Brothers of Italy, Italy has awoken.

By Sunshine
June 12 2006

Unfortunately, it has awoken with a massive headache: Totti not yet fit after breaking his leg, Del Piero carrying an injury, Zambrotta injured, Nesta carrying an injury, Gattuso injured and most of the squad so out of form that watching them play can border on the painful.

Still, the last time Italy went into a tournament on the back of some great results was in 1974, almost as far as you can get from being a vintage year.

To add to the woes on the pitch, there is also the little matter of the scandals which have engulfed the beautiful game in Serie A. Many in the squad do not know who they will be playing for next term, nor in which division that will be. Justice has been known to hit hard in the footballing world, once it has bothered to rear its sleepy head.

Injuries and subsequent suspensions (given the ease with which yello cards have been bandied about in the opening games of the tournament) will probably mean that Lippi’s first choice XI will never see the light of day and that, together with the form of key players, is a true pity, since this team has a very real chance of getting to the final four. The reason is simple and it doesn’t have as much to do with the quality of the players (Italy have always had strong squads) as it does with the formation and the tactics employed by the coach.

Italy will play with a solid back four, a playmaker sitting just in front of them, a tricky winger on the right, a midfield dynamo next to the playmaker and a trio of forwards, one of which will play ‘in the hole’, providing the link from midfield to attack.

On paper, the ideal starting XI looks good. On the pitch, this formation has achieved notable success in prestigious friendlies, such as beating Holland 3-1 on their turf and Germany 4-1 three months ago on home soil. However, three months is a long time in football and whilst it is true that class is permanent, poor form can have a devastating effect on a team’s performance.

Let’s take a look at the players that are most likely to feature over the next month or so:

Buffon between the sticks is about as good as it gets. Once nicknamed the Maradona of goalkeeping (for his ability, not his physique), nobody will have a better player wearing the number 1 jersey this summer. Spent the first six months of the season out after having a shoulder operation thanks to a heavy challenge by Kakà in a high profile friendly against Milan in August, he should be back to somewhere near his best. His best is pretty awesome, truth be told.

Zambrotta will miss the opening game versus Ghana, but when he does become available again, he’ll most probably slot in at right back (despite spending the best part of six years on the left). Zambrotta is a wonderful player when free of injury, a real tough cookie for any opponent -He has two good feet (his natural position is as a wide midfielder, on the right), is quick and highly competitive. Now that Roberto Baggio has retired, this lad has become my favourite Azzurro.

In Zambrotta’s absence, Lazio player Oddo will probably get the nod. A class below the Juventus player, he nevertheless is a quality fullback (which is why he’ll probably don the red and black stripes of AC Milan next season) with a sweet right foot. Look out for his crosses, they are accurate and whipped in at pace.

Over on the left, Grosso will start. Again, not Zambrotta’s level, let alone Maldini or Cabrini’s. What Grosso does have, like Oddo, is a formidable left boot. Given the chance to forage forward, he can do a lot of damage.

The central defensive pairing is thee tried and tested combination of Cannavaro (captain) and Nesta. Anyone reading this article who doesn’t know everything there is to know regarding the ability of these players shouldn’t be wasting their time reading about football.

Cannavaro is not a tall centre back, but he is strong, jumps like a coiled spring and is quick. He also has experience in abundance and the self belief to impose himself on most forwards, having plied his trade with Napoli, Parma, Inter and Juventus.

Nesta, who has also been plagued by injury in the run up to this world cup, is a different type of centre back, far less ‘in your face’ than his partner, but wily and smooth. On top of his game, Nesta is quite simply the best defender on the planet and has been for several seasons. If he has a defect, it is that he does not dominate in the air as much as he could do.

Neither centre back gets on the score sheet very often, which can be considered another flaw that each of them has. 9 times out of 10, these two masters of their art deal with opponents with ease. When that is not possible, they can both turn into cynical animals at the blink of an eye. It makes them pretty hard to get the better of, even if I don’t always condone their methods.

The heartbeat of thee midfield is Pirlo of AC Milan. In the last three or so years he has matured into a stunning playmaker. Unfortunately for Italy, he is so good that thee opposition have studied him closely and found ways of limiting his influence on a game (usually by sticking a man on him wherever he goes on the pitch). Pirlo has been off form for the last two or three months and he is so important for the teams that he plays for that the negative impact of this situation is as clear as daylight. If he manages to shake off his end-of-season blues, Pirlo will not only run the midfield, he’ll also chip in with his fair share of goals. Set pieces are his forte.

Lining up next to thee playmaker, for both club and country is Gattuso. Gattuso is a nutter. He runs around the pitch as if a man possessed. His energy levels are incredible and he spends his time biting the opposition’s ankle…and that’s before the game has even started! As precious as Gattuso is in destroying opposition attacks, he doesn’t actually know how to play football. His technical ability has improved over the years, but this has had a negative effect on his game, since instead of merely booting the ball away as he used to do, he now tries to play his way out of trouble, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Another of Gattuso’s flaws is his inability to head the ball: Both he and Pirlo are not exactly tall, which puts added pressure on the central defensive pairing. Finally, the Azzurri’s terrier couldn’t hit the side of a barn when he has the chance to shoot, so don’t put any money on him being the tournament’s top scorer.

Gattuso will also not take part in the Ghana match, with De Rossi, the Roma player, replacing him. De Rossi is an all action youngster who is both good in the air and notches the odd goal here and there. Personally, I’d always pick him ahead of Gattuso if it were up to me.

Over on the right, the Argentine born Juventus player, Camoranesi. This chap knows how to play football, you can see it a mile off in the way his feet treat the ball. Tricky, skilful and single minded, he too is not the tallest player that Lippi can choose from. Another worrying trait that Camoranesi has is that he has a tendency to under perform in the big games. Hopefully, this will be put to the test if Italy manage to progress to the knockout stages of the competition.

If, however, Lippi decides to be slightly more cautious, then Camoranesi might be relegated to the bench to be replaced by one of Perrotta or the aforementioned De Rossi. Either of these two lads would add more muscle to the side, which might just be needed against less technically gifted opposition.

Now we get to the interesting bit, the guys up front. I don’t know what Eriksson would give to have the riches that Lippi can call upon, but I imagine it would be a lot. Italy will put two big, strapping lads up front and they’ll be a handful for any defence.

Toni ended the season with 31 goals in 38 starts, including a barren period in which he found difficulty in scoring. Toni is 6ft 5 and gives as good as he gets up front. He’s yet another member of the squad who isn’t setting the world on fire at the moment, but if he does click, then expect him to get a hatful.

Gilardino is a quick player and scores from all positions and with any part of his body which happens to be available. He is a goal scorer, it’s what he lives for (very much like Inzaghi, who is also in the squad and whom I actually rate more highly than Gilardino). He and Toni can provide all the firepower that any team could ever need.

…and so to the enigma of the squad: Francesco Totti. The Roman has a poor relationship with major tournaments: After doing well at Euro 2000, he was sent off in extra time for diving in the controversial loss to South Korea and was banned for the rest of the Euro 2004 tournament for being caught on TV spitting at his Danish tormentor. Romans tend to believe that Rome is still the most powerful and important city in the world and whilst they’re fun loving guys, they’re also rather arrogant and take extremely unkindly to anyone who tries to provoke them. Totti’s level of intelligence is inversely proportional to his ability with the ball at his feet. Watchers of international football have not seen anywhere near his best and, given that he’s only now returning from a broken leg, might never live to do so. He is a stunning player when he feels comfortable in a team and I really hope that referees see fit to protect him from the aggression that he usually has to deal with and that he hits some kind of form in the next few weeks.

Totti’s natural replacement is Del Piero, a gifted player that never really recovered from an appalling injury 6 years ago away to Udinese in the league. Past his best, but can still be incisive.

If there’s one doubt that I have about Lippi’s tactics it is Totti’s position on the pitch: When you have a player like him who shoots with such accuracy, almost always on target, keeping him ‘in the hole’, effectively away from the goal is a sin.

The trade off is that, in true Italian tradition, Totti manages to feed the strikers in front of him with breathtaking speed and precision: When Italy break from defence, with a player like Totti linking the rest of the team to the attack, the ball is played through before you can say “mamma mia!” and when you’ve got the likes of Gilardino and the powerhouse Toni latching on to defence splitting passes, then chances are something spectacular is going to happen.

Here’s hoping it does, a fourth world title would be just reward after so many near misses since the triumph in 1982.