Italy coach Luciano Spalletti believes the national team ‘must be close to everyone’s heart’ while offering updates on his squad. The Azzurri will face off against Malta and England in the coming weeks in their bid to secure qualification for EURO 2024, but Spalletti’s start to life as the Italy boss has been mixed, something he touched on in his latest presser:
“The considerations are forcibly influenced by what is the pleasure of living this role in this professional condition. They are all very nice and positive. It is clear that then going into it one also finds complications, one also finds problems, but they are all part of the game’.
‘This job has allowed me to come into contact with many of my colleagues, even those I didn’t know. Being able to see them working in the field is very inspiring. It counts being different and becoming better than others, it counts knowledge and relationships, what you can perceive and see makes you better. If we are all the same it becomes difficult to play an important role. I have to go every day to work harder to put more at the disposal of my players. I have a lot of respect for Sarri, he has feeling and love for this sport.
“Immobile? We received a communication from the Lazio doctor and they said there was a physical problem, that they didn’t know if he would recover. We went deeper, it was possible he wouldn’t play”
“Kean? I say that I don’t know what the previous behaviour was. For me my players are special creatures and I treat them as such, but at the same time I want special answers. I’ve read a book by the All Blacks called: ‘No (bleep) heads’. It will be a Christmas present for the footballers. We do things seriously here, we don’t have different spaces. We are willing to make that sacrifice in order to bring home the bacon of the result and it is the result that makes the difference. Italy is there in first place and everyone can take things from the national team to make better football. My attempt is to go hand in hand with everyone.
“Bonaventura? Last time I had a hard time not calling him, he is a bit the Pellegrini of the situation. He’s the most offensive midfielder who knows how to be a trequartista. He has total ball handling. He can shoot from outside the box, score goals, what he showed us again yesterday. The only thing I was hesitant about was his age, but if those of this age show these things, you have to bring him too.
“Federico Chiesa and Mattia Zaccagni? On the left we have Kean, Raspadori and Zaniolo. I hope we also have Chiesa and Zaccagni. The biancoceleste left him at home because they bandaged his ankle last night, I couldn’t force him to come, could I? It’s about today. Chiesa? According to the club there is very little, according to the confirmations there is very little, but then he counts”.
