Alessandro Bastoni

i agree with that i think that's that's the right and and um and and the reason i say that is because what i liked about them is that for me when you play a back four you need your central defensive pairing need to complement each other they don't need to have the exact identical traits but they need to be able to complement each other and that was the first time that i've seen a center defend a central back pairing for italy actually get the best out of each other, complement each other, make up for each other's weaknesses and build on each other's strengths.

I think Scalvini showed that he's much better 1v1 defensively than Bastogne is.

We saw that in the second half of the way that he, I can't remember which Turkey player it was, but it was 1v1 and he was very, very good at... reading how he was going to move and shut him down and closely be tight on him and then block that shot and a counter attack bastoni usually doesn't struggles in those positions galvini was really really good there um and i do think that you know i think i think scalvini showed that in the back four for the Italy national team, there's something there.

Now we need to see him play more often for Atalanta in a back four as well.

mentally as well, as he said.

And it's clear that the events that happened during that week with everything that happened after the Juve game and, of course, the Bosnia game, that did have an impact on him.

And he does strike me as a sensitive guy, Bastogne.

and everyone is different, and we're just going to have to accept people as they are.

But a lot of those guys as well, there's a lot of question marks around them.

What about Bastoni? Obviously, he got sent off in that game.

I know your thoughts as your mate on it.

But from the outside, like an English perspective, he's clearly such a talented player.

Yeah.

Well, Bastoni, he didn't play against Belgium, firstly.

Secondly, he's quite polarising in the sense that I think his perception is a lot stronger outside of Italy than it is in Italy, honestly.

Based on, like, big UCL nights and performances that you guys have seen on a smaller, let's say, sample size, right? I think Bastogne is very technical.

Of course, him getting a goal again this evening.

Bastoni with a lovely finish.

Quite fortunate that the Turkish defenders decided to leave it.

But a really, really lovely finish.

Okay, so these are the names that we've come up with.

We've got Bastoni, Chabot, Pavlovic, Renato Vega, Tuba, Van de Ven, Romero, Brackleman, Hanko, Natan, Gerrard Martin, Murillo.

I like this one.

Carboni.

Highly unlikely.

The same three Premier League clubs are keeping an eye on Alessandro Bastoni.

Chelsea I could believe.

Liverpool not so much at this point.

Highly unlikely.

The same three Premier League clubs are keeping an eye on Alessandro Bastoni.

Chelsea, I could believe.

Liverpool, not so much at this point.

Let me get to the negatives.

But before we do that, one more thing for Bastoni.

I read this quote and it really humanizes Bastoni because, of course, he did get his goal.

He scored the first goal.

This is his first match back after the suspension from the Bosnia game, which was a disaster.

And he said, every night I'm in the national team, I think about the Bosnia match.

I will be in debt to the Italians for at least the next four years and hope to be able to make it up.

and you know it's very easy to criticize Bastoni and I too have had my anger with Bastoni at moments but of course he's a he's somebody that wants the best for the Italian national team and some of the things that were said about Bastoni I don't always think were were nice and just to remember that these are humans at the end of the day and they feel it and they want it just as much as as we do but let's get to the negatives and unfortunately i see that they gave him bastonia 7.7 and i guess for the moment and for the goal but um the entire back the the back line with scalvini and bastoni and um not just not just the defenders we should say the way that the entire 11 defended we left turkey so many opportunities to score turkey really should have scored more than one goal in this match if we're being honest conceding so many chances the game got away from us towards the end of the match uh Bastoni got beat 1v1 a couple times Scalvini just looks weak at moments even Donnarumma didn't look secure coming out it's like anytime it's like whack-a-mole we fix one problem and then another problem comes up that was my feeling in this game I didn't love the subs from Mancini if I'm being honest with you Issa Dumbia I liked his control of the ball It looked like he was in a weird position at first.

Christian Chivu brought out a 3-5-2 of Jose Martinez in goal.

Jan Bisek, Manuel Akanji, Alessandro Bastoni in the defense.

Andy Diouf, Curtis Jones, Nico Barella, Pitor Silinski, and Federico Di Marco got the midfield.

And the striker pairing of Marcus Taram and Lautaro Martinez was up top.