Ciro Immobile’s injury complicates matters for Italy going into the crucial World Cup qualifier with Switzerland, so how could Roberto Mancini’s men set up?
The big game kicks off at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome at 19.45 GMT on Friday.
Italy and Switzerland are joint leaders on 14 points, but the Azzurri have a superior goal difference of +11 to +9.
Lazio striker Immobile left the training camp today after a soleus muscle strain, joining Nicolò Zaniolo and Lorenzo Pellegrini in pulling out of the squad.
Andrea Belotti is nowhere near fully fit after an ankle sprain for Torino, while Sassuolo’s Gianluca Scamacca has been called in as a replacement for Immobile.
The most likely alternative for Mancini is to set the Azzurri out in a 4-3-3 formation with a ‘lightweight’ trident attack.
That would move Federico Chiesa or Lorenzo Insigne to the centre-forward role, with Domenico Berardi completing the trio.
With Chiesa and Insigne together, they could swap places during the match to keep opposition defenders guessing.
Federico Bernardeschi of Juventus and Sassuolo’s Giacomo Raspadori are other options for the False 9, although Raspadori has increasingly been used in a supporting role at club level this season.
Nicolò Barella and Giorgio Chiellini are training separately from the rest of the group due to flexor issues, so they too remain in doubt.
Don’t worry, won’t make no difference without him. Italy played with 10 men during the euro when he played.
Are we getting nervous yet?
@Lui Lol i bet Ciro has been tearing your team up for many years now so you clearly are in pain from him! As a non Italian but a big Lazio fan i hope he never gets called up from Italy again, go play with Raspadori and Kean and see where you ll get. Ciro is going for another Capocannoniere this season and maybe another golden shoe, you clearly don’t deserve him.
Immobile may have not scored many goals for Italy but the way he plays helps the rest of the team play well and win! Many tend to underestimate his contribution. Obviously he is a striker and have to score goals but I think he is the best we have right now and I am really sorry he won’t play. Personally I am a Juventus fan but above all An Italy fan!
Immobile totally sucks with Italy. He was by far there worst player at the Euros. How many chances does he need?
@pambiero you can get any striker in Italy and still get the same work rate has him off the ball and make those contribution for the team but to make the difference, you need to score goals. This is what lacking in Italy. There is no striker that’s stands out. Ciro is doing it for his club but not Italy.
id like to see an Insigne Scamacca Chiesa 3-4-3 attack… bring in Berardi for Scamacca then switch to defensive 4-4-2 with hopefully a 2-0 goal lead…look for long ball counter attacks.
@Pambiero…
Well said and absolutely correct!
Much like Belotti. They draw much attention but then open the play for other teammates.
The most important thing now is to qualify directly! We can’t live again the procedure of playoffs as anything can happen there! It’s also a strange format with three groups of four teams. We are the european champions, we are Italy and we can make it on Friday and Monday! 🇮🇹
@Pambiero. I appreciate that aspect of his game. His selflessness and workrate. My problem with him is for every good thing he does, he does several bad things. He frequently loses/mis-controls the ball, which causes many a move to break down. Het gets caught offside too often. And worst of all, he wastes so many good opportunities. There has been so many instances where Italy have battered the opposition, only to then barely get over the line, draw or lose.
I’ll never forget the friendly away to England when Di Biagio was caretaker manager. Immobile missed around 3-4 great opportunities in the first 20 minutes. Then there was the Nations League game at home to Portugal. We dominated the game, but once again Immobile misfired.
He struggles against the big teams. Most of his International goals were scored against minnows and middle ranked sides. The highest profile opponent he’s netted against was Holland, and that was in a friendly.
He’s playing in the most attack-minded Italian side I’ve seen, being given the service and support that a Baggio, Signori, Di Natale never had (the great things they did was in spite of their cautious coaches and not because of them), and yet Immobile still cannot do the business.
FI remove the pop up screen please….i can’t take it anymore!!
It look like Switzerland have many injuries too, so I cannot see Mancini using any formation other than 4-3-3 and using personnel he’s comfortable using.
The team will no doubt look something like this
Donnarumma
Di Lorenzo (I would prefer Calabria personally)
Bonucci (if fit)
Chiellini (if fit)
Emerson
Locatelli
Jorginho
Pessina
Berardi
Chiesa
Insigne
Should we qualify, it would be good to try out other formations so that we have a plan B for the World Cup. Perhaps it can be tested in the Nations League?
3-5-2 would in my opinion would work as we have players accustomed to that formation already at club level, and it could be used against the more challenging sides; it doesn’t necessarily have to be defensive either.
I think about our recent games vs Spain, and although getting the better of them in the Euros, we struggled and they got their revenge in the Nations League recently. In my opinion, we would have handled them much more effectively in a 3-5-2, history supports this too, as we have always done well against Spain with this formation (Group Stages in Euro 2012 and 2016).
Pa,
No group has 4 teams.
The teams that were involved in the Nations League Finals were purposely drawn into Groups of 5. As well as some other groups, like A.
The rest have 6.
If Italy, Spain, France, Belgium were not Nations League Finalists, then they could have been in a Group of 6.