[camelface]

To be honest, I'm not fully sold on Mancini. He is no Ventura which is nice, but I worry about the 4-3-3.

 

[ToniSamp]

To be honest, I'm not fully sold on Mancini. He is no Ventura which is nice, but I worry about the 4-3-3.

I have never been a huge fan of him as a coach but I'm quite sold in spite of that. I think he is doing an excellent job.
That said, I have no doubt that if he fails he will blame everthing and everyone but himself because this is Mancini. There is no room for self-criticism. He has always been like that.

 

[ToniSamp]

The biggest problem I see is that Mancini has available exactly the same forwards Ventura had available three years ago when we failed to qualify to the world cup without scoring one to Sweden in 180 minutes. A few of them Prandelli had available back in 2014 when we scored one to New Zealand (with a penalty!) and zero to Costa Rica and Uruguay.
The center forwards are going to be Immobile and Belotti both in the euro and in the world cup unless someone starts to score badly among the young ones (Scamacca?).

 

[roadrunner]

New Zealand was in 2010!

While Immobile and Belotti will have to be serviceable for the euro, they shouldn't last to the WC.

For a while I have hoped that Scamacca can lead the attack beginning when the WCQs resume in September.

 

[ToniSamp]

New Zealand was in 2010!

While Immobile and Belotti will have to be serviceable for the euro, they shouldn't last to the WC.

For a while I have hoped that Scamacca can lead the attack beginning when the WCQs resume in September.

True! lol

well, I applied the "I want to forget this world cup" to the letter!

 

[roadrunner]

In the latest FIFA world ranking released today, Italy has risen 3 positions to seventh!

That suggests to me that we are now in a position to seriously challenge for major titles again and all 3 (EC, NL, WC) will be on the line in 18 months between June this year and December next year.

 

[ToniSamp]

The list of players who came back to the respective clubs with Covid is increasing: Bonucci, Verratti, Florenzi, Sirigu, Cragno, Grifo, Bernardeschi, Pessina.