Of all CAF teams, South Africa is my preferred. At least all but 3 are born/raised in South Africa. Which is acceptable in this day and age. Many also play in the South African league. Ditto Egypt who produce their own players. Conversely you have teams like Morocco where 19/26 are European raised. Then idiots will bang on about how they are improving when it's the complete opposite. Absolute dummies. Without France and The Netherlands producing their players they would be eating shit. Ditto Senegal, Ivory Coast. I absolutely hate what globalism has done to football and my opinion will never change. Absolutely detest what Morocco pulled in AFCON.
I miss the good ole days where we were facing England quite often and they would play Sterling who would never fail to disappoint (England fans). They lived in their own echo chamber and bought the lies fed to them by their media about how good their players were. Sadly, England has surpassed Italy in how the develop their youth into senior players and now Italy's league and national team are both jokes. Aw how the mighty have fallen
Mexico are a terrible team Was listening to post game. Mexican announcers were acting like they won the whole tournament
For the life of me, I don't know why Criscitiello on SportItalia hates Mancini so much. I know he's annoyed at the Saudi Arabia thing and feels betrayed. He also thinks Mancini is mediocre. I disagree. Mancini may have been a mercenary and taken $$$ from the Saudis...but at least he was our CT and won a Cup! That's more than I can say for the likes of Ancelotti or Capello. I trust Mancini to build a program and have a vision. But again the real problem is the FIGC. If Malago is in the pockets of Serie A and B, then we will see no real reforms.
I don’t get it either. He says that he’s scarso and overrated. Whatever you think about Mancini, he has shown that he has a good footballing brain and he is capable. However everything else he said has merit. In Italy we have the expression about reheating soup. We are a culture that constantly looks to the past and can’t look forward.
the flaw with Mancini is yes the reheated minestrone but also that his ideas may be slightly outdated. His 2020/2021 run was incredible but once teams figured out his patterns he had no plan B. For me I am happy it is him because I think he will be a good selector. I am not so worried about tactics at this moment.
Baldini would have been a decent pick but by his own admission he said he didn’t have the curriculum to manage the senior team. That’s fair. I also think we need to see Baldini at a tournament. Everyone wants Italy to take the Spanish route like they did with De La Fuente. But he managed the Spanish youth teams for years and won trophies before he took the senior team. Baldini has 8 games with the Italian U21s. We need to let the guy work.
From what I understand, he adapted his styles in the Middle East to the players he had always using a back 4 using a 4-2-3-1, This is way better than Allegri as we know Pio Esposito Ekhator Koleosho Tonali Ricci Barella Ruggeri Calafiori Scalvini Palestra Donnarumma
We don’t know what Mancini is proposing in 2026 but we can assume it won’t be anything like that Italy. He has to invent something else
Yes exactly it is a matter of choice and he is the better choice. And for sure the 4231 really suits us going forward even more than a pure 433 perhaps.
Yes that system was built on Spinazolla Verratti Insigne... Inacio could play the Insigne role eventually but he won't be able to recreate that system. He also has far more talent to work with in terms of depth. That team had 7 or 8 great players but he was scrambling to flip duo nationals because there are not any italians at that time. Now he has a a huge crop of young players he can use for different roles. The days of Toloi and Joa Pedro are gone. Mancini would have killed for a Pio Inacio among others.
4231 Pio Esposito Ekhator Inácio (Pisilli) Koleosho Ricci(Fagioli) Tonali Ruggeri (Bartesaghi) Calafiori Scalvini Palestra Donnarumma CB pairings Calafiori - Scalvini Chiarodia - Comuzzo Pirola?? - Coppola Bastoni - Mancini Ahanor- Ghilardi LB: Bartesaghi, Ruggeri, Udogie, Cambiaso, Dimarco RB: Palestra, Kayode, Cambiaso, Di Lorenzo, Bellanova Prospects: Ahanor, Fortini
Tempo al tempo, la situazione sta cambiando basta guardare i risultati delle giovanili e non non guardare il singolo risultato ma guarda il periodo
Depth Chart GK Donnarumma Carnesecchi Caprile Vicario Meret Prospects: Daffara, Palmisani, Mascardi LB Bartesaghi Ruggeri Udogie Cambiaso Dimarco Prospects: Fortini, Moruzzi LCB Calafiori Chiarodia Pirola Ahanor Bastoni Buongiorno Ranieri RCB Scalvini Comuzzo Ghilardi Coppola Mancini Gatti Prospects: Leoni, Mané, Reggiani, Calvani, Guarino RB Palestra Kayode Cambiaso Favasuli Di Lorenzo Bellanova Prospects: Zanotti, Bakoune No. 6 / Deep-Lying Midfielder Ricci Rovella Lipani Locatelli Faticanti Prati CM / Double-Pivot Option Tonali Barella Fagioli Pisilli Frattesi Ndour Casadei Fabbian Dagasso Prospects: Berti, Zeroli, Mannini LW Koleosho Ekhator Gnonto Inácio Fini Venturino Cherubini Dimarco Prospects: Cacciamani, Pafundi CAM / Second Striker Inácio Liberali Pafundi Pisilli Raspadori Baldanzi Maldini RW Koleosho Inácio Gnonto Cherubini Cancellieri Fini Pafundi Prospect: Cacciamani ST Pio Esposito Retegui Kean Scamacca Camarda Lucca Raimondo Sebastiano Esposito Prospect: Ambrosino, Nicolò Tresoldi
Non è propio cosi il problema è stato che non c'era la possibilità di avere giocatori adatti a un gioco moderno dato che tutte le squadre APPLICAVANO il 3-5-2 e la STESSA U21 del periodo (VEDERE NICOLATO) adesso l'U21 applica il 4-3-3 quindi il passaggio dovrebbe essere più semplice e dato che il Mancio con i giovani ci sa lavorare sono discretamente OTTIMISTA, l'alternativa era CONTE con il 3-5-2 e quindi altro che Vergara, Liberali, Koleosho ecc... saremmmo rimasti con Politano, Cristante ecc....
Yes he will be 31 in 2030 but maybe like Zoff he will win a Euro young Zoff was 26 Donnarumma was 22 and then a World Cup at 40 or maybe mid 30s for Gigio.
The discourse and revisionist history from some of these media guys about Mancini is quite funny. Throw blame his way for running to Saudi. Fine. But who was along for the ride for ALL of these failures? Gravina. Who we never really hear all about that much considering the negativity he caused behind the scenes working through a hidden hand. The guy had a hard on for getting the likes of Buffon, Bonucci, etc. so integrated, and later Gattuso when duty called, we all saw what that meant to the success of the team. Having legends around with pom poms is not going to be the turning point to anything. The reality is that Mancio had us playing the best, cohesive brand of soccer for the longest duration that I can say I have seen from the Azzurri in my lifetime. The pros really far outweigh the cons in his time being a manager for the Azzurri. The big con being the age old tale of Italian managers - being too loyal to the old guard which had a big part to play in the 2022 qualifying failure. I have said it countless times but I am very excited for Baldini/Mancini working in harmony between the U21 sector and NT. We do have talent - another reason why Mancini is so adamant and has been for a long time to come back. Internal competition between prospects at the U21 level to ultimately battle for spots on the NT is a good thing. We need that carrot to actually be there for youth who deserves to be launched and Mancini has the track record to be willing to do that. The "same old, same old" argument I would understand more so with a guy like Allegri. Simply just a move that says we need to bunker into dinosaur ball and win "the Italian way" under some BS narrative. Mancini bridges the gap between actually being progressive with youth and play-style, while having proven success running a NT.
For offense yes the majority of the scoring and opportunities came from that side but even when that well went dry it was the smothering midfield and winning the ball back / possession approach that Manicini's teams stood out. I've never seen an Italy with possession like that. We were still good after the Euros, but there was a lot more 1-0 (or ties off of a fluke opposition goal) then 3-0. Where he really lost track was after failed world cup qualifying he knew he had to 'retool' and go with newer players. Homestly the Nations league is the perfect training ground for new players and tactics but it wasn't always pretty. He also had to completely move on from Chiellini / Bonucci which was always going to be tough for any manager specifically because there are no Serie A teams with an All Italian CB pairing. I'm confident with the options available to him now he'll find a pairing (or multiple)
Thanks for sharing. For me, remove Frattesi completely. The technical skills aren't there, and he is truly just a waste callup at this point. In this day in age, we just don't need a Giaccherini 2.0. Days of Gnonto being a thing are over. He needs off the map completely. Scamacca has had his chances. He's the type of player who could score 20 goals in a league and I still wouldn't bat an eye his way at this point. He has more than proven he can't handle national team callups. His fault, he made his bed by proving to be worthless. Lucca has become a terrible footballer and many players deserve their chances over him.
Ekhator is a CF, playing him as a left wing was a mistake, even though he did get the assist he seemed uncomforable all game which is why he was taken off at half time. I do like the 4-2-3-1 because you can play Inacio behind the CF, Koleosho would be the LW and for the RW you could play Vergara or Zaniolo for the time being.
I've been working on my own depth chart, I'll add to yours. LB: Calafiori has to be there. He can play LB or LCB. Bernasconi as a prospect. LCB: Bastoni, Buongiorno, and Ahanor are all over Pirola. RCB: Leoni is the #1 if he regains form. I rate Coppola ahead of Comuzzo and Ghilardi. Scalvini and Coppola would battle for #2 slot. Also Gabbia needs to be added and some rate him pretty highly. RB: Savona can be added but I don't rate him highly, he'd be at the bottom. No more Di Lorenzo. CMF: Fagioli can play both midfield roles and some rate him as our best deep lying playmaker. Prati was the U21 man here over Lipani so I'd have him over Faticanti. SMF: I'd take Frattesi off that list, we tried with him and he failed. Doumbia, Brescianni, Miretti, Mandragora are all other interesting options we can try here. I'd just switch Pisilli and Fagiolo around and then have N'dour and Casadei behind them. LW: Ehkator should not be a LW. He is a striker. Gnonto can be a good option but he needs to show more for club. Guys like Fini, Venturino, Pafundi play much better on the right bc they like to cut inside on their left. I'd also throw in here Chiesa even though its unlikely, Grifo, and perhaps Maldini but he would be at the bottom. CAM: I dont's see Pisilli playing here. Vergara should probably be near or at the top. RW: Vergagra and Zaniolo should probably be our top two options. Venturino definitely should be here too and he has my backing to our future starter here. Baldanzi should be here but low on the list. If Berardi continues his good form, he can be an option too. CF: This is tough but I still have Kean as our #1 and Pio as a close #2. Retegui has slipped a little for me but I still have him better than all our other options. I'd probably rather have Ekhator and Camarda than Scamacca bc Scamacca is horrible for us, and rest of other options are mediocre to poor. Overall I really like your list, good to see what others are thinking and mine is somewhat similar.
We literally broke the unbeaten streak with Mancio and won a Euro. BTW, that team was not an all time team, we didn't have many superstar players, you can argue it all you want but I compare that team against other winners and they definitely overachieved but collectively as a team we were a unit. And that is what we need now.