Italia: La Nazionale II

Lots of new young players against the Netherlands.

Emerson Palmieri is now eligible to play for Italy. He will have some competition. It would be good to have a left footed LB finally.

There is a young team selected for the friendly against San Marino soon, and then the senior team for Uruguay and Lichtstentein. The senior team called up is:

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Simone Scuffet (Udinese)

Defenders: Davide Astori (Fiorentina), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Mattia Caldara (Atalanta), Federico Ceccherini (Crotone), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Danilo D’Ambrosio (Inter), Matteo Darmian (Manchester United), Emerson Palmieri dos Santos (Roma), Leonardo Spinazzola (Atalanta)

Midfielders: Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Sassuolo), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain)

Wingers: Federico Bernardeschi (Fiorentina), Antonio Candreva (Inter), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli)

Forwards: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Eder Citadin Martins (Inter), Manolo Gabbiadini (Southampton), Ciro Immobile (Lazio)

Similar call up as before in terms of player roles. El Shaarawy gets in over Sansone. Marchisio is back and Montolivo as well. Pellegrini joins in from the U21. Astori, Ceccherini and Caldara over Romagnoli, Rugani and Acerbi. Emerson and Spinazzola make exciting left backs.

I dont think Ventura will let go of Immobile for all the hard work and runs he brings, so he will probably partner Belotti. Still I would like to see this tried


or in 4-4-2 form with D'Ambrosio or Darmian insted of Barzagli.

The young team has Lapadula

It seems that Caldara and Ceccherini will be there against San Marino, but will leave the group on June 5th when the Juventus players join the team.

So then the back 4 seems basically confirmed as there are 2 players for each position of a 4-4-2 plus a 3rd GK and Montolivo.

Buffon; Emerson, Chiellini, Bonucci, D'Ambrosio; Insigne, De Rossi, Verratti, Candreva; Belotti, Immobile

Donnarumma; Spinazzola, Astori, Barzagli, Darmian; El Shaarawy, Marchisio, Pellegrini, Bernardeschi; Eder, Gabbiadini

The kids (and Lapadula) really went hard on San Marino. 8-0 right now.

European U21 squad announced. They sent all the players, but 5 of them will only join after the senior NT games. Just 4 days before the start of the tournament, it seems kinda counter productive.

Goalkeepers: 17 Alessio Cragno (Benevento), 1 Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), 19 Simone Scuffet (Udinese)

Defenders: 3 Antonio Barreca (Torino), 14 Davide Biraschi (Genoa), 2 Davide Calabria (Milan), 13 Mattia Caldara (Atalanta), 12 Andrea Conti (Atalanta), 22 Alex Ferrari (Verona), 23 Nicola Murru (Cagliari), 4 Daniele Rugani (Juventus)

Midfielders: 15 Marco Benassi (Torino), 5 Danilo Cataldi (Genoa), 18 Roberto Gagliardini (Inter), 8 Alberto Grassi (Atalanta), 21 Manuel Locatelli (Milan), 6 Lorenzo Pellegrini (Sassuolo)

Forwards: 7 Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), 10 Federico Bernardeschi (Fiorentina), 9 Alberto Cerri (Pescara), 20 Federico Chiesa (Fiorentina), 16 Luca Garritano (Cesena), 11 Andrea Petagna (Atalanta)

I expect a lineup similar to


Maybe Cerri or Cataldi there. Bernardeschi and Rugani are injury doubts iirc.

The senior team just beat Uruguay 3-0 in Nice in a friendly. Good for the coefficient, I guess.

Unreal

Italia, centrocampisti: De Rossi, Montolivo, Parolo, Pellegrini, Verratti @skysport

— Alessandro Alciato (@AAlciato) August 26, 2017

Montolivo can kill a child and still get called up for the NT

Montoleader over Jorginho, Gagliardini

Is Marchisio injured?

Yeah Marchisio is injured. Montolivo though why the *bleep* is Jorginho not called up.


Portieri: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Milan), Mattia Perin (Genoa).

Difensori: Davide Astori (Fiorentina), Andrea Barzagli (Juventus), Leonardo Bonucci (Milan), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Andrea Conti (Milan), Danilo D'Ambrosio (Inter), Matteo Darmian (Manchester United), Daniele Rugani (Juventus), Leonardo Spinazzola (Atalanta).

Centrocampisti: Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Riccardo Montolivo (Milan), Marco Parolo (Lazio), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain).

Esterni: Federico Bernardeschi (Juventus), Antonio Candreva (Inter), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli).

Attaccanti: Andrea Belotti (Torino), Eder Citadin Martins (Inter), Manolo Gabbiadini (Southampton), Ciro Immobile (Lazio).

Mission impossible.

The papers say 3-4-3. The back line, mid 2 and front 3 basically confirmed in that case. The wing backs are a guess.

Buffon; Chiellini, Bonucci, Barzagli; Darmian, De Rossi, Verratti, Conti; Insigne, Belotti, Candreva

or a 3-4-1-2 with Immobile-Belotti, Verratti as TQ and one of Parolo or Montolivo () in CM.

At this point if i'm Jorginho i'm retiring after being disrespected by every Italy manager under the sun

Ventura clearly prioritizes experience over youth with his defensive mids

Parolo and montolivo as well as marchisio and de rossi will be the men for ventura, with verratti as the #10

Chiellini out injured. Sent back to Juve

Mission impossible, as I said.

Ventura is an idiot, and ItalyTwitter are idiots for supporting every half assed Italian out there. Spinazzola? Darmian? Candreva? Garbage players that get rated for workrate, Candreva's whole Azzurri career is rated off that. Immobile? A useless wank poacher paired with another wank poacher? So you have 2 strikers who cant control the ball, play exactly the same, start together? Immobile's renaissance is admiring, and i know rincon will come defend him here. But there's a reason he plays for Lazio, there's a reason why he was so garbage in previous clubs, even at Torino his limitations showed.

This NT won't amount to anything with hard headed conservatives like Ventura and Tavecchio, 4-2-4 in 2017? Whatyearisit.gif , why isn't Bernardeschi and Berardi, featured more, heck i don't even like Berardi but at least change it the f*ck up instead of Candreva's guaranteed spot for the last 5 or so years of his mediocrity. Why nobody calls Jorginho, because his agent pouted that one time? F*cking pathetic, gets shafted for Montolivo, is this a joke? Bonaventura mot even being considered most of the time? These guys afraid of change or what? This is the XI we're going for in the WC? 4-2-4 while Verratti and DDR get skinned?

Its tilting, makes me want to see this team fail, such a f*cking terrible institution the FIGC, don't even get me started on Ventura, this guy shouldn't be anywhere near a team that has a lot of potential like Italy's, should've stayed in his Cold war bunker the senile fool.

I honestly hope Italy fails, this rendition of th team as is depressing, there is no plan, the WC is 1 year and no one knows what our best formation is, too late to integrate new exciting players so will have to do with the Parolo's, Candreva's, Montolivo's and god forbid Pelle's.

One final note, this isn't trollish, this isn't tilty, but Buffon honestly has started to slow down. Unfortunately there is no reliable backup as most are garbage, while Donnarumma is too green. I wouldn't be surprised if he is to blame in the near future.

You watched the game? Candreva was one of Italy's best for sure. Spinazzola too was good and he is in no way a player rated for his work rate. He is the most technical fullback we have, it's natural considering he was a winger his whole career. It seems like you criticize them for their names, not their performance

The players that sucked last night were Verratti and Bonucci. Followed by Immobile and Insigne.

The best were Candreva, De Rossi and Barzagli.

Candreva has always performed well for Italy and did so again last night. He deserves 0 hate for his NT career. Yet gets it because he isn't lazy.

Verratti on the other hand has always been irrelevant for Italy because of injured and bad form. He is the one that needs to get it together and start performing. De Rossi looked like a whole different tier of footballer next to him.

Ventura deserves TONS of blame for the 4-4-2 vs all those midfielders. That doesn't mean that we need to criticize him for things he is not guilty of. He swiftly removed Pelle from the NT and in the end Montolivo wasn't in the team either. Bonaventura is injured. So we can't use those against him.

I put this loss on Ventura but keep the criticism reasonable. Let's hope he learned from it and won't field such a formation again vs Spain or a similar team if we are to play them.

Integrating new and exciting players is what he has been doing since he was hired. Who else does he need to look at if he has called up everyone worthwhile I'm the first team, or the training camps?

He is good for the development of players and the team, as he has been his whole career. The rejuvenation of the NT is going well and will go well. The problem is how he can come up short in crunch matches such as this one.

In the end, Italy conceded 1 shot on target the whole 1st half. It was a shame that it went in, as did the free kick. Props to Isco and poor from Bonucci and Buffon. While De Gea rose to the occasion and saved Belotti's. We had bad luck, not to lose, but to lose by that margin.

They have 9 month to figure it out. Pray for Jorginho and 4-3-3/3-4-3

Of course Verratti isn't excused, but his performance is a product of the system rather than himself as a player. This literally reminded me of Pirlo--Ambrosini double pivot during Leonardo's days, that midfield got skineed just like what happened here.

What i meant about Bonaventura is that he hasn't been featured much, i know wlell he is injured, but even during his best days, all he sees is sub minutes.

Ask yourself this question,: do you see Ventura as the manager that will take Italy to a WC/Euro final?

He removed Pelle from the NT, well done, but calling Montolivo? Parolo? Where is Pellegrini or Conti, Gagliardini, Bernardeschi, Berardi? You mean to tell me against the bigwigs we going to rely on absolute veterans and huff n puff players? This is so frustrating, reminds of certain managers that tryo protect players for 9 months until they properly integrate, and by that time, they're off at some other club

Its disheartening seeing this Italy, especially after that pathetic performance

Wish someone like Sarri coached the NT, at least he has a clear, distinct idea on how he wants to play, he can tailor his players to that instead of the other way around. Sadly, i think he's staying Napoli for a while.

I don't think Ventura is the man. I'm just saying that we should criticize him for what is his fault, and not what is not. He is definitely integrating the new generation into the NT.

Where is Pellegrini and Conti? In the team! Where Montolivo was not.

This NT deserves nothing, not even to get qualified to play off.
Ventura is a mediocre coach ( good just for average teams, but he got fired even from Napoli, it was expected ) but he is the Italy coach just because he is the puppet of old players.
And so Italy still play with Buffon ( 40 years !!) , Barzagli , Chiellini etc
Rugani and Romagnoli will begin to be starters when they will be 27 years old , it's unreal, it can happen just in Italy.
And say me who are the other NTs to have a GK old 40 . When you've Donnarumma.
Ventura is mediocre, totally inept to play similar matches - we got it futher yesterday - but it is expected .
If you have never done this in your life, how can you get it to 70 years ?  
But the real problem is the context. Ventura has built nothing good. Apart extending the NT career to old players.

Spinazzola didn't do squat and was probably one of the worst players on the pitch. Darmian was slightly better than him, but that doesn't say much at all. No offense though, but Spinazzola was way out of his element. Barzagli is 37 years old and was made to show for all his age. Players like Romagnoli (who is way better than Rugani), Conti, Donnarumma... won't ever get a chance. Why? They don't play for Juventus.

And Candreva? He was just as bad as the rest. Stop trying to elevate certain players, while lowering others.

The problem here is Ventura. He is a provincial coach with a provincial mind. 4-2-4 away from home... against a team like Spain? What on earth was the man thinking? It's as stupid as it gets. You're playing in their turf. 4-3-3 is what Italy should be playing right now. You can't remove a midfielder in favor of an attacking formation against one of the strongest teams out there.

Italy is on the fast track to repeating what they did the last two world cups. The talent could be there but it isn't utilized correctly, and there is plenty of garbage in the team.

And as much as I'm not a fan of Montolivo, he has been doing reasonably well for Milan as of late. Well... I guess that's more down to players like Kessie which Italy simply doesn't have.

Did you guys expect that Ventura, in a pivotal match, would not try to rely on the old guard? Like this would be the match to bench Buffon of all players? That's kind of an unreal train of thought

Anyways, what I don't like about Ventura is he has added no identity to this team. Conte made some questionable calls with line ups and personnel but he got the most out of his group and made them play how he wanted them to, which is what a manager should be doing.

Were a team in transition, there are some talented players on the come up at the very least. I didn't believe in Ventura from the start so I'm not overly surprised.

Amazing that a bitter Milan fan manages to pull out the "they don't play for Juventus so they don't get called up" card when June's grand total of 2 players on the field was matched by inter. Even managed to squeeze in praise for Montolivo in there