The Official Azzurri thread

[RomaShield27]

You're right though, Lomba, that 'left-over' team probably would beat Lippi's first 11.

[RomaShield27]

[p_maldini_3]

[RomaShield27]

Excuses excuses....

Lippi: 'It's not the real Italy'
– Thursday 3 June, 2010

Marcello Lippi insists “this is not the real Italyâ€

[Bagg10]

--------------------------Buffon

Maggio------------Bonucci-----Bochetti-------Criscito



--------------Palombo-----De Rossi-----Marchisio

---------------------------Montolivo

----------Iaquinta/Di Natale-------------Pazzini


When Chiellini and camo are back i'd play this:

------------------------------Buffon

----Maggio-----------Bonucci----Chiellini-----Bochetti


Camo/Montolivo------De Rossi----Marchisio-----Criscito

-----------------Iaquinta/Di Natale-----Pazzini

[Bagg10]

[Carlo Romano]

At this stage it's pointless getting into the technicalities.

Although Lippi is right to say we do not want to peak this early, did our match against Mexico have to look like the damn Confederations Cup all over again? Let's call a spade a spade. Brasil's is the yardstick by which others' performances are judged and they(Brasil) are strolling through their warm ups, by no means going flat out, yet taking positives from each game even when having given their opponents opportunities to make a fight of it.

In the meantime we make history by losing to Mexico for the first time ever! Can we buy the excuse our squad is tired after strenuous training sessions in the mountains and just needs time to recover? We next face Switzerland in their own country. For whatever reason this fixture has always been a hoodoo to Italia and if we come out of there with a draw we can look to that as being the best we will get.

From then on the man I at one time revered as Don Marcello can have no more excuses! The bookies have us at 12/1 to win the Mondiale. I'd have said those odds sound about right on our getting out of the group stages.

[romawi]

[Bagg10]

[RomaShield27]

[Bagg10]

[p_maldini_3]

[Bagg10]

[p_maldini_3]

[Bagg10]

[Zoff82]

[RomaShield27]

[red]

[Carlo Romano]

After last night I was left thinking Pirlo may have been below his best this while back with Milan, but against Mexico for me he was one of our few rays of hope, particularly on his set pieces. It would seem once again I am alone here in my thought that Montolivo is not what he is made out to be. He was not often enough getting Italy playing from midfield, that's to say, in terms of getting the ball to our front men. We badly needed Pirlo against the Swiss and I for one hope he recovers to play for us even if he misses the group stages.

I have four questions:

a) Will Signor Lippi take the chance and wait on Pirlo?

b) If so will he choose to work as best as can be done in the meantime with Montolivo in the Pirlo role?

c) Will he change our format and go without a playmaker, in other words draft in Cossu?

My fourth question which was a very obvious one, came toward the end of the Swiss match. "Why put our supposed three best forwards on in an attempt to win the match if we're hardly getting the ball to any of them?"

Up to now I've seen one very cogent piece of reasoning in response and it's no great surprise to note it came from il nostro Zio Tommaso...

"In the hope that the striker (Pazzini or Gilardino) can create something on his own without having to commit too many numbers forward - or that the opposite winger/wing-forward might be able to manufacture something at the far post. It's not pretty football - it's scrappy 1-0 stuff in conception."

If we take that comment as our guideline it bears out my thoughts all along that Lippi would set us up in such a way as to hopefully get us as far as is possible and it may be we will just have to grin and bear a basic, ugly, no frills system like a 4-4-2 for as long as we survive which would be at best what the bookies are suggesting, the last eight, during which time we may have to continue to read about how Iaquinta and Marchisio moan about being played out of position but won't stand up to Lippi for fear of being dropped!

That said, it's been all too long since we saw an old style piece of invention like the free kick which led to Quagliarella's goal. I am so tired nowadays of seeing a free kick taken with the ball simply being tapped sideways to someone with a hard shot to just let fly, more often than not in hope rather than expectation. That goal was precisely what my Italia used to be all about even if it wasn't steeped in the kind of class we at one time took almost for granted!

So the present day version is not all doom and gloom, particularly when we also see guys like Maggio show his worth!

[Bagg10]

As much I think Quagliarella doesn't deserve to be on this team, yesterday he proved that he should be ahead of Di Natale simply because he plays more agressive and will not get forced out of game like Toto. I also think Montolivo can become a key figure in this squad if Lippi plays him as a trequartista, basically replacing Montolivo for Totti, and Marchisio for Perotta in the same formation he had going in 06. I also thought we saw a better Gattuso than we've gotten used to seeing for the past couple years.

-------------------------Buffon

---Maggio----------Canna-------Chiellini----Criscito


-------------------Camo----De Rossi----Marchiso

-----------------------------Montolivo
---------------Gila/Pazzini-----------Iaquinta/Quagliarella


And if im not mistaken Lippi can technically call on Candreva if Camo and Pirlo are both out of the wc. I'd call him up ahead of Cossu for either one those guys tbh.


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