Italy coach Marcello Lippi
is making plans for an Azzurri line-up without AS Roma star Francesco Totti.
Totti, widely considered Italy's best soccer player, was operated on after fracturing his left fibula and damaging ankle ligaments during Roma's 1-0 win over Empoli Sunday. Doctors forecast the recovery will take around three months.
Italy's Germany 2006 opener against Ghana is on June 12, so Lippi is optimistic the playmaker-cum-striker will be back in time.
"We have to think positively," the national team coach said on a radio show.
"He'll be at the World Cup - you'll see, he'll make it. I'm certain he'll be back to his best. I don't want to think
of a player at 70, 50 or 40 per cent. Now let's all help him return."
But Lippi also made it clear that, if for some reason the 29-year-old is not ready in time, the Azzurri will have to change approach. "I have always said that there are no substitutes for Totti," he explained. "With him you play one way, without him you have to play in a different way."
Totti can operate as an out-and-out forward or as a playmaker who works behind the strike duo.
Although Lippi has experimented with several formations since taking over the Azzurri bench in 2004, he seemed to have settled on a 4-3-1-2, with Totti playing in the hole behind the strikers.
This enabled Totti to act as a link between the midfield and the attack, using his vision and passing-precision to set up chances for team-mates. It also put him far enough forward to go for goal himself.
Pundits say three players could cover that role - Totti's AS Roma team-mate Simone Perrotta, Lazio's Fabio
Liverani and Fiorentina's Stefano Fiore. But Lippi is not expected to go for any of them.
Perrotta is in great form, but he is more combative and less creative than Totti. He may be in line for an Azzurri call-up, but in the midfield itself, not in the hole. Liverani is in superlative form too, but tends to work from a deeper position, dictating play like an American Football quarterback.
Fiore is also playing pretty well, but perhaps has not done enough with his club to convince Lippi he could deputize for Totti.
One possibility is that the coach will switch to a 4-4-2, perhaps with Perrotta coming into a midfield of Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso and Mauro Camoranesi and an attack of Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino.
The problem with this is that Italy does not really have a specialist left-sided midfielder and the big, powerful Toni-Gilardino strike pairing may struggle to hook up with the rest of the team. Lippi may try to fix this by benching one of his attacking big-guns and fielding a 'lighter' but more technically skilled striker, like Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero.
Another option is a 4-3-3, probably with Pirlo, Gattuso and Camoranesi in midfield, and Del Piero joining Toni and Gilardino in an attacking trident. This is seen as the best way of maintaining the offensive slant Totti would have given the team, although the risk is that the Azzurri will lose the midfield battle against sides that pack the centre of the park.
Lippi is going to have to decide on his best Totti-less line-up soon.
Italy only has two friendlies scheduled before the World Cup and the first one is next Wednesday in Florence against Germany.
