Blac and Nents silly match reports

[Nentsia]

As my season has ended, I've appointed myself as the team manager of the Italian national team, as Euro 2016 is happening and I wouldn't want to waste an opportunity to lead Italy at an international tournament. Im in Group D, together with England, Poland, and Austria. The first game was against England - an opponent to be feared. In reality, England's national team always sucks. It ~always~ does. English kick 'n rush is just a bit too simplistic to succeed at an international level. In FM16 however, made by English people, the English are terribly good... How unsurprising. Every mediocre English talent is grossly overrated.

In any case, this justified a reactive strategy against the English. I also had to do without players like Chiellini and De Rossi, who were severely injured.

Show ContentItaly vs England:

The recipe against England was a classic Italian 5-3-2. I deployed a highly rigid, well-organized formation, with rigid man-marking and sitting deep within its own half. Marchisio played in front of the defense as a playmaker, sending long balls forward to Pelle, or to the flanks where especially Florenzi ran up and down.

The English played at a high pace, quickly searching for the wings, where they had rapid dribbling players like Walcott. Throughout the game they were unable to find their way through my well-organized defense that responded dynamically to the movements of the English players. Barzagli was constantly on Rooney's tail, Marchisio and Romagnoli watched Sterling, and Antonelli and Florenzi dealt with the wings. They received support from the two outer central midfielders (Parolo & Verratti), or if a winger threatened to break through, received support from one of the three central defenders. Bonucci played as a sort of a Libero, in charge of organizing the defense, and with setting the play.

Most of the game took place in my half, but the English failed to create scoring chances and most of their shots were blocked or deflected. They fired a total of 23 shots, but only 7 were on goal.

My Italian crew was not entirely passive during the match. Upon an interception, long balls were sent forward to Pelle, who often managed to find Gabbiadini storming forward. When Gabbiadini faced an opponent he would usually sent the ball to the right flank where Florenzi was storming into the open space. Florenzi would run with the ball, and try to cross. Out of these moments, Pelle was occassionally able to shoot on goal. In other cases, the attack was built up through the 3 central defenders and Marchisio. He searched for the wings, and if no crossing opportunity was available, Verratti and Parolo would offer themselves. They linked the play with the 2 strikers, who tried to cut through the English defence and shoot on goal. Both Pelle and Gabbiadini fired some great cannonballs on goal. Overall however, my team played poorly. The passing was dreadful (66% success rate), with even simple passes being ruined. The team continued to rely mostly on the long ball towards Pelle, who either wasted ball posession, or managed to reach a team player who fired on goal. Throughout the game Italy had 39% ball posession.

There were also periods during the game that nothing happened. Basically, the entire 2nd half was such a period. But Italy wouldn't be Italy if it didn't have some sneaky plan to steal the undeserved victory from the English. In the 87th minute I sent my blue-shirted troops out of their trenches for one last charge. In the 90th minute, Florenzi had the ball on the right flank, and, in a moment of concentration loss among the English defenders, he threw a far cross into the English penalty box where the defenders had completely abandoned Graziano Pelle, who beautifully headed the ball past the English goalkeeper. Then followed 2 minutes of pure Catenaccio and the Azzurri could celebrate their 1-0 victory over England.

After the match, the media confronted me with the undeserved late goal, and the frustrations of the English team manager. Not even I could deny the victory was undeserved. Then again, stealing wins at international tournament is an Italian specialty. The English could've expected this iron football law: If you dont score, the other team will sooner or later.