Del Piero sucked badly (all goals oportunity wasted, not an assist, not a good ball 4 his teammates, not one single dribbling winned, so many balls losed, so many passing failed) esactly the same of WC 1998 and EURO 2000 but he is not the "scapegoat", there is already a "scapegoat" and it is Trapattoni infact he was sacked as soon as Italy was kicked out of the EURO.
Nobody expected Del Piero to do well infact here in Italy nearly all media and fans was screming at the scandal when he was called up, he was one of worst second fowards of serie A even Flachi and Di Michele weare doing better than him and deserved that azzurri jersey more than him but blind Trap decided to take him to the EURO, so it was his foult, DP could not do better... the mistake was to allow him to go to the field.
And is not finisch...
Vieri had a terrific and of season... ok Trapattoni could not leave him home but he had to take to Portugal a good alternative to him, he had to take Gilardino cause Corradi is a good player but he never score. Gila was the italian topscorer!!!
Everybody knows that Totti has a weak personality so Trapattoni was wrong to put all those pressure on him declaring that he is Italy and all ouers tournament depended on him. Totti could not stand the responsability and loose the control. And of course his extra attention to Totti pissed up and made jealous others players.
Perrotta, Zanetti and Camoranesi had a bad season... why the hell he counted on them too???
4-2-3-1 is a shit way to put those players on field, cause this is a good module just if you have the right players to do it but with the players Trap had he had to force most of tham out of their natural role. And also this module was not used anymore from Italians teams (excluding Parma) so he was stupid to insist on it, it was easier to use Milan's or Roma's.
Cassano was the only player "on fire" we had but Trapattoni didn't make him start the first match (who was IMO the one that cousted us the elimination) and if was not 4 Totti's banning he wuold bench Cassano all matches.
All players weare in war with each other... every day there was somebody crying with the media... Del Piero (crying cause Totti had more attention), Fiore (schouthing Camoranesi schould not play with Italy), Gattuso (pissed when himself and Pirlo didn't start vs Denmark), Oddo (disappointed cause Trapattoni decided the starting 11 to early and never changed his mind), Vieri (insulting the press) and even Peruzzi (crying cause he thought to deserve to be considered same as Toldo and not the third).Never there was so many polemics in the NT, this was the worts gestion ever! It looked like a race beetwin players to have more pages on the newspapers not a competiton that they had to win all togeder... and in this cases is impossible to go anyweare....
Trapattoni failed in all his decision... the calling ups, the formations and also the changings... he is the main "scapegoat". Than of course are the players who go on field but is the coach who choose tham... and in this case he made mistakes that everybody exluding him will be able to do :groan: