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Euro 2012 Special: How Do Italy’s Worrying Lack Of Attacking Midfielders Compare To Those From Spain, Germany, England, France & Netherlands?
There is one area of the field where Italy are light-years behind Spain and Germany, and that is in the attacking midfield position. Carlo Garganese compares the Azzurri's options to the other top Euro 2012 contenders...
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Sep 6, 2010 4:00:00 PM
Carlo Garganese
Cesare Prandelli's new Italy may have begun their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign with maximum points in Estonia on Friday night, but there are still many high profile figures within the game who are worried about the Azzurri's future.
A lack of alternatives to legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, the slowing down of the once never-ending conveyor belt of world class defenders, and the so-called paucity of creative attackers - such as Antonio Cassano, Francesco Totti and Sebastian Giovinco - are the most oftenly-cited reasons for concern.
Much of this is overplayed. There are enough good young goalkeepers such as Emiliano Viviano, Antonio Mirante, Gianluca Curci and, yes, even Salvatore Sirigu knocking on the door to suggest that at least one of them will develop into a top quality glovesman - much in the same way as Joe Hart suddenly has for England within the space of less than 12 months. Regarding the backline, this may be the weakest Italy defence for more than 45 years but by today's standards it is by no means weak. Compared to other European nations, Italy's first choice defence will be as strong as anyone's at Euro 2012. There are just very few good stoppers anywhere nowadays, for reasons I will not even begin to get into. The attack has more than enough quality, providing Prandelli doesn't 'polippicise' his selections. In Cassano, Mario Balotelli and Giampaolo Pazzini, Italy potentially possess three world class frontmen to unleash on opponents.
The one real area of concern that the media seem to be ignoring is la Nazionale's depressing shortage of top-class attacking midfielders. On Friday, Prandelli utilised a 4-3-3 system. In this formation, the midfield requires at least one player who will hold and rarely cross the half-way line, breaking up the play and winning tackles. A Daniele De Rossi. It requires a central midfielder to dictate the tempo, spray passes around and create situations. Andrea Pirlo. And finally it requires a more attacking midfielder who is complete enough to carry out some of these afforemntioned tasks, but more importantly acquires the dribbling, skill, speed, guile and offensive qualities to link the middle-third to final third. Examples of such players are Andres Iniesta, Mesut Oezil and Wesley Sneijder.
At present, Italy just don't possess a top-quality option who is able to play this attacking midfield role in the 433. Andrea Lazzari and Antonio Candreva are perhaps the most realistic options to shine there in the next couple of years, but with both featuring for Cagliari and Udinese respectively, and with just two caps between them, there are big question marks. As a result, Prandelli will be forced into fielding a player (such as Riccardo Montolivo on Friday) who doesn't have the right attributes to provide the midfield and team with the balance it needs. This often leaves the front three isolated, causes the attackers to drop deep, and the midfield and attack fails to sew together.
In a 4231, Prandelli has more options as he is able to pull Cassano and Balotelli - two top-class attackers - into attacking-midfield roles of sorts. Sebastian Giovinco has all the right attributes to cause real damage on the left or centre of this three, but aside from this trio there is once again few top, top alternatives waiting in the wings.
Unlike in defence, Italy's main rivals for Euro 2012 glory do contain some outstanding attacking midfield talent. Spain are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the pack, but Germany and the Netherlands also have a great pool to choose from. France are individually stronger in this area than Italy, but have such problems at centre back and centre forward that this is more than cancelled out. Even England would argue their case, although by Euro 2012 almost half of those in the table below will be way past their best and four are attacking right midfielders.
The bottom line, as can be seen below, is that Italy need to start developing their attacking midfielders again. This is the one area of Prandelli's squad where more options are needed, and it could come back to bite in 2012 unless something is done over the next couple of years.
A lack of alternatives to legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, the slowing down of the once never-ending conveyor belt of world class defenders, and the so-called paucity of creative attackers - such as Antonio Cassano, Francesco Totti and Sebastian Giovinco - are the most oftenly-cited reasons for concern.
Much of this is overplayed. There are enough good young goalkeepers such as Emiliano Viviano, Antonio Mirante, Gianluca Curci and, yes, even Salvatore Sirigu knocking on the door to suggest that at least one of them will develop into a top quality glovesman - much in the same way as Joe Hart suddenly has for England within the space of less than 12 months. Regarding the backline, this may be the weakest Italy defence for more than 45 years but by today's standards it is by no means weak. Compared to other European nations, Italy's first choice defence will be as strong as anyone's at Euro 2012. There are just very few good stoppers anywhere nowadays, for reasons I will not even begin to get into. The attack has more than enough quality, providing Prandelli doesn't 'polippicise' his selections. In Cassano, Mario Balotelli and Giampaolo Pazzini, Italy potentially possess three world class frontmen to unleash on opponents.
The one real area of concern that the media seem to be ignoring is la Nazionale's depressing shortage of top-class attacking midfielders. On Friday, Prandelli utilised a 4-3-3 system. In this formation, the midfield requires at least one player who will hold and rarely cross the half-way line, breaking up the play and winning tackles. A Daniele De Rossi. It requires a central midfielder to dictate the tempo, spray passes around and create situations. Andrea Pirlo. And finally it requires a more attacking midfielder who is complete enough to carry out some of these afforemntioned tasks, but more importantly acquires the dribbling, skill, speed, guile and offensive qualities to link the middle-third to final third. Examples of such players are Andres Iniesta, Mesut Oezil and Wesley Sneijder.
At present, Italy just don't possess a top-quality option who is able to play this attacking midfield role in the 433. Andrea Lazzari and Antonio Candreva are perhaps the most realistic options to shine there in the next couple of years, but with both featuring for Cagliari and Udinese respectively, and with just two caps between them, there are big question marks. As a result, Prandelli will be forced into fielding a player (such as Riccardo Montolivo on Friday) who doesn't have the right attributes to provide the midfield and team with the balance it needs. This often leaves the front three isolated, causes the attackers to drop deep, and the midfield and attack fails to sew together.
In a 4231, Prandelli has more options as he is able to pull Cassano and Balotelli - two top-class attackers - into attacking-midfield roles of sorts. Sebastian Giovinco has all the right attributes to cause real damage on the left or centre of this three, but aside from this trio there is once again few top, top alternatives waiting in the wings.
Unlike in defence, Italy's main rivals for Euro 2012 glory do contain some outstanding attacking midfield talent. Spain are head-and-shoulders above the rest of the pack, but Germany and the Netherlands also have a great pool to choose from. France are individually stronger in this area than Italy, but have such problems at centre back and centre forward that this is more than cancelled out. Even England would argue their case, although by Euro 2012 almost half of those in the table below will be way past their best and four are attacking right midfielders.
The bottom line, as can be seen below, is that Italy need to start developing their attacking midfielders again. This is the one area of Prandelli's squad where more options are needed, and it could come back to bite in 2012 unless something is done over the next couple of years.
Attacking Midfield Options Of The Euro 2012 Contenders
 Italy |
 Spain |
 Germany |
 England |
 France |
 Holland |
 Antonio Cassano |
 Andres Iniesta |
 Mesut Oezil |
 Steven Gerrard |
 Franck Ribery |
 Wesley Sneijder |
 Mario Balotelli
|
 Cesc Fabregas |
 Thomas Mueller |
 Frank Lampard |
 Samir Nasri |
 Arjen Robben |
 Sebastian Giovinco
|
 Juan Mata |
 Marko Marin |
 Joe Cole |
 Florent Malouda |
 Rafael van der Vaart |
 Andrea Lazzari |
 Jesus Navas |
 Piotr Trochowski |
 Theo Walcott |
 Yoann Gourcuff |
 Eljero Elia |
 Antonio Candreva |
 David Silva |
 Toni Kroos |
 Aaron Lennon |
 Jeremy Menez |
 Clarence Seedorf |
 Alessandro Rosina |
 Pedro Leon |
 Mario Goetze |
 Ashley Young |
 Hatem Ben Arfa |
 Ibrahim Afellay |
 Ezequiel Schelotto |
 Sergio Canales |
 Aaron Hunt |
 James Milner |
 Jimmy Briand |
 Ryan Babel |
 Andrea Cossu |
 Pedro |
 Kevin Grosskreutz |
 Jack Wilshere |
 Loic Remy |
 Jonathan De Guzman |
 Simone Pepe |
 Borja Valero |
 Marco Reus |
 Shaun Wright-Phillips |
 Gael Kakuta |
 Siem De Jong |
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We've had two tremendous matches today, so lets hope the intensity keeps up in the next clashes!
Until next time, this is LIVE commentator Stephen Crawford signing off.
From everyone here at Goal.com, thanks for joining us!
We've had two tremendous matches today, so lets hope the intensity keeps up in the next clashes!
Until next time, this is LIVE commentator Stephen Crawford signing off.
From everyone here at Goal.com, thanks for joining us!
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"They were the better team on the night and that's the story of the day.
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(Strange... it looked pretty easy from where I was sitting, but hey.)
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“If Louis van Gaal turns out to be the new coach, I won't go.”
“The score made it look like it was an easy game, but it certainly wasn't.
(Strange... it looked pretty easy from where I was sitting, but hey.)
“I do not think it's over yet. I remember a clash between Milan and Deportivo la Coruna when Milan was also ahead by four goals, and in the end Deportivo eliminated Milan.
“I went into the Arsenal dressing room after the match to speak to Robin van Persie. I had agreed with him to swap shirts – my sons are big fans of his and he brought two for them. They will be delighted.
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“I've spoken with PSV, but we don't have an agreement yet. The club has to decide what they want.
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