Why do you make things so complicated, Marcello?
By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino
19 million Italians had been watching Italy’s opening match against Paraguay last night, official TV data say.
Everyone has probably seen his or her own match, but my opinion is that we are making things far too much complicated. At least, more than they really are. And the man in charge of all this complication is Marcello Lippi.
Italy did play quite well last night, if you consider the impressive lack of quality we have in the pitch: you will never see Italy play good football in this tournament, because the team is not based on this. They are mentally and phisically strong, always deep in the the game, never losing control even while loosing. If you think about yesterday, Paraguay has been dangerous only when they scored (it was a big mistake of Italy’s defense, to be honest), and the Azzurri deserved to draw looking at how they stayed focused throughout the game.
Daniele De Rossi’s equalizer was a good one (big mistake from Paraguay goalie - what is going on with keepers in this tournament?) and was the best player in the pitch in my opinion. Also right-winger Pepe and full-back Domenico Criscito did quite well. Criscito, in particular, was a nice surprise: focused, strong, confident, awesome.
But it was all so difficult to get a result. Why?
Because, I think, we are playing in the wrong way.
Lippi’s intention is to play like all-winners Inter FC did this year: 4-2-3-1. But we lack something, compared to Inter.
We don’t have a full-back that is like a winger (Zambrotta, Maggio, Criscito and Chiellini are not like Brazilian Maicon).
We don’t have a quality striker that plays the ball with the team, creating spaces for the midfielders like Diego Milito.
And, more important, we don’t have a player like Wesley Sneijder in the crucial position behind the striker. If you think about Inter this year, Sneijder was the key to success because playing in that way, in that position you need a player with good long-shot qualities, good passing to the striker in front of him, and the ability to open the game to the left or the right winger. Moreover, he has to be quick, to get into the box when it is necessary, and also able to be the first defender in the opponents’ field.
We don’t have a player like this one: Marchisio is a centre-right midfielder, Montolivo and Pirlo are good to play into the two midfielder positions in front of the defense, not behind the striker.
So, why do we play this way Mr. Lippi?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to play with a simple and plain 4-4-2 with Pepe on the right and Maggio (more defensive) on the left, and a pair of strikers like Gilardino and Di Natale or Pazzini (who needs to play alongside another striker) and Di Natale?
We will probably qualify and go further into the World Cup, but playing in a different way I think will make everything simpler.
