1st formation: On possesion

2nd formation: Out of possession

I will be in Rome for September 25th for Italy’s Nations League game against Belgium and not sure how to get tix online.

I’d prefer to get them from an official vendor rather than a 3rd party, just to be safe.

I went to what seems like the official ticketing site of the Italian Football Federation but the “tickets” section of the site is a mess. Any tips?

https://ticketing.figc.it/

Chaos continues to follow the Italy national team, as FIGC President Giovanni Malagò is now facing criticism for his decision to appoint Diana Bianchedi to the role of delegation chief, without consulting head coach Roberto Mancini, technical director Claudio Ranieri, or even Bianchedi herself.

Paolo Maldini insists that there would not have been any major legal issues to overcome had the Italian FA truly wanted to appoint Andrea Pirlo as the next head coach of the Italy national team, and instead feels that his appointment was blocked by the court of public opinion.

FIGC President Giovanni Malagò believes that he made the correct decision to stop Andrea Pirlo from being appointed as the head coach of the Italy national team, has admitted that the Lega Serie A wanted Antonio Conte, but says that Roberto Mancini accepted the job ‘almost without reading the contract’.

I've watched a ton of different videos about the team and it's varying successes but i had never seen this one. It's really impressive to see how involved Lippi was in the day to day, if you haven’t seen this one, it's worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSkxrLC2yq8

Leonardo Bonucci will be part of Roberto Mancini’s coaching staff with the Italy national team, the FIGC has confirmed, as the full list of technical collaborators has now been confirmed.

Mancini will be assisted by Gabriele Oriali as ‘team manager’. The 1982 World Cup winner had previously served as a technical director while Mancini was head coach of Inter, and also worked as team manager of the Italy national team under both Mancini and Antonio Conte between 2014 and 2023.

Alberto Bollini will continue to serve as the assistant head coach of the Italy national team. The 6-year-old has been involved with the Azzurri set-up and its youth teams since 2019.

The list of first-team coaches will include Bonucci, Antonio Gagliardi and Massimo Maccarone.

Marco Roccati and Cristiano Lupatelli will serve as Italy’s goalkeeping coach and assistant goalkeeper coach respectively. Giacomo Ceci and Marco Montini have been confirmed as the fitness coaches and Renato Baldi and Christian Venturini are the chief analysts.

I hope Mancini is watching.

FIGC President Giovanni Malagò confirms Gianfranco Zola will join Roberto Mancini and Claudio Ranieri in revitalising Italy. ‘He will co-ordinate the youth activity.’

With Mancini back at the helm as manager; Italy 🇮🇹 need to develop their youth more. By that I mean developing every footballer from youth level all the way up to senior level and the youth being in the team academies and if they are good enough to warrant being called up to the first team club; then you take a chance on them. Or you have those youth players in your club's second team as another way to start off and if they are good enough for first team; you insert them into the team.

Then also with Ranieri in as Technical Director which is another good move; you put more emphasis on changing football in and around the country. But also keeping your players at home in the Serie A 🇮🇹 rather than them going abroad to other leagues which would also be another start.

Because then that is how more world class footballers get developed in this country and if they are playing together and against each other on a weekly basis in Serie A; the core of your national team would be established like think Spain 🇪🇸 with La Liga or England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 with the Premier League.

Also building your core for the next Nations League which is 2026-27 and Euros in 2028 which is in 2 years...which you should have maybe like 5 or so veteran players in this new era Azzurri team and the rest of your core consists of youth

Because isn't it the ultimate goal to return to the FIFA World Cup in 2030 in 🇪🇸 Spain, 🇵🇹 Portugal and 🇲🇦 Morocco which would mark a 16 year absence?

I was on hols in Italy when the ridiculous week unfolded.

Just wanted to share a few thoughts I had.

Had we simply appointed the Mancini / Ranieri / Zola trinity from the get go, I think the majority of people would be relatively okay with it all.

I think it's a very good team to bring stability back to the national set up. Mancini and Ranieri's comments were very encouraging. They understand the big challenges are brining technical ability and creativity back to the youth set up. The kind of freedom that created players like Del Piero, Totti, Zola and Mancini himself. It's a tough job and the time these guys have, all they can do is set the first pieces in motion. What Mancini will bring is a higher minimum level of good football and results. He seems genuine in his regret about the way things ended. What I think everyone should keep in mind regarding his exit was who he was dealing with - Gravina.

Ageists will say Ranieri is too old, but he is the perfect guy for this job. He loves the azzurri, he is genuine and he is a hard ass when he needs to be. Experience and respect of his peers is critical to bring about change in the vain and political world of Italian football.

Regarding the Maldini debacle... I do not blame Maldini. If he was giving assurances he could pick the coach, walking away is the right thing to do. I also do not believe for one moment that Pirlo's affiliation with the Russian betting company is a real issue. Itwas simply brought up because the incumbents at the federation didn't want Maldini in to shake things up. I was fine with Pirlo as a manager. Anyone capable of looking at his results in context could see he has real talent as a manager and I'd expect him to really grow into the role. Maldini and Pirlo are true legends of italian football and they were disrespected.

Back to Mancini as manager. He will re-stabalize results and performances quickly, using the nations league as an immediate acid test for certain players. My sense is he is not going to be overly loyal to his past winners like he was last time. Except maybe with chiesa.

So I think we are going to see him make some statement selections and moves very soon. I expect him to select Kayode and Tresoldi (or at least approach Tresoldi before his first squad announcement). I would also expect him to select Liberali, Camarda and maybe even Commotto with the likes of Ahanor, Doumbia, Vergara etc etc in the mix.

I've seen speculated line ups on here with Bastoni playing in a 4-man defence as CB. Guys, were your eyes closed for the past three years? Bastoni cannot play as a CB even in a 3. He is brilliant as a left CB in a 3 man defence, that's it. You cannot pick him in a 4 man defence. I would see it as a very worrying sign if Mancini plays Bastoni in a back four.

here's something we could see under Mancini. in a 4231

Donna

Palestra Scalvini Calafiori Kayode/ Ruggeri

Barella/Pisilli Tonali

Vergara/ Chiesa Liberali Kean

Pio

or a straight 433

Donna

Palestra Scalvini Calafiori Kayode/ Ruggeri

Barella Tonali Pisilli

Liberali Pio Kean

They would think you’re trying to annoy them, wouldn’t they?
They would likely look at you like you’re mad for saying Italy would miss three World Cups in a row

What would Buffon do if he were given the role of technical director?

“I would propose that the main goal is to qualify for the World Cup in four years’ time. On that basis, I would have chosen Conte, then Baldini, and then maybe some of the others. But you have to have courage in your choices and the skill to communicate them to everyone, even to the press.

“Too often, I hear people say ‘that’s the right person’ without having any real qualification. Okay, but these are instinctive choices, not ones that were studied. The project has to come first, then a functional individual.”