Serie A - Lippi looks to fresh faces

Eurosport - Tue, 11 Aug 14:49:00 2009

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has denied dragging his heels over injecting fresh blood and will give debuts to Claudio Marchisio and Domenico Criscito in Wednesday's friendly against Switzerland.

FOOTBALL 10.08.09 Marcello Lippi Presse conference - 0

Lippi has come under pressure to phase out members of the 2006 World Cup-winning team after the poor Confederations Cup showing in June when Italy were knocked out at the group stage after defeats by Egypt and Brazil.

The core of the 61-year-old's team is still formed by World Cup winners, eight of whom are in the squad for the game in Basel.

Two others, Daniele De Rossi and Gennaro Gattuso, have been rested while striker Luca Toni is unfit. Lippi argues he is bringing in fresh faces as fast as possible but the transition must be gradual.

"They will both play from the first minute," Lippi said when asked about Juventus midfielder Marchisio and Genoa defender Criscito.

"I see some people keep asking for revolution but we have already had too many revolutions. Here we have youngsters such as Criscito, Marchisio, (Salvatore) Bocchetti, (Davide) Santon."

Criscito's uncapped Genoa team mate Bocchetti is also travelling to Switzerland as is Inter Milan's highly rated 18-year-old full back Santon, who was part of the Confederations Cup squad.

Udinese playmaker Gaetano D'Agostino and Cagliari goalkeeper Federico Marchetti also feature after making their debuts in June's 3-0 win over Northern Ireland in a friendly.

Captain Fabio Cannavaro will break Paolo Maldini's Italy record of 126 appearances if he plays on Wednesday.

Reuters

Comment 1 - 6 of 6

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. Well lippi is an amasing coach but it is time for him­ to change the team tho he should not do it at one time­ but, a number of players he has are those who won the­ world cup.i strongly feel that he should start now to­ fuse in young players when our good old players are­ still around,by time we are going to the world cup­ every thing will be in order and it will be easy for us­ to defend the cup..Andrew kapotwe from Zambia

    From andrew, on Fri 14 Aug 2:09PM

  2. lippi is a wise coach

    From al hadji, on Wed 12 Aug 6:56PM

  3. comment 3 i agree with your talk about bringing in more­ of the young guys into the squad but not Rossi, we all­ know what he can do and there is no need to play him­ against the swiss instead we should include players­ that we need to see if they can be part of the world­ cup squad or not, but rossi is proven and no need to­ play him.

    From football4life, on Wed 12 Aug 4:13PM

  4. Italy have so many good players that really should be­ in the international squad but arent, for the Euros and­ confederations cup Lippi gave older players some of­ their final games in an Azzurri top.

    Next year Italy­ will win the World Cup again with a entirely new squad.­ Some players that I would like to see play against­ Switzerland tomorrow are Foggia, Santon, Rossi and­ Gamberini.

    From chrisitalia90, on Wed 12 Aug 12:25AM

  5. and lippi is a tard.

    From nBz., on Tue 11 Aug 10:57PM

  6. Cannavaro is a legend

    From Half A Brain, on Tue 11 Aug 9:49PM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account