Rocky;2542898 said:
Totti wouldn't have changed Italy's fortunes because like I said, he could never translate his club form on the international level except on some occasions. This is the same guy who would fake injuries to skip international friendlies. There is no doubt he could have been remarkable for Italy, but he didn't want to. He cares more about Roma than Italy. So I will reiterate, Pirlo>Totti in terms effectiveness for the national team.
I've come to the conclusion that you deeply loathe Totti....almost to the point where it's incorrigible no matter what he does. It wasn't my intention here to have a belaboured and unnecessarily repetitive argument about Totti's ability to carry his club form into the NT. All I know is that he's one of the best players in the World at what he does....a magnificently gifted player who is a threat from 25metres on out of the opposing goal. He's got a commanding presence about him on the pitch even when he isn't his best and this allows for other players to profit from all the attention that he receives. So if you think that he wouldn've contributed positively to the squad and eased some of the tension felt by the other players, then you're being unreasonable and willfully dishonest.
When you're selecting a squad for a NT, the only thing that you can truly go by is the player's current form in whatever league he happens to be playing in. And at the time of his injury, Totti was in peak playing form....if yer gonna make prognostications and extrapolations about how he would've fared in this tourney, then you should be drawing from his most recent condition in league action and not from the sporadic and limited play seen in international competition. You keep adamantly and stubbornly insisting that he would've duplicated the display of some of his past below expectation showings, but how do you know for a fact that this would've happened?
Put aside your personal gripe with 'em and this baseless and frankly ridiculous accusation that he puts club over country for a moment and judge him solely by his pre injury performance.....was he worthy of being a starter at that time in your eyes? If past showings was the exclusive criterion for choosing players onto a NT squad, then you'd only fill a fourth of your roster because the percentage of World class players who consistently translate their club successes into the international stage isn't all that great, man. The only thing that you can do is to survey your current talent pool, identify the players that are in the best shape and playing form and go on from there. Of course there should be other standards that must be looked at and satisfied, but first concern yourself with spotting the best players in each position prior to the tourney starting.
Rocky;2542898 said:
Capable of winning the cup? That's a lineup that is more capable of self-destructing than winning. That line-up you got there would be just as old as the one we took to this year's Euros. Have you ever actually watched Italy play, because it's been proven time and time again that Del Piero and Totti could never co-exist on the same playing field. Even if they could, why in the hell do you have them playing wide in a 4-3-3? Totti and Del Piero are more centralized players, they could never adapt to that wide position. Del Piero even voiced his concern about where Donadoni would play him in his 4-3-3 because he wasn't used to playing that outside left in the 4-3-3.
I'll concede that I follow the Serie A more closely than I do the NT. I'll watch the qualifiers if they're on, but I don''t go out of my way to seek out meaningless friendlies as I have absolutely no connection with Italy. This is just my fantasy squad that I would've chosen when the first game came around from the players available in the final roster selection with the exception of the injured, of course.
I don't agree with your absolutist and stringently narrow attitude and perception of what will work and who will not harmoniously exist together out there on the pitch. First of all, this lineup/formation that I propose is very malleable. It's not prefabricated to its drawn up form, bro. It's not a conventional 4-3-3.....DP and Totti are on the shoulders of Toni only because I wouldn't want a formation that's too centralized and narrowed down. They will be able to adjust to whatever the defence throws at them and switch the facilitating and support striker roles in a fluid manner and reposition themselves to their comfort areas whenever the action is in their immediate area.
I can't comprehend why you keep emphatically asserting that such and such player wont jell and adapt to one another as though they're some sort of highly specialized computer parts or something? Both of these players are two of the greatest and have played with some of the game's best, I don't see why they can't adjust to each other's individual qualities for the common goal of helping each other be successful? They're about as flawless offensively as you can get....what more could you want? Unless if you're privy to off the field chemistry issues that they might have? And even then, they should be mature enough to overcome their differences, I'd imagine.
Rocky;2542898 said:
Materazzi starting? Ha! You're an Inter fan, right? I guess you didn't watch Materazzi against the Netherlands did you? That was probably the last international game he will ever play.
hurhur....well, I'm hugely biased towards Materazzi, I must admit. I've been a big proponent of his for a long time, but I don't understand why you're singling him out for the whipping post for that first half performance against the Dutch. The entire team was torched and embarrassed, and the defence continued to be shaky long after he was subbed out, but I'll also concede that yes, he had a poor outing and was unjustly never allowed to redeem himself. This is a player who had a positive impact on your WC run, a man who was without a doubt the best defender in the Serie A last year, so please, don't try to belittle his contributions and quality by erroneously and unfairly putting the entire blame of that first half debacle on his shoulders.
Rocky;2542898 said:
Finally, you can't start both Pirlo and Totti in the same line-up. One is a deep-lying playmaker and the other is a more advanced playmaker. You can't have both in the line-up, who would play go through? Oh, and I find it absolutely hilarious you tried to compare Pirlo and Totti. Both are two completely different types of playmakers.
Here we go again.....your very rigidly over-the-top observations on who's compatible with who. Pirlo is the best playmaker from his position and Totti is one of the best in his role as an advanced complete attacker, but they're so multi-talented and diversified in their abilities, so where does this congruity issue of epic proportions that you're trying to paint come from? You do realize that Pirlo is just a converted (for convenience more than anything else) natural #10 a la Totti and that he used to play in the hole position before being readjusted by Ancelotti? What I'm trying to say is that they've got a lot more similarities than they do differences. Totti has progressed in the offensive side of the game, modifying himself from a playmaker, support striker and now even a lone striker if need be (there's your through man, as well as DP, of course), while Pirlo has maintained his aptitude for playmaking while in the process of developing his defensive and tactical abilities.
hmm....you argue that the team can do without Totti and that Pirlo can fill in for him in an even more effective manner, yet you curiously laugh at the thought of someone considering their similarities and differences...??? Also, let's be fair, you started this whole thing.
Anyway, in the formation that I proposed, the offense would be considerably less revolved around Toni, DP and Totti would share the through man role, Pirlo would be the director and distributor of the offense and have a more vertically surging function. Totti would have the freedom to roam and this would be more of a benefit to Pirlo than it would be a detriment because defenses would be less inclined to singularly hone in on him as the primary playmaker, you know? If you've seen how opposing squads treat Pirlo when Seedorf is out, you'd know how advantageous having someone like Totti sharing the pitch with him would be, man......I mean, Kaka and Pirlo function together extremely effectively, right? So why can't Pirlo and Totti? Clearly, Totti is nowhere near as athletic and dynamic as Kaka is, but he's more savvy and equally as gifted offensively.....he can emulate a lot of what Kaka does near the box.
Lastly, I'd like to know what your formation/lineup would've been for the first game against the Dutch. Injured or unselected players can be used for your favored squad
