Antonio Di Natale: Does he deserve to go to Euro?

a defender scores an own goal and he never plays again.
a striker misses a breakaway the same philosophy should apply.

Why are you guys discussing strikers? I though Italy was just going to defend with 10 players anyway?

/trolololololol

zarola wrote:a defender scores an own goal and he never plays again.
a striker misses a breakaway the same philosophy should apply.

Cristian friggin' Zaccardo.

ErPupone wrote:

zarola wrote:a defender scores an own goal and he never plays again.
a striker misses a breakaway the same philosophy should apply.

Cristian friggin' Zaccardo.

Andrea dossena as well

zarola wrote:

ErPupone wrote:

zarola wrote:a defender scores an own goal and he never plays again.
a striker misses a breakaway the same philosophy should apply.

Cristian friggin' Zaccardo.

Andrea dossena as well

Yea but we had no chance that game. Zaccardo I think was unfairly overlooked from that incident on, the guy was good.

^To be fair I'm not sure that Lippi would have actually dropped Zaccardo, he was simply a victim of a change of coach.

Lets look:

Rossi-injured, but will return and gain form pre-Euro. Number 1 choice of striker. Performs.

Pazzini-2nd choice, lethal, effective. Clutch player

Cassano-3rd choice, injured, hopefully returns, adds creativity and has high impact on NT

Balo-4th choice. Performs. Trolls.

Matri-5th choice, stable, decent.

Giovinco-6th choice

Only one Di Natale can beat is Osvaldo, who is not going to Euros anyway. I base this on Natale's NT performances

That is a good list, assuming that Rossi and Cassano are 100% fit by that time, right now they obviously are not the first and third choices (I would actually rank Cassano as first choice, Rossi second- personally).

So, right now there is:
Pazzini, Balotelli, Matri and Giovinco
Osvaldo just temporarily screwed himself out of a national team spot because of his fight (I think this matters to Prandelli)
So if there was a friendly tomorrow, there would unfortunately be a good chance of seeing Di Natale...

I disagree with Cassano first, or even third choice. Rossi is definitely above him. Balotelli, Matri, and Gio are on the same level, or maybe slightly above him. Quags in his last season form and Miccoli are also above him, but I doubt Quags hits that insane form, and Miccoli wont get called up. Pazzo, current form Pepe, and Toto are on pretty much the same level as him, or just below. Thoi have ti say I consider pretty much all of them so close that pretty much any of these guys can get the nod over one another, its really close, as long as its not something extreme like calling up Pazzo, Pepe, and Toto instead of Balo, Rossi, and Cassano or something stupid like that. If one is excluded itll be ok, but not something extreme like that. Cassano also stepping it up for Italy also helps his case.

He scored 6 goals in qualifying and was Italy's main man
It is not even questionable, he is the most important attacker for Italy when healthy.

Matri, Giovinco, Miccoli and Balotelli cannot even shine his boots while wearing an Italian jersey. Rossi is arguable.

Luca wrote:He scored 6 goals in qualifying and was Italy's main man
It is not even questionable, he is the most important attacker for Italy when healthy.

Matri, Giovinco, Miccoli and Balotelli cannot even shine his boots while wearing an Italian jersey. Rossi is arguable.

This.

It's also worth noting that in terms of club form, Cassano was excellent before he was forced to stop for heart surgery, far exceeding Rossi who has done little of note this season with Villarreal struggling terribly.

By club form Rossi ranks very lowly for me this season
Cassano, Balotelli, Matri all are higher (although who knows how Rossi would have done with the rest of the season, same goes for Cassano)

Luca wrote:He scored 6 goals in qualifying and was Italy's main man
It is not even questionable, he is the most important attacker for Italy when healthy.

Matri, Giovinco, Miccoli and Balotelli cannot even shine his boots while wearing an Italian jersey. Rossi is arguable.

Exactly. No question that Cassano was our best striker in our qualifiers. If he's available in June (meaning ok to play and has had a bit of training time at Milanello), then he absolutely has to be taken. Rossi is another one that we have to bring if available.

The rest is all up in the air for me. Not a fan of Ballotelli, but he's 3rd choice and pretty much has his spot if he stays in form and out of trouble. Then come Pazzini (4th) and Giovinco (5th), then Matri (6th), followed by Osvaldo and then Di Natale off in the distance. Miccoli I doubt is even being considered (his time was up when Lippi took charge the second time around).

For that list that I just gave, I think we would be making the right calls. Though, one of the strikers may be sacrificed for a Pepe-type player... yes he's a midfielder, but we are playing with 4 mids so Prandelli may want 6 at his disposal plus an extra winger, with 5 guys capable of competing for the two spots up front. That's the one tough decision that he has to make, the other being his center back situation.

I think the Italy selection should be pretty easy. Since Prandelli uses a 4312, I would play this:


For those of you claiming Rossi cant play as a trequartista,first of all, yes he can, he did it in the confed cup with I believe Toni and Iaquinta in front of him. Secondly, this could very easily become a 433, with Balotelli and Rossi moving a little out wide like Vucinic and Pepe do for Juve, with Matri in the middle.

On the bench, I would have: Marchetti, Cassani, Barzagli, Bonucci, Criscito, Aquilani, Montolivo, Palombo, Pepe, Giovinco, Cassano, and either Quagliarella or Pazzini, depending on if Quags hits form or not.

^ Palombo? Sorry, there are others that are more deserving and less risky. Nocerino, Motta, Cigarini, Parolo would all make more sense.

And theoretically Rossi could play in that trequartista role. But for this team and Prandelli's tactics, he can't. It's that simple. Giovinco maybe could pull it off, but not Rossi. Prandelli wants those 4 interchangeable central midfielders playing together, so he could switch them up as he wants during games. It allows us to protect ourselves effectively when defending and allows for those late runs into the box by someone like Nocerino, Marchisio, etc. Having Rossi as a trequartista exposes us immensely and changes our whole mentality going forward. To be honest, I don't see Prandelli reverting to that style of play unless we desperately need to during matches.

I think there are much better options atm up front

Cassano should go if he recovers and despite Balotelli's antics I feel he should be in the squad as well.