Like, how?

They have a wealth of talent in midfield and with wide players like Insigne coming through plus El Shaa's ability to drift from wide to infield it can work really well, certainly better than the xmas tree with 2 workman-like wingers behind a sole striker

Pirlo is the only one that becomes a problem in a 4-2-3-1 as he doesn't run and cover spaces which is something that needs to be done in a formation like that. That being said, I can't see Pirlo being of any positive influence to this side beyond the next World Cup.

He's already no where near the form of his first season at Juve and the following Euros. He was pretty bad yesterday as well

Let's be honest, unless they're a Milan player or World class, you call them "average" or whatever at best anyway. And the same goes for club level, unless they're Barca, Madrid, Milan, etc. you call them mediocre.

It's a lot harder to shine in a club filled with worse players remember. Cerci was very impressive for Torino and Candreva well above average for Lazio last season.

I think Italy's best formation is 4-3-1-2, with De Rossi, Pirlo and Marchisio in midfield, Monto as AM, and Balo + SES/Insigne/whoever in attack. Or even 4-3-3, drop Monto and play SES and Insigne in attac alongside Balo.

Have you actually SEEN them play for Italy?

Actually I think of it in a completely different light to you. It's much easier to shine in a team filled with average players like Torino or Lazio, but much more difficult to shine in a team full of top players. And certain players tend to perform great things with small clubs but utterly fail in any sort of big stage, the big fish in a small pond analogy was invented for these players.

And when have I ever said that players from those particular teams are great and in smaller teams aren't? There are plenty of players who I'd want at Milan over some of our current crop, but would I want a Candreva or Cerci at Milan? Obviously not, because they are in fact average. A player from Lazio I'd take in a second: Hernanes. A player I'd have loved to take off Torino's hands: Ogbonna. Cerci and Candreva? No thank you!

My thinking:



Maybe Verratti ahead of Marchisio or Monto when he matures a bit more


I also agree with this completely, Italy's approach in the EURO KOs against England and Germany was tactically perfect for every player on that pitch. a perfect diamond.

Why he chose to revert to 3 at the back for that horror final I'll never understand

SES wide and Monto at the #10 - 2 things Allegri gets slammed for?

Monto plays the number 10 role with Italy on a regular basis

And in this case it wouldn't be an ultra flat and 1 dimensional 4-3-3 that Allegri plays which leaves both "wingers" stuck wide doing nothing 99% of the time

I agreed with x-off that a narrow 4-3-1-2 is the best way to go, but my point with the 4-2-3-1 was that Prandelli has so much talent at his disposal especially in midfield and attack that he can try more dynamic approaches to games, especially now that they're through to Brazil there's less pressure.

Lol, what happened to Bendtner in these last few months? Has he been living on a mountain ever since Juve rejected him?

Townsend looks a spark, everything else is just...

A rare very good performance and a very good result to match up. One last job to do.

Yeah, would always expect us to beat an understrength Montenegro side but this is England. Nice couple of gifts too hopefully more teams give us this (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Keeper played very well as well. Probably should've been a cricket score.

Just looking at some of the posts from March (because that was when I last came in this thread) and it's borderline hilarious. I forgot it was so long and I was about to rant then I looked at the date.

Let's just say most of the posts were calling Neymar rubbish (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I've not really seen him play against anyone of much note yet to be honest. I've seen him v England twice and he was embarrassingly poor. Otherwise he's just played a bunch of mediocre sides in Spain and Europe in front of the best midfield in World football.