Personally, that's how I feel. Honestly, I think pinturicchio should stop with this obsession about starting. He's NOT a starter anymore. Del Piero shouldn't be going for an entire game, I don't even like seeing him play an entire game for Juventus. I must be the worst Juventino ever, because I'm really not a fan of Del Piero, and would prefer to see Iaquinta start up front. Inzaghi for me is a different matter, however, because, despite his age, he consistently performs well and scores goal. He's a machine. I don't really think his inability yesterday came down to him, but more to the disappointing plays by Camoranesi and Del Piero that really didn't contribute anything to Inzaghi. That said, I definitely don't want to see him play an entire match - he simply cannot do it. I agree 100%. But really, the 4-1-4-1 didn't work out too badly. Just the players failed. Totally agree. They're simply not cut out. They'll always be remembered for being fantastic players, but even our greatest players learned to call it quits at some point. We have great players ready to take on the role of starting in the attack. We should give them their due chances. I'm at a loss to know why Quagliarella and Di Natale did not start yesterday.
I was very much puzzled as well. You'd think against a physically commanding defence like France's you'd logically put in forwards that at least have the pace to match that backline. I personally think once again Donadoni was just trying to play it safe and ultra conservative by going with two experienced veterans who have played against France numerous times in the past, thinking they would know best how to beat them. Unfortunately this isn't the same ADP from 1998 or 2000, and age clearly showed on them yesterday as they were frequently out-muscled and showed obvious signs of fatigue quickly into the second half. Donadoni's other mistake was keeping both of them on for that long.
but we also put in good performances, no matter the opponent. We haven't put in one good performance under Donadoni, not even in the matches we won.
Donadoni was prob one of the worst choices in the history of the Azzurri. With the abundance of talent at his disposal, he STILL hasn't got it.
Need I remind everyone that Donadoni didn't hire himself for the position? Remember that it's the FIGC that appointed him head coach. If anything they should've searched a bit more riggorously to find an experienced coach who has a solid track record. Instead they grabbed a man who was a great player for both club and country during his time, but was still relatively fresh in terms of head coaching experience. I just hope that Donadoni is learning from his mistakes as he's going along from both a player selection standpoint, and a tactical standpoint.
Like he did against Liverpool at Delle Alpi, when Juve only needed a 1:0 win ... and played for a 0:0 the whole game. C'mon, how do you want to score against such a strong defence with only 1 striker? Wasn't it the same with Jürgen Klinsmann? At the beginning, he was confronted with a lot of criticism as well (remember Germany's 1:4 defeat in Firenze) ... but finally he managed to win the fans' hearts. Maybe it will be the same with Donadoni. Just wait up.
Granted, but lets face it a situation like Klinsmann doesn't come around too often. In most cases if you hire someone that's inexperienced for such an important position then chances are his inexperience will be reflected through his results.
What I love the most about this thread and the commentary regarding yesterday's match is that the Roma fans keep killing Del Piero and Inzaghi to no end, but absolutely refuse to acknowledge just how shit De Rossi was yesterday. Stop being so hypocritical; you lose all credibility.
Yeah, it's amazing. How I mentioned above - if you blame ADP, please do the same with a few more players!
the man is to old. thats all the needs to be said. too old. who cares what is name is. the man is old. cant run. cant make the plays. hes a sub at best.
I think Alex should hang up his boots for the national team now, but I recall reading is some article that he will keep playing for the national team until he is 40!!!! if thats the case they better just not call him up..this guy has a good attitude but he really has to face reality.
And it's funny how Juve and Milan fans keep using that very same excuse to justify their defending of ADP and Inzaghi! I pointed out quite clearly before that De Rossi didn't have his best game, but at least he played well defensively! He had negatives from his performance but at least he compensated with some positive aspects! Plus De Rossi is only 24 and whether you are willing to admit it or not is going to be a major part of the NT for a long time! Trying to pick at other players in order to justify ADP's horrid performance over the past year doesn't make me want to warm up to Del Piero any more. I'm commenting based on what I've been watching and from what I've see, whether you like it or not, Del Piero has been easily one of the most disappointing players for the Azzurri since the World Cup!
Well let's DelPi is what 33; Now you think Totti is gonna be in great shape at 33 or instead is gonna be slower?!? The only thing that I agree with you is that his time is up. Hopefully il Dona is gonna bring some new blood Rosina, Miccoli and maybe Cassano too (e non il cazzano or better la testa di c***o that we've seen in Madrid sorry for the bad world).
I feel sorry for Del Piero in a way, the heart is there but the legs arent. Everytime I see him start for Italy I wonder "geez is there no one better to replace and start over a 32 year old?"....................but there is and donadoni can't see this. anyway im not going to bash him, thats all ive been seeing here on the forum lately, its not his fault, its Donadoni's for starting him
I could name a couple of other German coaches too like Beckenbauer who won the WC and Voeller who got the team to the final in 2002. They had no experience at all.
Uh, the thread topic is Del Piero, so I state my opinion of his persistent poor play for the national team. When it comes to the national team, club loyalties don't skew my comments. If the thread were about De Rossi, I'd admit that his performance was poor in this game. I'm sure you're not a stupid guy, but that comment really is stupid.
Everybody is over-reacting. This summer people were being dumb about him as well and then his goal was like voted goal of the tournament.... In this game the defence is getting all the praise because of their brilliant performance, but France never really tried, the only thing they did was put a very defensive team on the pitch and none of our players would have scored even if the game went on for another hour. Just too much of a brick wall in front of the goal and France not wanting to play, a bit like our game with the US in the world cup where we had to keep going for it. They just made us make the play and defended like hell. You cannot say he is over when was capocannonieri in Serie B last year. Ok it is not the international game but not easy to do either. He just had an off day today as did most of the Italy team.
Do perhaps we should start a De Rossi thread? In fact, that is the problem with a lot of the analysis around here as are the way threads are created in this forum. Too narrowly focussed. Are we suppose to give credence to the criticism thrown around here when some had already made up their minds before the rosters were even set? https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=596940 And then to quote the Italian stampa? As if they ever had anything good to say about Del Piero. Admit that you hate Del Piero and leave it at that.
Are you so ignorant that you have to attribute our constructive criticism of Del Piero to us "hating him"??? No one on this forum even dared to say that they hate Del Piero! It has nothing to do with hating the guy, not liking him, or being a Roma fan! I have nothing but respect and admiration for what he has done/achieved for both club and country during his awesome career! Even in spite of numerous disappointing performances on the international stage we still gave him numerous chances and stuck with him nevertheless! It has to do with being as reasonable and logical as possible based on his performances over the last year! Do you honestly mean to tell me that he has performed well enough in attack for the Azzurri to merit a starting spot??? I honestly don't think he has, and neither do many other people! Even if he were playing for Roma I would still be criticizing him to the same degree simply based on these performances. In spite of what you Juve fans might think, I for one know how to seperate my club loyalty from my NT loyalty. Perhaps you guys should consider doing the same! Just come to grips with the fact that the guy is almost 33 years of age and just doesn't have it in him anymore PHYSICALLY to compete like he used to! PLAIN AND SIMPLE! It has nothing to do with being a Roma fan, or whatever other idiotic excuse you people are willing to resort to! This was the exact same situation with guys like Vieri and Totti! As they started to climb in age their ability to perform at a high level on the international stage began to steadily decline. It happens to some of the best players, and Del Piero is no exception in this case!
If you were so constructive, then you would give a very long analysis of the horrible match both Gatusso and De Rossi had. You would also consider the subpar performance of Pirlo. You would then bunch the three of them together with Inzaghi and Del Piero and state that all of them had difficulty penetrating a French defense whose coach had the main strategy to play negative football and return home with a point. You would also point out that Donadoni's 4-1-4-1 formation does not suit Inzaghi well as he needs to have a strike partner or two very offensive attacking midfielders so that his poaching ways would be more effective. You would also take heed of Donadoni's quote: So why should Del Piero be considered? His 20 goals last season mean nothing? His class as a player mean nothing? So he is 32? Big deal, he is a professional athlete, not some couch potato. This is not some PlayStation where the player under your joy stick tries to run past the entire team. There is no one who can do that for Italia. And do we want a ball hog like that on the team? Then we can really see the criticism. So quit this objective stance you try to sell us. It is far from genuine. Watch the game and not certain players. Then you will realize what Bergamister stated above about the French side. We all know that if it was our side that played that way, the word catenaccio would be repeated over and over again.
Pirlo had a sub-par performance? Gattuso had a horrible match? Were we watching the same match by any chance? Pirlo was probably one of our best players on the pitch that day! Meanwhile although Gattuso was acting like a complete a$$ in the first half, he was a pillar of strength for us in the midfield in the second half, winning numerous balls! I've also stated that although De Rossi was far from at his best offensively, he still put up a relatively solid performance defensively, so although he struggled in one area of the game at least he excelled in another! If anything, you really need to stop trying to justify Del Piero's sub-par form by trying to bring up the performances of other players. There were other players that we far from at their best against France, but there is no way they have been as inconsistent over the past year as ADP has been. I honestly think I should just stop trying to reason with you Juve loyalists. It is quite apparent that you simply refuse to just be reasonable about things because of your bias opinion related to Del Piero and you club loyalty. You mention his 20 goals last season, but does it matter that he scored 20 goals in SERIE B??? And as I've clearly pointed out before this isn't a question of how he has performed at the club level. He has easily been one of the best players in Italy at the club level for Juve, but just as is the case with Totti that doesn't mean he has been stellar at the international level during that same period of time! Needless to say ADP and Totti have probably been our two most disappointing players for the NT over the last 10 years considering how awesome they have both been for their respective clubs during that same period of time.
Performance at club level means everything. Don't be so ridiculous. Do you call a player on the NT if he has terrible form with his club side? Yes, Pirlo was subpar. Compare it to his performance against Sevilla. Nothing close. So Gattuso and De Rossi did their jobs defensively. Good. They won balls. Good. But neither could do anything constructive when the got the ball. So a whole lot of good it did us. You know who else had a bad match? Ribbery. Why? He got more than his fair share of attention from Zambrotta, De Rossi and guess who else, Del Piero? Probably part of Donadoni's strategy was to shut down Ribbery. Can't blame him. Now if there is any justifying around here, it is trying to justify the nonsense of the topic of this thread. Del Piero should be called back to gli Azzurri if he is fit and in form. He did not have a fantastic match the other night but who did for gli Azzurri? There are several reasons why it was a nil-nil draw. But the truth is that Del Piero had one of the few good shots on goal that night, one that he had to get a shot off with the ball behind him and one that Landreau had to make a difficult save. He was also doubled team when he got the ball. If he is as bad as some of you making him out to be, should not one French defender be able to handle the task? Del Piero could have scored the lone goal against France, be the hero and for many of you, it would not have made a difference. He never lived to the player many of you wanted him to be so he will always be a failure in your eyes.
Once again you're really not even reading what I am posting, so I'm jsut not even gonna bother anymore cause frankly it has gotten quite annoying to repeat myself half a million times. YES! You're right! Everyone else on the squad sucked! Everyone in the whole game sucked! We're being very unfair to the great ADP! He scored 20 goals in Serie B! Who are we to argue against numbers like that???? He deserves to start every single match for the rest of the Euro qualifying campaign AND BEYOND! Happy?