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Will Tavecchio and Sventura lead us to the lowest point in the history of our NT?

7K views 106 replies 19 participants last post by  ToniSamp 
#1 ·
Italy never failed to qualify to a world cup. Could it be the first time it happens? If it's true that "c'è sempre una prima volta" Sventura surely lacks the players and the qualities enough to achieve it. He has yet to explain what brought him to consider the starting lineup of Skopje a reasonable lineup and no journalist actually asked him after the game (compassion? servility? ), but was happy with Sventura's "we need time" "we lack experience" etc. etc.
Tavecchio follows his coach and says "in the end we got 3 points" but forgets that for a while we were virtually out of contention for the first position in the group.
TBH I have no doubt we are out of the contention for the first spot nevertheless, for clear inferiority to Spain, but I'm a bit worried about De Biasi's Albania and definitely worried about the playoff, if we manage to be second in the group.
 
#2 ·
I agree, and have been wondering lately what exactly Ace Ventura brings to the job, or what got him here in the first place? Here is an ordinary, mid-table Serie A coach suddenly launched to the top of his profession at a time when we are trying to qualify for the World Cup. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.
 
#4 ·
Well in Venturas defense he did get Torino to europe league and QF there or smth. Its not like Donadoni did much better as a manager in club football beforehand. Also some said that the best italian coaches came from the "system" or smth. Bearzot hardly had any club football career as coach before or after Italy. But those were different days.

It was difficult to sign a better coach, Ancelotti pretty much declined for now. Still didnt want it. Allegri is at Juve who has better players than Italy. Mancini struggled in CL with a rich club like Man City.

Im not sure Di Biasi would be much better. He plays defensive football. People will say he is doing good job at Albania but there are no expectations there. Also he pretty much drew every came at the euros and has a similar career to Ventura club wise (lots of smaller italian clubs (Carpi, Modena, Brescia, Torino). Its a different animal coaching a smaller side like that or coaching Italy. Expectations will be different.

BTW regarding Di Biasi and Albania, they were in a 5 team group for euro qualification, in every other group teams played 10 games (6 teams groups), in that group Albania played 8 games, and they had teams like Serbia, Denmark, Armenia, Portugal the big gun. Im not trying to bring his achievement down (first time Albania qualified as independent nation) but the group wasnt the hardest, many of the teams there have declined, also for some odd reason 5 team group put 3 teams still advanced from there (Denmark finished 3rd and got to playoff, lost to Sweden 3-4 aggregate). Also Di Biasi has defensive philosophy, Albania conceded 5 goals in qualy. Italy conceded 7 for example. But you can look at it in many ways i suppose.
 
#6 ·
Italy did not take part in the first WC in 1930 but they did fail to qualify in 1958 when Northern Ireland eliminated them in the preliminary group.

Nevertheless, I think that if Di Biasi is not considered any better than Ventura, there was the option of choosing a coach from among the federation staff, like happened with Vicini and Beazort before.
 
#10 ·
We should wait until at least the two games next month have been played before drawing some conclusions.

So far, apart from the exclusions of El Shawarray and Insigne I think the squad selections have been about right, which is a positive sign.

However, the biggest variable about whether we will see improved performances against Lichtenstein and Germany will be in Ventura's team selection and tactics.

There will also be an evolution between now and the WC partly because of the advanced age of several of the established players and partly because the current under 21 cycle ends next summer and there will be some players to integrate into the squad next September.
 
#11 ·
Im optimistic because it seems that there are some young players of really good quality coming through. I think our drought might be over and with marco verratti being the focal point in midfield he is a genuine world class player. Also some really good talent like politiano and berardi at sassuolo and di francescos son at bologna among the torino talents ( bellotti,Benassi,Barreca)

the italians at villareal are doing really well too.
 
#15 ·
Very true, and shame on Udinese a club who has lost their identity and just have made the club a revolving door for players not good enough for Watford. Them being relegated and stuck in serie d forever would only help the national team. God bless Sassoulo and Torino, if you support Italy, you support these clubs.
 
#19 ·
Up



Luckily all the opponents in the group but Spain were poor and hopefully we might find a mediocre opponent in the playoff, but the question remains.
This is a guy who used to ride a bicycle and all of a sudden was given a F1 car. Anything is possible.
 
#25 ·
I expect most coaches would struggle to qualify with the talent available.

Calcio has been in need of significant changes for several years and if you have followed the poor development of young players - partly because of the bias in favour of older players among Serie A coaches - this situation was inevitable.
 
#28 ·
Im starting to get a bit concerned now and there is still like 9-10 months till WC.

What Ventura said after the game in press conference, well he didnt really admit like he made mistake. He was bringing up excuses like physical preparation difference. Kind of BS. Every european league had summer break.

And he doesnt have big game/CL experience, besides some of the managers in the past who didnt have amazing CVs had experience of wearing Italy NT shirt. Ventura has no experience of playing in WC or Euro as a player either. If he doesnt change his thinking, really could get schooled at the WC. Presuming Italy wont get trashed in the playoffs. That would be kind of hilarious and sad in the same time.

And then they extended him, he will be 72 at the euros. We arent talking here about Alex Ferguson type of manager here who retired 72.

Its easy to jump behind excuses of squad not good enough.
 
#38 ·
You yourself just posted this:

FIFA today announced that the play-off draw will be based on next month's world ranking, with the top four teams in pot one and the other four teams in a pot two.

The latest ranking published last month had Switzerland, Poland, Portugal and France - all potentially in the play-offs - above Italy, so it is not certain that Italy will be in pot one.
 
#40 ·
Yeah but how are all those sides ahead of Italy? As much as we can criticize Ventura it was his first loss. Is this ranking seeding based on last world cup? Poland just lost to Denmark in Qualy 4-0. And they failed to qualify for 2014 wc. Both teams reached QF in euros and lost with penalties.
 
#41 ·
You think FIFA is rigging the ranking to screw Italy over?

The ranking might be ****ed up, but it's transparent just like UEFA-coefficents. No one is secretly handing over extra ranking points to Poland or Switzerland.
 
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