so what's wrong actually? overall?

with about 5-6 players from juve which won seria a title, but still cant perform in wc 2014?
it's about prandelli's tactical that goes wrong?
lack stamina/pace?


but those red card shown to marchisio really

Roberto Baggio ....

I prefer Christian Vieri compare to Luca Toni, where the latter is more luckier to have a such bunch of Totti, Del Piero, Pirlo, etc to supply him the goals in 2006.

Pippo Izaghi is great, but same as Del Piero, the legendary who did not materialized in World Cup, not expected the WC 2006 triumph is largely a Del Piero contribution but Cannvaro, Buffon & co

Roberto Baggio my favourite too bad he got injured and he was never the same after that.

I believe Prandelli's main tactical is good overall, but subsequent tactical such as, switch formation, utilising the main players like striker and wingback and substitute to change a match, is equally not good enough.

To have anchorman in De Rossi to protect the playmaker of Pirlo, the midfield battle is very strong to control possession and the balls only goes quicker if understudy Verrati is playing.

To have 3-5-2, Prandelli more to playing with care where the wingback did not support the attack for long pass and crossing. Abate is not up to the form. Darmian is young but promising. We missed someone like Zambrotta and Grosso badly, who are quick but protected by the likes of Cannavaro and Nesta. Chiellini, Bonucci and Barcagli is good, but there are no where near the level of Nesta, not to mention Cannavaro.

To play wing-back, Italia have to sacrifice attacking midfielders or wingers like Candreva and Insigne. I wonder how can Prandelli dropped Candreva who was on form against England and the player who gave Johnson and Bainess a lot of trouble movement.

For the striker, I notice Balotelli hardly make impact into Prandelli's formation. He is isolated himself due to he is not a Klose, Pippo, Vieri type but he wish to be Suarez and Messi, which he is not. He is good against European teams like England, Germany and etc but he looks vulnerable against defensive minded teams. Immobile simply have himself to blame for wasted too many offsides when the chance was given upon him to deliver. Cassano is no longer a creativity leg and he looked tired.

From 2010-2014, we have the worst defenders since 1990,m same goes to strikers.

The number is counting if Azzurri do not has any youth programme like France and Germany, since Serie A is no longer competitive like the force of Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan in the CPL earlier.

gilardino not even on the list eh?

who will on list player for euro 2016 ?from current line up?
pirlo retired,de rossi , buffon, cassano?

DDR and buffon should still be around, the rest should be retiring soon...now worry more about our CB...

1. Buffon is covered by Sirigu, and we got a few young keepers coming up, so no problem here.
2. CB.... Rannochia and Bonucci...Paletta....er.....
3. FB - we got darmian, MDS, Cricsito, should be ok here...
4. MF - Pirlo we have Veratti. DDR can be covered by Marchisio. Despite the red card, Marchisio is the closest relentless get the job done worker we have. Not to mention we abundance of Wingers right now.
5. We need to decide to do away with balo, or give insigne/immobile a chance. Rossi should be a sure-starter if he is able to keep himself fit.

Rossi is really missed in this WC. Intelligent, who find ways to overcome the defence instead of brute force (balotelli), or sneaking (immobile).

well.. i dont remember seeing guiseppe rossi play for italy on major tournament, am i right?

He played for italy at the confederations cup.

Hmm, for me I don't think so.

I believe Buffon ( although keeper can carry on until age 40, like Zoff carried the WC at the age of 42 ) and maestro Pirlo, should make way for younger to gain more experience.

Daniel De Rossi, the other WC 2006 winner, should be still around based on his age and position.

Agree that, by then, Verrati and Marchisio would be even more experienced to lead the team. Hopefully Thiago Motta can be improved further. About Marchisio, he was lucky for not being the scapegoat for the shocked exit but Ballotelli again.

For defenders, I really doubt. Italia really need new blood and can't carry on with Bonucci & Chiellini ( both still around ) but not Barzagli. Paletta, hmm, for me, he is hardworking but shaky. Rannochia is very promising but error proned. We badly missed the days we have Baresi, Costacurta, then Maldini, Cannavaro and Nesta, all these players are very consistent and reliable.

For full backs/ wing backs, I really missed Zambrotta and Grosso ( whom shined at the best golden 2006 year ), where their flair was very quick. From the current crop, I believe Darmian played the best in current WC edition. Abate is not fully fit. And it's too bad that Criscito unable to make it, and his career could be gone if he carry on to play for Zenit. At least, during Euro 2012, new but old player like Balzaretti really hits the form and looked never tired.

Candreva must be carry on. Insigne not as good as how he played on the pitch of Serie A matches, but just wish he can gain more experienced in Brazil.

For strikers, Why Always Me? is the person on the headlights again. He is good when he is but he sucks when he looked like jogging around on the pitch. No no for those Cassano or above age 30. Immobile needs more experienced and it's shame that the top scorer only pair with Ballotelli for the first time against Costa Rica, at a stage where we need a win to secure the 2nd round place.

Italia still have a tough time to recover for the Euro 2016.....

Yesh... but remember, back in Bari, Bonucci and Rannochia's partnership was dam good, until ppl envision them to be next Canna/Nesta and Baresi/Costacurta pair?

Oh well, now its time for the Montolivo era. I believe he should be able to lead the team well.

I expect Cardeva-Darmian partnership to continue on, its one of our bright spots for this time. I guess 4-3-3 is really the way to go.

We just need to find another left winger suitable to pair up with cricsito/chiellini.

p/s: WTH happen with cricsito? I expected him to be our undisputed LB, but he din even make it to our 30 man squad... Zenit can't be that bad right?

apart from those young guns we had for wc2014, there are still plenty of talents back in italy whom should earn callups for euro 2016 qualifying.
we do have el sharaawy, santon, florenzi (good season with roma), berrardi (good with sassuolo), destro, rugani, poli to name a few.
what italy need is a coach whom willing to leave behind the cautious mentality and start playing more attacking
just my 2 cents

gilardino is nonsense post - 2006

now all he does is move between mid table clubs and score the occasional 18 goals or less. gilardino is the thing of the past. lets move on.

Let me add abit

1. Buffon - Yup I agree on the Sirigu part. IF he doesnt have a massive loss of form, he should be the one to replace Buffon,

but if Sigiru cant make it , we have 1 wonderkid GK (Simone Suffet from Udinese. Top clubs around Europe are eyeing on him now. Currently first choice at Udinese at the age of 18) to choose from and 2 young GKs (Genoa's Matia Perrin and Juventus's Nicola Leali) whom can step up to the plate... though they will definitely not be as good as Buffon but at the minimum they can be as good as Sirigu. other honorable mentions should go to italy first choice u21 GK Francesco Bardi

2. Ageing Bazagli and Giogio Chiellini - There a host of promising young central defenders but they remain an unknown quantity. Ironic, a country whom produced the world greatest centre backs now is running low on them

3. Defenders left and defender right aka full backs - We should be covered considering wonderkid Mattia De Sciglio whom might be on the move to Real Madrid can cover either left or right and Mateo Darmian is up and coming. Dont forget about Newcastle's David Santon too whom is just 22 and is already very solid

4. Pirlo - If we are talking about Midfield play maker, my goodness we are more than covered. Where italy was crap in this WC, Marco Verratti was the sole consolation. He composure on the ball, ball control, vision, technique, ability to re-cycle possession have been top notch. Watch more PSG games and you will know. He will definitely be world class at the very least. another player whom can be another top midfield play maker will be Napoli's brazilian born Jorginho. Wanted by Barcelona, Juvnetus and AC Milan the 18 year old is another player liken to the legend of the game Andrea Pirlo. Another up coming young midfielders whom can be of international standard are AS Roma's Alessandro Florenzi (wanted by Man Utd last season), Inter Milan's Lorenzo Crisetig. And of course Claudio Marchisio can still play on for a good few years.

5. Attacking Midfielders / Wingers - Italy are quite stack up with some new wingers, wonderkids Lorenzo Insigne and Stephan El Sharrawi (missed alot of last season through injury), Antonio Candreva, 22 year old up and coming Manolo Gabbiandini (missed out due to Italy managers dont trust youth like Louis Van Gaal does)

6. Striker foce - While people are hyping up the erratic Mario Balotelli, I refuse to believe he will be the biggest hope for italy in the future. the next big striker from italy i believe will be the juventus co-owned Domenico Berardi. He is only 19, but is the first choice for a crap club Sassuolo but yet he racked up 16 goals, with 3 hattricks in his second season in Serie A. He is a player whom can dribble and is with pace and with an eye for goal. A real live wire. Another youngster whom is tipped to be the next top target man for italy is Berardi's striker partner Simone Zaza.

Potential future Italy lineup beyond 2016: 4-3-3 Formation

GK: Simone Suffett (Udinese) (sub: Matia Perrin (Genoa) / Nicola Leali (Juventus))
DL: Mattia De Siglio (AC Milan)
DC: Lacking
DC: Alberto Masi (Juventus) / Rugani (Juventus)
DR: David Santon (Newcastle FC) / Matteo Darmian (Torino FC)
DM: Jorginho (Napoli)
MC: Marco Verrati (PSG)
MC: Alessandro Florenzi (AS Roma) / Ricardo Saponara (AC Milan) / Giacomo Bonaventura (Atalanta)
FL: Stephen El Sharrawy (AC Milan) / Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli)
FR: Domenico Beradi (Juventus) / Manolo Gabbiadini (Sampdoria) /
SC: Mario Balotelli (AC Milan) / Simone ZazA (Juventus)

Remember, Italy Football Achievements:

Senior Team: 4 WC (Second most successful in WC history), 1 European Championship, 1 Olympic Gold

U21: 5 European Championship (The most successful in u21 Euro history) There is no U21 WC

U19: 3 European Championship. There is no U19 WC



This post has been edited by theprobe: Jun 30 2014, 09:56 AM

yes brothers...azzurri are damn good (now n future) and we all know it, they will come back again in every tournament...2014 was due to less luck, weather and desperate measures which at the end trapped n punished them...the key goes back to when they lost to costarica...so it was not meant to be their year guys...lets move on happily to 2016...exactly 10 years after they last won a major trophy...this will be good playing at the european playground nxt...check my latest siggy which sums the day italy will not play for a draw again...cheers

anyone watched france vs nigeria last night?one of france player give a hard tackle and make the nigerian player got injured and he was replace.but ref just show a yellow card to france player.. if compared to what marchisio has done on the match vs uruguay

well if you watched the first match which is brazil vs croatia, brazil could have lost the match if the referee standard is up to par...

Referee standards are quite bad at this WC, but at least not as scandalous as the one in 2002.

On a side note, Germany almost lost to Algeria yesterday.... European countries really doing badly at this WC.

This post has been edited by SnoWFisH: Jul 1 2014, 10:44 AM

Scuffet was awesome for the past season, but its probably a bit early to see whether he will be another Curci or not. My money is on Perin to make it big.

I may be bias - I expect Destro to be the main prima punta for Azzurri soon lol

btw I'll throw in a name for the sake of discussion - Nicola Sansone. I think he still kinda young to improve and be worthy for Nazionale - not really great, but good enough squad member

yup, sansone crossed my mind as well. Italy have abundance of great young strikers... balo, immobile, destroy, borini, sansone, insigne, el sharaawy etc. the new coach needs to stop using old timers already, they are so used to slow pace games.
damn... I so missed wc 2006. what a great team Italy had that time...