Monday, October 02, 2006

Back to Del Piero...

More than one quizzical eyebrow has been raised at Roberto Donadoni's call-ups for the crunch Euro qualifying clash with the Ukraine. Alberto Gilardino and Antonio Cassano are the biggest name casualties from his first competitive clashes - seemingly sacrificed to make room for Luca Toni and Alex Del Piero.

The move smacks a little bit of uncertainty from the new boss. Why call up Cassano in the first place only to dump him this time? While Gilardino is crying out for somebody to show a bit of faith in him having been questioned at both club and country level for no good reason. It is surprising to see Del P back in the squad while nobody doubts Toni deserves his spot after the cracker he scored on Sunday. Still, judgment reserved until after the game.

On the league front it is Palermo and Roma who go into the national break on top after Inter's slip up at Cagliari. Neither side sparkled at the weekend but it is shaping up like an amazingly exciting campaign. The door is open for a real surprise Scudetto winner, is anybody prepared to take the chance?

10 comments:

Red said...

Hmm... it doesn't bode that well, does it?

Spangly Princess said...

I'm not going to get (too) excited about our form just yet, it's WAY to early. Inter are only a point behind and Milan have only had 2 duff games. Plenty of time for the normal situation to restore itself.

as far as the Azzurri go: beh, feck knows. Am going to try to get a ticket tomorrow though.

ginkers said...

It's good to see that - despite being world champions - we are all still our old pessimistic selves. It wouldn't be Italy if there wasn't some "polemica" to muddy the waters before a big game. Still, Forza Azzurri!

Venezian said...

As I said in my blog (subtle plug there), I don't understand the reasoning behind his dropping two of our most talented strikers in favour of the likes of Di Natale and Iaquinta. It doesn't make a lot of sense to exclude them when Cassano was our best player against Lithuania and Gila our best against France. What does it say about Donadoni's tactical nous? Not a lot.

Having said that, I'll be hoping as much as anyone that the boys grab us a couple of victories - and if we can play well, all the better.

* (asterisk) said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
* (asterisk) said...

Del Piero still manages to pull something out of the bag once in a while, but I think it makes sense to use him for only a short time, like the last 20 minutes or so.

ginkers said...

I suppose we could give Donadoni some space and say that he is finding his feet. He has been thrown in at the deep end with little chance of doing better than Lippi did. Still, some of his selections so far have been highly debatable.

Mind you, we really have gone for an inexperienced tandem with him in charge of the big boys and Casiraghi leading the Under 21s. I hope it pays off.

Spangly Princess said...

got my ticket! which is half-price for women, oddly. €10 for the distinti sud.

Iaquinta is never going to be more than a fringe player, Toni is out of form and not a long-term solution, why o why are we not sticking with Gila and Cassano (loathsome little skunk that he is) who are both talented AND represent real long-term options?

a.c.t. said...

Look at you Ginkers. Football, glass of red wine. Typical (Italian) bloke!

ginkers said...

If they had had one with a big plate of pasta in front of him that would have made my stereotypical image complete...