Four bloody bloody bloody holding midfielders. For what, only one creative midfielder (PIRLO) and he has the body and strength of an anorexic girl. For me this is worse than all the corruption because I new that all went on. But this squad is negative, Dull and Boring.
When we could of brought players like Maresca, Liverani, Marchionni and Pasqual. No we go for Barone and perrotta. Four centre backs when we only need 3.
Lippi is a bloody coward, this has ruined my world cup.
Looks a decent squad to me especially when compared to germany's You may have a point on the sitting midfielders but on the creative side he is relying on tooti aand del piero as well as pirlo.Which is nothing new. For me he could have replaced the injured Diana better.Camoranesi and zambrotta might get overworked through out the tournament.There will be times that they will need width.
Italy will play with two attacking full backs, Pirlo and Totti. Two holding midfielders in that line up - especially if one of them is Perotta - is hardly excessive.
Midfield is the most important area. If some thing goes wrong who is he going to put in midfield, Perrota a very poor and limited player, barone, whats the point of this player. These two would not get into the squad of any other major team.
I'm a fan of del boy but he has never done anything at any tournamnt. Totti is the same, and these two will not play at the same time.
What is the point of being a creative italian player when italian managers are negative, negative, negative.
We will not win the world cup, I know that for a fact and hopefully we will get done in the first or second round so we can have a new manager like mancini.
'Attacking' midfielders and 'defensive' midfielders seem to me to sometimes be something of a misnomer. What's more important is technical ability - ie keeping the ball for long periods of sustained passing, whether that is mostly side to side or not doesn't really matter. All the Italy midfielders are excellent at this. Only Brazil play with more than one out and out attacking midfielder.
We have Gilardino, Totti, and Toni, we at least have a chance because of that very reason. Some of you need to lighten up and look at the positives rather than dwell on the negatives.
Will we win the world cup? Maybe. Maybe not. However we have to keep the faith and hope for the best. I think we can make it to the third round as long as we avoid Brazil. To tell you the truth though, I'm not scared of anyone, my expectations are high. We have a top 5 goalkeeper in the world, 2 studs for Forwards in Gilardino and Toni, and a player whom is looking to finally make some noise in the World Cup in Totti. Totti looked good to me in his first game back. Real good.
France won the World Cup without a recognised striker. Ok they had Zidane but it's been up for discussion how effective he was up to the final. Point is you win tournaments with strong midfield and a great defence. If there is enough midfield strength that can last the pace / suspensions etc then Italy have a great chance.
Totti will play in the midfield, Alex may well be a supersub rather than a starter and can replace Totti or go up front, plus Italy have very good strikers. All in all Lippi is no mug. He has the creativity and the strike power, but he also has the solidity in defensive areas.
But I still dont like Pirlo. With Totti... if he's fit... do we need Pirlo in there as well? Hope he proves me wrong.
What on earth are you talking about, Only second to Brazil?! Against any of the top teams we will be dominated. Italy has a great talent for producing dud midfield players. Pirlo has ability but he is so slow and weak that he can not compete. All the others would NOT get into any other major national team.
If you have watched italy play and watched players like perrotta and gattuso over the years you would know that THEY are CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Italian players are technique inferior to brazil, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Czech republic and so on.
I do not watch Italy play with rose tinted glasses and I do not delude myself like some people on this board do
Italia, we will not get dominated by anyone, not even Brazil; and you can hold quote me on this later on(we might lose, but dominated? Nah). We'll be fine, as long as we stay healthy I like our chances to at least make it to the third round.
Um, I said that only Brazil play with more than one out-and-out attacking midfielder. I said nothing about the relative merits of the Brazil and Italy teams.
Italy's players are not technically inferior to the players on any other team. Maybe Gattuso doesn't have the touch of Totti and Pirlo, but look at the players that other teams have in that position: Emerson, Viera, Cambiasso, Senna, etc. None of these players have the silky rouch of Totti and Pirlo. But they aren't any better in that respect than Gattusso. To say that Italy are technically inferior than Spain, Pertugal, Holland and the Czech Republic is ridiculous. They're probably not as good as Brazil, but no one else is, but they are certainly at least as good as everyone else.
If italy had brought Maresca, liverani and marchionni, I would be happy with the team, but your over estimate the strikers we have.
Scoring goals in italy is no big deal. Italy has a lot of poor teams with very poor defenders. Girladino and toni are good strikers but they are not special, they will not change a game.
Teams like spain have players like inesita who at 21 dominated the milan midfield, then they have xavi, fabregues and alonso. These players have pace, skill, strengh on the ball, creativity, Italy can not compete.
As I said before midfiled is the most important area.
I can't see how special of F Torres if you say Toni is nothing special. and Raul is very pool. Very Pool Defenders in Italy? I don't think the players in England and Spain know how to defense if you are true. and if De Rossi come on he is better than fabregues . you are underrated of De Rossi. ONE Totti is very creative actually did you see Roma's matches? and there are Pirlo behind. Don't forget Italy have the best defense line if no one injury. Though Gilardino score nothing in CL, but he always plays well in Azzurri. Maybe someone think that Italy will be beated by Brazil because of their great offense. but Totti + Gilardino + Toni have a chance to beat them. Don't forget there is a defender called Juan in their first line up. Italy is not worse than any team. Totti didn't play bad in the tournament, it's just because he is unlucky. A poor referee kick out Totti and Italy. In 2004, Totti was out due to non-football stuff again. When Totti 's here. Italy went to the final in 2000 and just was equalized in the last minute. Totti did well in the first 4 games in WC 2002. at least 2 asist i remember. He is one of the best offense player in the world.
and I agree Machionni should be called for world cup or even deserved to start to replace Camoranesi.
You can turn to support England or Spain if you always think Italia is rubbish
Two attacking full backs - that would be Zambrotta and Grosso/Zaccardo - and Pirlo and Totti who are not very defensively minded. It's not really that unclear.
