Il Corriere dello Sport reports that Nicolò Zaniolo, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Moise Kean, Mattia Zaccagni and Manuel Lazzari are among the players who must regain Roberto Mancini’s trust to earn a call-up for the next international fixtures.
The CT is unhappy due to the behaviour of some of his stars who did not feature in the last two Nations League games against England and Hungary.
“The door to the national team is open to everyone, even to those who didn’t behave right at the moment,” the coach said on Wednesday, adding that in order to gain a call-up to the team, they should “just apologise to their teammates.”
According to Il Corriere Dello Sport, Mancini refers to five players in particular: Zaniolo and Pellegrini (Roma), Kean (Juventus), Zaccagni and Lazzari (Lazio).
They didn’t take part in Italy’s last two games because they were not fully fit. However, Mancini believes that their physical issues have been somehow ‘blown out of proportion’ to rest during the break and be fit for their clubs.
The CT had already made his disappointment public before the start of the international break last week when he sent a first clear message to the absentees: “Players must feel the desire to be here also in difficult situations. It’s not that sometimes they come and other times they don’t because they have other things to think about.”
Mancini expects a greater sense of belonging from every player involved with the national team so he will closely scrutinise these five ahead of the next friendly games.
moise kean has no business playing for the italian national team. he’s awful. end of.
Moise Kean??? seriously? the guy should no where be near a National Team
Kean is trash. Had the other guys played vs Macedonia we would’ve went through. Sensi deserves a recall too.
I understand Zaniolo and Zaccagni, but what did Pellegrini do?
The smartest thing Mancini can do is pair , raspadori and chiesa as the front 2 strikers for Italy when they are fit , then play either Pellegrini or berradi or both of them behind chiesa and raspadori, I think kean and zaniolo are not important to his plans, at least not as starters .
Pellegrini? What did he do?
Zaniolo and Zaccagni need to drop it. Move on for the good of the team.
Kean, don’t know what to say about him anymore. 18 Years ago he wouldn’t get anywhere close the Italy team, but these days we are lacking in Strikers.