Where’s The Next Giorgio Chiellini And Italy’s Lost Art Of Defending

The last time Italy won against England on English soil makes for sober reading if you are of an Italian persuasion.

Heading into the Euro 2024 qualifier at Wembley, Italy hadn’t won at an English ground – without the need for penalties – in 21 years. Of course, Italy won the Euro 2020 final at Wembley on spot kicks, but for a victory in the course of a 90 minute bout, you have to go all the way back to March 2002 for the last time the Azzurri emerged victorious.

That run has now been extended thanks to England’s well-deserved 3-1 win over Luciano Spalletti’s side at Wembley. Italy took the lead in the game thanks to Gianluca Scamacca’s predatory instincts, yet eventually England’s superior class and quality shone through, with two goals from Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford confirming The Three Lions’ qualification to the tournament in Germany next summer.

For Italy, their own place at Euro 2024 is in perilous danger of slipping through their fingers. This would be all the more galling considering they’re the reigning European champions. Yet the side that conquered Europe in those heady four weeks in June and July 2021 seems light years away from what we are currently seeing.

Attacking wise, Italy were of course without Federico Chiesa and Nicolo Zaniolo, not to mention Sandro Tonali in midfield. From Spalletti’s perspective, he’ll have little issues with his team going forward, Italy created quite a few chances against England and likely should’ve added to their single goal, yet what will no doubt be upsetting to the former Napoli and Roma coach was just how feeble Italy were at defending, something most people thought couldn’t be written in the same sentence.

Italy’s defence was pulled apart time and again by England. Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane were ruthless in maximising the space left open by Giorgio Scalvini and Francesco Acerbi, with the pair being exposed for their severe lack of pace.

Yet it wasn’t just pace were the Italian defence was outstripped, it was the lack of aggression that was most alarming. This was best captured in Rashford’s goal, and while plaudits can be given to the Manchester United forward, he was undoubtedly helped by some of the most generous defending seen from in Italian side in a generation. Giovanni Di Lorenzo showed Rashford inside rather than down the line on to his weaker foot while Destiny Udogie – who was good going forward – morphed into an usher in a cinema; almost escorting Rashford towards the center of the box and fully allowing him to shoot and score. It wouldn’t have been a surprise had Udogie patted him on the back after for a job well done.

It was such bad defending it could be viewed as comical, but it also brings a sense of wistful nostalgia for those of us at a certain age. Remember when Italian defenders knew how to defend? What happened to the defenders who relished the art form and cherished a block or tackle like scoring a last-minute winner? This brings us back to the March 2002 friendly between the two sides and sheer contrast in talent.

That game, played at Elland Road, saw Giovanni Trapattoni selected a back four of Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Marco Materazzi and Christian Panucci: four rugged, grizzled Italian defenders in the classical mould. This especially pertains to Materazzi and Cannavaro, who were as no-nonsense as it came and wouldn’t let both ball and player past them.

On the bench for Italy that night was Juventus defender Mark Iuliano, another who would stand in the way of an opposing attacker getting close to goal (as Ronaldo could attest to in 1998). Looking around the Italian landscape today, what’s happened to the classic Italian defender?

The last defender of that vintage was the great Giorgio Chiellini, a man who didn’t care about elegance on the pitch and cared even less about spraying 50-yard diagonal passes to a winger. Chiellini relished the art of defending, and winning was all that mattered. The man himself believes the Pep Guardiola effect has had an adverse consequence on the current crop of Italian defenders: “He [Guardiola] is a fantastic coach with a fantastic mind but Italian trainers have tried to copy him without the same knowledge and then in the last 10 years, we lost our identity,” Chiellini said in 2018 in the wake of failing to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.

“We lost our identity of [Paolo] Maldini, [Franco] Baresi, [Fabio] Cannavaro, [Alessandro] Nesta, [Giuseppe] Bergomi, [Claudio] Gentile, [Gaetano] Scirea… between 1984 and 1995, we have only [Leonardo] Bonucci. In 10 years, we didn’t launch one good defender. I hope now we restart and relaunch Italian football. The World Cup result [against Sweden] is the proof of our problem.”

Chiellini formed that fabled partnership with Bonucci for both club and country, with the pair rolling back the years to steer Italy to glory at Euro 2020. Yet when looking at the next crop of defenders around the top clubs in Serie A, they all resemble Bonucci rather than Chiellini: Alessandro Bastoni, Scalvini and Gianluca Mancini are all better with the ball than Chiellini – as Bonucci was – but for actual ability to stop the opposition, none of them are comparable to the man who broke his nose three times and gathered over 100 stitches because of on the field wounds.

While history will likely be kind to him, Bonucci was mediocre at defending, carried by Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli for most of his time at Juventus and later with Italy. However, within a three-man unit his flaws were masked and his strengths accentuated. The major problem for Spalletti is that everyone wants to be the next Bonucci, and thus there is no future Chiellini to play alongside and protect Mancini, Bastoni or Scalvini.

Federico Gatti is perhaps the only defender at one of the top sides in Italy who could resemble Chiellini, but the 25-year-old is still raw, and needs more time to become polished.

Spalletti still has Italy’s fate in their hands. Beat Ukraine and North Macedonia (the latter easier said than done these days) and qualification to Euro 2024 is secure. Yet looking at his options defensively, it’s clear winning another international tournament will be off the table for the foreseeable future.

Will the next Giorgio Chiellini, or even the next Marco Materazzi, please stand up?