Nations League, Holland-Italy: Mancini lines up Retegui and Raspadori

Halfway between present and future, because the future can already be now, tomorrow. A useless “final” of the Nations League (tomorrow at 3 pm), against the hosts Holland, which could be useful to ferry the national team towards real reconstruction without delay. And when something needs to be changed – or a lot, Roberto Mancini will decide it – it’s never too soon and any signal can be read and memorized, to be reworked later.

the defence

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“But the renewal project – specifies the coach – has already started: we played the qualifying round of Nations with young players, some were even little known. Then, of course, if you win a group it doesn’t count, it only counts if you don’t go in the final… But for these two games there were also variables: the Under 20 World Cup, two players at the Under 21 European Championship (Tonali and Scalvini), Bastoni who wasn’t well. of international experience, but how many young players have already played? Then, of course, that’s how we happen to skid: we’ve already done it against Germany, remember that sarabanda after the match? You risk it but it’s not a problem, if it helps to grow. The example Frattesi is: good, but he has never played in Europe and so the experience is with us”.

bonucci

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These are clear signs: there is a desire and need to refresh the national team and even the words about Bonucci betray the coach’s need rather than desire to accelerate: “Bonucci has always been important, but there always comes a moment when everything ends , when the age rises”. Mancini will certainly push on the accelerator from September, when Italy will return to walking on the road to the European Championship, and a fresher but ready-made team will be needed: not to trip over obstacles that can already be foreseen as treacherous. “We are in a not so simple group for a top seed. There will be a fight.”

4-3-3

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Tomorrow too, and the coach returns to conventional weapons, starting with the game system: “4-3-3 will certainly be the reference form”. And the fact that Retegui and Raspadori will play up front also seems certain. Indeed, it is he himself who announces the Italian-Argentine as the starting centre-forward: “It was expected that he and Immobile would play a game each: at this point of the season the players are tired, not one hundred per cent, and for this reason there will certainly be changes compared to Thursday. I expect a good game from Mateo: he’s someone who scores goals, so I expect him to score, even if it won’t be easy because the Dutch defense is solid. He’ll need it.”

world 2026

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Once again Mancini has set his sights on the real goal he has in mind: “There is no shortage of good young players and I continue to think that with them Italy can risk reaching the 2026 World Cup to win it”. And maybe this is really the factor that multiplies his energies that can sometimes seem a little sluggish, like on Thursday evening after the defeat against Spain: “Luckily Napoli have hired the coach, otherwise… No, I was sorry , a lot: I really wanted to win, I thought we would go to the final. There is no discouragement, everything is as before”. Even five years after the beginning of the blue adventure: “What has changed is that I am five years older. But the national team is always a huge stimulus, unfortunately we play too little, too often. This is why I wanted so much to win this Nations League. But in the last year and a half, the only really negative thing I see is the elimination from the World Cup, then you can win and lose.”

donnarumma and acerbi

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Provided that the value of entertainment still has its weight, for this reason the words of Acerbi and Donnarumma on Thursday (“We are no longer having fun as before”) left him at least perplexed: “I don’t know if they really said these words: to me They haven’t said it, I’ll ask them. However, apart from the tiredness of the end of the season, if they don’t have fun it’s a problem. As soon as I arrive in a stadium like this, on a field like this, I feel like playing football. You always have to have fun, if so they should have told me before…”.