Azzurri Thread (59 Viewers)
- Thread starter Marceℓℓo
- Start date
A facebook post that didn't age well. 
Nicolò Fagioli (21): Central Midfielder
Manuel Locatelli (24): Defensive Midfielder
Fabio Miretti (19): Central Midfielder
This midfield trio of Juventus is a real cheat code. The future of Italy in midfield is secured!
Nicolò Fagioli (21): Central Midfielder
Manuel Locatelli (24): Defensive Midfielder
Fabio Miretti (19): Central Midfielder
This midfield trio of Juventus is a real cheat code. The future of Italy in midfield is secured!
It’s too early to draw conclusions this team based on a few early games. Technically, Mancini has transformed Italy and revived it again. For years, Italy had a huge issue in the attacking phase and hardly scored more than one goal, one of the reasons Italy failed to qualify for the WC previously. But since Mancini took over, Italy have performed better and scored more goals. Yet they still have this nightmare and stress about not qualifying for the next WC. They really need to first regain confidence and erase past failures to get back on track as Italy won Euro 2020 but failed to qualify for the 2022 WC.
All this boils down to again is how much bottle the team has when it comes to the crunch group/playoff games. They aren't expected to win a group above France or England or Spain, but if that happens and you get knocked out of the playoffs continually by mid-tier nations then it's a mental and technical problem.
I'm convinced the issue gets made easier with the emergence of a couple of very good forwards. Pio Espozinho The Great may be the answer, or it might be someone else. If Italy had Kane up front for the last three cycles they'd have made the WC, simple as that. When you have Raspadori, Kean and Scamacca you need to work a lot harder. I remember watching many, many Italy qualifers in the past when the team was full of world class forwards even on the bench, and some of the emerging countries now were comparatively crap, and they would labour to these victories doing just enough on quality and experience alone. Those days are gone.
I'm convinced the issue gets made easier with the emergence of a couple of very good forwards. Pio Espozinho The Great may be the answer, or it might be someone else. If Italy had Kane up front for the last three cycles they'd have made the WC, simple as that. When you have Raspadori, Kean and Scamacca you need to work a lot harder. I remember watching many, many Italy qualifers in the past when the team was full of world class forwards even on the bench, and some of the emerging countries now were comparatively crap, and they would labour to these victories doing just enough on quality and experience alone. Those days are gone.
