“I take responsibility for what happened,” Luciano Spalletti declared after Italy’s withdrawal from the European Championships. It was a laudable sentiment, although it was somewhat obscured by the rest of his speech, in which he blamed in turn: the heat, the effort of the players in training, his lack of preparation time, the lack of physicality of the footballers produced in Italy Quality.
It was indeed the most remarkable outpouring of emotion and analysis from the mercurial national team coach, and to be fair, most of Spalletti’s observations – which he admitted could be seen as “grasping at straws, looking for excuses” – and Expectations were not exceeded. “The responsibility is always mine,” he reiterated. “Everyone has no responsibility. I want to emphasize that. I want to thank the players for bringing me here.
But he also pointed out that he only had 10 games to prepare for this tournament, while Inter Milan had secured the Serie A title with five games left. “I need to get to know my team better,” he said. “We also have some players injured and I’m always counting on those players and you can see that in terms of intensity we are below par. Inter Milan won the Scudetto and they are a serious, professional club. But maybe in Before you know it, once you win the league so early, you’re not as focused anymore.
“The future of the Italian national team depends on different options. We need more physicality. When you think you can play a high-quality game but can’t sustain that intensity for 90 minutes, you need to try to mix things up Get up. In one-on-one matchups, we struggle. If the ball is hit 80 yards, you need to cover those 80 yards quickly, and it’s not about technique.
Spalletti made six changes here after being criticized for opting for an unchanged squad for the defeat to Spain, a decision that backfired. “Lately we’ve been trying to train players in certain ways, doing intensive training, doing quick recovery runs, because those are the things that make you improve,” he said. “At this point, I’m not too happy with the reaction we had on the training ground. But these are the players I picked, so it’s my responsibility.
Still, Spalletti sounds like a man with a desire to solve problems. “I have no fear,” he said. “I was under pressure from day one. The last game, you heard the comments straight away, some players were 4/10 and people were saying it was disgraceful and then I had to react because I You won’t just sit back and watch.
“When I was told that we did not perform well against Croatia, I would say no. Today we were below par. Against Spain, below par, but not against Croatia. . We came through a tough group, but we didn’t see a clear team: in terms of fundamentals, in terms of what we could build on.
Victorious Swiss coach Murat Yakin toasted a near-flawless performance. “The team deserves it,” he said. “They showed great football and from the start we showed that we wanted to control the game and dominate the proceedings. Our opponents had almost no shots on goal. We still need to keep our feet on the ground. But I will always remember tonight.
