I would like who was our worst player. We don't want to repeat the same mistake. We always have players that don't deliver and we don't want them on our team. Di Livio in 2002. Iaquinta, and Gilardino in 2010. Materazzi in 2006 but he proved everyone wrong by scoring two wonderful goals in 2006. One on the things that I liked about our team in Euro 2012 is our coach Prandelli picked the right players. That's why I think a coach like Prandelli is better than Trap and Lippi. Panucci was very bad in 2002 and in 2008.
All those guys played in the highest level in Serie A. You also named 3 world cup winners. Dumb thread and dumb poll
Iaquinta; scores some nice goals but overall ineffective in national team and club teams but my personal player i did NOT like was PEROTTA
Panucci isn't that bad... he's a solid player... he was never a world class player, but he had some good seasons with Roma. On the national level, he wasn't great... but still. Di Natale? He's great on the club level... not so much on the national level. Some of the worst: Daniele Bonera, Marco Borriello, Simone Loria (why was he not named? easily the worst Roma player ever)...
Simone loria....easily worst italian player.... Ambrosini in 2008, Gattuso, pepe, palombo in 2010 so many worse players.. Marchisio, Aquilani, Nocerino, Montolivo, hell. A lot of mediocre players now too...
Panucci was excellent in 2008. Anyway: Mark Iuliano. A full decade has passed and I still don't get it.
Seriously! The work of Nesta and Cannavaro at Euro 2000 is even more impressive considering Iuliano was getting beat consistantly.
Listing Materazzi's name, are you kidding me for ****s sake? Without him Italy wouldn't have won in world cup 2006, how would someone mention his name as one of Italy's worst players is beyond me!
Materazzi was awesome in 06. Iaquinta played his ass off most of those games too. But he sometimes runs like a chicken without a head. Palombo, Zaccardo, Corradi ! Giaccherini too
Never thought much of Iaquinta either. At least he got that penalty vs NZ haha in 2010 and sealer in win vs ghana 2006. Panucci, hated him too but kept us in game and euro vs romania 2008 euro. Materazzi wasnt really that good at all in for azzurri bar the final vs france. gave away that crap pk vs bulgaria 2004 euro. Got sent off in 2006 vs Australia too. Dunno. Did score vs the czech's in our vital, final group game. No im not just looking at goals either.
He played very well, both defensively with Canna and upfront during set pieces, IIRC the red vs him against Australia was harsh and deserved yellow instead. Plus, don't forget he was one of the 5 who scored in the final PKs, a position which IMO is the most nerve wrecking when it comes to anything football related.
Zaccardo and Barone. Don't know how they made the 2006 team to this day. But I think this is a dumb poll. The list is ridiculous as well.
That's great, but it's b/c of Lippi that we are we are still in the discussion when champions of 'this' century are brought up. Although he messed up in 2010, in 2006, his management of the team was perfect and he had the bravery to play two creative players like Totti and Del Piero together whereas with previous coaches, such a thing would be unthinkable.
Umm really? Totti and Del Piero played together at several international tournaments. Seems to me like several coaches had the bravery.
Bravery must come in small, inconsistent dashes b/c other then the final of Euro 2000, the game against Korea in 2002 and the first game of Euro 2004 against Denmark (in both the latter instances Del Piero was subbed out early in the 2nd half) they only ever played a few minutes here and there together. Perhaps a better indication of coaching bravery was that Lippi had like five forwards on the field during extra time with Germany. Past coaches like Cesare Maldini, Trap and Sacchi would have crapped their pants in sheer trepidation just thinking about that. People praise Prandelli b/c of his progressive tactics and taking us away from catenaccio and although it was just speculation, a lot of people expected him to field an attacking trident with Cassano, Balotelli and Rossi. Of course that did not happen b/c of injuries, but never during the tournament did we come close to having that much attacking influence on the field. Instead, we were forced to watch as he used Montolivo as a trequartista...
Back to topic though.... In defense of the OP, before his remarkable run in 2006, I always considered Materazzi a disaster. It seemed he always had bad luck, like against Croatia in 2002 and some other incidents that I can't remember where he caused us and Inter great pain. Plus he was a hot head, going in for reckless tackles and always at risk of getting sent off. Still, after his goal against France in the final and his role in getting Zidane sent off means he is considered a hero to most people now. For me, the worst has to be one shot oriundi like Amauri or Ledesma.