The Official Azzurri thread

[Amedio]

[Bagg10]

[morra10]

[Amedio]

[ricky2882]

Goal.com says The Waterboy is almost 100% certain to start against Georgia. I highly doubt that Di Natale is going to be benched after his brace, which means DP is most probably going to play as a Trequartista behind two strikers. I don't have a good feeling about this. I strongly believe that the only position DP can excel at, at his age, is the support-striker position.

[Bagg10]

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

Zambo--------Canna-----Legro-----Dossena



---------Cammo----Pirlo-----De Rossi


--------------Del Piero-------Di Natale

------------------------Iaquinta

?

[morra10]

bagg that line-up would be even better than the one I posted. Cammo plays really well in that role. If lippi sticks with the 4-4-2 though, It might be this:

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

Zambo--------Canna-----Legro-----Dossena

----Cammo----Pirlo----De Rossi---Di natale--

-------------------------------Del Piero-----
---------------------Iaquinta --------------

[Bagg10]

[RomaShield27]

Big deal, he scored four against an amateur side. Iaquinta and Aquilani both scored a hat-trick in the same game and it barely gets a mention, but because its Channel 4 its all about The Waterboy. Okaka should be playing instead of him. Or Montella.

Georgia are not a great side but can cause problems for Italy. Against Ireland they played with a 4-3-3 formation with two wide forward players supporting a lone striker who push back to operated as midfielders to form a defensive 4-5-1. Being away from home I'd imagine they will sit quite deep and challenge Italy to break them down. They have a 17-year-old midfielder (don't ask me his name) who plays his club football in Germany who looked very lively and scored the goal against us, and Kaladze, despite his dip in form for Milan, is still very much the heart of their defence, and Kobiashvili is a good player too.

Still baffling to see that Lippi believes Cassano has nothing to offer this side.

[tonykart]

[Messinterista]

[Messinterista]

[Bagg10]

[Bagg10]

[marco]

i'd rather see italia start to take an even more youthful lineup, since 80% of these guys will be hitting their prime come 2010 and our wings will still have young and quick legs:

maggio----cannavaro---chiellini----dossena

-------pirlo(montolivo)--------de rossi

rossi--------------aquilani---------di natale

----------------toni(borriello)

[Bagg10]

I don't know Glad... I'm sick of the three forwards crap. And Dossena has failed to convince me.

[juventino_italiano]

DP has a good record against Georgia in qualifying games...perhaps we should give him a try...LOL

I'd personally prefer a youthful lineup as well....but with qualifying we should take any game for granted....look what happened in Cyprus

[marco]

really? you didnt think dossena played well against austria when he came on? i thought he looked pretty good. i think at this point in time grosso may have an edge on him but he also has a few more years on his legs which i think will catch up with him by wc 2010.

the thing with that lineup, as you probably know, is that you are relying on your two wide forwards to contribute at two ends of the field or have one of the wide guys slot back deeper in a more of a true midfielder capacity which essentially converts to a 442 on the defensive side of the ball. someone like camoranesi can also play like that in rossi's spot to buy some time for rossi's full integration come 2010. this set-up is pretty dynamic as it can enable you switch offensive surges from one side to the other - ie have rossi and di natale alternating their offensive surges to compliment the lone striker either by beating their man or darting in diagonally for through-passes from the trequartista. it becomes less predictable for opposing defenders who when facing a traditional 442 (2 strikers) can zone in on the two designated marksmen. the 4231, when utilised properly, gives opposing defenders different looks with either winger participating in an attack or even the trequartista surging in and interchanging positions with the lone striker.

[Bagg10]

it sounds good when you put it that way. But lets face it. None of these guys play that type of role for their team. Like The Waterboy Di Natale, and G rossi don't play that wing forward position. IMO a formation like that suits a lone forward like Gila, Toni, Iaquinta, supported by two out of Cammo, Montolivo, Giovinco, Cassano or Rosina. I just feel that were putting more forwards on there to score more goals and it doesn't necessarily work like that...

[p_maldini_3]

i think it has to do with the midfield creating space for the wing forwards to move into.

one of the few times our midfield players managed to pass the ball around dictating the tempo versus cyprus led to one of our best plays of the game, it was an eventual call for offside; but the buildup in that play was great. its not as much to do with the front 3 doing nothing, but having our midfield trio come up to support them.

this was displayed brilliantly in our pre-euro 2008 friendlies; ive forgotten who it was against, but aquilani was on the field and he was connecting the midfield to the attack brilliantly. it was after this game where everybody was calling for donadoni to start aquilani; unfortunately it never came to fruition.

and as glad mentioned earlier, the trequartista would have to be very dynamic to fill the midfield during defense and fill the attack up front. if we can start passing the ball more, playing at a slower tempo and stop being so direct, with the players we have (pirlo, aquilani, and DDR in a sense) we can certainly control the midfield more.

i haven't seen much of dossena, but hes gonna be needed to bomb up and down the flank, the same goes for zambrotta, they can provide some much needed width and help the wing-forwards get forward. the team still looks rusty though.

but right now, its still too early to judge lippi's 'new' system, he fudged up big time vs. cyprus, i think a real judgment can be passed when we see whats in store for the georgians.