A year ago, Italy was a European Champion and was very convincing in its process of winning. Who would have expected that more than half a year later, this blue-clad army would not even be able to score in the World Cup, defeatEd by Macedonia in the World Preliminary Round play-offs, and even Portugal could not see it. What is the problem with this four-time World Cup hegemon? Who is responsible for the loss?
Italy's strength is that they can face any team to a close match; but their disadvantage is that they can only play evenly against any team. Italy's lack of a shooter who can hammer a nail on the head, and there is no decent talent on the offensive end, leaving the team's creativity in the front court seriously insufficient. The major teams also have a goal-scoring scorer in the front, such as England's Kane; Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo; France's Benzema and Mbappe; Brazil's Neymar; Argentina's Messi and Lautaro Martinez. But the only thing Italy can come up with is Ciro Immobile.
But the Lazio scorer, who has scored just two goals in the last 10 World Cup qualifiers, is clearly unable to shoulder the team's heavy responsibility for scoring goals, while his substitute Andrea Belotti has scored just one. The lack of a striker has distracted Italy's goal points, but this problem can be dealt with in the cup, and in the group stage, which is in great need of stability, the problem of the team's lack of attack is fully revealed. In the 10 World Cup matches, Italy only scored 14 goals; don't say too far, look at the Defeat England of the European Championship, the "Three Lions" alone Kane scored 12 goals in this qualifier, compared with the goods, you can see the weakness of the Italian attack.
Italy can't produce strikers, and it really can't be blamed on Mancini, and the distrust of the local strikers by the big Italian teams is also the main reason. Juventus' high-priced center Vlahović this winter is a Serbian; Milan's two-member veterans Giroud and Ibrahimovic are from France and Sweden; Inter's Dzeko and Lautaro Martinez are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Argentine; Napoli's Victor Osmayne is a fast horse from Nigeria; and Tammy Abraham, who broke out in Rome this season, is a British soldier. When the shooters of the domestic powers were all foreign soldiers, how could Mancini choose soldiers?
Of course, Mancini and the players in the squad also need to bear a certain responsibility, in the two pairs of the same group of powerhouse Switzerland, Italy can only draw with the opponent, first 0-0 away draw; back at home to play 1-1 with Switzerland again, two defeats can pull Italy to the brink of outing. In both matches, Italy managed to score penalties, but the team's chief executioner, Jorginho, missed the golden opportunity to kill the game. During the away game, Jorginho's small jumping shot was saved by Swiss goalkeeper Jan Somore; his main shot back home was another big hit. A few months ago, he also said that he could compete for the Ballon d'Or, but it proved that the "master of the work" did not have the ability to withstand great pressure; Jorginho's two missed opportunities made Italy return to the mountain, from early direct qualification; it became a "falling horse" in the play-offs.
Of course, it is impossible for a strong team to win with penalties; Italy's attacking power is really a big problem. From midfield onwards, the team does not have players who can hand over transparent straight lines, the three midfielders are more than hard but lack of vision and passing ability; after Federico Chiesa is injured, there are no players with similar abilities who can take his place, and the progression of Domenico Berardi, Federico Bernardeschi, Niccolò Zagnolo and others is obviously not enough to take the banner of the team's attack.
Italy's offensive problems are really quite far-reaching, and the "defensive capital" must go further in the World Cup, starting from domestic teams, from talent training to tactics, which are all places to make progress.