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Most likely XI moving forward

4K views 43 replies 12 participants last post by  camelface 
#1 ·
With Buffon, Barza, Chiellini, De rossi retiring its time to look forward. What is the most likely and best XI for the euros.

Ill post my XI when i have more time.
 
#2 · (Edited)
No starting lineup when you restart from ashes. As many as possible players have to be tested.

Here is my group:

Goalies: Donnarumma, Perin, Meret
Center backs: Bonucci, Rugani, Caldara, Romagnoli, Giammarco Ferrari
Side backs: Florenzi, Emerson, Zappacosta, Darmian, Spinazzola, Conti, De Sciglio
Center midfielders: Jorginho, Verratti, Pellegrini, Cristante, Mandragora, Benassi, Murgia, Barella, Locatelli, Baselli
Attacking/side midfielders: Verdi, Chiesa, Bernardeschi, Bonaventura
Side forwards: El Shaarawy, Insigne, Orsolini, Politano
Center forwards/strikers: Belotti, Immobile, Zaza, Gabbiadini, Cutrone, Inglese, Petagna, Balotelli (?)

I'm pretty sure there are a few more south American players who have at least one Italian ancestor on 64
 
#4 ·
Be careful because Italy hosts the 2019 under 21 championship which also doubles as the 2020 Olympic qualifier and they will want to reach at least the semi-finals in order to reach Japan.

Given that there will be no tournament football next summer, playing in the under 21 finals will provide valuable tournament-football experience to the youngsters.
 
#9 ·
I don't like Gagliardini at all. He is a lucky guy. He met Gasperini in the right moment. He is not even a one-season wonder, he is more like a 6-month wonder.
Sansone I forgot instead, the way I forgot his teamate Soriano. I would add Verde, roadrunner mentioned and I was skeptical about, but looked brilliant with the Italian under 21 NT yesterday.
 
#10 ·
Gagliardini is another Poli, the quicker we realize this the sooner we can focus on players who can have real growth.

Skickat från min SM-G930F via Tapatalk
 
#11 ·
An updated list after the suggestions

Here is my group:

Goalies: Donnarumma, Perin, Meret
Center backs: Bonucci, Rugani, Caldara, Romagnoli, Giammarco Ferrari
Side backs: Florenzi, Emerson, Zappacosta, Darmian, Spinazzola, Conti, De Sciglio
Center midfielders: Jorginho, Verratti, Pellegrini, Cristante, Mandragora, Benassi, Murgia, Barella, Locatelli, Baselli, Gagliardini
Attacking/side midfielders: Verdi, Chiesa, Bernardeschi, Bonaventura, Soriano
Side forwards: El Shaarawy, Insigne, Orsolini, Politano, Sansone, Verde
Center forwards/strikers: Belotti, Immobile, Zaza, Gabbiadini, Cutrone, Inglese, Petagna, Balotelli (?)

I'm pretty sure there are a few more south American players who have at least one Italian ancestor on 64[/QUOTE]
 
#12 ·
My opinion is that Orsolini will be our star very soon. I have no idea of the reasons which keep him out of Atalanta team right now, but I believe Gasparini will launch him soon or Orsolini will move to a different club in January. Very likely the fact that Atalanta doesn't own him affects the choices of Gasparini as Atalanta is a club who develop players in order to sell them and make money.
 
#13 ·
Atalanta might change their approach though when they open their new stadium in a few years. They seem to me to be a well managed club.

Orsolini does look very promising and the fact that he is a creative player is very helpful. This is why I found the exclusion Lorenzo Pellegrini so suprising from the playoff squad, given his considerable creativity from central midfield, mobility and tackling skills.

However, I would imagine - having not yet played an under 21 finals - Orsolini will not be promoted to the NT until September 2019.
 
#15 ·
Bump

This will be a new age and Italy had perhaps not adapted well to modern tactics:

-no second striker systems (4312, 442 anymore will players like totti, del piero)
-no fridge carriers who were staple of old systems (Gattuso, Palombo, even de Rossi was a turbo fridge carrier)
-midfielders and forwards without the skill to compete with the best nations with the modern systems
-no more big target man or unskilled but excellent poachers in modern systems

How will Italy find its new identity?

Thanks for the contributors above for the list of players. Anyone care to make potential systems with players in them in this thread?
 
#33 ·
Bump

This will be a new age and Italy had perhaps not adapted well to modern tactics:

-no second striker systems (4312, 442 anymore will players like totti, del piero)
-no fridge carriers who were staple of old systems (Gattuso, Palombo, even de Rossi was a turbo fridge carrier)
-midfielders and forwards without the skill to compete with the best nations with the modern systems
-no more big target man or unskilled but excellent poachers in modern systems

How will Italy find its new identity?
Why does it need one when the old one worked perfectly fine and no deviation was necessary, as proven by Conte in 2016 with a half squad?
 
#16 ·
I tried something. My biggest concern is the lack of box-to-box midfielders, the ones we could use as "mezzali" in a 4-3-3. The one I could find was Bonaventura, who is very good, maybe not excellent, but will be 33 yo in Qorruptar 2022. We have plenty of center midfielders instead, with different quality/quantity ratios (Verratti, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Barella, Mandragora...) and plenty of attacking midfielders/wingers who are not adaptable to midfielders in a 4-3-3 (Bernardeschi, Chiesa, Verdi,...). To the extent that I'm tempted to adopt 4-2-3-1 I don't really like or 4-4-2.
 
#17 ·
Bonaventura probably won't be the answer like you say because of his age and lack of experience anyway. I've never been that impressed with Verratti to be honest.

I would say jorginho has the good advantage of paying in Napoli's system which is probably the one Italy should model itself after with its current talent, unless bernardeschi develops into a player that can handle the duties of AMC in 4231.

One player that I like (hard working, intelligent, tactical) is Chiesa, but he will be a bit young still. Insigne is not impressive to me. He tries a lot of speculative stuff and loses the ball often, but he does fit well in the 433.

We'll have to see how the midfielders develop. I think that is the biggest question mark for this team going forward (we have fullbacks able to run forward, we have defenders, we have wingers and we have unfortunately small but respectable strikers).
 
#18 ·
I would expect that the current under 21 cycle - which culminates in the championship in June 2019 in Italy - will yield a few players that will join the squad in autumn 2019 for the uefa2020 qualifiers.

Therefore the challenge for the remainder of this season and next season will be to develop a tactic that the players who will probably be promoted from the under 21s can fit into and enhance so that the team evolves and performances improve in the lead up to June/July 2020, without sacrificing results given the importance of being seeded in pot one for the 2022 WC preliminary draw in summer 2019.
 
#22 ·
The interesting thing is that Roma, milan and Napoli are all playing with the same formation, 4-3-3. They contribute a lot of players to the NT as well.

Milan have a nice thing where their outside forwards cut inside and their fullbacks provide the same footedness as the side for the outside attack.

Based on this, the squad could be:

Insigne cutrone bernardeschi
Chiesa immobile gabbiadini

Bonaventura jorginho Pellegrini
Veratti sturaro montolivo

Spinazzola Romagnoli Bonucci Calabria
? Caldara rugani darmian

Donnarumma
Sirigu
?
 
#26 ·
Looking at what Di Biagio has been saying I'm expecting something like this in our March friendlies:

Buffon; Zappacosta, Bonucci, Chiellini, Darmian; Parolo, Verratti, Pellegrini; Candreva, Immobile, Insigne

Now I love Buffon but we need to move on. The same goes for Chiellini. I hope we never have to see Parolo and Candreva either but I'm afraid we'll have to wait until they decide to retire :wallbang: I hope I'm wrong but I'm afraid the Italian NT coach stubbornness will continue even after Di Biagio is replaced.

As I posted earlier, I'm hoping for something like this:

Donnarumma; Florenzi, Bonucci, Caldara, Spinazzola; Pellegrini, Verratti, Barella; Chiesa, Balotelli, Insigne
 
#41 ·
Whatever you say. I think it would take a lot to ruin a thread better than you've demonstrated in the last few days, but hey, I'll give it a shot.

I'll play. I'll be your boogey man so long as you promise to continue chasing Google for great memes to follow up my postings with. Deal?
 
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