"In mutande!" screamed the Gazetta dello Sport’s front page the day after Italy’s World Cup defeat to Slovakia. Indeed, the paper was right, the Azzurri had been caught with their pants down and only underwear on show, dumped out of the World Cup in the worst possible manner.
The soul searching has begun in Italy, with the world champions unable to even reach the last 16. That same paper stated five reasons for the Azzurri’s disastrous performance in South Africa:
1. The squad Italy sent to the World Cup simply was not very good. Marcello Lippi took a team of average talents, and there were no new Francesco Tottis, Paolo Maldinis or Alessandro Del Pieros.
2. There are too many foreign players in Serie A. Inter collected every trophy on offer last season with a first choice eleven consisting of not a single Italian star. In the European Champions’ squad there were only four Italians: Francesco Toldo, Marco Materazzi, Davide Santon and Mario Balotelli.
3. Young Italian talent is finding the path to first team football at the biggest clubs in the land blocked. Sides like AC Milan perfer to hand opportunities to thirty-something foreign players, rather than trusting youth. Between 1992 and 2004, the Italian Under-21 team won the European Championships five times, yet next season there is the very real possibility that the youngsters will not even qualify for the finals.
4. In Italy there is no culture of losing. Winning remains the most important thing. And that by whatever means necessary. In Serie A this is most certainly the case and this takes the emphasis away from the performance and places it firmly on the result.
5. Violence still plagues the Italian game. Groups of ultras, as England coach Fabio Capello has said, sometimes try to take decisions for their clubs, influence their boards and subsequently their opinions regarding players.
All these factors have contributed to a deep malaise in Italian football, ultimately resulting in that rock bottom finish in a group containing Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. Not the strongest teams the Azzurri could have faced, which makes the fact that this World Cup was the very first time in Italian footballing history that the national team has finished at the foot of their World Cup group all the worse.
While Gazetta dello Sport reflected accurately the thoughts of most Italian fans, there were other reasons too for such a dismal performance in South Africa.
Marcello Lippi resigned after leading a victorious World Cup charge in 2006, and Giancarlo Abete, president of the Italian FA, appointed Roberto Donadoni as his successor to lead the Azzurri into Euro 2008. The FA were never completely satisfied with the former Milan player and, after a poor display in Austria/Switzerland, returned to Lippi.
After triumphing in 2006 though, Lippi returned bolstered with self-confidence and had soon created his own "personal group" within the squad. The coach clung to the players who had delivered him glory in Germany, stars like the 37-year-old Fabio Cannavaro, his captain, and perhaps the most embarrasing selection in the entire World Cup party. From one of the finest defenders in 2006, Cannavaro is one of the worst today.
The Azzurri also appeared bereft of tactical ideas in South Africa, and this combined with a lack of stamina and technical skill made sure they would not perform above average. Movement off the ball also looked to have completely disappeared and is at levels worse than 2008.
Abete will most probably, despite the failure of bringing back Lippi, keep his job as head of the FA. His connections within the game should ensure this debacle does not result in him losing his post.
Now Italy will look to Claudio Prandelli to restore their pride at international level. Plucked from Fiorentina in early June, the ex-Viola manager has a difficult job in front of him. The new boss will surely bring back some of those excluded by Lippi, and perhaps amongst them will be Antonio Cassano, the troubled star who could have helped in South Africa. Opportunities too will be forthcoming for Mario Balotelli who, despite being a tender 19 years old, is already one of the most controversial figures in the Italian game.
Prandelli can also give a chance to Lorenzo De Silvestri, who played under the coach at Fiorentina last season, and Marco Marchionni, another Prandelli player in Florence. Giampaolo Pazzini will also expect to be involved more up front. The striker was used by Lippi only in the dying minutes of the meeting with New Zealand, but is usually lethal at club level when paired with Cassano at Sampdoria.
Italy will not find qualifying for Euro 2012 a walk in the park. In a group with Slovenia and Serbia, it could prove to be a tricky baptism of fire for Prandelli. As for the old guard, players like Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Rini Gattuso, Mauro Camoranesi and Toto Di Natale, it is likely South Africa will have provided them with their last international caps. And while the new Azzurri will find the future tough, it will also be hard to do worse than Lippi’s African disaster.
