Did Norway win the World ********ing Cup today? Or did they qualify last Thurday? Their first time at a tournament, any tournament, since 1998?
So many Italians are losing their mind acting like we are entitled to be in the World Cup and we may miss it for a 3rd time in a row. How would they react if we miss it 6 times in a row?
I never suggested anybody was entitled. The group was decided on Thursday, not today. Believe me I'd be livid if Estonia earned a 0-0 against Norway and Italy did what they did. Yeah, it sucks they mailed in the 2nd Half and were ball watching for much of it. I'm more concerned at Gattuso's comments after the match. Shows the fragility of this group. “The game changed when they took their shot on target in the second half, we started to get scared.” Gattuso in the post match via Sky EDIT: I wrote it a year ago that this team lacks a leader.
We can talk formations or players until we are blue in the face. The defensive displays we have seen these past few years are truly shocking. We lose 1v1s, 2v2s, set pieces -- you name it. We hemorrhage chances and goals like it is just routine. A half chance for the opposition ends up becoming more dangerous than it should be and has a lot of the time ended up in back of our net. We are talking 3 goals in 15 minutes conceded type of meltdowns, such as today. It is almost unfathomable stuff. The craziest part is that today was not even the most embarrassing defensive display in the qualifying matches. Israel says hello. You can tip your cap when the opposition makes a play - they get paid too so to speak. But when we are talking Bastoni serving it up on a platter, or Mancini retreating ground until he almost ends up tangled in the bloody twine of his own goal --- we have a serious problem. Our best teams have always won putting an emphasis on taking care of our net first. I don't even ********ing care anymore about formations, tactics, any of it, give me some goddamn players who will fight for every blade of grass. Let's start there with some guys who will actually lay it on the line for the shirt. As it stands, we are so buttery soft and easy to play against it hurts.
That's why I was saying I rather see an entirely new defensive unit bc: Dimarco Bastoni Mancini Di Lorenzo Politano is not it and is our biggest issue.
It comes back to the same old tired excuse! There just aren’t enough Italian players playing at top clubs in the Serie A or anywhere else for that matter. Italy used to have the greatest defenders on earth and now they don’t even have a few good ones. There is literally no depth at any position
I don't see it, we have guys from Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Napoli, Inter, AC Milan, AS Roma, and Atletico Madrid. The issue is our coach just like our previous coach keeps switching up the system playing players out of position while not even picking the best players to play. Spalletti and Gattuso have talked about having a family of familiar faces which means they are not considering all options. You literally have a guy in Bundesliga last year who had more assists than anyone except for Wirtz and Olise yet he was never called up once! That says it all. Spalletti got it right with Cambiaso as a RWB & Ricci as a regista while Gattuso never tried them there once. Gattuso solved our striker issues with Kean and Retegui up front, yet Spalletti never tried that once. Both have relied on Cristante, Zaccangi, and Frattesi who are all dead weight. Both coaches have always started Dimarco and Di Lorenzo when they have consistently shown they cannot defend. Those are just some things on top of my head, there's a lot more.
Also Gattuso was brought in to instil grinta into our group. We are still talking about players being soft. I guess that failed as well. Speaking of failed, he had 2 objectives in this group when he was hired. *Wrack up a high goal differential. +10 goals in 6 games. Failed. *Beat Norway at home. Failed. If I was in charge of the federation you have 4 months, it's time for a change of coach, system, and culture. Get a real coach. Gattuso was always a placeholder and he failed this group. I know it won't happen, but I also believe we will get our shits kicked in if we make the World Cup bc of this failed system. We will implode like we did in the Euros, just watch. Norway was freaking playing with us today, can you imagine what a top 10 team would do to us (which we will face bc we are no longer a Pot 1 team).
I don't think so. Come on now: Barella, Calafiori, DiMarco (when played in the right position), Tonali, Donarumma, and MAYBE Bastoni at his best are ALL world class. Are you kidding me that we have little raw materials? We might anything serious in attack but that is no excuse. There are plenty of teams doing much better than us that also don't have anything world class or significant in attack. Look at Croatia for example. They did have Mandzukic in 2018, but after Mandzukic retired, they still did extremely well in World Cup 2022, etc. This team is WAY more talented than Euro 2016 Italy except for maybe the defense. It is unacceptable. Conte is our best bet. However, with him being at Napoli now, he probably won't take a double job, but I always have hope because he has a great heart for Italian football. The coach matters A LOT. Remember back when Conte left and Giampiero Ventura took over? It was almost the same players, but you remember the significant differences in results and how we were playing? And also I do want to say that when Mancini coached us, we were pretty decent and I do think that our failure in World Cup 2022 was a fluke plus being hit with significant player injuries. We were so unlucky vs North Macedonia and not to mention in the qualifying groups we missed multiple penalties against Switzerland which costed us. I wouldn't mind having Mancini return and maybe he might be our best available bet. We really went downhill as soon as Mancini resigned and Spaletti took over. And frankly while I do not regret firing Spaletti, I think Gattuso was even worse option and said this from the START. Gattuso in general has a terrible coaching record. Gattuso is probably the second worst coach we've ever had after Ventura, and considering the differences in talent, they might even be on par. Although Ventura was way too tactically rigid, while Gattuso has zero tactics or strategy at all and just throws the players on the field.
I see a few posters here debating how the game unfolded....what I saw was a Norway team that didn't give much effort in the first half then decide to actually play in the second half and destroy our putrid defense. De Marco should be nothing more than a sub at this point. We need to figure out our RB options because De Lorenzo needs to go after the playoffs if not sooner. Bastoni is incredibly overrated and Mancini is not national team material. Hopefully Calafiori is healthy in March, because he is easily our best defensive talent regardless of where you play him. Saying that, I'm not sure how this defense can be fixed in such short notice. And with Gattuso as our coach, there is a good chance we don't get out of the playoffs. It's too late to make drastic changes, but hopefully Gattuso picks some in form players in March to sprinkle in along with his underwhelming regulars. Offensive talents like Berardi, Chiesa, and Zaniolo should get the nod over Zaccagni, Politano, and Raspadori if they are still playing well in a few months. As for people proclaiming Kean as some savior for the national team, let's remember he has one goal this season in Serie A and has looked awful. He partnered well with Retegui, but that was against a bunch of minnows a few months ago. Even last year, Kean tailed off for the final third of the season. Other than a few games against weaker national teams, he has been below average for quite some time now. I'm not saying he should be dropped, but if anyone thinks he has some magical ability to put us on his back and singlehandedly win two games in the playoffs, I have a bridge to sell you. Pio has 3 goals in 5 caps.
We need to be adventurous. Honestly at this rate in a 3-5-2 formation, Id really love to see how Frattesi would do as striker. And also why are we NOT using Berardi? If I were the coach I'd try one of these: 3-5-2: -Frattesi-Berardi- -DiMarco-Barella-Ricci-Tonali-Cambiaso- -Calafiori-Bongirouno-Bastoni- -Donnarumma- Or: 4-3-3 -DiMarco-Frattesi-Berardi- -Barella-Ricci-Tonali- -Udogie-Calafiori-Bastoni-Di Lorenzo- -Donnarumma-
Frattesi barely plays at club level anymore, and it shows. He not only shouldn't start, but should probably be dropped from the squad altogether IMO.
Last night was a totally disgrace. The team is gutless and gattuso is clueless. So many players played last night that aren't anywhere near good enough for the national team. Mancini, politano. Di lorenzo, scamacca, cristante. Bastoni is over rated as well. Replace all the dead wood now. Having leoni injured for a long time and scalvini out is a big blow both could easily be starting in defence. Also coppola needs to move from Brighton as he could be a starter potentially. We need kayode, leoni, scalvini, piselli, chiesa, grifo, tresoldi, berardi, maybe pinamonti as well. I honestly don't think we make the world cup and even if we do we will be very lucky to make it out the group stage. We need a top coach like conte or ancelotti or ranieri not gattuso. We are doomed.
You can put prime Messi in the current Fiorentina and he would struggle. Kean is crucial, he thrives under pressure. He single handedly saved us from humiliation against Germany in the Nations League. He is the strongest mentally of all our strikers. No two ways about it.
How is Bastoni world class? World class against Pisa maybe. He and Mancini are guys that can give you some timely goals and assists even, but they are poor excuses for defenders. Until we solidify the back 4 we have problems. So what are the solutions? Bastoni is soft but we are stuck with him because no Azzurri CT will have the balls to bench him. So that means you better have a really good man-marker next to him. 1. Scalvini? He's injured all the time and he's not the hard-nosed guy I'm looking for. 2. Buongiorno? He's hard-nosed and would be good but he's always fighting an injury too. 3. Gatti? He's tenacious but hasn't had the best year so far. 4. Coppola? He isn't featuring much on fckin Brighton. 5. Gabbia? Maybe worth a look but again not your Chiellini-like defender we need. 6. Leoni would have been perfect but he's out. 7. Ahanor? Has looked good but isn't he not even eligible for citizenship yet? Plus he's really young. First mistake and people will want his head. We have 4 months to figure this out. To me this is the biggest issues along with one other. How to deal with the high press. That will be my next post.
So how do we deal with a high press when we have a keeper who has poor feet? Well, we dealt with it fine when we had Verratti, Jorginho, and Barella as our midfielders. Think teams wanted to press high against those feet and having Spinazzola race down the wing if the press is broken? No way. We have dealt with it poorly ever since and teams no it. Solution? Better feet in the midfield. That means a better regista than Locatelli. Ricci has to be looked at again. Optional solution: Go long ball and let Esposito win the physical matchups (which he will) and let the team come forward.
Partial agree. Norway woke up for the 2nd Half but as Gattuso's post match comments suggest a lot of it was also Italy panicking. He also comments how Frattesi stopped going wid as an example.
Frattesi as a Striker... Same question as your calling for Dimarco as LW which we've discussed before, wouldn't it serve Italy best if Inter had them play in these positions before Italy does?
There might be some traction in Italy for sacking Gattuso and a lot of his ignorant comments might play into it as well. If it happens, which Italian coaches are available that would be good for us?
It'll be the same exact squad come March, I don't think some of you understand the stubborness and hard headedness that is Italia. Honestly, when was the last time we had a squad of in form players and actually playing their position? Mancini era? Lippi 1.0 and Donadoni? Italian coaches love playing out of form players that are always out of position. Maybe, just maybe if we address this issue we'll get somewhere. Gattuso and his Senatori crew are not the answer, these are the same guys that single handledly played a part in our 2010/2014/2018 crashes.
@Vieri#9 So I'm clear, what is your back line 4? FWIW, I've been banging on the Vincenzo Grifo drum longer than anybody. I would have been on board with that but this ship might have sailed. He really should have tried Grifo and Kayode this window. The media only ask Gattuso about Chiesa but never about Berardi (which I'm lukewarm about) or Grifo.
Only dolla is world class. Maybe tonali Bastoni crumbles under pressure. The CL thrashing comes to mind. And italys attackers are all average soccdr players. Politano stinks. Same with scamacca
Everyone says Gattuso plays a 4 man back line but you could clearly see he is using the same 5 in defense/3 in offense backline which Spalletti started. Bastoni wont be benched but the other two guys that play LCB are Calafiori and Ahanor. We all know he will move Bastoni to the general position (where Buongiorno could be a good option too) so that Calafiori can play the LCB. Spalletti's son will not be dropped on the right side. Case closed.
We don't play a back 4 but if we did, prolly: Calafiori Bastoni* Scalvini Kayode Bastoni I'm not too sure about, Im fine with him if we played a back 3 as a LCB, but in a back 4 I would have to see how Buongiorno and Ahanor look partnered with Scalvini. Also Coppola would definitely be on the team too and I wish Leoni as well bc he could've started. Without a doubt Calafiori and Kayode are our best side backs, it's just no one knows who the best CB pairing should be bc we have 10 or so quality ones. Look at Uaglio's list.