The Official Azzurri thread

[juventino_italiano]

[Carlo Romano]

What's more to the point is the fact Lippi spent today working with the tridente again in an attempt to fire up our attack.

Why all of a sudden is this going to work after previous disappointments? How often have we seen Lippi and others before him try our nazionale with a 4-3-3 and after a poor first half have had to revert to a more traditional front two?

On our seeming inability to properly defend against set plays, I'm inclined to listen to guys like past Italian greats Sandro Mazzola and Spillo Altobelli who know what they are talking about. When they say Maggio should come in at right back with Zambrotta switched to the left, I'm thinking that they as former front men would know exactly how our opposition would try to exploit our defence and who we have to best stop the rot.

...and still this business of our coach and players feeling they must respond to the hype from the outside world persists! Those who can't decide on whether our form up to now is more like 1982 or 1986 for instance aren't helping our boys any with this needless talk, especially given its inaccuracy. In 1982 Enzo Bearzot in his wisdom isolated his group completely from the outside world, wouldn't expose his boys to any media nonsense from back home or from other countries...and his philosophy worked.

As I said recently, it's not 1982 again or anything like it. Its 2010 and we need to hope for three points tomorrow.

[red]

Italy to draw and go through despite being humiliated.

[Carlo Romano]

Andrew, I know your humour but now isn't the time for Umberto Bossi impersonations!

We need for Pazzini and Di Natale to start acting more like this pair than what the average woman stuffs inside her bra when getting dressed.

[tonykart]

Overall Player Ratings

Marchetti -20
Blew the goal against NZ by being indecisive. Should have made an easy save on the near sided attempt by Vittek. Was once again indecisive on Slovakia's 3rd goal. Shaky at the back. No confidence. No longer a top prospect. Maybe now people will shutup about him being good.

Zambrotta 0
Avoids a negative rating because he was our best player in the first game. Other than that, I didn't even know he was on the field.

Cannavaro 1
Ran around like an uncontrollable ass. Sometimes he won his challenge and it looked great, other times he lost the challenge. Good riddance. Thanks for everything prior to 2007.

Chiellini 2
Was our only good defender and had a better rating until he decided to get owned by the apparently world-class Vittek for the 2nd goal. Needs to play with a defender who understands the concept of staying home, because neither him, nor the Italy captain do.

Criscito -5
The only time he did anything good was when he was making up for his own mistakes. Make one good cross the entire tournament.

De Rossi -50
Hands down our worst performer for Italy. Was solely responsible for 2 of 3 goals and had a major contribution to the 3rd. Horrifying defensive positioning, absolutely no effort covering gaps in defense, and a complete lack of attacking support makes him 100% pointless. I pray he is never captain of Italy.

Montolivo 2
Played a good second half vs. Paraguay and a good game vs. NZ, but sucked everytime else. Is a perfect posterchild for his Italian generation of average talent.

Marchisio -5
Proved to be useless as a winger. Has become worse in defence than when he was at Empoli. Have no idea what position he plays anymore. Completely lacks identity and charisma.

Pepe -10
Good crossing and indirect free kick work. Otherwise dreadful. Thanks for being completely unclutch and not burying the 3rd goal on the wide open net against Slovakia. Glad to see you will fit in with the other losers at Juventus this season. Really looking forward to it!

Iaquinta -5
Has never been a starting striker. Continues to prove that he is just a squad player who is good late in pressure situations and utterly useless everytime else. Good thing he is considered by Lippi as a starter though. Worst #9 in Italian history?

Gilardino -20
Proves time and time again that he cannot play on the big stage. Please stop selecting him for Italy.

Di Natale 5
Was about to earn a -20 before Quagliarella gifted him some contributions. Guy is a league player only and a huge disappointment. Sadly, he was our only hope.

Camoranesi 6
Our only player who performed above average on multiple occasions. I guess he deserves something for that? Maybe not.

Maggio 5
Much better than Zambrotta. Should have been starting this whole time. Wish he had more minutes to get into a rhythm.

Pirlo 6
Didn't inspire Italy the way i'd hoped, but was included too late. Still made Montolivo look like even more of a joker with the way he makes dictating tempo look so simple.

Quagliarella 10
Only player on Italy who wanted to win. Single handedly inspired our side. Looked posessed and passionate about the game. The only player this whole tournament I was happy to see with the ball at his feet. Was onside for the disallowed equalizer. Just look at the defenders feet being even with Quagliarella's shoulder. I am only sad for him that we are out.

Lippi -100
Sure, the players are mostly to blame, but if he just would have picked Cassano, and not played De Rossi as a destroyer, everything would have been much better. Always made good tactical adjustments, but had to because his initial lineups were so horrible. I understand that we are inbetween generations of Italian talent, but we failed to bring the best player in Italy to the biggest tournament in the world. Now, we are laughing stocks of world football. From Hero to Zero... that's what happens when your ego gets in the way of good judgement.

AWARDS:

Mega Flop: Gilardino
Most Useless: Zambrotta
Biggest Retard: De Rossi
Accuracy Award: Pepe (sarcasticly)
Reality Check: Marchetti
MVP: Quagliarella
Lost Cameo: Gattuso
Best Player: Quagliarella
Worst Player: De Rossi

Thank you Italia for a memorable 2010 World Cup campaign!

[RomaShield27]

Lippi: "I take full responsibility"
– Thursday 24 June, 2010

Marcello Lippi has taken “all responsibility for failing to prepare the team for such an important tournament. They had terror in their legs, heads and hearts.â€

[p_maldini_3]

Lippi: "I take full responsibility"
Thursday 24 June, 2010
Marcello Lippi has taken “all responsibility for failing to prepare the team for such an important tournament. They had terror in their legs, heads and hearts.â€

[RomaShield27]

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1863/world- ... -lippi-for

I agree with that goal.com article you posted in the SB, Shinpin. There is a positive to take from todays result – Lippi is gone.

Its no exaggeration to say we all knew that this Italy team going into this World Cup was not going to do very well and there was nothing to look forward to, but did anyone honestly expect it to be this bad? Anyone? New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay. I mean, look at those teams, say them again, look at the group in which Italy finished bottom. No disrespect to those nations, they all done very well and fair play to them, but looking at it in the context of Italy finished last when up against those teams and it is a complete and utter disgrace. An absolute pathetic shambles of an embarrassment, there can simply be no hiding from that.

It is Lippi's fault, certainly. But it is not just Lippi's fault. A lot of the blame has to go to the FIGC and to Giancarlo Abete for sticking with a man who clearly was not capable of doing the best a man in his position could do. Lippi was simply there on his past achievements – and, without question, his past achievement were great, he deserves huge credit for leading the Azzurri to WC glory in 2006 – but sticking with him because of that and ignoring all the mistakes of his current reign is an utter disgrace, and the FIGC should take a lot of the blame for not doing anything about it.

[p_maldini_3]

Toothless Italians pay price for lack of flair

by Barnaby Chesterman 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

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JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Whenever a team under performs at a major tournament and crashes out the evaluation of what went wrong can be long and complicated but with Italy that will be far from the case.

Italy's deficiencies, or rather primary deficiency, has long been known, analysed, dissected and contemplated.

Before the team even arrived in South Africa, everyone back home knew exactly what their problem would be: scoring goals.

And so it proved following Thursday's shock 3-2 defeat to Slovakia that left the reigning champions in the unenvious position of joining France as recent holders who have suffered the ignominy of failing to reach the knock-out stages in the defence of their title.
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Italy's attack was their major failing in their first two Group F games, both of which ended in 1-1 draws with Paraguay and New Zealand.

While they enjoyed plenty of possession and remained largely untroubled at the back, they simply couldn't find a way to break down their opponents' defences.

Italy were lacking in guile, flair, creativity and clinical finishing as they continually failed to fabricate scoring opportunities.

The whys and the hows, though, is where the real debate begins.

Italy came to South Africa with a selection of five strikers but amongst them was no-one who could be considered a number 10, the player who often creates a goal for his strike partner.

Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta and Giampaolo Pazzini are honest number nines and gave Lippi several options in his central striking role while in Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Di Natale there was also plenty of pace and ability to play in wide positions.

But with midfield playmaker Andrea Pirlo arriving in the country with a calf injury and missing the first two games, Italy had no-one capable of creating chances.

And it was that fact that made the omission of Sampdoria's errant forward Antonio Cassano, or even that of veterans Francesco Totti and Alessandro The Waterboy, all the more baffling.

The debate raged ahead of the finals as to which forwards Lippi would take and in the end the World Cup winning coach from 2006 decided not to take any risks.

And it was exactly that risk-free approach that cost the Azzurri so dear.

They never committed enough bodies forward and never went hell for leather in search of a goal, preferring instead to rely on their traditional strengths, a solid defence and the ability to snatch a goal out of nothing.

However, their rock solid backline had two lapses in the first two games, and both ended in goals as they failed to deal with free-kicks into their box.

And when things came to the crunch, it was their defence which faltered the most in the final group match as they conceded three times, ironically in the one match when their forwards finally found their stride.

But despite that late flurry, there was an obvious lack of attacking threat in the Italy attack throughout the tournament.

What Cassano might have brought would have been a bit of invention or vision in a tight space to unlock a stubborn defence.

However, history was not on his side as he failed miserably at both the European Championships in 2004 and 2008 while there remains a question mark over his temperament.

Having brought five forwards, though, it seems incomprehensible that Lippi would have gone so safe on all five picks and not even contemplated putting a joker in the pack just in case they needed a little spark.

When that time came, Lippi had only Pirlo, who was not properly fit, to call on and that proved too little, too late.

[Giacomo]

[San Paolo]

[stefano]

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/24/ ... y-tactics/

Slovakia 3-2 Italy: Vittek’s hold-up play the key to victory
June 24, 2010

The starting line-ups
A crushing defeat for Italy, but a deserved win for Slovakia, who had a more cohesive side and a clearer gameplan.

Marcello Lippi started with three central midfielders (Rino Gattuso was recalled) and one winger, in Simone Pepe. He generally played on the right, although switched to the left later in the first half. Gattuso seemed to occupy whichever side of midfield Pepe was not on. Antonio di Natale played off Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Slovakia played a basic 4-2-3-1 system, with Marek Hamsik the closest midfield runner to Robert Vittek. Juraj Kucka and Zdeno Strba patrolled the midfield, and with no direct Italian opponent, took it in turns to get forward.

The key to the game was how well the two strikers fared. Iaquinta won balls in the air, but struggled to hold the ball up. The central midfielders were always a long, long way from supporting him, and he generally only had di Natale to pass to. Pepe got forward but only in wide areas, and rarely offered a goal threat.

On the other hand, Vittek was superb. His movement was good – creating space for Hamsik’s late runs – whilst his hold-up play was even better. Slovakia generally looked to hit long balls towards him, and he shielded the ball from the centre-backs excellently, giving the three midfield runners time to connect with him. It was widely predicted that Fabio Cannavaro and Giorgio Chiellini would struggle in this competition against pace – so it’s ironic that their downfall came when they were up against a fairly technically-limited target man.

Italy poor

Italy were clueless in possession – the midfield trio simply didn’t work. Daniele de Rossi was playing very deep, just in front of the back four – Gattuso’s role was seemingly merely to provide running on the opposite side to Pepe, whilst Riccardo Montolivo was the furthest forward of the three, but still regularly 30-40 yards away from the two strikers.

The side seemed lopsided because of the different nature of Pepe and Gatusso. When Pepe was on the right, di Natale dropped slightly to the left to provide some balance, but when Pepe switched sides Italy were too asymmetrical. The full-backs may have been expected to provide support, and Zambrotta made a few typical surging runs, but both Miroslav Stoch and Erik Jendrisek did good defensive jobs, meaning Italy struggled to find anyone in space.

Slovakia’s first goal came from a misplaced pass from de Rossi, and it was a simple ball to Vittek, in space on the edge of the area, that opened up Italy’s defence. He was clearly getting the better of the defenders, and Italy were doing nothing to cut off the supply to him. There was little pressing because the midfield was so deep, and the Slovakia central midfielders had all the time in the world to look up and launch balls forward. Pressing high up the pitch can often be a good way to disrupt long ball football, as Chile showed against Switzerland.

Second half

For the second game running, Lippi made two half-time substitutions, and completely reshaped his team. He switched to a 4-2-3-1 that featured Pepe and Fabio Quagaliarella wide, and di Natale still just off Iaquinta. Italy then looked to play long balls to Iaquinta and get the other attackers close to him. The biggest compliment to Slovakia was that Lippi was essentially trying to recreate their tactics.

Slovakia, though, were more well-versed in this approach. The second goal came when Vittek got across Chiellini to turn in a low cross towards the near post.

The introduction of Andrea Pirlo seemed to lift Italy, and he played more thoughtful, incisive passes towards the wide forwards. Quagliarella’s impact was even more vital, because he was involved in everything that was good for Italy. His volley was blocked from on (just over?) the line by Martin Skrtel, his shot lead to the Di Natale rebound for the first goal, his tap-in was disallowed for a marginal offside, his sublime chip in the final minute for the second goal gave Italy hope. His omission until the second half of Italy’s final match at this tournament is baffling.

Slovakia had scored their crucial third with a goal wonderful for its simplicity – a perfectly-timed run by Kamil Kopunek met a throw over the defence to slot home. But the replays reveal the real creator of the goal – Vittek. He was the star yet again, as his move towards the ball dragged Italy’s central defenders out of position and created a huge gap for Kopunek to exploit.

Conclusion

It was a game that was tactical in a more narrow sense than many football games – it wasn’t won because one side’s tactics were deliberately geared to outmanoeuvre the other. It was simply that one side had a cohesive plan for attacking and players that understood their individual roles well, the other were poorly-organised and looked uncomfortable in their shape. The role of Vittek was more crucial than any other individual performance in the World Cup so far – he utterly dominated both centre-backs, creating opportunities for both him and others.

Slovakia will struggle to recreate this display, and could have been knocked out with a single goal in the other game, but their gameplan worked brilliantly. Get the ball up to Vittek, get him to hold it up, get runners supporting him. Italy were poor, but Slovakia were excellent.

Italy’s exit is frustrating. They brought nothing to the tournament in their opening two games, and then showed in the final 20 minutes here how dangerous they could have been. Fielding both di Natale and Quagliarella alongside a central striker has seemed the right option from the start of tournament, and Lippi will be regretting not trying that sooner.

It’s a sad end for Lippi, the hero of four years ago. His tactical and selection decisions were wrong throughout. The ‘reliance on his 2006 players’ line has been overstated (indeed, if he’d been able to select his spine of Buffon-Nesta-Pirlo-Totti-Toni for every game here, he probably would have been better off) but he does seem to have a curious disregard for form.

They may have been one goal away from qualification, but equally at no point in the competition were they leading a match.

[p_maldini_3]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/ ... ver=global

"Was Andrea Pirlo's absence felt so deeply? You bet, which is a dire indictment on the dearth of talent coming through the junior ranks. No one else in Serie A, at least among those carrying an Italian passport, has the skills that were on show, in a limited timeframe and with less than full fitness, against Slovakia. Pirlo - who, it must be said, has not been brilliant for Milan for the past couple of years - shields the ball, turns effectively, invites - in fact relishes - pressure like quarterback Payton Manning and, when it's close, releases a pass in space that suddenly speeds up play, sometimes creating one-on-ones as he did on Thursday."

[maro]

Why is it an indictment? Pirlo has more than a touch of footballing genius. It's a mark of his quality as much as of others' failings that he is head and shoulders above the rest.

[RomaShield27]

Pirlo is one of the best midfielders in the world. He has more technical quality in his left toe then the entire england midfield has. You can't just pluck a replacement for him out of nowhere and expect him to be as influence. Say, for example, if a quality young player like Marek Hamsik was playing for Italy, it would take him a long time to reach the heights of Pirlo. And what sort of bollocks is that saying "the dearth of talent coming through the junior ranks", thats horse shit, there is, its just that Lippi never showed any faith in them. Players like Balotelli, Poli, Giovinco, Cigarini and Dessena have lots of potential.

[RomaShield27]

And another thing, I'm already fucking sick and tired of the reaction and shock at Italy's failings in this World Cup, and the general consensus amongst ignorant pundits who think Italy are in serious trouble in future years if this is the best they have to offer, purely because it must be if Lippi selected this squad. What shit. There is the talent and the potential, it was just never going to be implement by an old school manager like Lippi who persists with the likes of Iaquinta and Cannavaro. Also, there does seem to be an air of reluctance amongst many Italian Serie A managers to give youth a chance, and this is something that must change, and hopefully as far as the Azzurri are concerned Prandelli is the man to that just that.

Look at the Germans in this World Cup, they are sprinkled with youth and already have several key players who are very young (Podolski, Ozil, Badstuber, Muller). Can anyone say that the quality of such German youth is much higher than potentially what the Azzurri could offer? I concede, Ozil seems to be a special talent, but overall I don't see much of a difference.

Italy have to start a new cycle. It is not a tragedy or the end of the road but a rebuilding process. Players like Iaquinta and Camoranesi and Zambrotta and (even) Di Natale have to benched in favour of youth (Gattuso and Cannavaro already retiring). There is the talent there to be harnessed and implement over a period of time. It won't happen overnight, it may not even happen for the next Euro championships (as in Italy may not be a contender for that tournament but they won't make a show of themselves like they did in this WC, either, and will have a good, promising team). Youth has to be given its chance. There are a good few players that Lippi had in his squad (although not given the chance) that are still young and that can grow, players like Chiellini, Montolivo, Marchisio, Pazzini, Criscito, Bonucci and Bocchetti. Mix them alone with the likes of Pirlo and De Rossi (still only 26) and Buffon etc. Then there are other relatively young players who need to be brought in. Namely Cassano (although he's not that young anymore). Then maybe Guiseppe Rossi, Candreva, D'Agostino and even Aquilani. Then there's the headcase that is Balotelli. He could be the future of the Azzurri if he can get his head together. There are also other promising young players like Poli, Giovinco, Cigarini, Santon, Dessena, Motta, Ranocchia, Ogbonna, Acquafresca, Santacroce, Paloschi who could make the grade. Dearth of talent coming through my arse.

[p_maldini_3]

although it is a stretched declaration, i liked that particular paragraph because of the way it described pirlo's brand of football. i think it was more an implication of italy's midfield potential which is at a low-point. i remember a few years ago we all had a conversation about how italy is so stacked in central midfield but none of those prospects have grown to fulfill their promise(aquilani, marchisio and montolivo to name a few, even de rossi was a shade of himself bar the first game).

there is no other excuse for this failure other than lippi's stupidity. from the players that shield mentioned, (Chiellini, Montolivo, Marchisio, Pazzini, Criscito, Bonucci and Bocchetti) chiellini was the only one who knew his position in the squad for the world cup. in june 2009 (one year ago), none of those other players even dreamed of playing in south africa. chiellini was the only player to make the confederations cup squad. lippi talked so much about group spirit. the asshole doesn't realize that the first time this particular group was together was in south africa this year. he had 2 years to build a team together. instead we get criscito thrown into the deep end of the world cup. he has no european experience at all, and now he is starter on the azzuri. it's not his fault, but lippi should've integrated these players in a more efficient manner.

he is such a fucking asshole. a dumbass of the highest quality. i don't know how italy pulled if off in 2006 based on this coach's ineptitude just 4 years later.

vince said it in the shoutbox, the quickness of lippi's substitutes (2 changes at the half in the last 2 games) just prove how much he got everything wrong. he's a fucking retard, and he is lucky that he won 4 years ago otherwise he would've been crucified.

[p_maldini_3]

and i'm looking forward to watching poli's growth as a footballer. his style reminds me of aquilani; and i've been saying for days that italy need a player like aquilani who can run with and without the ball.

[Messinterista]

YAY! The best thing about today's result, Lippi isn't in charge anymore. I thank him for the last WC. Thats it. Ciao Ciao...
Question; How did we qualify with such ease?

[Italiamia]

"A Casa Con Vergogna", says la gazzetta dello sport. After the the post mortem, can we please close out this thread and start a new one. Four years is a long time to wait, but given the utter disgust among Italian fans it is better to begin a new era with a new thread.

Lippi will return home to Viareggio. He will smoke his cheap Toscano cigars on his boat, claiming his rightful place in history as a world cup winner and also the architect of arguably the worst defending champion in world cup history. It's 1974, I'm 12 years old, and Italy are smarting from being sent home after the group stage of the world cup.