Why Don't Italy Have Any Strikers Anymore?
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- čas přidán 23. 10. 2023
- In the 2000s, Italy were blessed with the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Christian Vieri, and Francesco Totti, continuing a long and proud tradition of great Italian centre-forwards, which have long been the envy of the rest of the world.
Italy's most recent international squad, which lost 3-1 against England, didn't have a single player with more than 8 international goals, meanwhile none of the seven highest scorers in Serie A last season were Italian.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at the curious lack of Italian strikers, the reasons behind their disappearance, and the problems that it is causing the four-time World Cup winners.
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In Italy there’s also a big problem with giving game time to youngsters unlike “rival” nations such as Spain which translates to players in their early twenties with basically no first team experience because managers are scared to play them
I don't fully agree with this. Serie A is the league that emphasises the technical and tactics the most. Therefore in Serie A you must be skilful and have a good understanding of the game. These qualities take time to develop. No shame in letting a younger player develop in a smaller team or a different league. The Serie A has a lot of foreigners but they generally add to the quality of the league. The premier league suffers more with foreigners taking up spots than in itlay. Younger players should prove their level before they have a right to be playing lots of minutes in the top half of a serie A team.
@@shottskies we've had lots of young players proving their level in the youth teams. The problem is the transition to the pro level. I feel like players don't get enough of a chance at times, I'm a Milan fan and since we had guys like Cutrone, Locatelli, Calabria and Gigio we haven't had that many other young players coming through that have cemented a place in the squad. Sure we've had Gabbia, Colombo, Pobega, Maldini, Lazetic but none of them are starting quality. Guys like Petagna, Tiago Dias, Brescianini, Roback, Nasti, Desplanches, Kerkez, Tsadjout, etc are some memorable names that I can recall that had good spells or showed promise in the primavera without getting significant looks in the first team. We might call them up but we sparingly use them. Most times they either get sold or sent out on various loans. Milos Kerkez is someone who was very good in the primavera and every one was shocked when he left so soon. But he probably did so because he was confident enough in his ability and he probably did not see a clear path to the first team with Milan as compared to a team like AZ Alkmaar. He also notably refused to go on loan as he saw it as a risk.
@@shottskiesThis isn't the 90s granpa
@shottskies
Edit: "The premier league suffers more from foreign players taking up their spot than in italy" lol that didn't age well as AC Milan recently in their UCL match named no Italian players in their startung line up.
Respectfully, disagreed, everything you said about the Serie A fits the premier league too and it's also a very technical league that demands the best players and usually the top clubs in the premier league is mostly made up of non-english players but they found the perfect balance in my opinion cause they send a lot of their younger players on loan to EFL clubs or other "foreign" leagues sometimes or they play in lower table clubs and you see that by looking into the profiles of a lot of under-21 England players. Obviously, clubs have B teams/Under-18 teams, too, where they also let their players develop. Premier League also have a lot of foreign players in general, and they definitely take spots away from English players like Raya replacing Ramsdale is an ongoing "controversy." But I don't think this hampers the development of English football infact alot of the England players are under the age of 31, and there are a promising bunch coming up, of course. In fact, a lot of these young players tend to play for top clubs like Rico Lewis, Harvey Elliot, Cole Palmer, and you can probably include Bellingham here, too, along with a whole host of others which I think should be given credit to Premier League clubs' integration into the senior team and youth coaching. I think if anything, this just shows that youth systems also play a role, and there seems to be a problem in the Italian youth system just like in the German one.
I think the combination of all these factors is the reason why England are doing just fine in producing talents. While simultaneously having a league that has many top foreign players.
I agree actually. This might also be because the managerial scene there is rather stale. As an Italian once said in the comments of a different YT vid a few years back, their best coach (De Zerbi) was overlooked by the good Serie A sides and instead left to go to Shakhtar. I think the Serie A managers of course have a few very skilled ones in their ranks, but they're often afraid to hand out minutes to youngsters, and perhaps they are just too conservative in general, whether it's cultural, or whether Serie A owners are more eager to sack, I don't really know.
This isn't just with Italian youngsters imo. Plenty of Italian clubs hoard young, cheap talents, but few actually play them. Atalanta is the exception amongst the bigger clubs, but other than that? There's several young players I can think of who would sign for Fiorentina or Inter or the likes, barely get a look in at all and get their career wasted. For instance, Ianis Hagi signed for Fiorentina and had to be bought back by his former club in Romania because he wasn't playing at all, and went on to have a decent career elsewhere already. I feel like that is a theme. Serie A isn't the best league when it comes to developing youngsters. They'd rather buy a young-ish player from, say, the Belgian league, who has already proven himself, rather than give a youngster who can become that in 1 or 2 years time some game time. Just feels like that to me, anyway.
If Moise Keane is your default backup striker, something has gone wrong.
Really wrong he couldn't even be a back up at Everton ,
Big duncan is their hero , a striker who actualy lacked goals so you know they must of been scraping the barrel
Keane is a ‘pippa’, as we say in italian. It remembers me Calloni, a 70’s forward famous to miss goals even when alone and without goalkeeper.
@@TheVinci19magari c'avessimo Roy Keane
He rarely plays as a striker for Italy, mostly as a support player on the left. At least Kean offers a lot of movement and hustle... the sight of El Shaaraway starting a game against England was sickening.
Lol😂😂 great point!!
As an Italian myself, it’s not just that we don’t have any world class (or actually good) strikers anymore, we basically don’t have any world class player in any position (maybe Chiesa, Barella & Donnarumma maybe but that’s being generous) which is just so sad to see.
We’ve been in a downward spiral ever since winning the 2006 World Cup (despite winning the Euros in 2021), there have surely been other times of crisis during the National’s team long lifetime, but I generally have no clue if there are any signs of this one coming to an end as well.
How about Bastoni
Tonali?? But agreed, you're another spain. Was great in their prime but aren't producing as much talent as you used to.
@@matthewlaunchbury265 world class gambler
@@matthewlaunchbury265 Spain isn't producing as many talents as they used to? Are you joking? Have you looked at the Spain squad recently and there is this new promising guy in Barcelona that just debuted last match too like they're bringing out these wonder kids out of left field like they used to back in the day. Though, Barcelona and Bilbao are producing 80% of Spains talent tbh.
I would say apart from especially Harry kane and Bellingham there was hardly any differences between the two teams.
I would definitely add di lorenzo has world class.
Immobile is Italy's best striker however his club form never translates when playing for his country and he isn't the only one. Kean, Scammaca, Belotti, Caputo, Raspadori. Italian strikers have struggled when playing for their country. Gone are the days of Toni, Del Piero, Totti, Gilardino, Vieri, Di Natale and Balotelli when they can score goals for both club and country. Many other countries have a striker crisis. Look at Spain when they lost Villa, Germany when they lost Klose and Brazil when they lost Ronaldo. Neither countries found decent replacements for them.
Then there's Italy losing key leaders since conquering Europe in Euro 2020. Many of them are either old or other have already retired for good. Plus the players that replaced them are mid at best hence Italy missed out on two World Cup tournaments.
Could you make a video about the Romanian National Team?
Thanx
Luca Toni - 16 goals in 47 games for Italy
Del Piero - 27 in 91
Totti - 9 in 58
Gilardino - 19 in 57
Vieri - 23 in 49
Di Natale - 11 in 42
Balotelli - 14 in 36
Hardly prolific goalscorers for their Country - Vieri has easily the best ratio of goals to caps but even he doesn't hit 1 in 2.
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You mention Spain not replacing David Villa's goals BUT Alvaro Morata has quietly scored 34 in 68 - He wouldn't be considered fit to lace Vieri's boots by most football fans yet he has a 1 in 2 ratio for his country.
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Immobile's 17 in 57 is just 2 less than Gilardino hit in the same amount of games.
Yes Belotti's been awful for Italy with just 12 in 44 but that's still better than Totti's 9 in 58 and basically the same as Di Natale's 11 in 42!
He is like his name, very "immobile" in Italy team
To be honest I think it’s very unfair to mention Spain becouse Morata has always stepped up when it comes to playing for his country… he has 34 goals in 68 matches for Spain witch is a great record
It's not about the strikers, our national record is 35 goals and stands there since the 70s, meanwhile we still won something or at the very least fought for it, the problem is what's wrong with our defenders and goalkeepers. We used to say "Buffon is injured for EURO 2000? Oh no, anyway..." while Toldo proceeds to become the best keeper in the tournament.
The most frightening thing of all is that we always had the best defenders and goalkeepers in the world, Zoff, Zenga, Pagliuca, Buffon. Gentile, Bergomi, Baresi, Maldini, Vierchowod, Nesta, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Chiellini and now we have Donnarumma, Bastoni and Scalvini? Bastoni and Acerbi? Not good enough, since Donnarumma is still only as good as when he was 19 at Milan since PSG can't develop their players for shit.
The last 10 years have been horrible for us, almost every youngster either was a complete degenerate or was heavily injury prone or both, Marchisio basically retired at 30 years old because of injuries, Giuseppe Rossi's knees imploded far too many times, Balotelli and Cassano decided to throw their careers away because they couldn't behave, Di Natale was happy being a big fish in a small pond at Udine and limited himself despite his talent, El Shaarawy scored 14 goals in 18 matches while he was only 20 then started doing coke and stayed off half a season then went to China, Zaniolo destroyed his knees a couple of times and to make it worse he's as thick as oatmeal, Sensi poor guy was even better than Barella but he spent more time injured than fit since he joined Inter first squad, Donnarumma and Verratti wasted their careers at PSG a team that give their players 0 development and after that Verratti goes to Arab retirement home while only 30, Tonali just gambled it all away (pun intended), Chiesa is 1 ACL away from becoming Giuseppe Rossi n.2.
Let's face it, I'm still gonna scream my lungs out at the anthem and cheer whoever wears that jersey but we are fucked.
Sounds like the Softball episode of the Simpsons
Spot on
You won the Euros, I’d bloody take that
@@tomh2121 England are the Spurs of International Football. They're good, but never win anything
Have to agree with everything here. It's depressing but therapeutic at the same time 🤷♂️
Its a world football problem right now.
the 4-3-3 system has coaches training to have their players be dynamic strikers like Ronaldo and Messi. We lost the art of the target man or traditional strikers like Falcao.
Only true target men are in that position because of their physical nature like Lukaku and Haaland.
The traditional target man or striker were Rudi Voeller, Miroslav Klose, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Salvatore Schilacci, Alan Shearer, Etc..
@@ronnyron4681 Falcao is the last example of a target man
Cavani? before PSG put him on the wing@@Kaijufied
Yeah Haaland isn’t there due to his incredible shooting technique or ability to clinically hit the target, def just his size
🙄 He doesn’t even score many headers…. What a terrible take.
Kane is also a target man, not sure how everyone missed him. Or Giroud. And as a target man, Kane limited his team so much that he had to learn to become dynamic…
Man City won a lot of trophies without always using a main striker, Barcelona too. Teams like arsenal have wingers scoring goals, as much or more than strikers. It works… Liverpool another example.
@@krusher181 I think that is his point, though. Lukaku and Haaland have the skills of a "target man" but also can run. That's what he meant by "more physical". Point is, being just a target man isn't enough, you have to offer much more, size is good, but you need to be fast, clinical, and be able to link up play.
I think that the problem was actually started on the midfield. In the 90's, Italy was a paradise for a type of player called "fantasista". A player who got an attacking role, but is not a striker. These players are usually gifted with technical ability out of fantasy. Players like Baggio, Del Piero, Totti, Di Natale, and Gianfranco Zola were this kind of player. These players often became the main attention of the opponent defenders, made it easy for a poacher striker to lose their markers and score goals. Today, these kind of players have disappeared almost entirely. Italy's best midfielders are now defensively oriented midfielders like Barella, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Locatelli and Verratti. Not only strikers, Italy also have a shortage of attacking midfielders. Even wingers are also rare. Compared to other national team which have an abundance of stock on attacking midfielders and wingers. And that's why Italian strikers have difficulties in scoring goals, because nobody assist them from the second line.
You're absolutely right, Italian football is suffering from an acute shortage of high quality attacking talent
That's the result of what I call the "football climate change" where midfielders and forwards are now expected to be all-rounders (in a sense, this is just an ungraded version of total football, except it's boring). The same happens to Brazil, where their best players are now wingers rather than a number 9 or 10 that we use to see. The main reason for the climate change is that the number 9s and 10s are too inefficient when it comes to the modern day high pressing defensive plays. In fact, gone were also the Nestas, Canavarros and Maldinis, where they simply win the ball from you without having to play it rough. Football nowadays no longer wait for golden boys to be produced, they simply turn to technically average but physically strong, fast and tactically disciplined players, for centre backs to be able to play the passing, for forwards to do the pressing and the midfielders to do everything. If we compare Henry and Mbappe, it's clear that Henry was a lot more skilful whereas Mbappe is a lot faster and with greater amount of stamina but lesser in technical terms. I had to admit the results speak for itself, but what we now have isn't really entertaining, at least not for me.
Great answer
@@stormmeansnowork mbappe is still young. bad comparison
@@kingcuckoo Mbappe is 25. A 23 something Thierry Henry in his Arsenal days was a lot more entertaining, technical-wise, than Mbappe right now.
My old man said that when he went on holiday to Italy, he saw that when playing football, the big kids were bullying the little kids to be strikers, while the big kids were in defence. somewhat the opposite of English kids, and that he reckoned this was why there were so many diminutive Italian strikers like Zola and Di Canio. Defending is just more fashionable there, hence Maldini, Baresi, Nesta, Costacourta, Bonnuci, Chielini etc etc
😀😀😀Wow...!! Really interesting..!!!!
Never ever had that experience growing up in Italy playing quite a lot with friends and random children in the parks of my city. Number 10 was the cool one together with striker and the usual annoying child who wanted to play despite being horrible was always put in the last line of defence as a kind of 3rd post and goalkeeper was the most difficult role because even the horriblyabled children didn't want to be goalkeepers
Even as a child in Australia with an Italian dad. When we went to the park to play with a ball, I never wanted to shoot at goal. I didn't like being the attacker, I always wanted to goalkeep. Wow.
Source: me drunk dad
Italy is no longer a dominant nation in football, it’s very sad to see
It was only 2 years ago they won the Euros and went 37 games undefeated. Providing they qualify for Euro 2024, they can never be written off.
Same with Germany
They’ve won a euros and a World Cup in the last 17 year and got to a euros final 😂
@@arransadventures7319not consistent enough
@@arransadventures7319 when they won the world cup they had players like Del Piero , Totti , Pirlo ,Buffon , the striker they had in euros was immobile who is the only good forward Italy rn
Back in 2017-2019, I really hoped Patrick Cutrone would be the next "bomber" for Milan and Italy for years to come. You know, in his debut season he scored 18 times at the age of 19 and 20.
Fast forward to 2023, he's 25 now and playing for Como in Serie B, where he still struggles to make it past 10 goals per season.
Sad.
Where did you get those stats? He did not score that many goals at Milan. He scored 13 goals in 3 seasons.
@@lorenzofiorini9471 LLOOOL bro is pulling stats out his rear
@@lorenzofiorini9471 He’s including all competitions. According to FBRef, Cutrone scored 13 league goals + 6 in Europa League and 4 in the Coppa Itália over his 3 years in Milan’s senior squad. So 23 total goals in 3 years.
For some reason, Wikipedia only includes league stats in their player page summaries (the top section with their photo), which is why it says he scored 13 in 63 games for Milan.
What could of been Cutrone was my goto youngster on FM, definitely failed to live up to expectations
I think how management handled his transfer really messed with him, he wasn't the best but he was red and black. I hope he gets it back on track
I grew up watching Football Italia on channel 4 and in just that era Italy had the likes of Baggio, Vialli, Del Piero, Pipo Inzaghi, Vieri, Signori, Mancini, Totti, Locatelli, Chiesa, Montella, Toni, Zola, Ravanelli, Casiraghi, Delveccio, Di Natale et al.
Guys like Dario Hubner and Simone Inzaghi were decent Serie A strikers in the 90/00's who never got a chance in the national team would probably have 100 caps if they were playing today.
Inzaghi decent is a crime he was the perfect poacher. not very skilled attribute wise but would always score make good runs and was a top class striker
and somebody like Paolo Di Canio never even got a single cap for Italy...crazy to think about the amount of talent that we produced in the past...and then where we find ourselves now...tragic really.
@@yourgay396 He said Simone Inzaghi, not Pippo, buddy.
It's not like we ever had strikers who could put up incredible numbers with the National Team... The likes of Vieri, Inzaghi, Toni, Del Piero, Totti ecc never even came close to scoring 50+ goals for Italy, and the all time record is still the 35 goals scored from Gigi Riva between the 60s and the 70s. And behind him there are Meazza and Piola who played in the 30s and 40s, while the most recent top scorers are Baggio and Del Piero with 27 each.
Statpadding against weaker opponents has simply never been our forte, regardless of the pedigree of our front line.
so true. Italy had the best forward line along Brazil in maybe the history of football in the 90s/early 2000s, but all those shit coaches with their crap defensive tactic destroyed any chance of playing attractive football and becoming a dominant force in world football during that time.
These are interesting statistics. It probably says some thing about the style of play. But at the end of the day the statistics that matter most are four world cups and two European cups.
@@soulsmischief2626 And how many confideration cup Italy won ?
Exactly
@@ayushmankar4100what’s that got to do with it? A now defunct tournament that was a glorified friendly get together. How many trophies has your country won?
In the late 90s, they also had players like Pierluigi Casiraghi, Gianluca Vialli, and Gianfranco Zola in reserve
Casiraghi scored 13 goals in 44 games for Italy
Vialli managed 16 in 59
Zola was more a playmaker #10 than an outright goalscorer barely hit double figures with 10 in 35.
Italy hasn't had a prolific striker since Riva who hit 35 in just 42 games in the late 60s/early 70s.
Rossi and Altobelli hit 20 and 25 goals in 48 and 61 games respectively yet no-one mentions those two these days even though Rossi's ratio isn't far off Vieri's 23 in 49 and Altobelli's goal every 2.4 games is a lot better than Toni's goal every 2.9 games.
Even Di Canio, who was quite decent, never got the chance to pull up the blue shirt.
When I think goalscorer for Italy I think Totti and he was a midfielder… says something.
@@franohmsford7548 Can’t expect the great 9s of the past to have .5 goal per game ratios given how defensive Italy was historically. Riva (and Piola) are anomalies because they’re the greatest Italian 9’s of all time
@@krusher181 A midfielder {who also played as a #10, winger and #9} who scored just 9 goals in 58 games for Italy!
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It says something when THAT'S who you think of as a "GOALSCORER" for Italy!
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You should be thinking of Alessandro Altobelli, Paulo Rossi, Roberto Baggio, Christian Vieri, Fillipo Inzaghi and if you're old enough Gigi Riva - Because they're the only Italian Strikers in the past 70 years who've scored 20 or more international goals at anything like a decent ratio for their country.
Del Piero did score 27 goals but he played 91 games.....That's not even 1 in 3.
There was a time when gianfranco zola couldn't even start a game in world cup 1994 thanks to roberto baggio.
That's how bad and how low italian calcio has fallen
The future of the #9 is a julian alvarez type. Non stop pressing, very technical and able to build up play. But also a real goal threat, not tall or physical necessarily.
Italy has Raspodori who fits that type but he hasn't played much since he moved to Napoli
I highly doubt that. Alvarez is a very unique striker. To find players who can do what he does at a very high and consistent level is going to nothing short of difficult
height and strength is still valued. In fact I think most world-class strikers have that (Kane, Lewa, Haaland, Osimhen). It's just now strikers need to be more agile and technical, so smaller players get more chance there. Where are the tall bois, though? Maybe they play in defense now?
Pellegri was also incredibly unlucky with injuries. Really set him back.
Not only striker, but in almost all positions. When I started watching football in the 90s, the talent pool in Italy is massive. Maldini, Nesta, Vieri, Del Piero, Toldo, Peruzzi, Costacurta, Pipo Inzaghi, Zambrotta, Conte, Buffon, Pirlo Cannavaro, Totti, Panucci and the likes. The core of each Serie A teams are Italians.
Unlike now, I mostly see eastern europeans and africans in Serie A teams. At most, there are only 2 to 3 Italians in the 1st eleven.
The main problem is that they don't give opportunities to Italian youngsters. It is ironic that the majority of Serie A managers are Italians and they don't even trust their fellow coutrymen in the academy. Maybe they should put again limits on number of foreign players that can play in an Italian club. During the 80s up to 90s, the limit is 3 foreign players per club if I remember it right.
You could say the same with Germany and Spain too. Crazy how such massive football nations cannot produce any decent number 9s
sad but true. the likes of lewandowski, christiano, kane, and suarez don’t grow on trees. strikers are very weak at the moment on aggregate
Spain have at least likes of Morata and Moreno. It’s still a drop off after the players like David Villa and Fernando Torres, but they still know how to score goals and are quite consistent. Germany’s best striker is now Füllkrug, who played one good season in the Bundesliga in his entire career and spent the most of it in the second tier. Müller is great, but he isn’t a classic striker, and he is past his prime. Werner had a good start but dropped off a cliff after his transfer to the graveyard of strikers also known as Chelsea. They haven’t had a really good striker since Miro Klose retired… Netherlands were also badly hit by the extinction of good strikers. After Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie and Huntelaar in 2000-s and 2010-s they have Weghorst and Luuk de Jong now. Uruguay’s new generation of strikers are led by Nunez and Stuani after the era of Cavani, Suarez and Forlan…
@olm8829 yes you're right Netherlands have also suffered but they have declined in general even their wingers are average like Depay and Malen compared to the likes of Robben and Overmars. Their team is nothing compared to what it used to be
Nigeria doesn't seem to have that problem. But their midfield and goalkeeping options are seriously a disappointment
@@opinionatortv6457that’s what I find so baffling. No disrespect to some other countries, but I think there would be a few that envy Nigeria’s options for strikers at the moment. Countries like Germany and Netherlands are feel are solid enough anywhere else on the pitch apart from that position. While Nigeria is rather the opposite.
Same counts for my country the Netherlands. I remember having: kluivert, bergkamp, hasselbaink, van Hooijdonk, and van Nistelrooy in one generation to just having Memphis.
At least the Netherlands have some good players like De Ligt, Xavi simons, Frimpong, Gakpo, Reinjders, De Vrij, Koopmeiners and Van Dijk (and participated to the last WC) we don't even have that, and our best player is an injury-ridden Federico Chiesa which is still certainly not fully recovered from it's injury, yet...
It's pretty sad honestly.
There's a shortage of decent centre forwards all round. Who do England have if Kane is injured? No one.
@@israelortega4389 Watkins seems a good Center forward to me, but still if England wanted they still have the likes of Bellingham, Rashford, Foden and Saka to do the job...
Italy, Germany and the Netherlands on the other hand, do not have the luxury of having such an attacking force...
For example, Italy's most prolific player during the qualifiers was Frattesi with 3 goals... Lmao
When I saw Retegui being called to the italian NT is when the crisis was made explicit to me, he had a couple good seasons in the argentine league, but he was the striker at Tigre, not a big club, fucking Tigre. He is decent, but there's a reason why Scaloni didn't consider him for the NT
Great video as always from a azzurri supporter. You listed many of the problems for the lack of a great CF but there are also a few others post 2006. The game has passed the #9 as even in 06 Toni only scored 2 goals in the WC. Then came the pms issue which infuriated us for the next 6 years being the blackballing of our most talented fwd Antonio Cassano from the NT. As seen in the great run in Euro 2012 in which he flourished and got us to the final for another added reason.
A consistent starting 11, in 2012 more than half the squad were starters on the Juventus squad that year along with other mainstays to the NT. Since then we never fired a consistent lineup, I believe our match vs England we started 8 guys who previously didn’t start vs Malta. This is nothing new as any supporter can tell you. Often we hear of a new call up and we have to Google who said player even plays for domestically. We would have someone on international break in the past like Berardi, Bellotti, Pelle score a brace only to be benched the next match.
Last but not least this squad misses their best player maker Lorenzo Insigne simply for the fact they won’t call him up since he now plays in the MLS. Can you imagine Argentina doing that with Messi now?
Insigne is not good enough, Messi on the other hand is
@@gottes1stsenpai30 you don’t think Insigne isn’t a better option than what we put out there? Especially with Chisea out.
Italy crushes the confidence of forwards. I expected Lorenzo Colombo to give Olivier Giroud support at Milan, he has thunder in his left foot. So what does Milan do - they loan him to Monza. Juventus consider Vlahovic surplus, Nicolo Fagioli was deemed ready for prime time. So what happens, Chelsea rejects Vlahovic and Fagioli gets suspended in a gambling scandal. Even if they do qualify for the Euro, he wont be available. That's a shame, a Chiesa/Fagioli partnership would have been formidable.
Fagioli isnt a striker tho...
Why don't Italy have any world class players anymore fullstop
They literally don’t it’s actually sad
Barrella is, Di Marco and Donnaruma are borderline. That's it though
@@chibifirestorm and that’s being generous 💀
Chiesa, Barella, Bastoni are world class. But yeah it's still not that much.
@@peterfighterworld class ?
Its crazy as a Nigerian watching a team like Italy struggle with forwards meanwhile we are currently having selection headaches with the sheer amount of attacking talent currently available and still coming through the youth system.
And you still can persuade the likes of Madueke, Tomori, Chukwuemeka, Eze and the rest of half-blood Nigerian players who play in English league.
Nigeria has something to look forward to.
You disrespected Julian and Lautaro a little bit too much. Lautaro has 152 G/A from 250 appearances with Inter, and Julian has literally won everything already and is steadily improving. Of course Crespo and Batitusta were better but listing Argentina’s still relatively elite frontline alongside the likes of Nicolas Fullkrug, Richarlison and Nketiah seems a little bit too disrespectful. Spain would’ve been a much better example imo
Idk what problem the guy has with Alvarez, he was a baller at the last World Cup, way better than Aguero or Higuain ever produced. Martinez struggled but he's a player who's always gone back and forth between being world class and being garbage.
😂😂😂
@@pritapp788 Alvarez had never been better than Aguero or Higuain and never will be. Glorified bench-warmer. Lucky to be in winning squads, nothing more.
@@Al-ji4gdhe was a starter for Argentina at 2022 World Cup and he is a starter for Man City nowadays
@@nachoalvarez7171 Still overrated.
I started believing Italy was in trouble when they started serious campaigning for a host of Brazilians like Joao Pedro, Luiz Felipe (now in Betis), Roger Ibanez, Toloi, Jorginho, and notably Gabriel Martinelli at (Arsenal) to play for the Squadra Azzura.
Getting rejected by Soulé it's the ultimate shame. Too much foreigners and Italian descendants that put a Italy just a backup national team if they understand that they're just average. Balotelli at least had some or more than some love for Italy.
@@szveszs Soulé..??😳😳
Jorginho grew up in Italy and is a citizen, it's normal. 'Jorge Frello" he has Italian blood.
This is because Italian football tactics have changed. Since the era of Pep and Tiki taka Barcelona. The role of the classic striker is not that important. Because whatever position all players can score goals.
Same everywhere to be honest the number 9 has all but been phased out of the game.
I miss the times when strikers were just required to score goals. As a Dutchman, my favourite player will always be Van Basten, but probably my second favourite is Filippo Inzaghi. Always at the right moment, at the right time. You didn't see him all game until the ball was suddenly in the back of the net.
In Nigeria it seems as if we have the complete opposite problem… too many good strikers 😂😂 maybe Italy should take some
Give them Osimhen then
As an Italian this is why I wish national teams could buy players 😭
@@tombo416This ruins everything that is great about international football
@@tombo416China, USA and Saudi Arabia on their way to become best football nations by buying all the best players.
@@h3nderor qatar? Like they already do lol
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Day 1 - Alfie, please do a video on the pitiful situation the Bulgarian national football team is currently in. Here are a couple of points to give you an idea about what I'm talking about:
- Currently, the team is in a streak of 8 winless games, at the bottom of its qualification group for the 2024 Euro, with no chances of qualifying, after losing to opponents such as Montenegro and Lithuania.
- The team's last win was almost a year ago - on 16.11.2022 in a friendly against Cyprus. Our last win in an official match was more than a year ago - on 26.09.2022 against North Macedonia.
- The national football team of Bulgaria has been constantly performing bad for at least the last 20 years. The last big tournament we played was the 2004 Euro in Portugal, where we were humiliated in the group stage.
- Many supporters blame the current bosses of the Bulgarian Football Union for this downfall. The most notable of them are Borislav Mihaylov, Emil Kostadinov and Yordan Lechkov - 3 players who were part of the great 1994 WC team which reached the semi-finals of the tournament. Sadly, those people's success as players has been overshadowed by their lack of capability or willingness to resolve many of the problems in our football - the out-of-date training systems, the poor football infrastructure etc. What's worse is that they refuse to resign a failure after another and they have changed the rules of the union in a way that makes them irremovable for more than 18 years.
- Recently a couple of players from the next generation - Dimitar Berbatov, Stiliyan Petrov and Martin Petrov started a campaign, trying to overthrow the aforementioned but as I said the rules are in the bosses' favour.
- Meanwhile fans are getting really angry with the situation and are starting to take measures. Last weekend, during many matches of the First and Second Football Leagues the fans were chanting against Mihaylov and company and displayed banners against them. Of course, the BFU fined the clubs for "obscene chants and banners".
- There is a campaign on social media calling fans of all local clubs to put their differences aside and come to the Euro qualifier with Hungary on 16.11 and show their disapproval of the current BFU leaders.
That's the main points, I'm sure that if you dig a little you'll find much more. Please consider doing such a video, the anti-BFU sentiments are getting stronger and we need to disturb those self-serving ex-legends in every way possible. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Good video! I think a good video idea would be why do players who typically peak younger usually die out at an early age (Hazard, Neymar, Rooney) and players who blossom a bit older in there career (Modric, Vardy, Luca Toni) usually go on until their mid 30s. Always found that interesting and how players like Messi and Ronaldo were able to be one of the best young talents in the world at 18-20 and still continue to be at the top in their mid and late 30s
Italy has a diminishing population. Young generations are dwindling in numbers ad everything is geared towards the older population it has. Hence the impact towards its producing of young footballing talent.
underrated comment. cant believe people are missing this. this is why football talent as a whole has clearly dropped off from the 80s/early 90s born players. much smaller talent pool of young boys in europe and south america.
Another issue is the lack of world class defenders to cover up for lack of goals. Maldini, Nesta, Costacurta, Cannavaro etc with Buffon in goal could be relied upon not to ship goals. Mention the Italian national teams greatest ever players and more often than not it’s defensive players that come to mind.
This, as a half Italian who supports the Azzurri, is something I’ve noticed over time. No way would we have won the Euros with the current defence we have now regardless of who plays upfront. My two cents worth.
It's the style of defending that's ruined defenders.
Trying to turn on a sixpence and defend while running with arms behind your back is ludicrous as it stops preoper defending occurring.
@@craiggibbons8228 agree. Although I’m worried I sound like a dinosaur when I mention ‘defenders used to do this/be like this’ 😂😂
Alfie you should make a video talking about What on Earth is Happening with Santos FC. They lost 7-1 to Internacional this Sunday and will probably be relegated for their 1st time in history.
Santos' relegation was such a mourning for the whole Brazillian Football. More ironically, the decline had been started after Pele's death. The club also played in 2021 Libertadores Final, losing to Palmeiras.
The Morelos effect
@@ryanmo What the hell is a Morelos effect?
@@ryanmo Morelos or Pele, you mean? I guess Pele has a great influence with Santos. He had major success there.
Nigeria has all the strikers now (Osimhen, Boniface, Awoniyi, Lookman, Iheanacho, Orban)
The complete opposite problem 😂
Look man is left Winger
The problem for Italy is larger than football it’s the fact it’s the oldest country in Europe and Italy simply stopped having children. Europe as a whole are going through this as well in 20 years Europe is going to be in trouble in football as well as population just no one is talking about it
not in 20 years it's already here. noteable drop off in talent these days compared to the 80s/early 90s born players, across europe and south america. its because the early 90s is the last period where you had positive birth rates. there are simply way less 2000s babies
Alfie, Italy has stopped player development. My cousin in Naples owned and ran a football school for years. I saw the lack of investment into youth football in Italy first hand. I saw kids who were phenoms...unfortunately their parents are well off and don't want their kids to be footballers. I am talking natural talent. I watched 6 year old kid named Enzo, a son of an engineer, destroy 8 and 9 year old kids. His dribbling, ball control, vision, shooting and passing were way beyond his years. His father said he wants him to play sport for the competition and comradery but his son will go to university, not play football for a living. It's really sad to see and hear that. This kid could be the future of Italian football and his parents dont't want him to be. Respect to his parents, their kid but man, to deprive the world of such talent is beyond me...
Middle class engineers have always pushed their kids towards university.
The best sportsmen and women grow up poor.
Being poor makes you work harder.
@@NeilLewis77 Not really, it just gives you less options
@@NeilLewis77Absolutely not true. Players line Gianluca Vialli, Andrea Pirlo, Robin Van Persie, Kaka, Frank Lampard or Gerard Piqué all come from well-off backgrounds
@@eggselent9814redondo also
@@eggselent9814 nice list.
Well plucked.
But your going to run out of good names soon arnt you.
There's always exceptions to the rules.
But you know full well that the greatest player ever Messi/pele/maradona grew up poor.
So did Best and Mbappe and Gaza and zidane and Ronaldo and the other Ronaldo and zlatan and Gerrard and Rooney and on and on the list goes.
And that's just football.
Best boxer ever? Muhammed ali/Tyson/Robinson? All grew up poor.
The best tennis player ever? Grew up poor. The best female tennis player ever? Grew up poor.
The best basketball player ever? Grew up poor.
The list just goes on and on and on.
Middle class and posh kids don't usually take sports that seriously. So the vast majority of elite sportsmen grew up poor.
I have massive respect for guys like tim henman who grew up with money but still gave enough of a shit to get really good at something.
But usually its the kids from the dirt who will fight and scrap their way to the top.
Very relevant topic
I think the last Italian player to take a shot on target on WC is Andrea Pirlo.
(personal openion)
"It is a striking set of statistics"
I see what you did there
I think it's a natural result from the disappearance of the 4-4-2. The number of Strikers overall is in decline. The probability of finding great strikers is the same
I did notice a bit that the Italian national team have less potent strikers or no top strikers nowadays but I hope the national team would produce many strikers like Francesco Totti sir,Filippo Inzaghi sir and Alessandro Del Piero sir in near future,good friends!!!🙏🏻
Great video Alfie
Thank you for the video, I was asking myself the same thing the other day when Italy played England . I think that Italy need more the old fashion number 10 like they used to have back in the 90's, and early 2000. Italy used to have some of the greatest number 10 in football history; only Brazil can brag about having better number 10 than Italy. Who doesn't remember players like Baggio, Viali, Totti, Delpiero, Mancini or Dicanio. I think that these kinda players used to make italy great, bc they used to do almost everything on the field, and most of the time score plenty of important goals. Football has changed a lot, especially bc of Giardiola and Barcelona, but I think that if Italy starts to produce more of these old fashion number 10 like they used to back in the days, they would get back to their old glory even though they won the Euros 2 years ago.
I remember when the likes of Di Canio can't even get call up to Italy national team, then we regress till we make Zaza take penalty
When I got to watch Serie A highlights in Australia, Vieri, Inzaghi & Del Piero were amazing.
1990's Italian football was the best in the world
Forget the Milan teams, Juventus, Lazio & Roma because plenty of other teams likes Sampdoria, Parma & Fiorentina were lit. And so were many others.
Balotelli is not everyone's cup of tea, but he had an outstanding Euro 2012.
Roberto Baggio?
The diving kinda sucks tho
Hey Alfie, I’ve been watching your channel for a few years now but I have a video idea and I would appreciate if you’re able to check it out. I’d like to see a video on the Nigerian national team and how they’re underachievers especially for African standards perhaps titled ‘Nigeria: Africas biggest underachievers’. Ever since the 90s, we have always had the one of the most valuable African squads in Africa and some of the most notable African players, yet we have yet to make to the quarterfinals of a WC and we only won Afcon once since 94. I believe this would make a good video.
Nowadays with social media, there is immense pressure on players, strikers in particular, to play well. And for strikers its really easy to tell if they play well or not. Why would a youngster want to play striker and be criticized for scoring 4 goals in 13 matches, when they can play a midfielder that scores 4 goals in 40 matches and everyone is find with it. Not to mention there are 4-5 midfielder spots in a team and only 1 striker role.
I dont think Italy ever has sensational goalscorers in the mould of van basten, gerd muller, ronaldo, romario, etc.. the closest they have in modern times is Filipo Inzaghi, Luca Toni, Christian Vieri, Di Natale. They have very good strikers but rarely have legendary ones.
Del Piero and Totti are great attackers. They are more like No.10 who can also score goals. Like Roberto Baggio.
Also as others has pointed out. Italy strikers often somehow only find form in international tournaments (Schilacci, to an extent Paolo Rossi), and often did not translate club form to national team.
Also i agree it seems to be a more widespread problem. The same can be said for Brazil especially, Netherlands and Germany. Hard to see a striker reach the level of Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie or Klose.
The problem is they don't even have good ones anymore.
Ma Giuseppe Meazza e Gigi Riva che erano?
Everyone out there have a great day
You too bud 💪👍😁
Same to you my friend!
Don't tell me what to do
@@AdamOBrien29😭💀
I will recommend them to secure themselves Nicolo Tresoldi, who plays for Hannover in Bundesliga 2, good talent who is currently playing for German U 21
Cracking video 😊
Even Kane now dropped deep and being utilized in midfield more. Like they say, survival of the fittest, either you adapt or go extinct.
He only did that because Spurs lacked quality creators and their best other asset was Son running in behind. Now he is at a better team he is not doing it nearly as much because he has much better players with him.
@@tajj7 I think he still do it quite a lot by the match i watched. He's not a '9' anymore. I recall Southgate also use him as a deep lying forward so that the wingers will be more free.
Kane is incredible with his vision and picking passes. He’s also a world class striker… if the defense doesn’t know what he’s going to do… he’s more effective
🙄 simple as
The problem is wider than just forwards. Where England, Japan, Spain, Germany all looked at their failings and decided to do something about it starting with the grassroots and up, in Italy, we did nothing. We didn't win the Euro's as much as England lost them (I'm not talkkng about the shootout but the lack of ambition once they went a goal up) and 2006 was the last hurrah of that series of generations of top talent that started in the 60s. We are in for a long dry spell but to be honest. Any win is so rare, I'll take what we did win in my lifetime and be grateful.
Italy were lucky to win that final, if it were against a national team with more final experience the outcome may have been different. Italy have a rough 5-10 years ahead of them
🤷🏼
Cazzata abnorme, gli europei li abbiamo vinti perche abbiamo distrutto tutti sul gioco (Inghilterra esclusa) che è arrivata in finale per puro culo, sono loro che hanno mancato un occasione di vincere in casa ma siamo stati noi i degni vincitori e non loro gli "indegni" perdenti
@@j_james_01 italy weren't luckt at all buddy, we missed so many chances and with better forwards we could have won earlier.
The thing is: England weren't even as good as they thought they were
@@francescotrombetta8548 England were as good as they thought they were. Look at every game prior. Barely conceded all tournament. Italy were one tournament wonders then for 2 years after have gone missing, because THAT Italy team was overrated. What have you done or participated in since?
Though I am completely devoted to Argentina, I really missed seeing an Italian team in the World Cup😢
🙏👍💪🏻
🇮🇹 🤝 🇦🇷
Yes ! If Italy would be there in World Cup 2018 & 2022 then it wiuld be difficult for France & Argentina to lift the World Cup trophies .
@@ayushmankar4100 ehhhh but our Italy has a wrong youth system ...and we all see the results🤷🏼
Caspita
As a British person who was born in 2002 and only started properly watching football in 2014 (the World Cup) this video really helped me know why this has become a problem. I've always generally liked Italy and their national team and I never quite understood why they got bad again after the Euro's but now I do. Eventually they will get better again but might not be for a while yet though. My favourite players for them at the 2021 Euro's were Donmarumma, Federico Chiesa and Spinazzola. What's happened to Spinazzola? I hope they can qualify for the Euro's still
Spinazzola is made of glass, and has shot knees, he just has issues with injuries
“…bettered by the likes of Scotland” hurt my feelings
Very good content as always though. My favourite CZcams football channel.
Italy has a very unhealthy football culture and the result makes me sad because I’m old enough to remember how excited I was as a kid to watch it on a Sunday morning on C4. Those were the days. What Italy wouldn’t give for Beppe Signori today, even though he’s largely forgotten and barely got a game for them back then.
Love watching the Italian national team fail, as a Scottish fan from Canada. The Italian fans here are so arrogant and obnoxious
As a Paraguayan, it is so sad to watch Germany and Italy suffering similar problems. This is even more sad because our Paraguay is basically suffering from the same crisis.
There is no faith on the jersey of both German and Italian players.
Ever since I got interested in football in 1996, Italy has had this revolving cast of strikers at their disposal. Some were constant parts of the team over long years (like Del Piero, Inzaghi, Vieri), some were only short-term members of the squad (like Casiraghi, Enrico Chiesa, Ravanelli), some were controversial (Roberto Baggio, Cassano, Balotelli), but the one thing that always seemed to connect them was the fact that they seemed to vastly underperform once they lined up for their country compared to their club.
The classic number 9, target man type striker role is vanishing very fast, at least in Europe. The problem is not just with Italy. Germany has the same problem. If you think closely, other nations also have very limited options, example: England has only Kane, France has only Giroud and Benzema, Spain has only Morata.
When playing at Atalanta Inzaghi scored a free kick, you can find it here on CZcams. Mind blowing.
It happens to everybody. It’s a cycle. Everyone will go through bad periods, nobody can always stay at the top
Without an out and out! The new set up
Hey man, love your content. I have a request for a video. I've recently moved to Basel in Switzerland and was telling my girlfriend that they're one of the best teams, and maybe we will be in a good spot to go and watch champions League games if they do well.
But to my shock, they are currently last in the Swiss League and apparently it's not been going well for them for a few years. I thought they were THE team in Switzerland.
Would love one of your 'What the hell is going on' videos for Basel. I've tried doing a bit of research but still non the wiser, I'll leave the detective work to the pros.
The fact that italy missed the last world cup and are at risk of missing this euros as defending champs is beyond embarrassing......not to mention they didnt qualify for russia 2018 either !!!
I don't know what is worse though, being trophyless for nearly 60 years like England or actually win something and then flop.
And still beat England in their own tournament 😂
Italy do still do create good defenders and midfields, such as barella and bastoni. Not many of course, but still a few gems here and there
And that's it. That's the problem right there. Italy's best players were defenders, full backs, and defensive midfielders. Where were the fantasista and trequartista like in the 90's and early 00's? almost none. The effect of that problem is, their strikers couldn't get enough attacking support from the second line. They have to fight alone for goals.
Surprisingly, Italy's all-time scorer is from a long time ago and only has 35 goals. I'm surprised players like Baggio, Vieri, Del Piero, and Totti couldn't beat that.
Baggio only played 57 times . Coaches never played him imagine that
❤YOU ARE THE BEST AS ALWAYS ❤HELLO FROM LAS VEGAS ❤❤
What On Earth Is Going On At Sampdoria?
Ever since Mario balotelli Italy really miss that position it's have been almost a decade
Inzaghi was absolutely class
3:31 God bless you for mentioning FCSB and Compagno.
I think a lot of younger Italian players need to leave Italy for their own development and not just strikers. They won’t get enough first team football in Italy since managers can’t really afford to play them. There is a lot of good young talent in the youth sides but the transition to first team football is the issue.
I mean, who doesn't have this problem lol, unless we talking about Nigeria, England and maybe even Serbia
Great video
Enjoyed that - no mention of Biaggio or Schillaci on the list of great Italian strikers
Baggio wasn’t a striker, and Schillaci was the Balotelli of his era. Not a great striker- just had a great tournament.
@@hitthurdeaux not sure I agree about Baggio not being a striker - which would mean Totti wasn't one either. Point taken about Schillaci but then Rosso was similar
@@tguardi Totti wasn’t a striker, just the best attacking midfielder and shadow striker in the world at the time
Don't forget that Vieri was raised in Australian so he may not really count as an Italian centre-forward in that sense as they weren't responsible for his development. This comment may age terribly after watching the video where he may well say exactly that.
He had a youth career at 15, no excuse
Vieris dad was from Italy and played in Italy though so I think his dad had more of an input.
He did not
Raised but not born so he is Italian not Australian making your point a mute one
@@Olivibenhe was raised in Australia then moved back to Italy but born in Bologna
i think inzaghi would work in a pep team that creates tap in opportunities. he was amazing at finding space and fighting to get the last touch. so he would deffo be able to tap it in in a pep team.
Didn't expect my favorite player Domenico Berardi to be in a HITC Sevens video multiple times
Forza Sassuolo
They need to call up Luca Toni only the real ones remember him
*Needed
You ploughed through a lot of stats there Alfie but not many actual explanations were offered as to why Italy lacks goal poachers. Vieri made a fair point, kids maybe are getting drawn in to overly technical styles of play by watching so much online stuff or video games. Is it the lack of academy roles for teenagers in general?
I would think scamacca struggling for West Ham says more about premier leagues disposable nature when it comes to player development. As for goal ratio for Italy consider that he is playing for a Italy side which lack technical quality and a lot of this appearances were off the bench.
My international team, glad for this insight.
Serie A doesn't let youth players develop
Italian youngsters you mean
I don’t think this is just an Italy problem. Most of the best national teams don’t have world-class strikers right now. Just look at Spain, France, Germany and Brazil
Edit : Maybe not France
France have Griezmann, what are you on about?
@@oskarlisinski8807 He plays as a midfielder for them though
@@oskarlisinski8807would you really classify him as a striker tho? I think he’s role is different hence why they played him with giroud for france
@@Jack44_44 how he is used by the national team is not the point, the point is he is probably the best option right now to play as out and out striker, since when playing that role in Atletico he is one of the best players in La Liga
@@nathanb286France have players who can be world class strikers in the future like Kolo-Muani, Mathys Tel or Elye Wahy.
It’s honestly mad to think wasn’t that long ago they had to pick between totti and del piero to partner Inzaghi or Vieri.
Italy have struggled in every position if we are honest. For me only Chiesa is world class in the Italy team. Most of the squad are just solid not even very good players.
9:31 dude really tried sneaking in Nketiah with Toney, Abraham, Watkins, and Wilson lol
Why don't any countries have any strikers no more should be the question. There is only a handful of top strikers across Europe's top leagues. Rewind a couple of decades ago and you were spoilt for choice. Pep's Barcelona and Spain 08-12 changed football forever and not for the better
Chicharito at United was a world class poacher
And was Mexican
Good video, Retegui is a talent. Pafundi is a CAM though
I renew my petition for you to include international subtitles for your videos. I volunteer for Spanish, but just having them would be great for me and my football loving non-English speaking family
Isn't it shameful to lose the 2021 European Championship final at home with superstar Kane against a team without a striker.
They did have Immobile back then.
Is it really though? I mean you can't have it both ways. People are always banging on at the English for overhyping their players and instead insist that England is mediocre and should never be considered up there with other elite teams. You can't now say it was shameful England lost to Italy in the Euro 2021 final and all of a sudden England has superstar players.
Raspadori is the one Italian player who could occupy that role, though he is not physically powerful or tall he is quite accurate in front of goal. For some reason neither Mancini nor Spalletti appear to fully trust him. For the rest indeed Italian strikers have been worsening not recently, but over 20+ years. Gilardino and Toni were good but they were already inferior to the likes of Vieri/Inzaghi, and in turn Balotelli was a worse player though reasonably reliable. Then Immobile and Pellé became the main strikers and Italy stopped qualifying for competitions...
Yep, Raspadori seems a good option and it's probably one of our most technical attackers other than maybe Berardi and Chiesa.
Also to be fair, Spalletti quite likes Raspadori and played him upfront a few times already.
I just Hope Francesco Camarda is exactly what Italy needed for the last 10 years, but he's still 15 unfortunately, so we'll never know until the 2025-2026 season.
We were waiting for your video to explain us why, now we'll become the very best in the world again thank you very much.
Something for those top scorer stats. It seems that there are more international games and is continuing to increase
If Italy has a club like Barcelona who developed young talent then never face players problem
Barca and Bilbao
Is it maybe because Italy emphasises defense (infamous catenaccio and other forms) and the refereeing criteria favour it so that many strikers can't really blossom? The 90s era of Italian strikers (which were just INSANE) seems to be a massive blip on the radar.
No This isn't the reason. Italy have always produced good strikers. Only as of right now there are some question marks over who are the main striking options for Italy. In fact, calcio could be the big league that actually tries to emphasise the role of the striker in the team the most. In calcio they still try to play for the striker and try to set them up with good opportunities to score. This is still something very important in Italy. In other leagues they have become more concerned with "philosophies" "always trying to play a certain way" and other similar garbage.
can you make a video about Nigeria’s incredible depth at striker but drop off in midfield and defense?
To be fair, all the big countries don't have a world class centre forward.
Italy,Spain,Germany,Netherlands,Portugal, Brazil. There are few these days.
I've been bored by football since that Spain win in 2012. There've been some high moments and some superb CFs since then, but CFs have declined, the fearless strikers have declined and generally scoring has not been as exciting across football. Suarez leaving the Premier League was significant. Only a brief time seeing Diego Costa in-form at Chelsea was not enough. Drogba left. Benzema was fun for a bit. No doubt that Lewandowski has been great. Callum Wilson cannot play enough minutes. Ollie Watkins is good... not great. Just not enough in the past 10 years to make things exciting enough. You see it in the World Cups too --and sometimes there's a striker who is only in the group stages that really excites.
No other sport has suffered this kind of decline in entertainment value due to a glaring absence in a key position. Start making those adept, aggressive centre backs into strikers again FFS!