N. Ireland and Wales are going to run, run, and run some more. Verratti was never going to be match fit after months off. Great player in his day. Immense skill. But that was a leap of faith to call him without much rational though given his situation.
That's nice of Capello and Toni to shout from the sidelines, but WHO is going to be the face of the movement? Who is going to get their hands dirty fighting entrenched interests? The bureaucrats within the FIGC and the govt are shameless. It's going to take a strong personality to push this. I liked what Arezzo has done. They used a new stadium law which helped get around the typical "historical preservation" boards that block everything in Italy. Now they are building a new 13,000 English style stadium in Arezzo. Good project good plan. We need more of that. Cut Serie A to 18 teams. Cut Serie C to 20 teams. Pass laws to develop settori giovanili.
between 1990-2006 Italy did not lose a single match in regulation time. It was a golden generation. Italian clubs also featured in 25 european finals in the 1990s .. plus some more in 89 and 2003-2007. With that said we failed to qualify for Euro 92 and were in the playoffs in 98 because football is difficult even when you have a golden generation. https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/com...in_european_finals_during_the_1990s/#lightbox Still for those that grew up in the 90s that era was not the norm throughout our history. Between 38-68 we were not fantastic and the 70s for the most part were poor for club and country. Really the 70s are not that different from the 2010s. If you swap our world cup performances for our euro performances. And as far as the Champions League goes no Italian club won the European cup between 68 and 84 so exactly 16 years.
Verratti has no business on the NT, we already have bidoni that get called up consistenly we don't need more.
It's being said Pisilli has a better shot of being included now that Verratti is out. Hopefully that comes as a blessing in disguise and he can have a moment. Locatelli was going to start behind Tonali and Barella regardless. The only question now is if they use Fagioli or Ricci as the regista off the bench. I can see Locatelli playing the full 90 in both games regardless. Pisilli is a good option to sub out Barella if he is struggling and we need a spark. I much prefer him to Fratessi at this point.
If want a player with pace and to press, Pisilli is a great option. Before somebody gets it twisted, I am in full agreement Italy play too slow. Start/Stop whistle-happy officating that they are used to is a massive problem. Something Dino Zoff said 25 years ago. That said, and I've written this before, its not like Spain play this way. Neither does Argentina, something I noticed in the 2022 Final. But these 2 teams make up for it in a good generation having high skill. In the 2020(2021), Euro final, the opponent was England -- the poster child for high tempo. Yet it was Italy who controlled the match. Need to get it right. Definitely have to raise the pace, put the whistles away and increase skill level and italy should be OK. Can get around it for these (hopefully) 2 matches but it has to go right.
Exactly. Prandelli and Italy did make a pivot in the early 2010s to try and copy Spain and it somewhat worked. We began producing many technical midfield talents. Guys like Sensi Barella Tonali Fagioli Locatelli Rovella Ricci Miretti were emerging to go along with Verratti Jorginho. This is something we did not have before aside from Pirlo who was an outlier. It sort of worked and peaked in 2020 when we were able to dominate everyone but Spain. But being a second rate Spain was never a long term solution and our clubs were not going to be set up to provide the national team with a steady stream of this player profile the way La Liga/Barca is. Football tactics and systems are all about breaking what is the dominant mode. If you are simply trying to copy what is currently working by the time you are able to implement it you will behind the new thing that has now broken the previous dominate mode. in the late 80s Sachhi innovated the way Pep did in the late 2000s and it worked but it also lead to the destruction of the fantasy player. Sacchi/Lippi/Capello were lucky because the fantasy player already existed and they could scream at them but they still benefitted from having them because of the previous era. Eventually we got the rigid tactics and the conductor moving the team as a unit without the attacking technical quality outside the regista position or wing backs and we saw that peak with Conte. You can't turn around the ship on a dime the choices made will affect where you are 10 years from now not next year. Data shows us that Serie A is the third fastest league behind the Prem and Championship while La Liga is the slowest of the top leagues by a large margin. The athletes in Serie A are pretty fast. On average they are much faster down the table than the average Bundesliga or La Liga player. The issue is more that teams tactically choose not to press as much so visually it looks like the play is slow. https://football-observatory.com/WeeklyPost460
I would like to see Tonali playing behind the two midfielders. Even at the end of a game. I always thought he can play in Pirlo’s position
The fact remains that Verratti essentially was fed up and took over Jorginho's area naturally and dominated the midfield vs. England at Wembley. He is a legend for realizing that need he needed to the ball to go through him if we were going to win and not that fraud Jorginho and essentially just took over. You can see in that game he shifted centrally and pushed that a$$hat out of the way and said "I take the ball now." But that comment is for that moment and not now. Just because Verratti is a legend for the Euro, it has nothing to do with now. I wish Verratti had kept that mentally in the latter years but something went off course.
There have been changes implemented since 2010-2011 with Maurizio Viscidi who was Baggios pick for the youth sector, that’s why there has been success at the youth levels with the attacking 4-3-3. There’s a big disconnect with getting these guys to the higher levels though, At least the incentive pool has increased for youth in Serie B. We need this in A
Yes on one hand there was a move towards the 433 and these creative one touch registas/tricky wingers and on the other hand Conte/Allegri/Inzaghi 352 ball dominated the Serie A and now the vast majority of teams in both the Serie A and Serie B play this way. We can see how someone like Liberali was frozen out of the Catanzaro 352 and just sat and watched until they switched to a back 4 and let him play as a RAM/RWF where he is now superb. Mancini did well to connect to the youth sector with his 433 but the Serie A player base was not there for that system. In 2021 it worked even though there was not much depth on the bench by 2022 it fell apart with Verratti Insigne Chiesa Bernadeschi Zaniolo falling off the face of the earth.
Supposedly this is the long list for which midfielders Gatusso is considering. It's certainly not a bad group. Would have been better if Rovella was not hurt all year and Ricci/Fratessi/Miretti/Pisilli were playing more. Nicolo Barella (Inter), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Nicolo Rovella (Lazio), Samuele Ricci (Milan), Niccolo Pisilli (Roma), Fabio Miretti (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Giovanni Fabbian (Fiorentina), Nicolo Fagioli (Fiorentina), Cesare Casadei (Torino).
I used to be a Frattesi fan especially in the years after his U20 tenure, but he's just pure garbage these days. I'm not even sure if he's capable of possessing a football and making a creative pass or decision on the football. Also, BIG no to Pellegrini. Please Gattuso. We've tried that. He's complete a$$ Also, as pointed out by now Barella is garbage these days...well has run dry it appears. Sucks, because for years he was a class player and had to be in every lineup Not sure how to rate Rovella because his body or mind is made up of whatever soft material makes up Calafiori's.
These were my original midfield picks for the playoff with Verratti out I'd keep the rest the same and swap in Pisilli. I'm not exactly sure what number of midfielders they will bring but I believe last time they brought 6. Tonali Verratti Pisilli Barella Locatelli Fagioli Ricci
Frattesi is a waste of space as a callup. if Gattuso did this, it would show me he has no vision and just defaults to experience
Jorginho was up there with Verratti as one of the highest rated players in the final. He was amazing. People are not going to like to hear this, but Gattuso called him and he may be selected for these qualifiers. People are going to lose their minds if this happens. I agree with others here tho, Pisilli should be a constant pick.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jorginho gets selected, with Vergara out. and Buffon advocating for Pisilli, I think he will be there.
Jorginho was physically very weak by Euro 2024 but he did help us qualify because when Spalletti called him things finally clicked. His technical quality is known it just depends if he is physically up to the task. We see Modric at 40. I know Jorginho has been very good in Brazil. It's not that crazy but I would still have to take Locatelli Fagioli Ricci even Rovella if he was fit ahead of him.
There are more stats that website displays that are more relevant and tell the full story: 1. In regards to distances covered in sprints, Serie A didn't event register in the top ten. (Sprint being an action lasting at least 0.7 seconds at a speed of over 25 km/h.) 1- PREMIER LEAGUE (ENG) - 199.6m 2- EREDIVISIE (NED) - 193.7m 3- SUPER LEAGUE (SUI) - 190.0m 4- LIGUE 1 (FRA) - 184.2m 5- ELITESERIEN (NOR) - 183.8m 6- PRO LEAGUE (BEL) - 179.6m 7- ALLSVENSKAN (SWE) - 178.8m 8- LA LIGA (ESP) - 177.7m 9- BUNDESLIGA (GER) - 176.8m 10- SUPER LIG (TUR) - 176.0m 2. In the actual speed of the ball, Serie A places in 5th place with 7.6 meters per second. The top league is the CL with 10.4m/s. Proving without a doubt that there are such things as “European Rhythms”. The ball moves slower in Italy 1. Champions League 10.4m/s 2. Premier League 9.8m/s 3. Bundesliga 9.4m/s 4. La Liga 8.4m/s 5. Serie A 7.6 m/s More stats covered in this podcast by Gazzetta Dello Sport. Serie A ranks first in: 1. Least amount of goals scored in any of Europe’s top 5 competitive leagues (three years in a row now) 2. Least amount of scoring chances created 3. Strikers missing the most chances in front of goal 4. Least amount of dribbles 5. Least amount of successful dribbles 6. Most shots from distance.
These stats are exaggerated. I'm betting if many of those teams played weekly in the Serie A, they wouldn't be playing at this high level.
Yeah that nails the fundamental issue. Between 2019-2021 thing were changing and we saw a historic high of 3 goals a game but I believe a lot of that was due to a high frequency of penalties. It did seem like teams were more attacking but since then its slowed to a crawl. We've seen goals are down across Europe as low blocks become more and more common. The problem is in Serie A neither team feels obligated to attack and move the ball so there is no incentive as both are set up for the counter. I don't know how you fix that other than hope for a trend of brave managers. The players themselves are not slow. They're scouting some of the best athletes in the world. The gap between pace of the ball in CL and Serie A is too big. You can't adjust on the fly to that even if you have the superior players you will be vulnerable to them being used to a slower rhythm for sure.