[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by valo403

Agreed, Keane was one of the all time great grinders/ball winners (and one hell of a dirty player) but his area of expertise is useless without guys like Giggs, Scholes, Cantona etc. around to make use of the ball.

Absolutely, and looking at Lippi's roster, the team is still too old, and the "skilled" guys he picked either just came off poor seasons, or are quite long in the tooth and will be yet another year older for WC2010:

Confederations Cup squad:

Goalkeepers: Marco Amelia (Palermo), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray) -Makes sense, seeing as Abbiati is hurt. Still, De Sanctis is useless, why not a young guy like Curci.

Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Nicola Legrottaglie (Juventus), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool), Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Davide Santon (Inter), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan) -What a fall from grace. Italy used to boast the best defenders bar none on the planet. The only one I would consider currently at that level here is Chiellini. Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Grosso are past it. (Well, Juve is hoping Cannavaro has a year or two left, but even if he is finished, he's back from Real for free). Dossena has been meh at Pool, Gamberini and Legrottaglie are good depth, but not really NT level players. Santon is 18 and totally unproven. He has ONE U-21 cap. I would have taken a chance on a guy like Criscito, who had a great season with Genoa, is 22, has a lot of U-21 experience and looks ready for the next level.

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria) -At least there's no Ambrosini or Perrotta, but really, Italy should be doing better than this. Pirlo and De Rossi are no brainers, but Camoranesi has been both well below average and frequently injured for Juventus. Montolivo has not come close to his potential yet, and Palombo is essentially a weaker version of Gattuso and De Rossi. Gattuso makes sense as experienced depth. Why Pirlo's heir apparent, D'Agostino and Juve product Marchisio are on the outside, I don't know.

Strikers: Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich) Pepe? Toni? WTF? Pepe is the third best striker in midtable Udinese. Luca Toni is lazy and useless. Euro 2008 should have taught Lippi a lesson. The secret is out on Toni, and if you keep the passes from hitting him directly, he's a total non-factor. Iaquinta is a hard worker, but without a flashy sidekick like the oddly missing Cassano, he's a lot of energy wasted. I'd also advocate Del Piero. He's not getting any younger, but he's got that flash of game breaking talent that none of these selected guys do, Cassano too, but he seems to be tainted. Giovinco should have been picked too, but his absence is understandable, seeing as he rotted on the bench most of the season. Chelsea fans can tell you how scary that little guy is.

Personally, I'm not impressed. They are the third best team going in, and that shouldn't be good enough for Italy.