It may be strange that I'm sharing a song in this sub, but since Italy's elimination (and, honestly, for some time before it) I've been thinking about "what's wrong with Italian football?", and this song keeps popping back into my head.
This is the specific portion I keep circling back to (with the most important part in bold):
Ma, Nino, non aver paura
Di sbagliare un calcio di rigore
Non รจ mica da questi particolari
Che si giudica un giocatore
Un giocatore lo vedi dal coraggio
Dall'altruismo e dalla fantasia
As I listened to all the talk about "what's happened to Italian football?", and at the same time trying to not be pulled into some kind of misplaced nostalgia about better days, I think there is something profound in this song that explains at least some of what has transpired.
Specifically, it feels like Italian footballers, particularly at the national level, are defined by fear (to a paralyzing degree) rather than being defined by the three simple things mentioned by De Gregori: courage, altruism, and fantasy (or perhaps better translated, improvisation).
It honestly just feels like all the joy and experimentation and playfulness and risk-taking has disappeared. And I do realize that catenaccio approach, which has existed for decades, has systematically destroyed a lot of that, and I also realize that many other clubs/leagues have/are employing tactics that also systematically squeeze those elements out (e.g., Arsenal), but it just feels like Italian football at the present is doing it to a whole other degree.
To summarize, then, I just really worry about how pervasive fear is as the dominant emotion for Italian footballers (and clubs), and how it makes them play "not to lose" and how, in the process, it ends up destroying those characteristics that many (most?) of us love about the game (courage, altruism, fantasy/improvisation) which ultimately leads to the situation Italian football currently is in.
by iamnefastis