Domenico Berardi was a good forward and right winger. I applaud him for staying with the same club when they got relegated to the Serie B but Sassuolo aren't as good as they used to be despite gaining quick promotion back the Serie A. He is 31 now and may be too old for the national team. I doubt he will be recalled as long as he stays in Reggio Emilia. If both Berardi and Sassuolo start with a string of goals and wins, he could be recalled but so far, after two straight losses, it doesn't look to be the case. Anyway, I think right now anyway, Gattuso is focusing on players who can qualify Italy for the WC because they could easily miss out on a third consecutive tournament.
Just listening to some of the comments the players have made post match. Good to know they are conscious of the need to score goals for the Tie Breakers.
This is one of the reasons in past generations when the Italians outran their opponents or played more creative football than their opponents, no one would want to recognize it, because they were still sore over losing other games by being outworked, thwarted, or outsmarted. And they resorted to just saying Italians defended and cheated, when in reality, the Italians could do just about anything. If they needed fantasy, they produced fantasy. If they needed work ethic, they brought work ethic. If they needed to get in the opponent's head, they did. The last we saw of any of that was Chiellini trolling certain players during the EURO 2021 tournament. What he did to Jordi Alba was brilliant. The moment he gave Jordi Alba the little smile and slap on the cheek, we won the shootout. Whether he was playing games or not, it doesn't matter...he was being Italian All the classic Italian teams , don't forget each of them had a fantasista. Antognoni, Baggio, and Totti should be idols for youngsters outside of Italy but they never were because media and opponents just wanted to say Italia defends and cheats.
Di Lorenzo and Politano are older than Berardi. I don't want to hear about age, you play the best players. Honestly I like what I saw in Politano though, on the other side Zaccagni was very poor and should not be a starter.
Not if he doesn't score. Whether he was injured or not. Berardi scored 6 goals last year in Serie B and 1 pk this year. He also hasn't scored since 2023 for Italy. These numbers certainly won't merit or justify a forward getting a spot on the national team. Unless something changes drastically, we won’t be seeing Berardi appear for Italy anytime soon.
2020? Of the top of my head I think he had a brace in that Euro Qualifier at the San Nicola. Don't recall the opponent.
Correct. I read it backwards. Berardi scored 8 total goals for Italy and his last two were in October 2023 against Malta. Still not good enough to merit a cap.
And Politano and Zaccagni are goal scorers? What about Maldini? Don't get me started there. None of them are goal scorers. Berardi has one of the best goals to games played ratio currently for the Azzurri BTW. When it comes to wing play, their priority is creating assists to the strikers, not goal scoring. Berardi excels at that. 13 assists to Politano's 5 and Zaccagni's 6. Yes, he was in Serie B, but he always had more assists than our other wingers in Serie A. Let's see how he performs this year, if he produces at a higher clip than others, he should definitely make the team despite people's feelings about age or past national team performance. You take your most in form players. We need to all accept we do not have one elite winger, so definitely go with who is most in form (ex. Orsolini).
He literally tore his ACL less than 6 months after that, lol. You pull up his stats acting like 8 goals in 27 appearances for Italy is bad? Why don't you pull up any other player for our team, you won't find anyone except for Kean and Retegui who have better stats then that.
I know I keep going back and forth on formations, but man would I love to see a Gattuso 3-5-2 with Kean and Retegui up top. That is the only way that formation could work.
There is no one on this board who wants Berardi on the national team more than me, My father's hometown is very close to his in Cariati and I'd love to see him play for Italy again and pray that he will. I've wanted to see him succeed since he broke through Cosenza's youth team and was discovered in a pickup game while visiting his brother at school. Still, it's not up to you or me and I seriously doubt Gattuso will pick him. I’ll believe it when it see it and even then, I won’t believe it.
I agree, he prolly won't pick him, Gattuso seems to not want to change the personnel much from Spalletti, I mean how else do you justify picking Maldini. It is what it is, I just hope Berardi can perform like he did last season to pressure the coach, he has a much better chance then say Grifo bc of where he is playing.
Verratti at 30 should be playing really. I would say Verratti Barella Tonali would be hands down the best midfield in the world. Its a shame he got sucked into the PSG vortex because he was an alien on the ball. Maybe barring Spain with Rodri Pedri Fabbian Luiz when all healthy.
absolutely insane how verratti at his age is not running the Italian midfield and setting record caps. Insane how he took himself out of the club and country game in the prime of his playing style. He easily could have had 6 years to give of world class midfield play, I loved him as a talent but it’s so difficult to see the route he opted to go down I’ll never forget at Wembley how he gradually just shifted into jorginho’s space and demanded the ball over Jorginho and ran the show in the final
For me, I would say we have many options in Berardi’s position, but let’s not fully shut the door. I would simply observe his play at the moment and think through options available at every international window.
Agreed. If Italy were to qualify many Managers would reward the guys that got them there. While others would take players in form. Remember, if Italy go to a Playoff there will be 3 Months between the Playoff and the start of the WC. If win the Group outright, 7 months -- an eternity in international football. Betweem form, injuries, the door is not shut on Berardi, Chiesa, Scalvini, Di Gregorio. Grifo was never a concrete member of the setup. He will need injuries to other wingers and great form. On a bad team like Freiburg this is a hard ask.
Politano played well. He's going to keep that role. Zaccagni was OK. The one thing I notice about Zaccagni is how fast he is. His speed tortures defenders and creates a lot of space for the overlapping terzini like Di Marco. That can be quite useful.
Earlier topic Just to circle back to an earlier topic on here during the UNL was which WCQ Group was preferred between Norway and a 4 team group with Slovakia. Which would be decided on how the QF tie between Italy and Germany played out. Given what Norway did to Italy and what Slovakia did to Germany, both opponents are formidable. Only difference is that if the Norway match wasn't the very first one, Italy would have still been dazed and confused under Spalletti.
Carlos has beaten Jannick 6 out of the last 7 times, so it's hard not to go for him. However, if Jannick is 100% healthy I think he takes it, bc hard court is where he is best at. Hopefully it's a amazing match like they usually produce.
The athleticism on Alcaraz is something else. If Alcaraz wins tomorrow then he likely stays #1 ranked for the next 10 years and Sinner will never catch him in Slams. Of course if Alcaraz wins in straight Sets it will mean he never lost a Set all tournament.
No matter what happens, they will be going back and forth their entire career imo. No one comes close to them (especially when Djokovic retires). Like Federer/Nadal and then Djokovic/Federer/Nadal in the past. When they are both playing their top of their game, it is so razor close. These guys are young, if Carlos is say 2 3 or 4 slams above Jannick, that does not mean he will end up with more. There are 4 slams a year, so they got prolly 40+ more to go, lol. To change the subject, for the Italy fans, the women's volleyball team plays the world championship game vs Turkey tomorrow. They hold the record for most unbeaten games in a row (like our mens soccer team!) and just beat one of the closest games I've ever seen vs Brazil who are #2 in the world. BTW, the mens team are the current reigning world champions too, so this is very huge for Italy.
Yes, I saw the ending of this SF today. I stopped following Volleyball. Maybe need an "Other Sports" thread afterall. Winter Olympics this February in Milano-Cortina. EDIT: this current Womens team are also the current Olympic Gold Medalists. So they can pull off the double here.