Luciano Spalletti It was confirmed by the president of the FIGC Gabriel Gravina as Italy’s national coach the day after the elimination from EURO 2024 in the round of 16. And also about 24 hours from the tough confrontation between the team and the coachThis is reported in today’s edition of The Republic.
A comparison that led to the clash between two positions that seem irreconcilable. The team asks more certainty about how to playwhile Spalletti wanted to start his course immediately with his ideas, despite the few opportunities to delve into tactical concepts, as he himself admitted during the post-elimination press conference alongside Gravina.
But not only tactical issues. What the national team lacked, in addition to a fluid and effective game, was the gritseen only to come back against Albania in those minutes of fury after the goal conceded a few seconds after the start, or against Croatia which led to Zaccagni’s goal to avoid elimination already in the group stage. Furthermore, the senators were missing. Spalletti had to do without personalities like Giorgio Chiellini e Leonardo Bonuccitwo key pillars in the last few years of the national team who crowned their journey, also marked by two exclusions from the World Cup, with the victory of EURO 2020.
Spalletti has also ended up in the players’ sights for the Physical training planned for a continental review lasting just one month. Not very intensethe most common comment used by footballers in their discussions with the coach. Then the call-up to the national team of Nicholas Beans would have made more than a few of his fellow adventurers in Germany turn up their noses. The fact is that Switzerland’s 2-0 was born from a missed pass in the central area of the Juventus midfielder, but none of the Azzurri did their damnedest to patch it up and avoid the goal that effectively sealed the elimination in favor of the Swiss.
A relationship that never blossomed between Spalletti and the team, who seemed convinced to continue in 4-3-3 groove used in the first two outings against Albania and Spain, then transformed a few hours before the kick-off against Croatia into a 3-5-2then back for the challenge with Switzerland. Without forgetting the sudden change of players from one game to another, without first giving an important signal in training. A revolution that however did not affect some of the protagonists of very poor performances, just remember By Lorenzo against Spain, giving the dressing room the feeling that there were different categories of players in the eyes of the coach. A fact that was not adequately supported by the performances on the pitch.
Now, after the trust received from the FIGC, Spalletti will have the task of mend a strained relationship with the team in order not to miss what is the greatest objective of his management in blue: the qualification for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada. Qualifications will begin in 2025 and another exclusion, which would be the third in a row, would cast the national football movement into a shadow from which it would be almost impossible to emerge in the short term. To avoid this, Gravina has asked for help from some representatives of the Serie A clubs who will be gathered in a sort of commission that will have the task of bringing the national team closer to the teams of the top championship.
