Warning! The Bar Sport is not a place for sportsmanship. If you are looking for a well-balanced, objective analysis of the latest Serie A matches, then skip to the next posts: This is a place where supporters can vent freely, and unleash their most visceral passion for football. Any views or opinions represented here are personal and belong solely to the post author.
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What’s going on, Mr. Ventura? We are talking about last night, of course, as we are not sure what happened. For the full time of our match against Sweden, the verve was missing among the Azzurri.
We simply appeared weak, confused, and disorganized. Italy forgot they were Italy – and, what’s worse – it looked like they also forgot that chances to make it to World Cup 2018 were at stake. Well, just a quick reminder, yesterday’s one was not a friendly game!
Sweden is surely a good team, and they indeed played better than us. They were disciplined, and easily followed their coach Janne Andersson’s directives. Differently than us, they looked determined to win, and used a good combination of provocations and well-done pressure. The Suedes closed us down, raising their elbows a little bit too much at people like Leonardo Bonucci, Daniele De Rossi, Giorgio Chiellini, who are supposed to be Italy strongest fighters! Oh football, you are so funny!
But on our side, we were not just “unlucky.” We simply showed no clear views and no schemes. Easy to point fingers at this stage, but what seen last night was an old concept of football, a provinciale one to say the least: A way to play in which people like Antonio Candreva, Marco Parolo, Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne and Co. simply cannot shine.
There was so much confusion, and so little cazzimma (sort of an “agonistic rage”). Mr. Ventura, how can you ask Lorenzo Insigne to play in Marco Veratti position, when you have people like Jorghino sitting on the bench? And what about proposing a more offensive module, maybe switching to a 4-3-3 after Jakob Johansson scored the 1-0? And, seriously, are we still playing with 3 defenders? Were we not supposed to be the culture of 4-4-2 and catenaccio?
Well, those are not easy questions to answer, as we are not Ventura – tough every Italian supporter is a wannabe Nazionale coach, that’s known. But at the same time, one cannot refrain from criticism: What seen at the Friends Arena looked like a low-cost horror movie. Not even Dario Argento could have done better!
Last but not least, was it really necessary blaming the referee after playing such kind of game? Come on, we cannot! Rather, we should start with a mea culpa, and then find and propose solutions. Let’s be brave. That is going to be the only way to welcome the Suedes at the Scala del Calcio – San Siro stadium – on Monday with the correct attitude.
Everything went wrong last night but still, time is on our side. We got 90 minutes left to play and we all know what Italy is capable of when facing desperate situations. Come on, Mr. Ventura, we can make it! The Russian Roulette is waiting for us!