Day 2 | Hungary vs Switzerland | Spain vs Croatia | Italy vs Albania

This Italy team isn't nearly as bad as being made out - or all that much worse than 2006 for example
 
Someone at UEFA must have had some fun by assigning Zwayer to a game played in Dortmund.
 
So is that Chiesa swap happening with Di Lorenzo?
 
thisisnottaken1 said:
What’s the significance of that? Has he fecked you over in the past?
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He has not officiated a Dortmund game (and may not ever again) since Bellingham called him a match fixer. So this tournament was just about the only way you were going to see him there again.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Yeah they were looked on as being too old and a team of former greats as I recall. The standards were just incredibly high at that World Cup.
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You recall wrong. The bad perception was down to calciopoli, and Brazil bringing a team so stacked it looked like they might just hand them the cup and not play the tournament. France was the team of oldies
Hammondo said:
They are without a doubt weaker than 2006.
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Obvioisly. But not by as much as being made out
 
Is this tournament going to confirm that most non Pep teams have moved on from the pure possession based game? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
 
thisisnottaken1 said:
Honestly, the fact that Italy haven’t been in a World Cup knockout match since 2006 is honestly flabbergasting.
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They haven’t had many good sides.

Not even messing but they have such an old population now, last few times I was in Italy there was barely anyone under the age of 25 in sight. They live so long and have so few kids, the talent pool probably isn’t what it used to be.
 
Bobski said:
Is this tournament going to confirm that most non Pep teams have moved on from the pure possession based game? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
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I fecking hope so.
 
This reminds me of United v Barca. Italy are playing with Albania now.
 
There’s a lot of pretty decent teams in this tournament, Italy, Spain and Germany all looking the part so far.
 
giorno said:
You recall wrong. The bad perception was down to calciopoli, and Brazil bringing a team so stacked it looked like they might just hand them the cup and not play the tournament. France was the team of oldies

Obvioisly. But not by as much as being made out
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I suppose it was nearly 20 years ago!

I remember that Brazil side all right, the front 4 really failed to gel at all.
 
giorno said:
You recall wrong. The bad perception was down to calciopoli, and Brazil bringing a team so stacked it looked like they might just hand them the cup and not play the tournament. France was the team of oldies

Obvioisly. But not by as much as being made out
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I'm not sure any of the current defence makes it, pirlo is way ahead of anyone else also.
 
Massive Spanner said:
They haven’t had many good sides.

Not even messing but they have such an old population now, last few times I was in Italy there was barely anyone under the age of 25 in sight. They live so long and have so few kids, the talent pool probably isn’t what it used to be.
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Ageing population is a problem that is affecting many countries. And honestly, there’s a good reason for that. Many people don’t want to give birth to children and have to raise them in a world of increasing wealth inequality and a worsening global climate. All these people who push for people having children don’t seem to understand why people aren’t having as much children as they were even as recently as 20 years ago.
 
GlasgowCeltic said:
I just wish Italy would start producing great defenders and tens again
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Bastoni is world class, Scalvani is a top prospect gutted he is out of the tournament. Agree on 10s. We once had Del Piero, Totti and Zola all playing at the same time
 
Hammondo said:
I'm not sure any of the current defence makes it, pirlo is way ahead of anyone else also.
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Tournament magic notwithstanding, Dimarco is way better than Grosso, Barella is better than any 2006 midfielder other than Pirlo, and Chiesa would start for pretty much every Italian NT of the last 30 years. 2006 had the world class stars this team lacks, sure, but this isn't a bad team by any means
 
Bobski said:
Is this tournament going to confirm that most non Pep teams have moved on from the pure possession based game? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
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International football is a different beast. I wouldn't assume any trends from this tournament.
 
Bobski said:
Is this tournament going to confirm that most non Pep teams have moved on from the pure possession based game? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
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It doesn't really work in international football unless you have a large core of players who play together at club level (like Spain with their Barca core in 2010). National teams just don't have enough time to train together.
 
I always forget Sylvinho had a short stint at City during the beginning of the Mansour era
 
Desert Eagle said:
International football is a different beast. I wouldn't assume any trends from this tournament.
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This. You can't just buy players for your system and have to work with what you have in a (short) time constraint
 
Calafiori is a perfect centre-half/leftback hybrid sort of player. He has enough actual fullback qualities to do the role well.
 
We're not even playing our best pure defender here btw
 
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