Luciano Spalletti is taking his Italy team across the Atlantic in search of answers for its future. Giancarlo Rinaldi argues he should make maximum use of his new faces in order to boost his chances at Euro 2024 and beyond.
As warm-up locations for the European Nations go, it is not the most obvious choice. In the middle of a gruelling season, it is not easy to understand why the Azzurri are upping sticks to head to America to face Venezuela and Ecuador. However, there could still be valuable lessons to be learned – if they are willing to take the risks required.
It is worth remembering that Luciano Spalletti is just half a dozen games into his Italy reign and this will be his first opportunity to see his players in anything other than a pressure-cooker atmosphere. We last saw his troops in action in the sigh-of-relief draw which got them past Ukraine and on to Germany this summer. The back-to-back friendlies will finally give him a chance to remove the sticking plaster and start to carry out some more major surgery.
That is why it feels most logical for him to use the games against sides ranked 31st and 52nd in the world to throw caution to the wind and try out some fresher faces. We already know what Gigio Donnarumma, Matteo Darmian and Jorginho can offer, it is time to find out what less experienced names can deliver. It’s a sink or swim world in international football and this is a decent chance to discover who has what it takes to float.
The new Italy boss has remained pretty loyal to his most-picked players, in truth. Of his 10 ever-present call-ups for his six games in charge thus far, only Fiorentina‘s Christian Biraghi and Roma‘s Bryan Cristante have been left out. The rest – including the likes of Nicolò Barella, Federico Dimarco and Giovanni Di Lorenzo – will be on the plane. But around that backbone, he has to roll the dice when he gets Stateside.
Three completely new faces make for the most intriguing inclusions. Raoul Bellanova has been in absolutely rampaging form at full-back for Torino and more than merits his spot in the squad. It completes a journey with the national team that started with the Under 15s and has seen him represent his country nearly 90 times on his trip to the top team. Hopefully that can help him with a smooth transition.
He is joined by the one-time Tower of Pisa, Lorenzo Lucca, who offers Spalletti a different option up front. The Udinese striker – once of Ajax – gives him a target for others to play off which he has not always been able to utilise. Completing the new boy trio is Michael Folorunsho who is on a one-man mission to keep Verona afloat. For a national team in need of an infusion of enthusiasm, they could prove just the tonic.
Much of the rest of his squad is on the inexperienced side as well. Giorgio Scalvini, Riccardo Orsolini, Marco Carnesecchi, Guglielmo Vicario, Alex Meret, Destiny Udogie, Andrea Cambiaso, Alessandro Buongiorno, Mateo Retegui and Mattia Zaccagni all have less than 10 caps to their names. But it is precisely for that reason that they must get game time in order to assess their ability to represent their country.
If there’s another theme to Spalletti’s selections, it is probably the willingness to wipe the slate clean for players who had fallen out of favour with Roberto Mancini. Lazio‘s Zaccagni is one such player but it has been a similar story for Manuel Locatelli of Juventus and the eternal promise Nicolò Zaniolo of Aston Villa. It is up to them to seize this opportunity.
Preparations were not helped by Francesco Acerbi getting caught up in a racism row which resulted in Gianluca Mancini being called up to take his place. However, that is exactly the kind of stramash which is often the unwanted bread and butter of being Italy’s boss. It is how you handle some of these off-the-pitch distractions which is sometimes just as important as any magnificent coaching insight.
The venue of these friendlies, of course, brings back bittersweet memories for most fans of the Azzurri of a certain vintage. Of 16 games played in the US, Italy boast seven wins, six draws and three defeats, but by far, their most memorable sortie was at the World Cup now nearly 30 years ago. That was when Roby Baggio became La Nazionale’s all-time top scorer on American soil with five strikes to his name. If any of Spalletti’s new generation turn out to be half the player he was, this lengthy pre-Easter journey may yet have been worthwhile.
Sure Spaletti so willing to change but he keeps going back to Donnaruma! Most overrated keeper in the history of the national team.. Vicario is the better keeper without question.