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Originally Posted by Kjeldoran
The ONLY reason known players such as Toni and Grosso aren't selected, is because they did play an extremely poor season. Same reason why Del Piero isn't called up either.
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In all fairness to Luca Toni, he hardly featured much in the qualifyings either. Maybe 2 or 3 games at best. He's been poor. There are others that have performed better, especially if you've been following Serie A. The thing is, Di Natale, Gilardinho have been on form, and Iaquinta's been decent since recovering. Iaquinta's perhaps the questionable one here in terms of form due to his recent injury, and god only knows what Quagliarella is doing in the team, but Pazzini's something you'd call "future of Italy" at 25 years and an impressive season at Sampdoria behind him.
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Infact, yesterday I read an article in "Voetbal magazine" (a dutch soccer magazine) about Italy. An interview with a known Italian trainer (Zacchi or something), one of the trainers that was rumoured to take over from Lippi after this WC. He has similar views on his team.
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It's already been pretty much confirmed that Cesare Prandelli will follow Marcelo Lippi as the next manager of Italy. (not Arrigo Sacchi. Or actually, could you be refering to Alberto Zaccheroni? He's with Juventus, but I can't quite tell if you're on about Sacchi or Zaccheroni. Given Zaccheroni's recent joining of Juventus it's very unlikely he'd jump out less than a year after his appointment, so I think I'll stick to Arrigo Sacchi, who hasn't actually managed a team since the early 2000s). But regardless, this is old news, Prandelli accepted the job last month.
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He says the biggest advantage Italy currently have is their trainer.
There are very little youngsters called up. Balotelli and Cassano aren't called up either, both considered to be the furure for Italy.
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It's not a Theo Walcott league no. But if you consider Antonio Cassano a youngster, then the following Italy World Cup squad players are also youngsters: Pazzini Quagliarella Gilardinho Pepe Montolivo Marchisio De Rossi Marchetti Chiellini Criscito Bochetti Bonucci. (More than half the squad. Antonio Cassano is 27 years old. I'm not sure if that qualifies as a "future for Italy". Ironically, however, Cassano has been playing second man for Pazzini, who has been far more profilic in putting things into net this season for Sampdoria).
What comes to Mario Balotelli, his problem is that he's not had very regular football at Inter. The reason why he's not had regular football in Inter is because he's not only been left out in the cold by Mourinho (who once stated in a press conf that he wants his players to come back from the pitch dead tired and Balotelli didn't look too jaded), but he's been critisized by his fellow team mates, including captain Zanetti. He's not in because he has a bad attitude and he's ill tempered, and might be a liability for this.
Marcelo Lippi I've already mentioned.