After the disastrous end to last summer's World Cup, where Italy rarely played an entertaining game thereby fuelling the 'defensive Italy' stereotype, the whole country asked Trap for a more offensive minded style of play.
On Saturday evening, when Italy begin their quest to qualify for the 2004 European Champioinships against Yugoslavia, this is the answer the most stubborn trainer on planet Earth will give the Italiani:
Buffon; Panucci, Nesta, Cannavaro; Oddo, Di Biagio, Tommasi, Zauri; Pirlo; Inzaghi, Del Piero
I don't know how this formation is called in the rest of the world, but here in Italy we call this a 5-3-2 line-up, disguised as a 3-5-2 one. What are Oddo and Zauri doing on the Italian midfield's wings? There is no doubt they are good players, but in their respective teams, namely Lazio and Atalanta, these two guys play as left backs in a 4-4-2, with a wing in front of them, something they won't find on Saturday in Naples.
Furthermore the presence of Oddo, who played only 45 minutes in this season so far, raises some other doubts on Trapattoni's ways. Trap should start calling players who are in top shape, not those who he believes can be helpful but aren't demonstrating this in the Italian league.
It's really hard to understand why he has never selected players like Tedesco, Maresca, Corini and Marcello Castellini, all of whom have maintained an impressive standard of quality in their performances over the last two seasons.
The third issue regards another strange habit of the veteran trainer, who seems to love fielding players in a different position compared to the one they cover in the respective clubs. For example, against Yugoslavia Andrea Pirlo will surely replace Totti as the offensive midfielder behind Inzaghi and Del Piero. The Milan youngster has been playing superbly in this first part of the season, but he has been doing so in a totally different zone of the field. Carlo Ancelotti transformed him into a fantastic old-style playmaker, a point of reference who plays in front of his defensive line.
This has already occurred several times in the past. Del Piero is a striker, and he was often forced to play as an offensive midfielder, something he doesn't like at all, and the same applies to Atalanta's Cristiano Doni, who surely has great offensive skills but plays on the left wing and not in the middle.
As an Italian, I do hope that Trapattoni will succeed in these experiments. But I'm very skeptical, to say the least.
(Source: soccerage.com )
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Why can't they just re-appoint Zoff ?
