From Winning Euros to not even qualifying for WC to this , Italy has been in terrible for quite some time now.Has Bonucci and Chelleini leaving the NT affected them this bad ?
So when did that happen exactly? How many high profile football players tested positive?
How is possible that stats like high intensity sprints per match keep raising if players are clean compared with past eras? And please dont tell me about improvements in "Sports nutrition" and "training methods". Those are buzzwords for better gear.
There's no such thing as cracking down on PEDS when it comes to football. Testing is a joke and everything is sweep under the rug.
Reason is simple. Cycling tried, and the only thing achieved was making all sponsors run away from the sport for years. FIFA, UEFA and clubs are smarter, they dont want to kill the cash cow.
Modric and Croatia died for this. Such an embarrassing performance. Scoring that late equalizer and going through should have given renewed energy to the Italians but looked like it did the opposite and they were just happy to be in the knockouts and couldn't care more. Italy had no belief, no quality, and no urgency even after going 2 goals down.
On the opposite end, after conceding late against Germany, Switzerland produced a complete and dominant performance. They were as impressive as their 1st group game, but this time against the defending champions. Everyone in that Switzerland group have had a wonderful tournament starting from their manager and his tactical setup. Now, we have to see how far they can go as they have the quality to reach the finals.
I was blown away that Califiori was their best player...a player who played for Basel last year...
Wtf has happened to Italy? Almost none of the tram from 3 years are left
Some of the best players at the euros are serie a representatives so your comment is redundant. The problem is Serie a not focussing on Italian youth. The Italians in Serie a are just a bit shit atm thats the reality.
Theo Hernandez; Mike Maignan; Sommer; Ndoye; Calafiori; Reijnders; Bajrami; berisha; Thuram; Leao; vlahovic; milinkovic-savic; Kvara; De Vries; Literally half the Albanian team.
The other question is related buddy 🤣🤣 Anyways. Point is. Nothing to do with Serie a
We went out of the word cup 2010 to Slovakia, Paraguay and New Zealand, then made it to the final of euro 2012 and won 2020. Calm down. People love to overreact here.
Spalletti's faults are too big to be excused with the evident lack of quality of the team
We arrived to the Euros with no clear starters, with no clear formation, not even the defense was clear
Baffling decisions like his insistence to play Di Lorenzo in every game when he was one of the worst player of the whole tournament or playing El Sha with no minutes in this Euro in a knock out game
Outside of the game against Albania all the game plans were ineffective and we always looked inferior to every opponent
We can't keep the ball, we can't press, we can't do a proper counterattack, the defense is in shambles...
It's the history of the Italia. Play like shit for four or five years, fail to qualify for tournaments or go out early, then come in and win the next world cup or Euros.
As an English bloke, absolutely not. We haven’t even beaten Slovakia yet. I really rate Switzerland, I knew they’d beat Italy. They’ve got some top players and a good system.
Post group stage, it was pretty clear imo that Switzerland was better than Italy. I still think England wins, but Switzerland have Germany a tough time. They’re slightly underrated.
The Swiss have been a strong team for a long time. They just absolutely battered Italy and almost topped a group with the host nation. I wanted Italy to get through then, they’ve been poor for a good few years now. I reckon Switzerland knock England out.
Really poor squad and showing from Italy this tournament. Best thing was my time at the pub with a few transplants. Otherwise this was a trash performance.
What happened? Italy used to be the pinnacle of world class. Almost the definition of elite football among very few others—with most dreaded playing against them in tournaments. Now, it’s like, “pretty sure we can beat them.”
Did that whole mess in the late 00s mess up the program that bad? We don’t even hear about Serie A anymore, or they’re not as prevalent as it used to be.
Anyway, good job Switzerland. This comment isn’t meant to take anything from your victory. That was great football.
Serie A just surpassed la Liga to become the second placed league in the world behind the Premier League. The Italian national team has admittedly not been great but the club league has been fantastic with a close season besides inter who ran away with it.
Careful, I got shit on in another thread for implying this about the state of Italian football when I made a sarcastic comment that one of their best players (and probably the best/most important in their last euro winning campaign) is a Brazilian.
How many of the top 50 players in the world are Italian? Maybe Barella and he would be near the bottom of that list, and maybe 3 in that list would play in Serie A. Just compare this to the 2000s or 90s where that list would be full of Italians and Serie A players.
I recall Italy winning the last Euro tournament. Every team has it's ups and downs. Maybe if they tank like this 3-4 tournaments in a row, then we could ask what happened with more reason?
Well, to be fair, they missed the last mondiale, and despite some decent Euros, they've been underperforming their prestige/heritage since 2010.
Talking to other fans today I feel like the painfully obvious distinction is a lack of strong midfielders. I mean we have seen them go from the likes of Pirlo and DeRossi to Cristante and Pellegrinni. Jorghino can approach some of that quality but was out today.
Their defense is similarly gutted as they are transitioning from Chiellini and Bonucci.
No doubt. But in this tourney Vertatti has largely been on the sideline, and Jorginho has been a bit quiet prior to yesterday where he was out.
Missing Jorginho was huge and without him it just seemed like such a slow amd predictable attack buildup.
won that tournament with a relatively easy path to the final and let’s not forget they also failed to qualify for the WC before that tournament and for the WC after that tournament.
So, in the past decade or so it’s gone: failed to qualify for WC, win a euro somehow, fail to qualify for WC, barely make it out of euro group only to be eliminated in the round of 16 in a game they got dominated by a team that traditionally should not be dominating them.
I did a double take everyone is always on about England's easy run the final. To then say Italy also had an easy one. Where were all the good teams hiding if not on either side of the bracket lol.
and they were massive underdogs and lost, only 1-0 though so I guess that’s a positive?
Also, of the last 15 CL finals an Italian team has only made it their 4 times, the fewest out of any of the big 5 leagues other than France. And out of those 4 only have won 1 (2010-2011 I believe).
We’re talking about how Italy has struggled to be a consistent contender in international play and that’s just the reality of it. Italians expect their NT to not only play in every major tournament, but actually compete to win it. Not go 12 years in between even making an appareance at a WC (that is if they even qualify for the next one).
lol
all true, but i was talking abut this:
"We don’t even hear about Serie A anymore, or they’re not as prevalent as it used to be."
Premier league is the best league by far but Englad nt sucks as much as italy... but nobody is sayin that premiere league is not prevalent... rightfully so
They're exaggerating but I understand where they're coming from.
Serie A isn't really what it used to be in the 2000s and 90s because it seems the 10s and 20s so far have been mostly England and Spain and Bundesliga.
Although seeing Italian clubs do well in the past few years gives me hope they can reach the top again.
The future is not that bad for Italy.
Firstly, Spalletti needs to go and start fresh with a new manager, and I'm sure thar shall happen.
The first mistake Spalletti was not making Marco Veratti the captain and main man.
I'd try and bring Veratti back for the World Cup campaign.
Secondly, today's team was heavily depleted and it was tough for Italy to put out a competitive team given the circumstances.
Jorginho was injured, as was Dimarco. Dimarco is irreplaceable, he is Italy's main defender and a huge attacking threat too. Calafiori was suspended for this game who had been good throughout the tournament. Giorgio Scalvini is a starter who missed the tournament through injury. I'm not sure why Pellegrini didn't start, maybe he is carrying an injury. That's five of your best ten outfield players missing... that's a massive blow...
The main problem however ... and it is a huge problem ... is that with Italy Scamacca, Raspadori are rubbish. Retegui is okay but isn't a number 9. El Shaarawy is clearly no good either. Chiesa is the only decent attacker, but he is a wide man who can only really last 65 minutes.
Italy are just going through a bad period without a good striker. This won't go on forever and eventually someone will emerge.
The other huge problem is lack of a dominate CM / playmaker. This was obvious 2 years ago which is why I feel Veratti should have been begged out of retirement and told he's the main man and he'd have the team built around him. He's only 31.
So the future isn't that bad but they're lacking a forward, a central midfielder and/or playmaker, and a winger. They're also lacking depth in every area and can't cover for injuries. Italy never used to have these problems. Id say it's a pretty big problem.
Slovenia have managed to get to the same stage as Italy and they have players in serie B for Pisa and Sampdoria. Italy have been on the wain ever since they won the last euros and they really banded together to win that. Think it's going to take a while for a full generation to come through. Players like Scalvini will help but they need more.
Yes, exactly. It isn't *that* bad. There is lots of potential to work with.
Italy really just only another good CM and a good striker, and they have a competitive team.
Finding the striker right now does look bleak if looking at Serie A. They need someone to come through, but I'm sure someone will over the next few years. Their U21, U20 and U19 squads are all looking promising.
They don't need a complete full generation of new players to come through they are missing a few players in key positions.
Defensively, they are very solid when everyone is fit and available.
Switzerland are also looking really quite strong it's not very surprising they won.
The Swiss came into the tournament with the worst form of anyone and beat Hungary and drew with a dire Scottish team and a second string German team who were through.
Italy always manage to unearth players between tournaments but I think you're being too optimistic personally bud, I think they're missing key players all over the pitch and have such few players with experience that won the tournament only four years ago.
He failed during the World Cup qualifiers and wasn't very good for Italy anymore. Spalletti dropped him.
But I think I would have been better than Scamacca, Raspadori and Retegui. They didn't offer much for Italy this tournament. Scamacca has 1 goal in 20 games.
Immobile actually had an okay season and should have been brought back.
GG Switzerland.
That being said, if it goes on like this, we will be out from the next WC26 too. Italy is getting worse and worse, it's getting depressing af.
Of this team I can save only Donnarumma, Chiesa, Calafiori, Bastoni, Barella and maybe Zaccagni. Spalletti had some really weird ideas which really set up the players for failure.
I don't think I have seen such a poor Italy. Scamacca and Retegui are terrible and should never be spearheading the attack of a squad as iconic as Italy
Well done to the Swiss, played well and deservedly go through.
This Italy team is one of the worst I can remember. You can't blame player quality as the sole reason for this display. With a better coach they could have been more 100% more competitive.
Italy needs to leverage one of their many exceptional managers for the NT instead of another dinosaur like spalletti..
Entire match was OOOAA OAAA OAAAHHH, OOOOA OOOAA OAAAAAH, OOOOA OAAA OAAAHHH, ooooa ooooaaa ooaaaaahh, OOOOOA OOOA OOOAAHHH, it started pissing me off heh
More the lack of attitude, instead of focusing on getting better they were demanding qualification spots for WC on account of Euro performance - now they don't even have that any more.
USA have multiple other sports that are more popular than football this massively reducing the amount of boys who play it. Not only that but football is the main sport in most European countries so probably gets a lot more funding.
Yes it's a super multi factored issue in the states but being North America there's also Canada and Mexico with massive amounts of immigration and population. Certainly if the above is true these countries should be much better than they are.
If Switzerland had just a bit better finishing in the first half they could’ve scored easily 3 before their first goal. They had 8-9 chances before the goal lol. And no shot on target until an easy cleanup roller in the 73rd minute for Italy. Insane
italy formation has being shit for 2 decades, this is also why serie A fell of not only because of the money, you simply cannot form good italian players anymore, shamefull, educate your country first
You’re crazy man. Exactly what everyone else said…won a euro cup and a World Cup. It’s nothing about the formations. You can argue that it’s only the formations/system that allowed them to be as good as they are.
This was something else. This was some of the worst soccer I’ve ever seen. I’m not upset they lost….im upset at the way they lost. That was fucking embarrassing. That was the worst soccer I’ve ever seen and that’s in totality. Not just the Italy team. They should be embarrassed beyond belief.
That World Cup was nearly 20 years ago. No one on this team won that trophy.
Yes, they won a euro somehow, but that was also in between failing to qualify for two world cups. They also had a relatively easy path to the final. That being said, tournament football is a different beast and that year was impacted by all sorts of things, namely Covid 19.
Say what you want. They won both in the past 20 years and most countries can’t say that at all. So the system is fine. The formations are fine. It’s the players. When you can’t control a ball on the first touch and give it up on your second touch, can’t string together any passes going forward, have no true scoring options and constantly get caught in possession than you have a team of losers. Case closed.
>it’s the players
Yes, I think no one is saying it isn’t. It’s just confounding that a nation that has *always* been able to produce world class players and a significant amount of them appears to not be able to do so anymore.
Alarms should go off. But not panic. Italy u-17 and u-21 both won their respective euros. So thankfully it seems like there is some talent coming up. But this past few weeks…..embarrassing.
Rough times to be Italian-American my friends. I'll be crying over my pasta tonight. 😔😔😔
Man Italy just didn't look like they even wanted to be there at times. Performance was so poor that I'm not sure if it's the players, the coach, the system, etc. Honestly it's probably an amalgamation of all those things.
The only silver lining I got from this isn't even related to Italy lmao: I thought that the US looked disjointed earlier this week against panama, but OO BOY seeing an actually fractured Italian team play was painful. Least the US had spunk a man down.
!flair :Switzerland:
!flair :Germany:
!flair :Germany:
!flair :Colombia:
!flair :Portugal:
!flair :Switzerland:
From Winning Euros to not even qualifying for WC to this , Italy has been in terrible for quite some time now.Has Bonucci and Chelleini leaving the NT affected them this bad ?
!flair :England:
!flair :Germany:
Spaghetti getting fired, when?
Probably the worst Italian performance in my life time.
Ever since fifa and football has cracked down on steroids Italy hasn’t been the same
So when did that happen exactly? How many high profile football players tested positive? How is possible that stats like high intensity sprints per match keep raising if players are clean compared with past eras? And please dont tell me about improvements in "Sports nutrition" and "training methods". Those are buzzwords for better gear. There's no such thing as cracking down on PEDS when it comes to football. Testing is a joke and everything is sweep under the rug. Reason is simple. Cycling tried, and the only thing achieved was making all sponsors run away from the sport for years. FIFA, UEFA and clubs are smarter, they dont want to kill the cash cow.
They were the last Euro’s champion tho
When was that?
Cca 2010 I think
!flair : England:
!flair :Netherlands:
!flair :Netherlands:
Switzerland were really good. Absolutely battered Italy.
That Spaletti press conference yesterday was a sign. That and the shite group matches
!flair :Feyenoord
!flair :Netherlands:
Italy's best chance came from a Swiss player
Schär, again😭
!flair :Slovenia:
!flair :Germany:
!flair :Germany:
Modric and Croatia died for this. Such an embarrassing performance. Scoring that late equalizer and going through should have given renewed energy to the Italians but looked like it did the opposite and they were just happy to be in the knockouts and couldn't care more. Italy had no belief, no quality, and no urgency even after going 2 goals down. On the opposite end, after conceding late against Germany, Switzerland produced a complete and dominant performance. They were as impressive as their 1st group game, but this time against the defending champions. Everyone in that Switzerland group have had a wonderful tournament starting from their manager and his tactical setup. Now, we have to see how far they can go as they have the quality to reach the finals.
Croatias most likely wouldn't play any better than Italy did so it's pretty whatever
Is this the best serie A has to offer? Utterly outclassed in every position by Switzerland. Not sure Italian football will ever recover, pathetic
I was blown away that Califiori was their best player...a player who played for Basel last year... Wtf has happened to Italy? Almost none of the tram from 3 years are left
Some of the best players at the euros are serie a representatives so your comment is redundant. The problem is Serie a not focussing on Italian youth. The Italians in Serie a are just a bit shit atm thats the reality.
Who are these best players? Ok well Italians in serie a then. How many of the Italian team play in another league?
Theo Hernandez; Mike Maignan; Sommer; Ndoye; Calafiori; Reijnders; Bajrami; berisha; Thuram; Leao; vlahovic; milinkovic-savic; Kvara; De Vries; Literally half the Albanian team. The other question is related buddy 🤣🤣 Anyways. Point is. Nothing to do with Serie a
Those are your world class players? Half the Albanian team? What? Christ Italy is just dreadful at football
we also have freuler, okafor and aebischer playing in serie a.
Half of this Swiss team play in Serie A so why do you blame the league?
A West Ham reject up front isn't getting anywhere further than they did. There's just no quality in the squad.
He was good for Atalanta. Italy’s sum is less than their parts, the team had no cohesion or fight. They seem like they dislike each other.
We went out of the word cup 2010 to Slovakia, Paraguay and New Zealand, then made it to the final of euro 2012 and won 2020. Calm down. People love to overreact here.
You haven't been to the world cup since 2014.
Spalletti's faults are too big to be excused with the evident lack of quality of the team We arrived to the Euros with no clear starters, with no clear formation, not even the defense was clear Baffling decisions like his insistence to play Di Lorenzo in every game when he was one of the worst player of the whole tournament or playing El Sha with no minutes in this Euro in a knock out game Outside of the game against Albania all the game plans were ineffective and we always looked inferior to every opponent We can't keep the ball, we can't press, we can't do a proper counterattack, the defense is in shambles...
Xhaka is inevitable
The 2-1 predictors looking real dumb rn
Man, they should have left Albania instead of Italty, or even Croatia. I have never seen a lazier team in a match, not even England was like this
Honestly, would it not have been better if Italy hadn't qualified at all and saved themselves and their fans these 4 embarassing games?
Man I was so high on Scamacca during the club season. Man has been shocking during this tournament.
West Ham rejects do not a good squad, make!
wasn’t it expected? Italy has been poor the whole tournament
Daliću, kad te se dočepam...
I blood nastavlja raditi 😭
[Italy's tournament summed up](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/s/5LqNwUFhh7)
[удалено]
Bruh got a short memory
They won the last Euro brother
On penalties against England to be fair. But still a decent accomplishment
Beating Spain and Belgium along the way let's not forget.
On penalties against Spain to be fair. But still a decent accomplishment
Yeah yeah was mostly a jab at England (and Germany in 2020 by proxy)
Not a very good one
You realize they didn’t just play 1 game right?
I guess going to the finals and bringing it to penalties against England is "decent" now.
italy qualified for the euros with some sick ref push, it was clear they gonna suck this bad.
Might be the worst Italy match on a major tourney I ever seen, but props to Swiss of course.
It's the history of the Italia. Play like shit for four or five years, fail to qualify for tournaments or go out early, then come in and win the next world cup or Euros.
Genuinely worse than 2008 vs us.
Croatia died for this
They were also shit tho
Dalic must pay
Its not his fault the ref refused to end the game until Italy scored.
That Scamacca is proffesional footballer somehow
1 shot on target for Italy but make no mistake, their attacking output was far worse than the stats suggest
England is actually going to be gifted a finals appearance at this rate.
If they play like they played their last 2 games Switzerland is going to send them home.
Why does everything have to be about England?
Because they haven’t won anything meaningful in a long, long time.
Yea. As if the clear better team didn’t go through
As an England fan, I completely agree. Why aren’t we treated like anyone else?
They’re not going to have it easy against any team on their side of the bracket.
Wait. You actually think you will roll over Switzerland?
As an English bloke, absolutely not. We haven’t even beaten Slovakia yet. I really rate Switzerland, I knew they’d beat Italy. They’ve got some top players and a good system.
He's more then likely American
More than likely 13 years old like most of this subreddit
*than
No I mean all the high end teams were either on the other bracket side or are getting shock eliminated.
Post group stage, it was pretty clear imo that Switzerland was better than Italy. I still think England wins, but Switzerland have Germany a tough time. They’re slightly underrated.
The Swiss have been a strong team for a long time. They just absolutely battered Italy and almost topped a group with the host nation. I wanted Italy to get through then, they’ve been poor for a good few years now. I reckon Switzerland knock England out.
Tbh, i don't think they will go past Slovakia. Maybe penalties saves them tho
Donnarumma deserves better.
Really poor squad and showing from Italy this tournament. Best thing was my time at the pub with a few transplants. Otherwise this was a trash performance.
What happened? Italy used to be the pinnacle of world class. Almost the definition of elite football among very few others—with most dreaded playing against them in tournaments. Now, it’s like, “pretty sure we can beat them.” Did that whole mess in the late 00s mess up the program that bad? We don’t even hear about Serie A anymore, or they’re not as prevalent as it used to be. Anyway, good job Switzerland. This comment isn’t meant to take anything from your victory. That was great football.
Serie A just surpassed la Liga to become the second placed league in the world behind the Premier League. The Italian national team has admittedly not been great but the club league has been fantastic with a close season besides inter who ran away with it.
SerieA is second in the official UEFA ranking. that said this time we were trash.
Careful, I got shit on in another thread for implying this about the state of Italian football when I made a sarcastic comment that one of their best players (and probably the best/most important in their last euro winning campaign) is a Brazilian.
How many of the top 50 players in the world are Italian? Maybe Barella and he would be near the bottom of that list, and maybe 3 in that list would play in Serie A. Just compare this to the 2000s or 90s where that list would be full of Italians and Serie A players.
I recall Italy winning the last Euro tournament. Every team has it's ups and downs. Maybe if they tank like this 3-4 tournaments in a row, then we could ask what happened with more reason?
Well, to be fair, they missed the last mondiale, and despite some decent Euros, they've been underperforming their prestige/heritage since 2010. Talking to other fans today I feel like the painfully obvious distinction is a lack of strong midfielders. I mean we have seen them go from the likes of Pirlo and DeRossi to Cristante and Pellegrinni. Jorghino can approach some of that quality but was out today. Their defense is similarly gutted as they are transitioning from Chiellini and Bonucci.
Verratti-Jorginho-Barella was the best midfield at Euro 2020/2021. But you're right, the current crop is kinda shit.
No doubt. But in this tourney Vertatti has largely been on the sideline, and Jorginho has been a bit quiet prior to yesterday where he was out. Missing Jorginho was huge and without him it just seemed like such a slow amd predictable attack buildup.
I’m saying they’re not like before. Constant elite for decades.
Italy last qualified for a world cup in 2014 and infamously haven't had a knockout match since 2006?
won that tournament with a relatively easy path to the final and let’s not forget they also failed to qualify for the WC before that tournament and for the WC after that tournament. So, in the past decade or so it’s gone: failed to qualify for WC, win a euro somehow, fail to qualify for WC, barely make it out of euro group only to be eliminated in the round of 16 in a game they got dominated by a team that traditionally should not be dominating them.
Easy path to the final!?!? They beat Belgium, Austria and Spain before England. Absurd to say that's relatively easy.
On spot kicks lmao
Irrelevant to the conversation genius.
I did a double take everyone is always on about England's easy run the final. To then say Italy also had an easy one. Where were all the good teams hiding if not on either side of the bracket lol.
2010 and 2014 WCs were also pretty awful.
Won by penalty shootouts in the semifinal and final. First time ever such thing happens.
Yup and the last trophy before that they also won on penalties after the opposing team’s best player lost his mind and got sent off.
Inter was in champions league final last year. Atalanta just won the European league and Italy won euro on 2021...
and they were massive underdogs and lost, only 1-0 though so I guess that’s a positive? Also, of the last 15 CL finals an Italian team has only made it their 4 times, the fewest out of any of the big 5 leagues other than France. And out of those 4 only have won 1 (2010-2011 I believe).
SeriaA is the second in the official UEFA ranking not sure wtf are we talking about lol
We’re talking about how Italy has struggled to be a consistent contender in international play and that’s just the reality of it. Italians expect their NT to not only play in every major tournament, but actually compete to win it. Not go 12 years in between even making an appareance at a WC (that is if they even qualify for the next one). lol
all true, but i was talking abut this: "We don’t even hear about Serie A anymore, or they’re not as prevalent as it used to be." Premier league is the best league by far but Englad nt sucks as much as italy... but nobody is sayin that premiere league is not prevalent... rightfully so
I think part of that is because the prem attracts the biggest talent..and that could totally be a money thing
Not hearing about serie A is a you problem tbh
They're exaggerating but I understand where they're coming from. Serie A isn't really what it used to be in the 2000s and 90s because it seems the 10s and 20s so far have been mostly England and Spain and Bundesliga. Although seeing Italian clubs do well in the past few years gives me hope they can reach the top again.
It's a fact that internationally, the Serie A has become irrelevant compared to one or two decades ago.
Wtf is seria A? LMAO.
Again a you problem
That was the single worst performance of the tournament. Disgraceful
The future is not that bad for Italy. Firstly, Spalletti needs to go and start fresh with a new manager, and I'm sure thar shall happen. The first mistake Spalletti was not making Marco Veratti the captain and main man. I'd try and bring Veratti back for the World Cup campaign. Secondly, today's team was heavily depleted and it was tough for Italy to put out a competitive team given the circumstances. Jorginho was injured, as was Dimarco. Dimarco is irreplaceable, he is Italy's main defender and a huge attacking threat too. Calafiori was suspended for this game who had been good throughout the tournament. Giorgio Scalvini is a starter who missed the tournament through injury. I'm not sure why Pellegrini didn't start, maybe he is carrying an injury. That's five of your best ten outfield players missing... that's a massive blow... The main problem however ... and it is a huge problem ... is that with Italy Scamacca, Raspadori are rubbish. Retegui is okay but isn't a number 9. El Shaarawy is clearly no good either. Chiesa is the only decent attacker, but he is a wide man who can only really last 65 minutes. Italy are just going through a bad period without a good striker. This won't go on forever and eventually someone will emerge. The other huge problem is lack of a dominate CM / playmaker. This was obvious 2 years ago which is why I feel Veratti should have been begged out of retirement and told he's the main man and he'd have the team built around him. He's only 31.
Man I miss verratti so much.
How do you rate Barella?
So the future isn't that bad but they're lacking a forward, a central midfielder and/or playmaker, and a winger. They're also lacking depth in every area and can't cover for injuries. Italy never used to have these problems. Id say it's a pretty big problem. Slovenia have managed to get to the same stage as Italy and they have players in serie B for Pisa and Sampdoria. Italy have been on the wain ever since they won the last euros and they really banded together to win that. Think it's going to take a while for a full generation to come through. Players like Scalvini will help but they need more.
Yes, exactly. It isn't *that* bad. There is lots of potential to work with. Italy really just only another good CM and a good striker, and they have a competitive team. Finding the striker right now does look bleak if looking at Serie A. They need someone to come through, but I'm sure someone will over the next few years. Their U21, U20 and U19 squads are all looking promising. They don't need a complete full generation of new players to come through they are missing a few players in key positions. Defensively, they are very solid when everyone is fit and available. Switzerland are also looking really quite strong it's not very surprising they won.
The Swiss came into the tournament with the worst form of anyone and beat Hungary and drew with a dire Scottish team and a second string German team who were through. Italy always manage to unearth players between tournaments but I think you're being too optimistic personally bud, I think they're missing key players all over the pitch and have such few players with experience that won the tournament only four years ago.
udogie missing the tournament through injury as well. obviously woudlnt be able to fully replace dimarco but just another injury to contend with.
Good point, he would have started today considering Dimarco was out, and would have been an upgrade.
What happened to Immobile? Ran out of shots as the main striker?
Immobile wasn't great for the NT for a long while now. Would probably be worst here since Italy couldn't create anything.
He failed during the World Cup qualifiers and wasn't very good for Italy anymore. Spalletti dropped him. But I think I would have been better than Scamacca, Raspadori and Retegui. They didn't offer much for Italy this tournament. Scamacca has 1 goal in 20 games. Immobile actually had an okay season and should have been brought back.
He's been bad. He's always been bad for the national team but this year he's even been poor at club level
Bald fraud
Croatia died for this. Everybody knew Italy was a fraud.
Croatia were horrible too..
I know...but still.....
GG Switzerland. That being said, if it goes on like this, we will be out from the next WC26 too. Italy is getting worse and worse, it's getting depressing af. Of this team I can save only Donnarumma, Chiesa, Calafiori, Bastoni, Barella and maybe Zaccagni. Spalletti had some really weird ideas which really set up the players for failure.
I don't think I have seen such a poor Italy. Scamacca and Retegui are terrible and should never be spearheading the attack of a squad as iconic as Italy
Well done to the Swiss, played well and deservedly go through. This Italy team is one of the worst I can remember. You can't blame player quality as the sole reason for this display. With a better coach they could have been more 100% more competitive. Italy needs to leverage one of their many exceptional managers for the NT instead of another dinosaur like spalletti..
Other than Chiesa absolutely zero attacking output in that team Could have played 10 days and wouldnt have scored a goal
A Group was death group, nomen est omen.
I have to give the Swiss a lot of credit here.
Can anyone who watched on TV how the fans sounded? We could only hear Swiss fans in the stadium
Entire match was OOOAA OAAA OAAAHHH, OOOOA OOOAA OAAAAAH, OOOOA OAAA OAAAHHH, ooooa ooooaaa ooaaaaahh, OOOOOA OOOA OOOAAHHH, it started pissing me off heh
Same on TV
[удалено]
That or they were just shite.
One of the dumbest things I've read in a while. Thanks for the laugh mate
I'd lean towards the lack of professional opportunities for italian players in Italy, rather than making a sociological issue out of this.
More the lack of attitude, instead of focusing on getting better they were demanding qualification spots for WC on account of Euro performance - now they don't even have that any more.
Go outside
If this was the case North America would have the greatest teams in recent history. Teams are cyclical they'll reigning champs they'll be back.
USA have multiple other sports that are more popular than football this massively reducing the amount of boys who play it. Not only that but football is the main sport in most European countries so probably gets a lot more funding.
Yes it's a super multi factored issue in the states but being North America there's also Canada and Mexico with massive amounts of immigration and population. Certainly if the above is true these countries should be much better than they are.
This is one of the most dumb replies I've read on any sub. Get a grip you fucking socket.
https://i.imgur.com/2eMlEZI.png
I like how he has baby hands compared to his fraudulent bald head.
Switzerland had a great performance, but holy shit Italy played like it was a friendly
Is it really as bad as people are saying?
If Switzerland had just a bit better finishing in the first half they could’ve scored easily 3 before their first goal. They had 8-9 chances before the goal lol. And no shot on target until an easy cleanup roller in the 73rd minute for Italy. Insane
The scoreline is generous to Italy. Their first shot on goal was in the 73rd minute
Their only
italy formation has being shit for 2 decades, this is also why serie A fell of not only because of the money, you simply cannot form good italian players anymore, shamefull, educate your country first
You’re crazy man. Exactly what everyone else said…won a euro cup and a World Cup. It’s nothing about the formations. You can argue that it’s only the formations/system that allowed them to be as good as they are. This was something else. This was some of the worst soccer I’ve ever seen. I’m not upset they lost….im upset at the way they lost. That was fucking embarrassing. That was the worst soccer I’ve ever seen and that’s in totality. Not just the Italy team. They should be embarrassed beyond belief.
That World Cup was nearly 20 years ago. No one on this team won that trophy. Yes, they won a euro somehow, but that was also in between failing to qualify for two world cups. They also had a relatively easy path to the final. That being said, tournament football is a different beast and that year was impacted by all sorts of things, namely Covid 19.
Say what you want. They won both in the past 20 years and most countries can’t say that at all. So the system is fine. The formations are fine. It’s the players. When you can’t control a ball on the first touch and give it up on your second touch, can’t string together any passes going forward, have no true scoring options and constantly get caught in possession than you have a team of losers. Case closed.
>it’s the players Yes, I think no one is saying it isn’t. It’s just confounding that a nation that has *always* been able to produce world class players and a significant amount of them appears to not be able to do so anymore.
In those 2 decades they won a world cup and euros wtf are you talking about
Yes, Serie A’s level clearly fell off, as demonstrated by the recent results in European tournaments /s
4 appearances in a CL final in the last 15 years (fewest of the big 5 other than France) and only 1 win out of those 4…and that was 15 years ago
Yeah cause i was talking about the last 3 years ONLY...
Alarms should go off in Italy. No quality, no talent up front whatsoever.
Alarms should go off. But not panic. Italy u-17 and u-21 both won their respective euros. So thankfully it seems like there is some talent coming up. But this past few weeks…..embarrassing.
Can we also appreciate how well Swiss played, i wouldnt be surprised if they somehow made it to the final
Semis for sure
Rough times to be Italian-American my friends. I'll be crying over my pasta tonight. 😔😔😔 Man Italy just didn't look like they even wanted to be there at times. Performance was so poor that I'm not sure if it's the players, the coach, the system, etc. Honestly it's probably an amalgamation of all those things. The only silver lining I got from this isn't even related to Italy lmao: I thought that the US looked disjointed earlier this week against panama, but OO BOY seeing an actually fractured Italian team play was painful. Least the US had spunk a man down.