Euro 2024 | Italia | Italy | Forza Azzurri

AZZURRI BLUES, TRUES AND MISSCUES

Representing the Azzurri should provide fulfilment like reaching the pinnacle of a mountainous mountain. Unfortunately, the current squad was constructed and set-forth to simply descent without ascending the summit in the first place. Where was the pride and the passion? Instead, we witnessed historically atrocious football devoid of tactical knowhow or technical flair. The disastrous campaign starts and ends with Luciano Spalletti. Time will tell if the decision not to relieve the under-fire coach was justly or not? The pathetic brand of football on the field combined with the never-ending nonsensical posturing off the field was logic enough to move on.

Luciano Spalletti and his cohorts operated with shades of the Stefano Pioli mantra of passing to your best player, Federico Chiesa (who’s still on the path back to pre-injury form) and hoping for the best. Continually starting and using players out of position as a strategy is mindbogglingly insane, not Carlo Ancelotti genius. Wilfried Gnonto, Riccardo Orsolini, Samuele Ricci, Andrea Colpani, Matteo Politano and Manuel Locatelli should have been starring at the Euros but thanks to Luciano Spalletti were resigned to support the Azzurri from afar.

The Azzurri much like Italian football needs a fundamental injection of courage and the will to commit to the future. FIGC needs to bring back past legends to inspire, inform and transmit. The Roberto Baggio blueprint needs to be implemented fully to rejuvenate the Azzurri system. Youngsters with creativity and flair should be at the forefront. Football is more than bullying the opponent with physicality and pressing the press like no tomorrow. Huffing and puffing untold energy to retrieve the ball is foolhardy when you struggle with basic possession, transitions and rotation. The successful Azzurri teams of the past relied abundantly on creatively and technically gifted individuals.