Roberto Mancini insists the 5-2 defeat to Germany must not ‘wipe out what came before’ for this young Italy side. ‘The Nations League group remains wide open.’
The Azzurri had been so impressive in the Nations League until now with a 2-1 win over Hungary and draws with Germany and England.
Another nine changes were made to the starting XI and this time it was a transformation too far, as Italy looked disjointed from the start with huge gaps in defence.
It was the first time the Nazionale had conceded five goals since May 1957 against Yugoslavia in the Central European International Cup.
“It’s a pity to close like this, but Germany are good and we knew that. We allowed them too much space in the first half,” the coach told RAI Sport.
“There were some good things, despite the result, but of course it’s a pity. The group remains wide open.”
Because England were beaten 4-0 at home by Marco Rossi’s Hungary, that leaves it with Hungary on seven points, Germany six, Italy five and England two ahead of September’s remaining two fixtures.
“There were errors, because we didn’t defend well as a unit. Some things didn’t work, we were trying to recover, opened ourselves up to the counter-attack against these players, it’s always going to be a risk.”
Mancini had warned before the tournament that they would risk embarrassing defeats in order to blood the new players.
“This is the path, there are going to be risks and it absolutely does not wipe out what came before. There will be good moments and bad, it’s wide open and we’ll see what happens in September.
“We had more debutants again tonight, we had four or five chances, but Germany did better.”
Coach Mancini was all over the place mentally at half-time, like a rabbit in the headlights.
Aside from substitutions, he has no plan b or c. It was clear that he’s never tested a 352 with these players. He just threw on those extra central defenders and relied on the fact that they play in a 352 for their clubs.
The players are copping the majority of the stick, but this one was on Mancini.
What progress? The young players should be given experience at the Under-21 level, not on the National team. Italy didn’t dominate England, Germany or Hungary in the first 3 games. Mancini should be fielding the best team possible. He should be trying to win every game and win the competition.
Azzurri cdn i totally agree
to be honest i couldn’t even watch that game but that is what happens in the event of a rebuild. I really think we need cheisa back and spinna back to full strength as they are the brains of the new squad.
new line up
Lw – Cheisa St- Raspadori/scammaca Rw- Gnoto
M-pellengrini M- Barella m-Tonali/verrati
L-spinna C-Bastoni C-Mancini R- Di lernzo
Gk: donnaruma
Italian fans are now becoming the biggest whingers along with the English and Aussies
Pull your heads in.
Why are people crying ? What do they expect? Italy to somehow wipe the floor against these nations? We have to blood new players in, make mistakes, that’s the only way they’re going to learn
Hey Michael, think we know who is doing all the pulling? Disgrace comment that adds nothing to the forum.
Yeah, we should be happy…
Young, inexperienced team. Donnarumma continues to concern me. He’s always been poor with the ball at his feet, now he’s just terrible. I mean a real liability.
From what I have seen in those games, those are the players that impressed me the most:
Gatti
Pellegrini
Tonali
Gnonto.
The rest went from slightly good / average to really bad.
Rebuilding takes time and we cant expect fluency straight away. There are lots of young players that need time to fit in. The defence looks shaky but without our old guard Chiellini and Bonnuci, what do you expect?
There is no WC for Italy so is winning this nations league a really big deal?
How else and what other platforms can we use to keep experimenting, but, if Mancini feels the job is getting too much for him, then yeah, dont expect much as the coach has to be in it 100%