Roberto Donadoni will make changes to the side which was caught out against Holland when the Azzurri face Romania on Friday. That is as obvious as it is necessary. But just what the Coach decides to do will give us the biggest indication yet of what kind of tactician he truly is. It’s a tie which may not only decide Italy’s Euro 2008 fate, but make or break his own career.
Donadoni today finds himself in a tactical conundrum. While he’ll have no real difficulty in changing personnel for the Zurich date, one can comprehend why he would be more reluctant to abandon his preferred 4-3-3 system – one which was in part introduced to differentiate his Italian team from Marcello Lippi’s creation. Don’t worry Roberto, nobody is confusing the two now.
When Italy take to the field against Adrian Mutu and Co, we’ll see whether the 45-year-old is a prisoner of his own tactics or is big enough to concede that he may have gone too far down the Luca Toni lone striker path. If he truly believes that Italy didn’t play that badly against the Dutch, then he should – in theory at least – have the conviction in his footballing philosophy to persist with his own ideas. Scary thought, isn’t it?
The reality is that he will, in all likelihood, turn to Alex Del Piero. A rejuvenated footballer and Serie A top scorer, he was the Azzurri’s biggest threat when he came on as a substitute against the Netherlands. His inclusion would seem like a logical step, but only if Donadoni puts him in a position to perform at his best. If he sticks Alessandro on that left flank again then he’s clearly learnt nothing. Whatever team he lines up, it’s not going to be easy against Romania and it will be even tougher against France. You just have to look at the Azzurri’s results under Donadoni to understand that. Apologies in advance to any Scottish readers, but – apart from a February friendly win over Portugal – Italy haven’t beaten a side of any significance since the ex-Livorno man took the reins in 2006. It doesn’t bode well.
Qualification for the last eight has certainly been compromised by Italy’s false start, but Donadoni is still in a position to make amends. How he goes about it and what outcome follows will go a long way to deciding whether he deserves the position he was, perhaps fortunately, handed during the Calciopoli confusion.
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finally Donadoni remove his head from his ass and makes a good decision
