The director is a specialist but he makes a lot of mistakes with the national team shirt. It’s his turn to take a step back
– leverkusen (germany)
Would persevering be diabolical, if it hasn’t already been? The debate, especially on social media, is open. Which is not a debate, if anything it is a plebiscite, which borders on ruthlessness to the point of evoking Don Lurio or Lagarde (“Jorginho’s penalties are like his rate hikes”). Vox populi says that at a certain point, without bothering Francesco De Gregori, it is also from these details that a player is judged. Definitely a penalty taker. And yes, the sentence is without the possibility of appeal: to persevere would be diabolical. Jorginho no longer has to take penalties, at least in blue. Never again. To insist would be obstinacy, masochism: the two most used terms in the comments after Italy-Macedonia. Even if Luciano Spalletti has just said the opposite: “I’ve already told him that he’ll beat him again next time.” And he confirmed, at least for now: “I still shoot.”
penalties scored and missed
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Regardless of charisma, courage to take on certain responsibilities, psychological implications, technical qualities and specializations, at a certain point numbers have weight. Data available to the party of Jorginho’s extremist defenders, and we are only talking about regular time and extra time, not the well-known “lotteries” in the event of a permanent draw: in career, considering the matches against Italy plus those against the top clubs five European championships, our director scored 41 out of 49 penalties. Percentage: almost 84%. High, even if we are not at the levels of almost infallibility of some colleagues. For the equally extremist fringe of accusers: with the one on Friday evening, Jorginho is not so much the Italian player who went to the spot the most times (8, compared to Roberto Baggio’s 7), but the one who made the most mistakes: three, like Altobelli who even scored a double (of errors) in Malta in 1986. Total score, including penalties taken extra 120 minutes, six out of ten: the problem is that he missed all the last four, one after the other.
Italy, step back
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Now, going beyond the opportunity to have him kicked the day before last night, the problem is what to do from here on out: it could be a decisive penalty, perhaps already tomorrow against Ukraine. And already at the Olimpico the rush to immediately go and get the ball, certain glances stolen by the cameras, his frenetic walking waiting to shoot, betrayed a very human nervousness. Which must not have helped him in heading towards that usual jump before the shot, this time perhaps even more accentuated than usual, so blatantly foreseen as to lead to inevitable questions: but hasn’t it become too legible, just like that? Can’t he try to shoot another way? But the question is also another: if in certain cases the opinion of the coach and the shooter seek a coincidence, and if giving Spalletti unlimited trust in him is also an act of respect so as not to delegitimize him, on the part of Jorginho the Wouldn’t taking a step back be an act of responsibility no less courageous than taking it on again?
the other candidates
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There will be no shortage of those who will be ready to make one up front, just in case: Spalletti acknowledged that he “has three very good penalty takers in his squad”. On Wednesday, the survivors of a challenge from the penalty spot, in addition to Jorginho, were Berardi, who shoots them habitually and very well with Sassuolo, and Raspadori, who left them to him in the black and green, but had an excellent average in the Primavera. Dimarco is also a candidate, who at Inter queues behind two infallibles like Calhanoglu and Lautaro, but in the various Italian youth teams he was the specialist and at the 2016 under-19 European Championship he dragged the team to the final, scoring three; and Politano also has an excellent average. Beppe Bergomi, someone who has quite a bit of experience in football life behind him, said it after the match: “It must be Jorginho who goes to Spalletti and says that someone else will beat the next one.” One thing is certain: no one would accuse him of cowardice. Even more so since Friday evening.
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