Ceneter midfield is stacked. But the win position is our weakest. No doubt camoranesi was naturalized for this.IN 2008 donadoni asked for taddei, but he refused. IMO italy is so weak in this position.I think other position we are ok.
Italy is weak in every position now and is in danger of becoming a team of the past. Even the defense which was our strongest suit has turned to absolute crap
I said it before but the development system must frown on players who dribble the ball. Our best was an oriundi. I'm amazed that the same blood that can produce Messi, Maradonna, even other mediterranean players can only give us Pepe.... Pepe ffs! We need to open up a Barcelona style school somewhere or our future is f****d.
This is something I have always thought. Wide midfielders and attacking wingers are something we rarely produce anymore. At least not of great quality.
Forggia ....? Pepe did good for us.... He's not perfect, but he shown heart, run, pass... and come back for defense....
pepe showed heart, i didnt count on him much but he was one of the better players this tourny and italy still has good wingers, rossi, foggia, giovinco, de celige (needs more playing time) even cossu and some others can turn out to be good wingers
Rossi and Giovinco aren't wingers. Pepe sucks. Marchionni would have been way better in that role, but Lippi loves Pepe as we all know. He absolutely shanked that ball which would have qualified us. He had a good first game and went downhill from there. His first touch is horrendous and it causes him to lose a lot of possession. Juve signed him though...can't wait for that. IMO, Foggia is the best pure winger we have. It's a shame Lippi only called him once (and he scored). Abate is a tremendous winger...I hope Milan finally move him up to right wing in a 4-4-2 this year because he could kick ass. Pace and great skill are his trademark. It really SUCKS that Rosina never panned out. Talk about great potential.
I wouldn't fault Pepe as much.... He did work hard for us... I don't see him slashing to the goal.... He usually run to the corner and pass the ball to the box or pass it from other area.... May be lippi wants him to do that... .. I thought winger are supporting stiker where they slash to the goal.... like Camo has sometime done... What Pepe is good is 1. Passing.... long ball... I thought he did that well.. 2. Taking the ball along the sideline... 3. Receive the ball... 4. His crosses are good to.... I didn't see him slashing to the goal and score... That last one that he missed .... 5 feet from the goal was the first time I saw him... running down there... To me Pepe is serviceable... unlike some of our forwards...
Schelotto has a lot of potential, but he needs a Serie A side to have faith in him and really give him a shot. That's a reoccurring theme with a lot of our Under 21 players. The big sides need to give them a real shot...not just one game here and there. Juve signed Bonucci today and that's fantastic because he can really work on his partnership with Chiellini for the future. I actually think Ranocchia is the better player. Heard Inter is after him, but I hope that's not the case.
Italy hasn't had many great wingers and some of the best started off as attacking midfielders. Donadoni, Causio and Claudio Sala started off as #10s. Giampiero Boniperti played as a winger, attacking midfielder and centre-forward. There were also wingers who changed positions too such as Zambrotta, Marco Cassetti, Vialli and Beppe Signori. Abate seems to be heading that way too. For Vialli and Signori, it was good that they became strikers but Zambrotta and Cassetti should have stayed as wingers. We could do with the likes of Bruno Conti, Angelo Domenghini, Atilio Lombardo, Amadeo Biavati and Gino Colaussi now. Great wingers, although Lombardo didn't get his chance to play at a World Cup for Italy. We have players who can play in the wide positions and they have been mentioned before. Cossu, De Ceglie, Abate and Foggia can play wide and Candreva and Giovinco can play there occassionally. Pepe isn't a bad player but not a guy who should start regularly for an NT like Italy's. Rosina is still at a decent age so maybe he can turn things around if he can get a starting spot somewhere (he shouldn't have went to Zenit) and not be forced to carry a team like Torino. Another disappointment for me is Stefano Guberti. He has all the trickery and a good shot too. He doesn't look like a guy that tries and he is incapable of putting good games together. He only plays good in patches. If he tried and had a will to win, he could be the Italian Cristiano Ronaldo. Marchionni was one player I expected Lippi to call-up. He's another one of Lippi's boys. At least Prandelli turned him into a goal-scoring winger and he had his best season, IMO. Every primavera needs to take a look at their squads and develop wingers. It has been our weakness. We can't depend on oriundi like Guaita, Sivori, Orsi and Camoranesi. We need to develop the next Bruno Conti or the next Roberto Donadoni (the player, of course).
Toro is thinking of buying Russotto and bringing him back from Switzerland. That's a player with immense talent who has been wasting away north of the border. He's not 17 anymore. He's 22 now if you can believe that! When is a Serie A side going to give him a real chance? This is what is wrong with Serie A. Take a chance on a kid. It might not always pan out, but lower tier and mid tier clubs don't have a lot to lose by doing so.
What this bum did to warrant a place in the team, let alone a transfer to Juve, is beyond me. Hope the Juventini enjoy his international skills next year...hahaha
Lazio's trying to buy him, I hope they do and use him and Foggia on the flanks...really use wingers which so few teams in serie a do now...let alone italian wingers.
I wasn't a fan of Pepe prior to the WC, but I admit, he was one of our best players. That just goes to show how POOR our team was as a whole, but I see him getting called to the NT again, but more likely as a sub not a starter.
whats people opinion on stefano guberti? he is crappy for roma tho. I recall in serie b they called him maradona of serie b or sthg
is the water polluted in las vegas? other than the first game where all pepe really showed was effort he was was horrible. he obviously doesn't know his right from left foot and he clearly wasn't one of our best players. that wold go to quags and pirlo, though they didn't play much they showed alot more in that time.
Read my post on him. He was a gun at Bari (scored 9 goals in 18 games when they won the Serie B title) and showed glimpses of talent at Ascoli, even back when they were in Serie A. He only was a regular at Treviso. Lazio let him go and he didn't get much time at Napoli. I thought he was more of a seconda punta or trequartista but he still needs a Serie A club to give him a chance.
Agree on Foggia. He is the most skillful one, but painfully inconsistent for my liking. As for Abate, I think he is not good enough to play up top as a winger, his pace and direct running is tailor suited for full back role. If he can improve his defensive game, he will be one hell of a side back. My best bet is on Marchionni right now. He had his best and most consistent season this year, and added some goalscoring treat to his game.
Thanks for the info man.One of the reasons I like posting around here is to get information from older people then me about the game. I love reading this newses.I hope he plays good for roma this year, especially with taddei declining.