What Ails Italy?

The Italy team seen in the Confederations Cup is the worst that I have seen since I began watching football. So what makes them like that. Here is a list of reasons.


1. Zambrotta, Gattuso, Camoranesi and above all Toni are clearly past it.

2. A team whose traditional strength has been defense certainly does not look assured in that area. Cannavaro’s presence does make things better but when a player on his last legs has to lead the Italian defense you just stop to question – what has happened to the erstwhile mass production of defenders? As for Chiellini – he is the best but only of a bad lot. He doesn’t yet seem ready to shoulder the burden of the national team.

3. Let’s move on to the midfield. Pirlo as we all know is a maestro – one capable of inspirational creativity. However he is a deep lying midfielder and with no one to support him ahead of him on the field how far is he going to shoulder the burden of creativity especially at this age. As for Daniele De Rossi, he is supposed to be a top class central midfielder. Yes he does win challenges and take good shots but leaves me with two major question marks. Why does he not do anything very creative – is he really capable of it? Also if he is such a good defensive midfielder, why is it that the opponent gets to play so freely in the midfield? Is it because Italy always depended on the terrier Gattuso to do this job? Oh he still retains the passion but not the stamina. Unfortunately there just isn’t anyone in Italy to fit in his place.

4. As for the full backs, yes Grosso does do his job but Zambrotta is quite clearly past it especially in an attacking sense. You will not see any of the sublime runs of WC 2006 any more from him. Is it time to try Davide Santon? Is he really ready for this level?

5. All the above mentioned are serious problems. Yet the one that hurts me most comes now. Where is the link between midfield and attack? The attackers are all one-dimensional having no sense of how to play alongside each other. And there just isn’t any attacking midfielder to support them without which they are almost toothless. This does not look the same side that had an equally competent African team Ghana in its pocket in the WC 2006 opener or the side that proved itself to be technically well superior to a super power like Germany in the WC 2006 semi final. At the moment if anyone talks about the technical qualities of Italy, you will want to look the other way.

6. As for the attack, what is Luca Toni still doing even in the squad? A few of the strikers can shoot from distance but what do they do other than this. They cannot bring each other into play. There is no creation within the oppositions penalty box. It’s all about taking your chances from distance – sometimes it will work and sometimes it will not. This is not the way the reigning world champions ought to play.

7. Should Lippi have come back? After winning the world cup you can never do more. So isn’t it a good idea to leave it then and there and never come back? Besides you are stuck with the burden of playing your world champions even when your mind tells you that it’s not working. A new coach would not have much of this burden. Also if you have something against one of the most creative players in the country i.e. Cassano, your presence will only inhibit him. I am not being fool hardy enough to suggest that the man who I consider the best coach that I have ever come across should be sacked. Yet, would it be so bad if he were to resign due to the media and public backlash that is sure to come his way now? Perhaps there would be a risk of not qualifying for WC 2010 where we are lucky to be in a very easy group. Yet the way we are going now our only target seems to be damage limitation.


So where do we stand as a whole. Once a team becomes world champions, they usually get better and dominate world football for some years. Unfortunately for Italy their victory came when most of their best players were in the ending stages of their careers. So instead of becoming better we have only gone down and that too really fast. This gives our detractors the chance to say all kinds of things like we are laughable and did not even deserve to be world champions. Yet the good thing is no matter what they do they can never make another team the winner of WC 2006. That will remain ours but the immediate future would almost certainly not be ours.

Italy’s last worst performance in a world cup was in 1986 when they were completely outclassed by a vastly superior France side in the second round. Ironically that was also the world cup immediately after their triumph and they were still being led by the man responsible for that triumph – Enzo Bearzot. Already there have been two equally bad results ( 3-0 mauling at the hands of Holland in Euro 2008 and yesterday’s night’s humiliation ) but they were not in the world cup. So what now – are we expected to suffer something worse in WC 2010?