FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[Volgastallion]

The main problem with Gatusso is not what he is gonna do now with the team and maybe he do a decent job and bring some good results and some fresh air to the team and imprengate them with some fire, but in the long run i cant see him making a good team who can fight against the powers....

[Sithara007]

The main problem with Gatusso is not what he is gonna do now with the team and maybe he do a decent job and bring some good results and some fresh air to the team and imprengate them with some fire, but in the long run i cant see him making a good team who can fight against the powers....

Things are not going to get any easier for Gennaro Gattuso. At the moment, it is not clear whether Italy can secure top-2 position in Group I. They have plenty of matches remaining, but Norway is far ahead of anyone else in that group. And then there is Israel, who are performing really well this time. Falling behind Israel is a remote, but possible scenario. Overall, the morale might be down after their crushing defeat to Norway (by a margin of 0-3). Gattuso has a lot of rebuilding to do.

[Ale88]

The main problem with Gatusso is not what he is gonna do now with the team and maybe he do a decent job and bring some good results and some fresh air to the team and imprengate them with some fire, but in the long run i cant see him making a good team who can fight against the powers....

The job of a national team coach is to call the best available players. If the best available players are very average then it's going to be almost impossible to win against teams that are way better. Sure, football is unpredictable and everything is possible but oftentimes the strong team beats the weak team, that's it. I don't understand why some users are kind of expecting some miracle from Gattuso...

[retreat]

Maybe, they haven't found yet their coach that will be a game-changer for the team. Though we don't know when will it come for the team, I would say, the players should work on how to improve their performance inside the field. It may be their motivation as to how they can show their best foot forward while playing. Sometimes, it would take just one gesture from one of the athletes, and everyone will follow thru. An inspiration for the whole team can change their path to show their best. Maybe, they haven't found that one yet.

The average player who plays at the world cup level is highly motivated, who doesn't want the world cup? Especially a team like Italy who has won the world cup 4 times, surely in the minds of the players they really want to repeat the glory days of their national team. But it's not an easy thing, not just changing the coach or just motivating the players can turn things around - they need more than that, tactics, mentality, and the quality of individual players, those are the important things needed by the Italian national team right now because they are still very lacking in these three things.

[Sithara007]

The average player who plays at the world cup level is highly motivated, who doesn't want the world cup? Especially a team like Italy who has won the world cup 4 times, surely in the minds of the players they really want to repeat the glory days of their national team. But it's not an easy thing, not just changing the coach or just motivating the players can turn things around - they need more than that, tactics, mentality, and the quality of individual players, those are the important things needed by the Italian national team right now because they are still very lacking in these three things.

That depends. Even last time, during the 2022 Qatar World Cup, some of the powerful clubs were refusing to release the players initially. Times have changed. Playing for the national team during the World Cup is no longer one of the most cherished ambitions for many of the players.  Clubs are providing them with insane salaries, and obviously the loyalty will be towards the club rather than towards the national team. When Italy failed to qualify for the 2022 edition, I noticed that the players were not that upset.

[SatoPrincess]

Gattuso, known to us as Rino, is a very strong-willed person and very consistent in achieving his goals.

And what goals did he achieve?
Palermo - sacked!
Pisa - sacked!
Napoli - sacked!
Valencia - sacked!
Marseille - sacked!
Special mention that in one of his few tries, when he managed to stay for more than half a season without getting kicked out, was when he managed to cling to his seat at AC Milan, where he finished 6th and then 5th.
He hasn't achieved anything, and with how the Italian team looks right now, prepare for more disappointments!

I think the decision to appoint Gattuso as the Italian national team coach is a huge gamble given his records in his coaching career. I don’t think he is the right candidate to take on this job especially with a struggling team where he would need to revive the  team and their performance. This decision must have been made in a bid to honor him but I sense disaster.

[stompix]

~

He won the world championship, winning a world championship is no small thing.
He also faced very serious health problems, yet with all the health problems he achieved his goals, that is, he continues to train.
i am not saying he's a great coach, i said he has an iron will, that's very different.

He has won it with a team and a coach, not on his own!
Sorry, but I don't like Gattuso at all, not as a player not as a coach, and this comes from an ex Milan fan that grew up with Rijkaard, van Basten and Ruud, I never liked his style, some thought of him as a fighter I always tought he is an uncontralable tornado that was hitting his adversaries as much as the ball.
Gattuso  Yellow Card   71   Red Card   2
Maldini   Yellow Card   26   Red Card   0
Nope! Just no!

[SatoPrincess]

Currently the Italian national team is filled with mediocre players, there are no outstanding players, unlike their era in the 2000s. So it is very difficult to be able to revive the Italian national team now, even when it is the most experienced coach, because as you said the role of quality players is very important, and then we discuss the manager. Because now the problem of the Italian national team is very complex, so changing the coach alone will not be able to solve the problem, there needs to be a total overhaul from the roots of the Italian football system, and the process can take years.

Seems the days of Italian domination in football has quietly faded away  because these days it is so hard to get qualification to compete in global tournaments. With the current squad we can only hope they can still secure world cup qualification but they are not even topping their group ao it is hard to tell if they will.

[Slow death]

The main problem with Gatusso is not what he is gonna do now with the team and maybe he do a decent job and bring some good results and some fresh air to the team and imprengate them with some fire, but in the long run i cant see him making a good team who can fight against the powers....

I'm also not very optimistic about Gatusso being chosen as Italy's national coach, but I've seen some cases of rookie coaches who won big leagues even without having a great history of achievements in the past, so maybe Gatusso can surprise us. The guy has a more aggressive behavior and knows the players well and how the entire logistics of the Italian national team works, from the call-up of the players to the smallest details. Also, because he was a player for the Italian national team, the players will have more respect.

[Volgastallion]

The main problem with Gatusso is not what he is gonna do now with the team and maybe he do a decent job and bring some good results and some fresh air to the team and imprengate them with some fire, but in the long run i cant see him making a good team who can fight against the powers....

The job of a national team coach is to call the best available players. If the best available players are very average then it's going to be almost impossible to win against teams that are way better. Sure, football is unpredictable and everything is possible but oftentimes the strong team beats the weak team, that's it. I don't understand why some users are kind of expecting some miracle from Gattuso...

Yes i know he doesnt have the best raw matterial, i dont know what is happening with youth italians and why the teams cant develop new gems.

Is the youth not playing so much football this days?

Even the new ""italians""(inmigrants) are not good at all comparing with other european countrys so i find is a problem in how the teams are developing the youths.

[Fuso.hp]

I kind of disagree with that part because at the end of the day the manager doesn't play, the players do. You can be the best manager in the world but if the players are mediocre probably you're going to fail. Italy could even hire Guardiola (hypothetically of course) but that wouldn't mean that we're going to the world cup. Do you remember Ancelotti with Napoli and Everton? Great coach, mediocre players, mediocre results.

Currently the Italian national team is filled with mediocre players, there are no outstanding players, unlike their era in the 2000s. So it is very difficult to be able to revive the Italian national team now, even when it is the most experienced coach, because as you said the role of quality players is very important, and then we discuss the manager. Because now the problem of the Italian national team is very complex, so changing the coach alone will not be able to solve the problem, there needs to be a total overhaul from the roots of the Italian football system, and the process can take years.

Italy has won the World Cup four times but if we look at the current Italian team, it doesn't look like they have won four World Cups. Italy's golden age can be said to have been until 2000 because Italy played excellent football until 2000 but Italy could not achieve anything significant after 2000. In one World Cup season, Italy did not qualify for the main round of the World Cup. Think about it, a former four-time World Cup winner performed so badly in one World Cup season that they did not qualify for the main round. Anyway, Italy has recovered from their bad situation and now at least they are playing decent football but they are not yet able to play the kind of good football that we can see them playing in the semi-finals or finals of big tournaments like the World Cup. Italy should work on these issues and bring about a change in the team's situation again.