Lippi announces 29 man boot camp squad

Marcello Lippi has finally announced his squad for the 2 day boot camp just outside of Rome. There are no real surprises in the squad. Lippi appears to have ignored pressure to include players such as Miccoli and Amauri and has chosen a squad of players with experience and some younger players who have performed superbly all season.

Goalkeepers: Buffon (Juventus), De Sanctis (Napoli), Marchetti (Cagliari), Sirigu (Palermo).

Defenders: B occhetti, Criscito (Genoa), Bonucci (Bari), Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso, Legrottaglie, Zambrotta (Juventus), Cassani (Palermo), Maggio (Napoli).

Midfielders: Camoranesi, Candreva,  Marchisio (Juventus), Cossu (Cagliari), Gattuso, Pirlo (A.C. Milan), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Palombo (Sampdoria), Pepe (Udinese).

Strikers: Borriello (A.C. Milan), Di Natale (Udinese), Gilardino (Fiorentina), Iaquinta (Juventus), Pazzini (Sampdoria), Quagliarella (Napoli).

Lippi has ignored Roma and Inter players who are taking part in Wednesday night’s final of the Coppa Italia. He has already stated that he has most of his squad decided and just wants to have a look to finalise the last 3-4 players. This will almost certainly be aimed towards the more inexperienced players. The head coach had already put his views forward regarding his stance on taking experience rather than youth or form players.

Amauri had only just obtained citizenship in April 2010, possibly with the sole intention of getting into the national team, it seems however that he will not be going to any world cups as he is 30 years old in June. Fabrizio Miccoli is also in the autumn of his career and looks to have missed out on a trip to the World Cup finals despite his recent form of 8 goals in 6 games taking his total tally for the league season to 18. He hasn’t been called up since his move to Benfica, and it looks like Lippi has plenty of options up front as it is.

Antonio Cassano was another omission but this was no surprise to anyone, the striker has failed to muster any sort of form since the turn of the year. He has been trouble by injury and has even declared that he will too busy enjoying his June wedding to care about the World Cup in the slightest. I’m sure he’ll be enjoying plenty of cake.