Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. After a battle, everyone is a general. Those two quotes are ideal for the current Italian boss Roberto Mancini. The winner of EURO 2020 failed to lift up his team and win against outsiders North Macedonia in the World Cup playoffs and will have a long break, since Italy won’t feature in Qatar at the end of 2022. Everybody were hailing Mancini and his impact when Azurri won the European Championships, but now he is alone (orphan). And now, everybody thought he should have done things differently, even his own mother (the general). ‘Italy imitates Guardiola, but should look up to Klopp instead’Marianna Puolo told Radiouno, as quoted by Football Italia, that she would have chosen other players in attack. Ciro Immobile was a lone striker before Joao Pedro was introduced, but eventually nobody scored after 32 shots on goal. She also said that Italy should have sealed their place in Qatar long before playoffs, and pointed out at Chelsea’s Jorginho and his missed penalties. Mrs Poulo didn’t spare Azzuri’s keeper Gigi Donnarumma, who conceded the goal from Macedonia’s only shot of the match. “I would have called up Balotelli, because he has incredible physical strength and in front of the goal nobody can stop him. Unfortunately, mistakes like Jorginho’s cost us. I don’t want to point my finger at him because he certainly didn’t do it on purpose, but if you miss three penalties…Macedonia only had one shot, maybe Donnarumma could’ve saved it but it’s useless to talk about it now” said Mrs Puolo. Italy since winning the World Cup in 2006:2010: Knocked out at group stage2014: Knocked out at group stage2018: Failed to qualify2022: Failed to qualify😳 pic.twitter.com/stFa5h0CdL— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 25, 2022 Roberto Mancini had another critic after the game. Former West Ham and Lazio player Paolo Di Canio said after the debacle that he was angry with ‘all of Italian football’. “I had a feeling it would end up like this, I saw it immediately. Seeing the images again makes me even more angry. There was too much frenzy and nervousness, even Mancini from the first minute was only pointing out the player’s mistake. I don’t want to belittle what Italy did, they made us proud. I used to mock my English friends. But I was never convinced. In my heart I said that we were also lucky, with Spain on penalties, with England the same, and with Austria if Arnautovic’s kneecap hadn’t been offside we would have gone out. I don’t want to belittle, I repeat, but we don’t have excellence” said Di Canio. (1.15) GERMANY (8.50) ISRAEL (15.0)Mancini’s job is on the line after missing the World Cup. So far, nobody from the Italian Federation talked about changing the coach which has the a contract until 2026, but should former Manchester City manager decides to call it quits, Fabio Cannavaro, Roberto De Zerbi and Gennaro Gattuso are all in the running to replace him.
