interesting article
Tuesday 24 June, 2008
Blog: Double Dutch
Italy's best performance of Euro 2008 was the crushing defeat to Holland and Susy Campanale feels they learned the wrong lessons from that night
The Italian media has been united in its condemnation of Roberto Donadoni following the European Championship exit and it is difficult to disagree considering the rather pathetic way they limped out against Spain.
The only other thing they all concur is that at least he had the "moral courage and intelligence" as one newspaper put it to realise he had to completely change his system and line-up after the Holland horror show. Yet if you look back over the full matches, that 3-0 defeat was their best performance.
The Azzurri went into this tournament with Donadoni's wide-eyed 4-3-3 system and a range of attacking talent to suit it. They ran at Holland and pushed them further than any team until Russia took a similar approach and won brilliantly.
Yes, they conceded three goals, but the first was thanks to an interpretation of the offside rule that defies all sense of logic and the other two were counters straight from goalline clearances.
The building blocks of a great and entertaining side were there, they just needed a more solid defence – and let's face it, anything without the lumbering Marco Materazzi and clueless Andrea Barzagli in the centre would match that requirement – and Daniele De Rossi helping to clean up in midfield.
A couple of weeks later the same squad tried to live down to every conceivable cliché about Italian football. The quarter-final with Spain was like getting into a time machine and seeing Giovanni Trapattoni flailing wildly on the bench.
There were no ideas, no sense of urgency and absolutely no belief. Donadoni had used the 4-3-3 throughout qualifying to great effect, so why buckle at the first sign of media pressure?
He didn't just do it once, he repeatedly followed exactly what the newspapers told him to do, whether it was "You must field Del Piero!" or a few days later "You must play Cassano! Del Piero's had his chance!" Journalists just love to be fickle, but a Coach cannot afford the same coquettish approach.
We saw glimpses of an Italy team that could have not only progressed in Euro 2008, but done so with pride and an answer to all the critics. Instead Donadoni and the typical impatience of his countrymen has sent them back to the dark ages.