer. I also think it would be harsh on Zambrotta. He's one of the more established players and I'd like to think Lippi wd. give him his preferred position unless there was some clear emergency to not do so. Also don't lose sight of the fact that, on the left flank, Zambrotta has an understanding w/ Del Piero from playing at Juve, as we all saw vs. Eire......
Well, hopefully, Italy will qualify early, and there will be plenty of chances in friendlies to test it out. If it's a disaster, fine. I agree that, ideally, a strong RB will emerge over the course of this season - either from the existing batch or somebody new. But I hate putting a weak spot out there, in part to appease somebody's ego. Besides, I think GZ is a classy pro and a team player; I don't think he'd let a mere positional change bother him that much.
Although I would love to see Maldini back I highly doubt that he will come back to the Azzurri he's too classy a player to go back on his word.