I must sound like a broken record but so many excluding someone bc of their age and ignoring their current play will make us miss a 4th World Cup. Anyone that is producing must be selectable. He is literally playing in a league better than ours and in the semis of the Europa League as a top player nearing 20 goal contributions in its entirety. We dont have any solid left wing options. I like Koleosho but he cant start for mid tier teams. Zaccangi has been a huge bust and Rao is way too inexperienced and not even on the U21 team yet. So we have no one. I want to make our next major tourney, it doesnt matter if they will be around in 4 years. Grifo should definitely be on the radar. You can hate it all you want but he is statistically the best left winger for us. It is not ideal but I dont care, Im never excluding someone who is better than are other options.
The brothers go head to head, while Salva continues his Serie B journey at the same time. I still quite like brother Seba and think he as a future ahead. he is a personal favorite of mine. We shall see. Also, Pafundi is not on the Samp bench. I continue to believe Pafundi is a made-up wonder kid. The Freddy Adu of Italia. No matter if you are over hyped or not, if you can't make the bench of Samp these days (assuming you aren't injured), then may the Lord help you on your journey.
Pafundi has been injured, but ya he has been a bust in my eyes. Not as good, but reminds me a lot like Baldanzi, think it has to do with their physiques. They are just way too small.
if Bastoni doesn't get that red... we win that game and advance. Hypothetically (taking Iran's spot) we'd be in a group with New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt. To think we wouldn't finish at bare minimum as one of the better 3rd place teams and advance is crazy. Also, Bosnia is not a bad team at all. They will at least draw Canada, but IMO they will beat Canada in their group game.
If Bastoni doesn't get that red, we win? I know we like to think that, but I'm not too sure. We had 2 shots all half while they had 10 or so, they prolly were scoring on us either way. I don't blame that loss on Bastoni one bit, we played like shit as a team.
Berardi starts over Volpato and statistically has been better. So I don't think Volpato is making our team. Vergara and Zaniolo will prolly be our RWs.
Dimarco one assist away in tieing the Serie A record for a season and Barella breaks out of his goal drought after we lose to Bosnia. Nice!
When Baldanzi has played this season he has played well he needs time and doesn’t get any so he’s never gonna develop. Koleosho is one of those players he needs to just start and he will produce shame he can’t get starting time.
Starting or bringing on Palestra in that game and bringing on Esposito in that game would have made a big difference I think. We will never know what 11v11 would have looked like what a shame. Bastoni starting at CCB and having been injured is wild.
Neither Volpato, Zaniolo and Vergara are right wingers and we don’t even know how Baldini or the new manager wants to play. Again don’t be surprised if you see his name on the roster sheet
In general, we need young and new names on the call-ups for June. Two games of little consequence where you can begin integration right away? What an opportunity. The tone can be set right away. Mancini during the brilliant part of his tenure (we know what happened in the end but there was a brilliant portion of it) utilized callups to bring in extensive sets of players and to me, this is one of the many things we must do again. During the logical part of his tenure, he built a talent pool so deep he could afford to choose not to bring certain players on the 2021 journey.
“Dedico questo gol a Gennaro Gattuso, uno delle migliori persone che ho conosciute nel mondo del calcio”#Barella https://t.co/hkGgPXfme9— Alessandro (@90ordnasselA) April 17, 2026 . almost couldn’t make that up if I tried 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨: “𝐈𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐢𝐨 𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨 𝐞̀ 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐨”‼️La dura analisi del presidente della Confederazione Calcistica Italiana Andrea Montemurro#sportitalia #calcio #italia pic.twitter.com/SGmPP93O96— Sportitalia (@tvdellosport) April 17, 2026
Como lose maybe there is a Calcio god. The best case scenario is Juventus get 4th and Como do well in the Europa league and bring in some italians.
Just LOLZ. I posted a link to Capello's comments this morning but that link didn't have this comment. We? Pardon? There were 3 Italians in Bologna's starting 11 and only 1 was on Defence. So spare me that Bologna vs Villa was an example of shotty Italian defense. When I refer to Italian Defence I refer to the individual player not 8/11 being from elsewhere. Maybe getting 3rd rate foreigners, save a few, is the issue.
Was just going to post this. He needs to leave and go to Barca. Last I read it was intermediarys speaking about a transfer not the Inter and Barca. If he stays at Inter, I guarantee you Chivu stays with this 3-5-2. Since they are going to want Calafiori in there as well, Max or Conte will put him as middle CB, not having learned anything. In a perfect world: - He goes to Barca. - We see how he does in a flat 4. - New CT comes in and plays a 4.
Plenty of comments is that they are prioritizing height and physical strength over skill, and I definitely agree with that. I look at a player like Lorenzo Lucca. Over 2M tall but he's absolute shit. There no doubt in my mind that he was brought along at the expense of a smaller player that was more technically gifted.
Obviously June's friendlies have to be bringing in all young players. But when September comes along a large portion, save Spina, Cristante, Politano, hopefully not Di Lo are gonna come back. Italy are not really in a rebuilding stage because they are an old team -- they aren't. You may swap out a player entirely but it wont be because of age. I really want Liverpool to use Leoni in these last few matches. EDIT: reading now they won't bring him in preferring for to wait until August training camp.
For me if Bastoni does not get the red we win. They had one game plan and that was to cross into the box and with the man advantage their weak point which is their midfield all of a sudden did not matter. They scored an ugly goal after about 30 crosses into the box. There was no world where they would have scored 2 goals 11 vs 11. Maybe they could have scored one but I think we would have won 2-1. Even trailing 1-0 we had the clear opportunities on goal but there were simply not enough of them because we never had the ball after the red. Not only do I blame Bastoni but I would go as far to say it was the worst mistake an Italian defender has ever made in our history. Any experienced player knows the one thing you don't do is get a red card in a knockout game. With the said the macro issue's and the reason we entered a lottery situation where one mistake could knock us out has nothing to do with Bastoni and everything to do with Italian football as a whole.
Of course you can play him as a RW but you wouldn’t be getting the best out of him IMO. Maybe as a false winger who cuts in to the center if he has a good overlapping right back. But if you watched Vergara this year, you’ll see that his best actions come from the midfield. For a little guy he doesn’t shy away from challenges and he is really good at starting the counter. I don’t know where I would play Vergara TBH. But he’s definitely worthy of being on the team