Dramatic theatrics, protests, tactical speculation, timeouts: our league doesn’t prepare players for the kind of soccer played around the world today. And if Italy’s best dribbler is a fullback…

Intensity is like shallots—it goes into every recipe. As soon as Italian soccer stumbles, the word “intensity” shoots to the top of the trending topics. It’s to blame. For everything. Even climate change. “We lack intensity.” Yesterday, however, the CIES Football Observatory provided data that allows us to discuss the topic in a slightly less vague way. It defined the concept of a sprint as a speed of 25 km/h maintained for at least 0.7 seconds.

It then compiled a ranking of European leagues based on the number of meters covered in sprints. That’s what intensity is: sustained fast running. In first place is the Premier League with 199.6 meters. Next are the Dutch league (193.7 m) and the Swiss league (190 m). Italy? Outside the top 10, trailing even France, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Germany, and Turkey. Serie A, rife with theatrics, protests, tactical maneuvering, and constant stoppages, doesn’t train players for sustained sprints. So, if Norway picks up the pace, the Azzurri find themselves in the same position as Sinner’s opponents—a monster of intensity: overwhelmed, unable to keep up with a high tempo. The same thing happens to our clubs in cup competitions. If Roma—which has a squad inferior to many others—is still in the lead, it’s because Gasp has already instilled the intensity of Atalanta, the most revolutionary Italian team of the last 10 years. You never see revolutionaries taking it easy. When facing an opponent, you either dribble past him or outrun him. The player most likely to make the national team with the most successful dribbles is a fullback (Palestra, 17), far behind Yamal (33) and Mbappé (30). We don’t know how to sprint or dribble. The playoffs aren’t an insult to our history, but a true reflection of it.