Everything for a long time has been aligning for us to miss the World Cup again. That is why I have already accepted defeat, everything is going wrong in Italian ball. I dunno how we are going to break out of this but I need to remain hopeful to the future bc there are so many promising youngsters.
What a spanking for Atalanta. At home no less. The Scalvini suspension and Emerson and CDK injuries didn't help, but for a while now we have been seeing TERRIBLE DEFENDING from Italian teams. We just aren't organized well at all. Just think about how we keep conceding so many goals. 7 goals to Norway in 2 legs. 4 goals to Israel in one tie. The Italian system of developing no youth talent, playing only with 31% Italians, and buying mediocre foreigners has caught up to us. We've seen this coming for years. Our conazionali are either too dumb or stubborn to accept it.
By the way, what do Buffon and Bonucci really know about managing a team? These are just more lazy hires by the FIGC. How can a player sitting out 2 months in an Arab league get called up to our team? How can he even be fit? It's astounding.
Hopefully they incentivize Serie A like they have done in B. Sad it’s taken this long and all this losing for it to happen.
The ingredients possibly having to go into Wales are not very good right now. I still think it is an instant loss unfortunately. However, the games must be played, including the semi-final. We must first get through Northern Ireland. No game and no combination will be easy. Again, I see Northern Ireland maybe 55% chance to win, and instant loss in Wales. 50 /50 if we go to Bosnia. We shall see how right or wrong I am. If I am wrong then it is posted here for us to clown later.
People are blaming Palladino for playing a 4-4-2. There is probably truth to that. He hadn't played that formation all year from what I recall. Not the best time to try it. But the problem was that Bayern were just moving faster, passing faster, playing faster. The tempo was just much faster. Where have we seen this before? We are seeing YOUNG, CONDITIONED athletes who do have some skill running circles around our teams. Meanwhile we are bringing people like Bernardeschi back to Italy and buying terrible foreign talent. As I've said many times, the rot in Italia is deep. Old broken stadiums, limited crowd attendance, no investment in youth systems and development (other than raccomandati), cheap foreign buys, and outdated tactics and conditioning. Then we wonder why this is happening? I'm old enough to remember when WE DICTATED PLAY and when WE INNOVATED. Sacchi for all his warts introduced the world to a fast paced pressing attack with rock solid defense behind it. Today, we have the 3-5-2 and we get excited that our Argentine born central forward scored a goal in an Arabian league. It's BAD. VERY BAD. Even if we qualify for the World Cup, we will be embarrassed. We have a cooked Barella and a half-speed Di Marco. Oh, and also a guy that isn't a very good man marker at CB in Bastoni. What could go wrong?
We will break out of it only when the system develops player skills rather than focusing 99% of training efforts on drilling tactics into youth. The modern game has too much intensity for this outdated approach, this is why even with our tactics we are unable to defend, as we are too rigid and predictable. We lack the skill and are always two steps behind modern teams on every area of the pitch.
It's because we do not develop individual player skills. We have always been tactics first. Baggio the most gifted forward Italy ever saw was hated by most coaches in Italy. As tacticians want all the credit due to how extremely individualistic Italian culture is. When the game was slower, it worked...but now, no tactics can save you without a high level of individual skill, as the game is just too fast for a tactics only approach.
Inter beat Bayern last year. The coefficient dosen't lie the last 5 years Serie A is second behind the Premier League. Serie A simply does not have a top club that can compete on two fronts this year for many reasons but in the 2020s its been clear the second best league too go along with Italy winning a Euro for the first time in 53 years. For our historical standards it is still really bad but these are the facts of the decade so far. https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/5jahreswertung 1 England 21.000 23.000 17.375 29.464 22.291 113.130 2 Italy 15.714 22.357 21.000 21.875 17.357 98.303 3 Spain 18.428 16.571 16.062 23.892 17.406 92.359 4 Germany 16.214 17.125 19.357 18.421 17.571 88.688
Spurs were picked apart by Athletico with triple the budget of Atalanta and Liverpool lost to Galatasaray for the second time this year. Bayern and Arsenal are the two best teams in Europe right now only Real Madrid City and PSG can compete with them.
Yes exactly this is not new we haven't been able to have a true CL contender in 16 years. The only difference between the 2020s and the 2010s is a marginal improvement overall and Italy winning Euro 2020. The apocalypse happened when Inter nuked the league in 2006 they got their reward in 2010 and it's been a slow recovery since then. Two things can be true at the same time. The overall quality of league is high compared to every league not the EPL but there is a cycle in place that is keeping any of the big teams from reaching the level of a Bayern where they are able to eat their league and compete with the top 3-5 teams in Europe every year. No italian club has been able to truly reach or sustain that level. But if AC Milan was a Bayern it would not mean calico is or isn't dead. These up and down results will continue but the thing fans of a certain generation continue to mourn over and over again died 20 years ago. The recent results (last 5 years) are empirically an improvement. How did Inter and Milan do between 2011-2020 in the CL? Not well.
Some of you acting like Verratti hasnt touched a soccer ball in years when he has more talent in his big toe than majority of midfielders in the world. Everyone relax. F-ck the haters. Forza Azzurri.
got to the semi final a couple seasons back something that would have seemed hard to imagine in the 2010s. they haven't been able to yet strike the balance of doing well in the league and europe at the same time yet mainly because the club is only now out of massive debt. you need quality but more importantly you need depth. it basically takes 2 full squads now.
🚨Jorginho is reportedly ON the Italian National Team's Preliminary Call-up List after having received a phone call from Gennaro Gattuso on Saturday📲🇮🇹@Lemos_Santos Awaiting confirmations from Italian media pic.twitter.com/Q0j8lxIsiY— AzzurriXtra🇮🇹 (@XtraAzzurri) March 11, 2026 “******** the haters!” lol
@Rossonero23 i've reached my limit! it's just a cruel joke at this point for me to eat crow about Jorginho when he qualifies us with a penalty goal