La Gazzetta dello Sport highlights the main differences between Luciano Spalletti and Roberto Mancini’s management as Italy coach, on and off the pitch.
Spalletti is preparing for his debut against North Macedonia on Saturday in a must-win Euro 2024 qualifying fixture for the Azzurri. His era started this past Saturday with a press conference at Coverciano and his first training session on Monday.
Spalletti will use a 4-3-3 system in his first game as Italy coach, the same formation used by Mancini at the beginning of his tenure. However, there are many differences between the two tacticians, highlighted by Thursday’s printed edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (page 10).
The Azzurri will press higher with Spalletti, especially with one of the two box-to-box midfielders running up close to the centre forward and trying to recover the ball as soon as possible. When Italy don’t have the ball, players will form a sort of 4-4-2 on the pitch. During the Mancini era, especially in the final stages, they would cover the field with a 4-5-1 formation that was not as aggressive.
As for the build-up, the ex-Azzurri boss used three centre-backs and two playmakers, Jorginho and Marco Verratti. Spalletti, on the other hand, will deploy one playmaker and involve full-backs more, especially Giovanni Di Lorenzo on the right. The Napoli captain will have two options: cut inside or go all the way to the goal line to put some crosses in.
The daily work on the pitch is also organised differently. Mancini relied a lot on his staff members who were in charge of specific training sessions. Spalletti fully trusts his group of work too, but has had a different approach so far, taking centre stage on the pitch and conducting training sessions in first person. The ex-Napoli coach also shows many tactical videos to his players to convey his ideas as quickly as possible.
The management off the pitch is slightly different too. According to Gazzetta, Mancini had hired a psychologist in the final stages of his tenure to ease the dialogue with the players. Spalletti, on the other hand, wants ‘no intermediaries’ and has not hired as team manager to replace Lele Oriali. By doing so, Gigi Buffon will have a double role of delegation chief and team manager, helping Spalletti to keep the group’s mood under control and take action when needed.