With Roberto Mancini reportedly trying to choose between Mario Balotelli and Joao Pedro, Susy Campanale has a suggestion for Italy’s World Cup play-offs.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Mancini only has room for one of the two hopeful forwards in his squad, which will be named over the weekend.
Balotelli hasn’t played with the Azzurri jersey since 2018 and is currently plying his trade in Turkey with Adana Demirspor, while Joao Pedro is battling relegation with Cagliari and has only recently achieved Italian citizenship.
Casting aside the questions about the fact Joao Pedro is Brazilian – Italy has a long history of Oriundi and anyone who feels they want to represent the Azzurri is welcome – is this really the best we can do for the most important matches since 2017?
Ciro Immobile will never be as effective for Italy as he is for Lazio, but he remains the top choice upfront and working in Maurizio Sarri’s 4-3-3 has helped him become more tactically versatile.
Andrea Belotti is back to full fitness, or something approaching it, and Gianluca Scamacca can’t seem to stop scoring at the moment, combining all the best elements of both the more senior strikers.
If we want someone to be strong in the air and knock down crosses in the final desperate minutes, I’d rather get Andrea Pinamonti and get him ready for the future after his nine Serie A goals this season.
If Mancini is looking for someone who can play a wider or more supporting role as well, then Gianluca Caprari has been doing wonders at Verona for quite a while now.
My suggestion, and I realise it’s not going to happen, but it’d be wonderful if it did, is to simply transplant the entire Sassuolo trident attack into the Italy side.
When there’s so little time to prepare in training, Mancini should look to the old school tactic of having entire blocks from club football work together at international level.
Sassuolo already play a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation anyway, Berardi and Giacomo Raspadori were in the UEFA EURO 2020 winning squad, they already combine so well with Scamacca.
We all know the problem with Balotelli and it’s not by any means entirely his fault, he is simply an attention magnet.
If SuperMario is in the squad, every other question in the interviews will be about him, every story in the papers, every tiny detail turned into a talking point and that is not good for anyone, including Balotelli.
If Italy qualify for the 2022 World Cup, then by all means test Balotelli in some friendlies, but the play-offs are too delicate to unbalance them this way.