Italy to ring in the changes? No, says Lippi (News Feature)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Jun 22, 2009, 8:12 GMT

Pretoria - A defiant Italian coach Marcello Lippi late Sunday said that he saw no reason why he should change his plan or his players.

Hours earlier the world champions were humbled 3-0 in a Confederations Cup Group B match, a result that saw them crash out of the tournament.

Sensationally the second place in the semi-finals alongside the convincing group winner Brazil went to the US, who had gone into the final round of matches with no points and needing to make up six goals on the Italians, which they did with their 3-0 win over Egypt and the 3-0 defeat for the world champions.

Lippi, whose side managed just one victory (3-1 against the US) but lost twice (1-0 against Egypt and 3-0 against Brazil), has been heavily criticised for holding onto the players with whom he won the World Cup in 2006.

The Azzurri arrived in South Africa with the oldest team and Lippi said that he was planning with those players for next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

The coach has been criticised for insisting on using the likes of Fabio Grosso, Luca Toni and Andrea Pirlo. Even captain Fabio Cannavaro's continued inclusion has been put in doubt.

'You have seen the best players here on the pitch. They are not only the best players that I have brought to South Africa, they are the best players in Italy and I am not changing them,' he said angrily.

'But I will stick to my general plan working towards the World Cup. I see no reason to change from the plan even if I am feeling a bit bitter and sad.

'I know the image of Italy is not what was shown on the field against Brazil and we did not live up to expectations,' he said.

'But nothing has really changed.'

He said that a young player like Giuseppe Rossi had been used in all three matches.

'But you do not just simply throw young players into these matches. Young players have to be introduced gradually and young players have to be groomed slowly,' Lippi said.

'Of course I am disappointed that we have been knocked out. We are all disappointed that we are going home and we were certainly not good enough.

'We are going home because of a number of reasons. Some of the players arrived in the country with physical problems and they never really recovered.'

Despite the elimination Lippi defended his side's performance at the Confederations Cup.

'I think we did alright. We scored three goals during the tournament and in the end all we needed was one more goal and we would have gone through to the semi-finals.'