Yesterday Italy showed that four stars are indeed greater than one, as they put together a solid performance on a fairly decisive 2-1 win over World Champions Spain. Now, I know that it was just a friendly, and I am not taking to much out of it, but it's certainly always nice to beat the World Champs.
Riccardo Montolivo started off the scoring and shortly thereafter Antonio Cassano was denied what some believe could have been a penalty. Spain would then notch the score at 1 on a questionable handling call in the box converted by Xabi Alonso. However, a late strike from recent Juve loanee (seems like he was one of like 600) Alberto Aquilani would see the Azzurri leave Bari with a win.
Alright, it wasn't exactly a wonderstrike -- the ball was deflected by a Spanish defender on its way into the net, sending Iker Casillas Victor Valdes the wrong way. However, the fact that Aquilani played in front of Andrea Pirlo, Riccardo Montolivo and Thiago Motta, underscores his versatility. While used farther back last season at Juve in a classic Regista role, as he was used primarily at Roma, he can also serve as a trequartista. If recent reports that Juventus, having offloaded Felipe Melo and Momo Sissoko, are now interested in bringing him back are true, that type of versatility can't be overvalued. This is particularly true if Coach Conte decides to employ a 4-3-3; a formation much better suited to the current personnel available. However, if a left winger like Juan Miguel Vargas does indeed arrive, I think we can scratch that idea all together.
What are your thoughts? Would you rather pick up a stud wide-left player like Vargas, or would you be happy with an attacking trident of say Vucinic-Matri-Krasic in front of a midfield consisting of three out of Marchisio, Pirlo, Vidal, and Aquilani?