Roberto Mancini continues to insist he feels ‘more positive’ after a 5-2 defeat to Germany than he did when drawing with England and Die Mannschaft. ‘We learned some important things and I expected to lose this badly earlier.’
The Azzurri were crushed 5-2 in Monchengladbach, but had been trailing 5-0 until the late goals from Willy Gnonto and Alessandro Bastoni.
This result sees them drop from first to third in the Nations League group on five points, behind Hungary on seven and Germany six, while England only managed two points after tonight’s shock 4-0 home defeat to Marco Rossi’s side.
It was a heavy loss, but Mancini had to point out he had warned of results like this from the start of this new era, having made radical changes and given debuts to so many young players.
“Nobody likes to lose, especially not 5-2, but unfortunately this is a process where things can go wrong,” said the coach in his press conference.
“We defended quite badly as a team, allowed Germany too much space to play in. There was a reaction eventually and there were some positives. The initial approach was completely wrong and physically we were nowhere near them either.
“It’s a pity, because we had the first scoring opportunity of the game.”
Italy held Germany to a 1-1 draw in Bologna on June 4 at the start of this new era and had taken the lead through Lorenzo Pellegrini. It was followed by a 2-1 win over Hungary and 0-0 draw away to England.
“The truth is, I thought we’d lose heavily to Germany in Bologna as well. If we have five points after four games, it means we’ve done pretty well.
“We’ve got to accept there will be these bumps on the road, but we need to go through this process to become a stronger team. At this moment, Germany are clearly on another level. There’s an enormous difference.”
Mancini tried to look on the bright side and found another very strong contender to be the heir to Giorgio Chiellini in defence.
“There were positives too. Gnonto scored his first goal and was among the best performers on the night. Giorgio Scalvini did really well coming off the bench. We saw him in training too, Scalvini is excellent both as a centre-back and a midfielder.”
The 18-year-old Atalanta defender is expected to take centre-stage for La Dea next season too, which is one of the reasons why Merih Demiral was released back to Juventus.
England were crushed 4-0 at home by Hungary in their Nations League match this evening, which Mancini considers a far worse result than Italy’s 5-2 in Germany.
“The fact is, England weren’t fielding kids, so that’s a very different kind of defeat. I feel far more positive today than I was after the draw with England or that 1-1 with Germany in Bologna, because I saw something in terms of our football, the tactical system. We understood some important things.
“We learned we can defend with three at the back, there are other systems compared to the 4-3-3, there are players who we can introduce and we will get back to being a team that comes to Germany not to be dominated, but to take control and dictate the tempo.
“There were positives despite the disappointment of the defeat.”
Just look at how much scoring for Germany still means to Thomas Müller! 👏
A dominant 3-0 lead for Hansi Flick’s side against Italy now 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/Bl5KoN226O
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) June 14, 2022
Well, at least Mancini is now looking to try other systems other than 4-3-3. You need to have flexibility in your formations in today’s football.
Germany absolutely wanted to win this game they fielded a top team. Italy found a few gems which is awesome for the future. It is only Nation’s league after all. Keep playing the kids, I love it.
He thought they would smash us in Bologna says it all. Go out there to kill not to try and lose. Caprari played great when he came on and he won’t get to play again.
I have just one word for this defeat – BASTONI.
You can blood new players , but you still need respect, i dont think that was there today!
After today, I thought Bastoni could have a great future but I guess he is to far for being one good center back!
Disastrous Italy in all its lines!
Surely he means HE finally learned these things. Seems as though the rest of us knew these things long ago.
Totally agree with Mancini. We have to let these youngsters play, make mistakes, learn, all part of the growing process.
Positive? Name 1 positive after 5 games! I’m sure Germany can name many, they finally had their historic win, 3 points, a free training session and a confidence boosting win for the WC, misfiring strikers scoring doubles, you name it. What did Italy’s youngsters learn so far? Getting used to being thrashed? Chasing shadows? You can’t set them up to be destroyed and expect them to learn.
We still have no clue what the new formation will look like, and if Mancini does then why isn’t he fielding it with small adjustments here and there?
The first thing they should learn is winning or at least trying to, setting your team up to be destroyed isn’t exactly helpful.
Italy have been in a downward spiral since last summer and Mancini had all the time in the world to reverse that trend but he failed, he can’t blame it on available players because most of them are still available. Only a few months after refusing to trust any of these new players he suddenly decided to throw them all in together? I really think he’s lost.
All the negative comments I don’t understand, Italy were experimenting alot during these games. It was expected there would be some losses, but overall a pretty decent few games with the young guys. We are nowhere near the euros team but there is progress, he has to field the new guys because they must prove it on the pitch they deserve to be there. Finally a difference formation about time Mancini woke up and have some other ideas. Some mistakes cost them a big scoreline.I think the future looks promising, rather play your game or change tactics to win the game that’s what’s a manager supposed to do, get the best out if the players that you have.Germany are way superior since their team are well organised and experienced.We will get there just have patience.
Nothing describes the state of calcio today than Mancini’s statement that he expected to lose. I expect to hear talk like that from teams like Lichtenstein and San Marino, not a 4-time WC and 2-time EC champion. The mindset in Italy needs to change. Even Allegri instills such negativity at Juventus. He seems to relish playing scared.
Wonder if Ciruzzo lowkey happy about this.
Can’t blame him this time!
@ACM
“Only a few months after refusing to trust any of these new players he suddenly decided to throw them all in together? I really think he’s lost.”
Is that not what fans were demanding? In the reverse fixture against the same Germany, everyone was up in arms about Acerbi playing alongside Bastoni and whining that Mancini should have been played instead. Now the fans get what they want, it doesn’t work out and they still blame Mancini.
It was all Immobile’s fault that Italy didn’t qualify for the WC right? Yet 5 games without him, none of the replacement CFs have registered a single goal.
Fans keep saying they only want young players not realizing it takes a combination of youth and experience to win tournaments. I challenge anyone to name me a country winning an international tournament that didn’t have key players over 30, especially in defense.
Mancini is the first managers in Italy to actually have some balls! We’ll done mister!
Keep playing the kids, experience is the only way they’ll learn.
However, I think we know Tonali is a must. Bye bye Jorginho, verratti to take his place with barela and Tonali flanking him.
Yup.
Another match where a Striker didn’t score.
Immobile was a problems but even when he’s not there it is an issue.