Italy Coach Antonio Conte has insisted that Graziano Pelle can be an important player for the Azzurri.
Italy Coach Antonio Conte has insisted that Graziano Pelle can be an important player for the Azzurri.
The Southampton striker is widely expected to start for Italy in tonight’s Euro 2016 qualifier away to Malta, and his CT believes the former Feyenoord man is ready for his debut.
“Pelle can be an important player,” Conte told RaiSport.
“He is a physical player, which is important against teams who defend in their own penalty box.
“In those kind of situations it’s important to have a player who can hold the ball up well, and bring others into play.
“In our squad there are not the other strikers who have those characteristics.”
The former Juventus Coach also addressed concerns that his new-look Italy side are lacking a cutting edge, after only scraping past Azerbaijan 2-1, despite taking 22 shots.
“In Palermo, against Azerbaijan, we had 22 shots and this means that the team was attacking.
“There are matches like this, even in the Champions League where you only score one or two times.
“We were not as precise as we should have been, both the midfielders and the strikers, but making a judgement solely on whether or not you score lots of goals is wrong.
“If we think that we do not have the players and that we cannot find a way, then we are dead… But we are working on it, I am certain that we will imprint a style of play to the national team.”