The following quote from Football Italia Vincenzo Iaquinta: 4 Clumsy, cumbersome, calamitous, who knows why he started instead of Quagliarella or Pazzini. Lippi’s faith in him has always been baffling, now it’s proved costly. Laughable. I believe it is Lippi's blind faith in Iaquinta that is to blame on this early exit.
I think that is a bit harsh. Iaquinta did pretty much jack in his three games. The only things he contributed was the PK and assisting the set up of Di Natale's goal vs. Slovakia. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSG62B_hxyo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSG62B_hxy[/ame]
i never understood why he was chosen to start over 10 other better strikers and its not like he did anything great last world cup or euro cup or confed cup....his goal against ghana was lucky cuz of a bad pass from defense which he stole and scored on empty goal...
He messed up more than he help the team... The one... "CLASSIC IAG" header.... should be received by Quag.... It would have been another goal by quag.... Iag.. mess up big time...
Compared to Gilardino, Iaquinta played a little better but still didn't do anything......He is a desent club player but not made for the national team. Then again, I don't think Italy has any forwards that are world cup class players.
The fact that this concrete footed, no talent waste of skin started and played all 3 games epitomizes the insanity of Lippi's WC 2010 run. I hope to never see this guy don the NT jersey ever again.
But Italy has never really had forwards who score goals historically. I mean they usually always had one guy like Rossi, Altobelli, Schillaci, Baggio and then either Inzaghi or Vieri but their strength always remained with their GK's and their defense. Even 4 years ago they had no forwards like that. I didn't see any efforts or big games from anyone as Buffon, Grosso, Cannavaro, Matrix and Zambrotta had 4 years ago. I mean that is half the team right there and they all contributed on both defense and the goal scoring. This Italy had no one who played like those guys did in 2006 and it showed. Can you imagine what Italy could have done if they had 5 players in 2010 that played with the same performances of those guys in 2006? Th forwards should be blamed but this whole team was a flop period and their defense did nothing to help matters either.
Normally, if one said Italy scored two goals in the game, then you would most likely assume that the match was over and done with. Italy's sieve-like defense really let them down in this match. Still, this is not a defense of Iaquinta's poor play (save for that backheel to Quags).
I agree with you that this disaster can't be pinned on one player or just the forwards but there is no getting around the fact that Iaquinta who is arguably Italy's least talented striker started and played all 3 games????? WHY????? This did not help matters.
Oh of course forwards who don't score should always be blamed. Its just that Italy has never relied on the single forward position. They just don't play that way, even though they should but their defense, GK and midfielders stunk it up pretty bad also.
probably the worst forward I have ever seen play in azzurri blue. The guy has lousy ball control, is good for nothing except doing dud passes and kicking opposition players shins and charging into the forward line and getting crappy little shin skimmers off opposition players that give us corners. Then he does nothing with the header - so end result is nothing. Toni at half paced is twice as good - he has the past experience to hold up the ball, is way stronger in the air and at can least pass the ball. Instinka is hopeless and lippis's love child - he scores a dud penalty that anyone could score and spends the rest of his time doing fake dives and stupid passes. The only thing he did was take up a valuable spot on the ground for 225 mins that quags could of done a better job with. He did one good flick on in a space of 270 mins - thats all he did
You keep saying this but it's not as bad as you make it out to be. The real problem in midfield structure. Not enough natural wingers and too many holding midfielders. It was his faith in Cannavaro that cost him. He was the hero in 2006 but he has looked washed-up after Berlin. Iaquinta is good Serie A player. He works harder than anyone else and I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he is from Calabria. Unfortunately, he represented something wrong with Lippi's reign. Lippi placed too much faith in workhorses (Iaq being one of them) and sacrified too many techincally gifted players (Cassano being the obvious example). I'd be extremely surprised if Iaquinta got called-up again. He'll be 33 in 2012.
And thats what sums up Italy, no fantasy, no magic, no beautiful ball play, we cannot even stand on the same pitch as Argentina, Spain and Portugal - our football is disgusting, uglt, scrappy, reliance on DDR acting like a sniper took him out from the stands, relying on Grosso falling over and faking penalties, we are a joke of a team that puts all its faith in workman types. So thats what the great ITALY has become...... a team of workmanlike pass the ball around, run around, expend a lot of energy, mouse running on a wheel without any beautiful play. This is why picking INstinka shows exactly what Lippi was all about - get a team of mouses running on wheels and expend a lot of energy and in the end the result is a dogs turd of a team. That is why we cannot pick this giant goof again - Instinka is a dud, we all know it, I don't care how ok he is in serie A - this was a world cup and he never had the quality to cut it - we all knew it - everyone did - everyone except pea brain lippi.....jeez that guy is as dumb as dumb can be..
Yep we looked more like England with their unimaginative pass the ball and run strategy. It's like all the latin influence has dissappeared from this team. Everything except the play-acting. Quali shouldn't have even bothered acting after the goal.
Not as bad with a 1st round exit and no wins? I'd hate to see what they would be like if they were any worse. In reality though, as I posted in the other thread, they have great players but no cohesion. They just didn't have a team. What I think the FIGC should start doing is create more of a club atmosphere for the national team and have them play together more often. I mean the days are over that Italy can withstand playing only 5-6 natioanal team games a year., They need more tournament play as opposed to the lone qualifying or firendly match. It just doesn't work anymore.
thats what everyone stereotypes italian football as and sometimes u cant argue against it....i wish italians would change that mentallity and start playing beautiful footballl cuz they can, they have the talent and everything else. After WC 06 i was happy and thought italy was on a good track, didnt play defensive or anything. but this is something that needs to happen in serie A too, they need to stop the acting, the complaining for every call, the time wasting on free kicks and corners. alot of times in serie A games, set pieces such as corners get called off by the ref cuz theres too much pushing and shoving, well this doesnt help does it? idk i just expect alot more from a team that won4 world cups, they played with the confidence of a team that just made it to the world cup, even these so called experienced players had no heart and passion
Iaquinta has been a thorn in the side of this NT for about 6 years now. I remember seeing him in WC 06 qualifying and being able to notice immediately that this guy was absolute garbage when played out of position as a winger, and nothing more than average as a pure striker. It's no coincidence that Donadoni completely ignored him during his tenure as coach, and I for one was hoping that it would continue even when Lippi came back. Wishful thinking on my part though. He currently stands as easily one of the most overrated players in Italy, and actually has been for a few years now. If there's one player I'm glad to likely not see back on this squad ever again, it's him!
The thing is that when Italian players actually play beautiful football, similar to the south americans, they usually end up rotting on the bench for their respective clubs (foggia and giovinco for example), or completely overlooked by the NT all together (Cassano, Miccoli, Foggia, Rossi, etc.). Alessandro Rosina in my opinion was one of the best pure talents to come out of Italian football since Cassano in my opinion, but was completely neglected by many of the big clubs, and was thus allowed to rott with a bottom feeder club like Torino. I don't care how much of a defensive liability the guy was, he was PURE SKILL!. In hindsight, it also discourages many of the younger talents in Italy from wanting to develop the skill aspect of their game, as they always end up seeing guys with the minimal skill getting the nod over the pure skill players in the end, as was the case with this World Cup squad.
In reality, Vincenzo Iaquinta is just a an excuse for every Italian forward. We have Pazzini, Gilardino and Di Natale. None of them came thru when it mattered. All this talk about Quagliarella also makes me laugh. Before the tournament everyone complained how he didn't deserve to play at all becuase of his poor club season and now because he came in lively at the end, everyone is saying he should have started. In reality, who in Italy do we trust at the lone forward position? I mean there are no more Toni's, Vieri's, Inzaghi's or Baggio's. Heck there isn't even a Toto Schillaci in the mix on any Serie A team! Forget about Cassano and Miccoli, they will have never been picked by Lippi so who else is left? We need to develop more talented strikers.
The guy has no talent and amazing that Lippi could not see this. His first touch is as bad as what you can get - his crosses are poor, does he ever score from a header??? We need him out of the team - he is hopeless