Feeling the blues - The sad decline of the Italian football team

The Italian national football team

The Italian National Football team or the Azzurri, as they are fondly called, have won 4 World Cups and 1 European Championship, but those glory days seem a long time ago. These days, they look like an average side and their players don’t seem world class.

Lack of foresight by the Federation

Most of the blame has to be laid at the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) feet. The peak of the previous generation was the team that played in the World Cup in 2002 in South Korea and Japan, where they were unfortunately eliminated thanks to an incompetent referee. They made up for this by emphatically winning the 2006 edition in Germany.

Not realizing that the ageing team’s fortunes would spiral down there, the Federation did not take adequate steps to groom its youngsters to become future world beaters. In fact, they should already have had a dedicated youth program in place when Italy won in 2006 to take up the baton. This miserable failure has led to a stagnant national team with mediocre players.

Their European rivals, Germany, realized the same problem with their squad in 1998 and the German Football Federation (DFB) took the steps required and the results are there for everyone to see. The Germans have a world class national team which are complemented by excelled youth players and they go into EURO 2016 as favourites.

Their recent history has been forgettable

Apart from a final appearance in EURO 2012, where they were thrashed 0-4 by Spain in the final, Italy have been found seriously wanting since 2006. It is still not too late for the Italians to plan for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Since the world was at their feet in 2006, the Italians have been dismal in the subsequent World Cups. In 2010, they exited at the group stages losing 1 and drawing 2 in a group that included first-timers New Zealand and Slovakia and an average Paraguay squad. 2014 wasn’t any better – another first round exit with one victory and two defeats, one of which came against minnows Costa Rica.

The problems are plain for all to see. Italy have been historically blessed with great defenders and the way the Azzurri defended was considered a form of art. Now, with mediocre players in defence, their defending looks more like scribbling by a toddler. The Azzurri were masters of sealing the game up having taken the lead. Keeping a clean sheet is not a given unless it’s against absolute minnows like San Marino, Malta and the likes. But, of late, even these sides have a go at Italy.

Traditionally they’ve always had wily tacticians on the bench but now they have in Antonio Conte a one trick pony who won’t budge from his 3-5-2 system as if it’s the only way to play football.

The current squad is not up to the mark

Taking a closer look at the squad, the Juve backline of Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli are the most stable the peninsula has to offer, but nowhere near past Italian teams, as stated before. The midfield has very limited international experience with Andrea Pirlo as good as retired (it hurts to say that) and Danielle de Rossi also past his prime.

Up front, Simone Zaza of Serie A minnows Sassuolo, Mario Balotelli (enough said already) and Graziano Pelle of a modest EPL club Southampton are leading the line. That’s not good enough for a nation like Italy, who had players like Roberto Baggio, Gianluca Vialli, Giuseppe Signori, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Filipo Inzaghi upfront during the last 2 decades.

The Azzurri miss the pony-tailed striker

The alarming fact, that no Italian player is highly sought after by any of the top European clubs is depressing. Serie A has also lost its reputation as one of Europe’s top leagues. Overtaken by the Bundesliga already, it is now Europe’s 4th best league with serious threat of being toppled by France’s Ligue 1 and Portugal’s Liga Sagres.

With the exception of the players who played in the last World Cup in Brazil, the combined number of caps of the players who played in Italy’s latest match, the 2-2 draw against Bulgaria in EURO 2016 qualifying) is 21.

Will Conte be able to turn things around for the Azzurri ?

One thing that Italy could cultivate, that would help them, is the fighting spirit which Conte instills in his players, which worked very well during his tenure as Juventus head coach. This he had learned as a Juve player (Conte is a former Juventus captain) and that mentality is ingrained in the club’s DNA. But, it can be argued that while he was in charge at Juve, Conte had some very good technical players like Paul Pogba, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez, who were notably all non-Italian.

The Italians are making heavy weather of qualifying from their group. They currently lie in 2nd place and although 3 teams can qualify, they have not played well in any of their matches. They certainly will qualify. But once they are there, they are most likely to suffer a swift exit.

There is no point in hanging on to the old clichés like “Italy are in it to win it” and “Never write off the Italians”. This team is really not up to the mark compared to its past teams and there are much better teams than them. However, against all odds if Italy win EURO 2016 it would certainly be a bigger shock than Greece winning in 2004 and Denmark winning in 1992.

Forza Azzurri