There has been criticism that the Italy squad called by Luciano Spalletti at EURO 2024 was lacking in quality, but he was forced to do without several important names.
The Azzurri crashed out of the tournament in the Round of 16 following a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland, having beaten Albania 2-1, lost 1-0 to Spain and drew 1-1 with Croatia in the group phase.
Inevitably, the discussion around the shock exit has centred around the quality of the players at Spalletti’s disposal, with hand-wringing on why Italian football is not churning out talents.
However, this does not take into account the sheer number of players who would’ve been part of this group.
Italy talent forced to miss EURO 2024
First among them is midfielder Sandro Tonali, who is still out until next month following a ban for illegal gambling.
He would’ve started in the middle of the park rather than Nicolò Fagioli, who himself only returned to the field for Juventus in late May due to a similar ban.
In defence, Tottenham right-back Destiny Udogie was injured and Scudetto-winning Inter centre-back Francesco Acerbi was forced to withdraw from the pre-tournament training camp.
Giorgio Scalvini impressed so much with Atalanta and would’ve stepped in for Acerbi, but he too sustained a muscular injury in the last game of the season.
Domenico Berardi was a key figure in the Italy side that won the EURO 2020 trophy and has an excellent record at international level, scoring eight goals and providing three assists in 28 senior caps.
The Sassuolo icon will be out of action for months with a torn Achilles tendon.
Nicolò Zaniolo was probably a guaranteed starter too, until he was forced to pull out with a fractured metatarsal suffered with Aston Villa.
What about Scalvini?
What about the players we could and should have picked like Locatelli Verratti and Balotelli who would have made a big difference.
Every time I hear about Balotelli I wonder about the average IQ of the Serie A fans.
Gnonto & Tonali would of helped big time
Even a 50-year old Mario Balotelli would be better than these useless clowns Scamacca and Retegui.
Add in Gnonto on the wings.
Stop this, lack of talent is not the reason of failure, does anyone really think that (with due respect) Switzerland or Turkey or Slovenia have better players than Italy? Management is the issue, Spalletti is simply not good fit, bring in Sarri or Ancelotti.
More and more excuses for this failure.
Of the players listed, only Acerbi was potentially a guaranteed starter.
Tonali maybe 50/50.
Zaniolo should be nowhere near the national team as he is absolutely awful at football.
Berardi is a frustrating one trick pony.
Udogie is a LEFT BACK not a right back. Come on
Verratti and acerbi were sorely missed
Gravina made mancini resign. He should all the responsabilty for this failure. We played great attacking football Mancini
With Spalletti I was ashamed to see how poor the football was..
Remind me,why Spal didn’t select Veratti on the selection?