Azzurri’s powerhouse

One of the problems with past success is that it can freeze time for declined teams.

If the intervening sides haven’t measured up to past champions, there is an often unhelpful tendency to compare any promising new player to a previous incumbent of his position.

And so it is for an Italian team looking to emulate the World Cup victory of 2006. And, particularly, Antonio Nocerino.

Or, as many will have you believe, the “new Gennaro Gattuso”.

To a certain degree, of course, the comparisons are completely understandable.

For a start, when it comes to appearance, there’s the facial hair, as well as the Milan shirt.

More importantly, when it comes to ability, there’s the ferocity, the industry, the relentless running and pressing. Much like the manner in which Gattuso would hound players, Nocerino is simply a nuisance for any opposition player on the ball — something that will suit Milan’s daunting task against Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Nocerino himself, though, rejects the label.

“I am not and I will not be the new Gattuso,” he recently declared.

And he’s right. Because, most of all, Nocerino is a much more forward-thinking player than Gattuso. Although he is also strong in the tackle from the holding role, he has primarily played on the sides of midfield or even in the attacking role this season.

Indeed, some coaches have even talked about how Nocerino is a “forward trapped in a midfielder’s body”, perhaps explaining that remarkable goal ratio of one every three games for Milan.

The number 23 (specifically chosen because of his devotion to Padre Pio) will charge forward at any opportunity to try to get in the box and finish.

More than anyone, Nocerino perhaps defines Milan’s newly powerful style of play — one that eventually overwhelmed Roma 2-1 at the weekend having been a goal behind. His manager Max Allegri certainly concurs. “Who is the symbol of Milan? It’s too easy to say [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic or Thiago Silvo, so I’ll vote for Nocerino.”

But, aside from being either distinctive or definitive, Nocerino may well be unique. Many have hailed him as, by far, the signing of the 2011-12 season.

Having hugely impressed at international youth level — culminating in his captaincy of Italy’s victorious team in the 2007 Toulon under-21 tournament — the Juventus graduate initially toiled to make the very best of his talent as he bounced around a number of loan moves and clubs. It was only when he joined Palermo in 2008 that Italy began to see the best of him.

Nocerino propelled the side to the Champions League places last season and increased his asking price to around €10m.

And that makes it all the more remarkable that Milan got him for a mere €500,000. Just hours from the transfer deadline in August last summer, a San Siro official ran into Adriano Galliani’s office to tell him Palermo were selling Nocerino. As the Milan chief executive later admitted: “I started low to be honest... it was a real stroke of luck.”

To this day, Nocerino can’t understand why a club he loved let him go so easily and so cheaply.

“I was expecting to sign an extension to my contract and I was ready to. It looks like it was my fault that I left... that is not true.”

Certainly, given Nocerino’s Milan form and the fact he will likely start for Italy in Euro 2012, the rest of the country is only echoing his feelings.

But, in truth, Nocerino’s inclusion could present both a positive and a negative for Ireland in Poznan. On the one hand, there’s his game-breaking runs and goal-getting — elements that may prove important if, as expected, Giovanni Trapattoni keeps it tight. On the other, though, many believe an overload of powerful players like Nocerino and Claudio Marchisio actually creates a situation where Italy struggle to open lesser sides.

But then that’s another problem with past success. This Italy, no matter how resurgent under Cesare Prandelli, are still finding themselves after the decline of the 2006 generation.

It’s up to Nocerino and his team-mates to change that.