I hate to say it, but the Azzurri won't get better until they reduce the foreigners on the mid & bottom level teams. Those teams should supply the top teams by developing them & teams like Juventus should be helping to support those teams. Serie A has been crushed partially b/c of a lack of marketing/ ability to adapt to an increasingly international game where it is important to attract a global fanbase. But this wouldn't nearly be as much of an issue if the player development was still there b/c frankly domestic players in Italy have been historically quite loyal meaning that a robust domestic class keeps the country competitive regardless of competition from the EPL. By bringing in mediocre foreign players like Maxi Lopez, or Mauricio Pinilla you're hurting your leagues competitiveness. Another huge thing is that lower tier teams need to embrace younger talent more. Udinese is the worst example from the last match day. 2/11 starters were Italian & 1 was an Italian under 30.
Teams also need to take more risks and give youth a chance. Way too often do you see a player come on and get a debut at 18 or 19 and then sit on the bench for 4 years, and end up being mediocre. The latest example of this was Daniel Verde of Roma. He impressed a lot in his first few games, looking like their best player at times, but after his MOTM 90 minute performance on February 8th, he never got another full match again. There are two teams that I see that are mostly getting things right now out of the mid-to-bottom level teams, Sassuolo & Empoli. Sassuolo could add a bit more youth, but overall they're pretty good. On the last match 10/11 were Italian, and 3/11 were under 25. Empoli had 8/11 that were Italian with 5/11 being Italians under 25.
Is there a coincidence that these teams with largely unknown rosters are overachieving? I don't think so. I think there a few key factors:
-Mostly domestic means better communication (language) & similar playing style.
-Youth is hungrier a lot of the time and their bodies are more durable.
-Youth also improves, meaning that as the team plays against better competition, the team should get better.
Hopefully, going forward more teams adopt the Sassuolo/Empoli model and fewer adopt the Udinese model b/c frankly Udinese adds nothing to Serie A. Their best players go abroad, and their overrated talent ends up taking away spots from promising domestic players. I'm all for diversity in the league, but that's a different issue than keeping your domestic pipeline robust. It's the strongest protection a league can have in the face of increasing international marketplace.
And for the record, Conte's pickup of Caligiuri seems brilliant. Schurrle was expected to go in and win his spot when signed, but it was almost always Perisic or Schurrle that began as a substitute.