Italian coach Marcello Lippi is a very experienced manager and World Cup Champion with Italy in 2006. In the previous World Cup tournament and despite oppositions from most Italian fans, Lippi had called a few older Italian players such as Fabio Cannavaro (36) and Gianluigi Buffon (32), but in the end his team left victorious. Coming to South Africa Marcello Lippi is also building Italy around these two players, as well as a few other older footballers such as Fabio Grosso (32), ianluca Zambrotta (33), Luca Toni (33) and Gennaro Gattuso (32).
“If I had listened to these people four years ago Italy wouldn’t have won the World Cup trophy. I don’t judge my players just for their age or technical abilities, but counting their international experience is also very important. Don’t forget that the World Cup tournament is only for 30 days, therefore not all players need to be 24 years old” he says.
Most of these Italian players are going through some tough times with their teams, some of the worst in their entire football careers. Marcello Lippi has decided to close his ears, completely rejecting the idea that a younger group would be better. He has been under a lot of criticism and accused of not giving any chance to young Italian players, he says that trusting the older guards of squadra azzurra is the only way to win major competitions.
“If I’m 100% certain for something I will not change it no matter what or who calls me. When I started working as a coach all my decisions were made following the principal of not getting carried away by other people’s opinions.”
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Honestly I think Lippi is wrong and we are going to be kicked out from WC at a very early stage. Source: guess from an Italian supporter.
I hope your wrong, however I do prefer experince over youth. Plus, we are not that old