Italy National Team's Midfield Must Take Shape in Scotland Friendly

As the Italian national team begin their final preparation for the 2016 UEFA European Championship, there are major worries about an important part of the team.

Italy's midfield is in shambles.  Coach Antonio Conte is heading into the Euros with severe injury problems in his team's power plant.

Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio, a midfield staple for both club and country, tore his ACL early in the Bianconeri's 4-0 win over Palermo on April 17.  Intimately familiar with Conte and his systems from their time together at Juve and excellent as both a box-to-box midfielder or a deep-lying regista, his loss was a major blow to Italy's efforts in France.

Equally jarring was the news in early May that Paris Saint-Germain's Marco Verratti would also miss the tournament.  The 23-year-old from Pescara had been dealing with a sports hernia for months and only appeared in two matches since February.

He had been trying to rehab the injury with an eye to playing at the Euros, but sports hernias are tricky beasts, and eventually he had to concede defeat and undergo surgery to correct the problem.

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The loss of Verratti, a resolute defender and probably the best passer under consideration for the tournament, was another devastating blow to the Azzurri.  They were expecting to go to France with two men who are arguably among the 15 best midfielders in the world.  Now they're scrambling to cover.

Things only got worse as Conte's provisional 30-man roster began training at Coverciano.  Both Thiago Motta and Riccardo Montolivo arrived with calf problems, and Daniele De Rossi developed an Achilles issue shortly after.

Calciomercato.com reported (h/t Football Italia) that De Rossi has overcome that injury and returned to training, but the availability of Motta and Montolivo is still in doubt.

That will leave Conte struggling to find the right combination in the middle of the park.  Assuming the worst and Motta and Montolivo can't go, the only guarantee in the midfield would be De Rossi.  The incoming Chelsea head coach would attempt to provide a stabilizing presence around a number of players that are either young, inexperienced or both.

The provisional squad includes two midfielders—21-year-old Marco Benassi of Torino and 23-year-old Stefano Sturaro—who have never been capped at the senior level and one, Napoli's Jorginho, who has only seen the field in Savoy blue once.

Besides those new arrivals, Conte has the mediocre Marco Parolo and utility man Emanuele Giaccherini, a favorite of the coach's from Juve who has always managed to be surprisingly effective in big situations.  Antonio Candreva and Alessandro Florenzi came up as center mids, but at this point in their careers moving them back would probably be a huge ask.

There's definitely quality in that group—especially among the youngsters—but there's no way of really knowing how they can operate together until they do it in game situations.

That's why Sunday's friendly against Scotland in Malta is so important, not for its result but for the answers it could bring.

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Italy's record in friendlies in the last six years or so is abysmal, mostly because both Conte and his predecessor, Cesare Prandelli, have used them as platforms to experiment with tactics and personnel.

That kind of experimentation might be more important than the score on Sunday.  With so much uncertainty in the middle of the park and only one outing before he must announce his final 23-man roster for the tournament on Tuesday, Conte has to figure out which players can fit into his midfield when group play begins for the Azzurri against Belgium on June 13.

If that means enduring a draw or a loss while experimenting with different setups in the midfield, so be it.

Italy's Juventus-based defensive core will always be a constant, and that kind of unit gives any team a chance in tournament play.  But with an unproven attack, Italy needs its midfield to be effective.  If they lose the midfield battle, it doesn't matter how good the defense is.

Conte must use the Scotland match to find a lineup that can compensate for the injuries his midfield has suffered.  If it isn't settled by the time he has to name his squad, the Azzurri could have a short tournament.