Italy Euro 2012 qualifiers squad announced

Pran­delli has announced the squad of 23 which will face Esto­nia and the Faroe Islands this Inter­na­tional break for the Euro 2012 qual­i­fiers. The azzurri will face Esto­nia in Tallin Sep­tem­ber 3rd, and then the Faroe Islands in Flo­rence Sep­tem­ber 7th. While they aren’t the tough­est of oppo­si­tion, Italy will also have to even­tu­ally face Ser­bia, Slove­nia, and North­ern Ire­land as they attempt to qual­ify for the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships being held in Ukraine and Poland.

Here’s the 23-man squad:

Goal­keep­ers:

Mar­che­tti, Sirigu, Viviano

Defend­ers:

Chiellini, Bonucci, Cas­sani, Bovo, Antonelli, De Sil­vestri, Gastaldello, Molinaro

Mid­field­ers:

Pirlo, De Rossi, Pepe, Palombo, Mon­to­livo, Cig­a­rini, Lazzari

For­wards:

Cas­sano, Pazz­ini, Gilardino, Quagliarella, Rossi

There’s quite a list of injured play­ers who could’ve been use­ful for Pran­delli: Buf­fon, Iaquinta, Balotelli, Amauri, and Marchi­sio are all unable to play for Italy due to injuries. But it’s impor­tant to think about the play­ers that Pran­delli called up, I’m look­ing for­ward to pos­si­bly see­ing a 4–3-3, with Cas­sano on the right wing, Pazz­ini in the mid­dle, and Giuseppe Rossi on the left, but that isn’t Lippi’s only option. He could go with a 4–2-3–1, using De Rossi and Pirlo in front of the defence, and Pepe on the right, Rossi on the left, and Cas­sano sup­port­ing Pazini. There are plenty of attack­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, but it’s impor­tant also to look at the rest of the team.

The squad looks solid in mid­field and attack, but if there’s an area that wor­ries me it’s the defence. The only well-known names among the defend­ers are Chiellini, Bonucci, and maybe Moli­naro, the rest are rel­a­tively new to the Ital­ian national team. While it’s pos­i­tive thing that there are new faces, and not the same old play­ers which Lippi used, I still worry whether the new play­ers will be able to play well wear­ing the azzurri jer­sey. It’s good that there are some qual­ity keep­ers though: Mar­che­tti has already played for Italy, Sirigu is unproven at inter­na­tional level but is strong for Palermo, and Viviano per­son­ally held Inter to a 0–0 draw this week­end play­ing in goal for Bologna.

What are your thoughts on the Ital­ian play­ers which Pran­delli has called? Can they do the job? What for­ma­tion will the coach use? There are plenty of ques­tions which will hope­fully be answered on Sep­tem­ber 3rd and 7th when Italy plays Esto­nia and the Faroe Islands.

Tagged as: Azzurri, Cassano, Cesare Prandelli, Estonia, Euro 2012, Faroe Islands, Italy