You wouldn’t think of a team that scores three goals that they are playing without an offensive department. And yet that was pretty much the case for the Italian team we saw yesterday night, battling against Armenia in a stadium half-empty but not too silent for that.
In fact, were it not for the goal by Pablo Osvaldo ten minutes from the final whistle, it would be hard to speak of the offensive players at all. Italy took to the field with coach Cesare Prandelli’s 4-3-1-2, the same formation he used for (most of) the last Euros, but with a fresh attacking duo. No longer Mario Balotelli (ill) and Antonio Cassano (obsolete – apparently), but Sebastian Giovinco and Pablo Osvaldo. The two new players have potential but it is to be hoped they up their game in the next few years. Both of them were unable to return and cover, and neither provided any kind of support to the midfield.
Their absence was so perspicuous, in fact, that all of the most notable things in the game were done by the midfielders. The first goal was the result of a penalty earned by Riccardo Montolivo (ups and downs from the Milan midfielder, but is anyone not getting used to it?) and kicked in by Andrea Pirlo. Italy’s second goal came from a cross by Pirlo, converted by a bull-headed rush by Daniele De Rossi. And it was De Rossi again who provided the assist for Osvaldo’s goal. So good to have you back, Danny boy.
It’s actually worth going out on a limb for the briefest of moments, because what we are witnessing is a small miracle. De Rossi and Pirlo, Italy’s best midfielders at least since Albertini, have never played well together. Their roles and abilities did not appear to be compatible, which seemed like a shame until Prandelli finally had them fit together in 2012. If there’s anything that yesterday taught us, it’s that De Rossi and Pirlo have not lost their chemistry. If sustained over the next two years (big if, we know), this could be huge for Italy. As of now, only Spain can boast a midfield duo comparable to these two gentlemen.
In fact, for all of Prandelli’s injection of new and kind-of-new faces into the Azzurri, this is still a team sustained by the veterans. Along with the great midfielders, keeper Gianluigi Buffon also showed good form. His save on Manoyan’s shot was brilliant, and he was confident when called upon.
The same cannot be said of those players who needed to prove themselves, from Domenico Criscito (fizzy and insubstantial like a glass of lemonade) to Andrea Barzagli, who failed to hold back the impossibly named Armenian forward, Mkhitharyan, on the occasion of the opposition’s only goal. Stephan El Shaarawy was also looking to impress, but despite demonstrating some vitality, he did nothing concrete – and concreteness, as we all know, is what the Azzurri are all about. Better luck next time.
On the whole Italy showed some signs of sufferance, particularly in the middle part of the game, but this is part of what the Azzurri notoriously do. They suffer against small teams, they do not always show beautiful football, but in the end they bring home the three points. They are congenitally unable to play as favourites. There is nothing worrying about that.
What is a little more perplexing is the fact that the new names are showing no signs of integrating themselves very well, and the strikers in particular were dreadful. There’s a long way until that flight to Brazil, but it wouldn’t hurt to start showing some positive signs sooner than that. This Tuesday against Denmark, for example.
