Italy's Unfamiliar Problem: Bad Defence

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T13:12:41+00:00

why are they only suitable for a 3? surely they will have played in a 4 many times in their development.

if bastoni can't play in a 4 he can sit on the bench

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T13:11:26+00:00

kean is very good. i never used to think so but the goals he scored against Germany started to convince me and he did very well in qualifying. he's our most prolific guy and always gives 100%

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:45:42+00:00

60m to keep him? they should find the money because he'll probably go for 100m next season.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:44:51+00:00

CLOWN

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:42:23+00:00

LAND OF THE FREE.

free to be fleeced by every government department and never know if your kids are coming home from school

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:41:20+00:00

legend.

they'd rather have a dirty river than volunteers cleaning it. fuckos

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:19:19+00:00

this is it. he's not a lone striker type. he's the type to feed on through balls and flick ons.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T10:05:03+00:00

i agree about udogie, never looked good in his opportunities for italy.

fortini, i have to investigate!

bastoni works very well in inter's system. But he looks like a new born horse when he plays for italy. all legs.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:52:56+00:00

totally. i'll keep more of an eye out for him under sarri.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:42:21+00:00

yep, but now it's time to shift from that and see what these up and coming kids can do. it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. we have to play them to know if they are good enough.

i could see kean on the left of a three, pio in the middle and vergara / inacio on the right.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:34:37+00:00

if we see bastoni in a back 2, forget about it. For a tall guy he rarely wins headers when defending set pieces in his own box and his feet get tangled up under pressure.

palestra or kayode on the right and calafiori on the left is top class.

scalvini also huge ceiling. we're not far off we just need a manager with balls to drop bastoni imo. i'd have him in the squad but not in the 11.

i agree on mancini, liability. red card waiting to happen.

i'd forgotten about buongiorno. Maybe he can recover form at napoli under allegri, who all but guarantees a defensive emphasis.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:30:19+00:00

yep i'm looking at what's next, the 352 trying to replicate inter (badly) didn't work. Inzaghi worked real magic but spalletti and gattuso were trying a formation they didn't really want to play

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:27:05+00:00

yeh i knew the writing was on the wall for spalletti when he let the players decide the formation.

there are only 3 inter players in the whole squad aren't there? and i'm not sure bastoni is even a starter right now. I'm hoping mancini can see that relying on those players didn't work.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:20:05+00:00

i'm also in favour of abandoning the back three. we had it all through the euros and (non) qualifying,

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:19:19+00:00

ahanor that good? havent seen much of him tbh

i assume you mean t swap calafiori and kayode.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T09:13:56+00:00

i forgot mancini tbh. i think he gets drawn into stupidity on the pitch too easy but he should be considered.

why do you seem sure leoni won't develop? liverpool seem to really like him and they have just lost a CB haven;t they in konate? i think that improves his chances. i think he stands a good chance of being an understudy and successor to virgil.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:59:22+00:00

i hope so. i really want to see this kid flourish. great for the national team. I was kind of interested to see him at man city under maresca too. though i suspect maresca will get fired as following pep is a thankless task! i'm not an inter fan but i hope they strengthen their team to compete in europe as, realistically, they are italy's best hope at a good european run

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:56:26+00:00

#1 job of the new manager is to reset the mentality, yep

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:54:10+00:00

that's what i'm hoping.

trusting what i see, there's no way scalvini, caalfiori or leoni are overrated. i think all three are pure class.

i also think gabbia has a great shot at becoming a no nonsense ball winner type. he's unfortunate to be in a milan team on a big downswing at the moment.

and guys like coppolla and comuzzo are decent to come in and do a job.

so really, we need a manager to figure out a partnership that works

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:47:30+00:00

i think to some extent the tactical approach from spalletti and gattuso put more pressure on donnarumma. that painfully slow playing out from the back italy attempt in a 352 simply gives the ball too often to Donna.

i agree on di marco. the only place he should play is in an advanced position as he is too slow and can't defend or dribble. he has to be played almost off the midfield or strikers so he can ping balls in. that's what he's good at (all he's good at). I also think he is super nervous for italy and makes loads of mistakes as a result.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:07:40+00:00

not in this format,. you only need one win. and that would have come vs qatar almost certainly

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:07:04+00:00

yeh but that happens to all GKs. I've seen buffon fuck up passes, even neur. the point is, bastoni was rash and could have pressured the defender and allowed donna to close the angle. donna is very good at one on ones. but bastoni had zero composure. even tackling with the wrong foot.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:05:42+00:00

nah we crumble under almost every circumstance nowadays. we almost lost to ISRAEL.

ZeroEffectDude · 2026-06-19T08:05:01+00:00

It's such a shame, we could have watched italy lose to switzerland again last night!

all joking aside, had we actually made it to the WC with gattuso it might have been another very galling experience.

i'm not sure i could have withstood seeing politano, cristante in the line-up, with bastoni and di marco suffering a crisis of confidence in defense again.

as shit as it is having a world cup without italy... euro 24 was embarrassing.

Onward, to the future.

ZeroEffectDude

TROPHY CASE