national team, Spalletti cancels Mancini | Gazzetta.it

Back four. A fluid and more symmetrical 4-3-3. Intense workouts, work on pressing. Dialogue with the players. Recovery of blues forgotten or cut by Mancini. It’s true that this is the moment of the honeymoon and no one has accused the slightest pain, while with Mancio in recent times someone presented a medical certificate at the first ailment. Waiting for Saturday’s debut in Skopje, which will say something but not everything (Lippi started with a knockout, even if he was in less hurry, then he won the World Cup), here’s how Spalletti’s Italy is changing.

THE TACTICS

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It starts again from the back four and from the 4-3-3, the reference system with which Mancini took the European Championship and the new coach won the Scudetto. Since North Macedonia, however, the interpretation and tactical development should be different. Mancini set up leaving behind three defenders and unleashing the left lateral (Spinazzola) forward, almost an attacker in line with the trident already thickened by Barella: in short, you could see a 3-2-5 directed by the double play Jorginho-Verratti. A first change can be perceived from the tests at Coverciano. When the opponents have the ball, Italy immediately tries a very high, man-powered, aggressive pressing to win possession, drawing up a sort of 4-4-2: the more advanced midfielder in fact flanks the center forward (Mancini configured instead a less “pressing” 4-5-1). In the offensive phase it is probable that, as in Napoli, the 4-3-3 is more symmetrical. The two outsiders will advance simultaneously. One, probably Di Lorenzo, will have two options: move to midfield or go to the back, pushing the right forward towards the center. The other offensive solution could be the incursion of the midfielder to Zielinski, thus designating a 4-2-3-1.

SUMMONED

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Spalletti has never been a fundamentalist of tactics, he didn’t insist on a system if he didn’t have the right players. In theory, he could also propose a three-man defence, but with few central defenders and many full-backs it would be a waste. In the first call-ups there weren’t any big news because experimenting would be risky, given that we play a lot right away and six points, that’s right, are the minimum that the standings require. The recovery of Locatelli, Zaccagni and Gianluca Mancini is interesting, whom the former coach had excluded perhaps also due to less personal harmony as well as tactics. Inside also Romagnoli and Casale, a close-knit couple in Lazio, but never really in Mancio’s thoughts. There are no big thirty-year-olds who are playing little or nothing (Bonucci, Verratti, Jorginho), while the coach demands confirmation from Berardi and Buongiorno. Scamacca should arrive soon if the Gasp cure will give results: his identikit of a powerful and technical striker adapts to Spalletti’s ideas. And then the youngsters: Fagioli, Udogie, Ricci, Casadei, Miretti, Kayode, Kean himself who he seems to like a lot, are all on an extensive list, to be included in October. Spalletti will not be coordinator of the national teams as foreseen for Mancini. The supervision of the youth teams up to the U21 will still be Maurizio Viscidi, a longtime friend.

RELATIONSHIPS

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As Gigi Buffon said on the first day, “Spalletti takes my words away. As head of delegation I should intervene every now and then, but with him there’s never anything else to add. I think I won’t have to say much.” Coming from Buffon, someone who has learned to handle words as well as boxing gloves, it’s a nice compliment. You know, Spalletti loves to chat for a long time, even the first conference ended up running out of time. But what matters to him is the dialogue with the players. In this Spalletti does not want intermediaries, another difference compared to Mancini who, at the end of the cycle, had asked (and obtained) the inclusion of a psychologist to facilitate dialogue with the Azzurri. Reason why there is no team manager, but Buffon will play the double role of Oriali and Vialli, especially in contact with the federation, because the team will “treat” Spalletti.

WORKOUTS

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The most visible change has been in training methods. Mancini preferred collegial management of field work, his assistants always supported him. Not that Domenichini, Baldini and the other staff are out of the picture, far from it. But Spalletti immediately took center stage – or the famous “quadrilateral” drawn on the pitch, another novelty relating to ball possession – directing the sessions alone, loudly, with the whistle and the papers in hand. In those pages of notes written in pencil there is all the work of the day: exercises, schemes, tactical tests. Not in pen, to update them continuously if other ideas come to mind. And, if the next session involves the same work, Spalletti rewrites the exercises anyway to memorize them. Also with the help of videos to study the opponents. «He is showing us a lot of them», revealed Locatelli. Tactics, words and… videotapes.