Focus On The Italian National Team

It was international weekend last week which for most is seen as a hindrance as that would mean a weekend without any "meaningful" football from your favourite leagues and club teams. Most football fans are mainly excited by international football only when it reaches the final stage of a tournament not the qualifiers or friendlies but the international teams would need to qualify for these international or continental tournaments and would need friendlies to fine tune their playing style as well as experiment and try out new players and systems which is why these weekends are important to the international team managers. During this kind of weekends, most fans would just pray that the international players from their favourite club or clubs do not return to club duties with any injuries. The good news is that the international weekend is now over and the bad news is that inevitably, someone did get injured.

I am an Italy fan and have been one for the longest time. It was the first-ever team I supported and I feel for the Italian national team very strongly. I am not an Italian citizen, have no Italian ancestry and never ever been to Italy but I support Italy like it is my national team. It is the number 1 international team for me. Heading into this round of European Championships qualifying matches, I was quite worried over the state of the national team seeing that from a recent study, the Italian national team's manager, Antonio Conte has only 36% of Italian players to choose from Serie A for the national team. Italian players have left Italy due to the lack of faith and trust in them as well as the lack of space or are in Serie A but don't play often enough. Moreover, the atmosphere in Italian football can be very stressful and poisonous due to the violence, demands and expectations placed on teams by fans.

Italian clubs have been very territorial in their approach, focusing only on the good of their respective club sides and discounting the greater good of the national team. From what I have read, qualifiers and friendlies are not taken seriously in Italy which is why you see the national team losing friendlies and doing the bare minimum in qualifiers to qualify for an international or continental tournament. Once they have qualified for the World Cup or European Championships, everyone would leave their club allegiance aside for one month at the end of the season to support the national team and get upset when things go wrong and Italy do not win the tournament as they are expected to by most fans. In fact, Italy tends to do better in the World Cup or European Championships when they have been written off and not given a chance. History would suggest so. Personally, I love it when Italy approaches a tournament and is completely written off before a tournament because I know that is when Italy will be at its most dangerous.

Back to the topic of lack of Italian players in Serie A, I don't understand why Italian players are not given space, trust and faith in the Italian clubs. My favourite Italian club, Internazionale is one of the main culprits of doing so. There have been an influx of foreigners into Italian football not necessarily for the better. Some of these foreigners occupy a space that could be occupied by an Italian player without offering more in terms of quality. There have been suggestions that Serie A is on its way back to its glory days again due to the foreign names it is attracting but if you analyse it carefully, most of the foreign players are either rejects from big clubs in other leagues, players formerly from the Serie A who can't find space in foreign clubs or players in their career's final lap. Some do well and can provide a boost to a team's quality while some others falter to deceive.

On the topic of Italian players, is there not enough talent in Italian youth players? I think so looking at the results of the youth Italian teams. The Under-21 team were unlucky to have got knocked out in the group stage of last year's U21 European Championships. Italian players do not lack talent. What they do lack in is confidence to express themselves fully without fear of failure and suffer from inexperience. Italian football is such a stickler for success and the end result that any small mistake made and the player would be annihilated by the press and fans. Due to this fear of making a mistake, young players play with an iron ball around their ankles and do not dare to express themselves fully. There is too much pressure placed on players. Due to the lack of space afforded to these youngsters in the first team, the youngsters lose out in terms of experience playing in Serie B or lower or worse still, in the Primavera against teams of similar ilk and experience whereas German and Spanish players play regularly in the highest division of their league.

Italy have suffered two embarrassing exits from the World Cup. In both cases, they were eliminated in the group stage itself. There was a brief blip of joy and positivity when Italy finished second in the 2012 European Championships and third in the 2013 Confederations Cup. The strength of Italian football lies in the tactical discipline that has been passed on from generation to generation as well as the win-at-all costs mentality.These two factors have enabled Italy to punch above their weight and surprise the odds even when on paper, they have seem to possess a squad lacking in quality but this lack of quality is also the reason why Italy hasn't been able to take the leap forward and win a World Cup or European Championship after winning the 2006 World Cup.

The Italian FA's controversial President, Carlo Tavecchio has commented on the issue of foreigners in Italian football but has done little to address the issue. Former Italian national team manager, Cesare Prandelli has also commented on it as has other big names in the game but no-one in a position of power has exerted any influence or their power to address the issue. It could be due to the fear of upsetting the club Presidents who have only got the greater good of their club side in mind. There have been allegations raised that Tavecchio is a puppet for Lazio's President Claudio Lotito and doesn't act independently.

Italian football needs to be refreshed with new ideas and fresh faces in the management positions at club and national level. By management, I mean management in the administrative level. Stadiums need to be renovated and club-owned. Violence and hooliganism needs to be eradicated. Fresh ideas need to be brought in at all levels of the game starting from the FIGC to Serie A, Serie B and so on. Primavera teams should be allowed to compete in the lower leagues of the Italian league system with promotion to Serie B as their ceiling of progression. All clubs should universally agree to focus on developing young Italian players and giving space to Italian players in their first team. The Italian national team should be the Number 1 team in Italy not Juventus or Roma or AC Milan or Inter. Knowing the selfishness of Italian clubs which comes from the traditional win-at-all costs attitude in the game, perhaps a restriction needs to be introduced to force Italian clubs into fielding a certain amount of Italian players as part of their starting eleven and a certain amount of Italian players as part of their match day squad per week. I don't think a lot of these Italian clubs realise the talents they have on their hands as they are so blinded by foreign players, Inter being the prime example.

There have been complaints in the recent past over the inclusion of Oriundi in the national team but what is Conte to do when there are so many foreigners and so little Italians to choose from? It is slowly becoming more common now for Italian players to move abroad to find playing time and to play in a better atmosphere where they can focus on football and lead a normal life without the fear of being harrassed by fans after losing a match or being under too much pressure during the entire week. Not many have made a successful transition with Marco Verratti developing at an eye-catching and consistent rate. Graziano Pelle, has been abroad for a long time now but has only gained prominence now playing in the English Premier League. Matteo Darmian has made a good start to life at Manchester United and Salvatore Sirigu was first choice at Paris Saint Germain until he lost his place this season. Sebastian Giovinco is enjoying a new lease of life and is full of confidence in Major League Soccer. If Italian players continue to find themselves marginalised in their own countries, more Italian players will continue to move abroad and Italian football would suffer from the talent drain. If foreign players continue to be preferred over Italian players, then it would be better for Italian clubs to compete in foreign leagues instead. I do hope one day soon crooks like Lotito and puppets like Tavecchio are removed to allow for someone younger and fresher to revolutionise Italian football. I don't mind taking up the mantle but I don't speak or understand Italian and I am afraid I lack the expertise to implement the changes and ironically, Italians are sceptical of having foreign owners for their clubs and foreign players representing their national team. I don't think they would take too kindly to having a foreigner trying to revolutionise Italian football. Hahah.

In this round of European Championship qualifier matches, Italy won both matches 1-0 at a time when Italian players haven't exactly hit full form in terms of match fitness. I feel the team collected good and important results on the path to qualifying for the European Championships. I didn't get to watch these matches so I can't comment on the performances but being an Italian fan, I know that all that matters now is to win and qualify. It would be nice to see or hear of Italy winning comfortably by a bigger score-line but I read that Italy were profligate in both matches and the standard between the big teams in Europe and the smaller teams has reduced over the years. It is no longer a walk in the park for big teams against smaller teams. We'll accept the goal of qualification any way it comes. Due to these wins, Italy have moved up the FIFA standings and most importantly moved a step closer to qualifying. Win against Azerbaijan next on the 11th of October and Italy would go through. Achievable goal but what about the future of Italian football? I hope more is done and lesser is said about what needs rectifying in Italian football for the sake of the national team.