Roberto Mancini highlighted the lack of change within Italian football across the last four years and suggested that Italy ‘didn’t deserve’ to lose to North Macedonia.
The failure to qualify for the second successive World Cup has led to figures across the Italian football world crying out for serious changes, with fundamental issues clearly hampering the Italian game. One of the most discussed topics is the lack of young Italians breaking through in Serie A teams, an issue that a nation like France or Spain isn’t facing.
Speaking to Sky Sports Italia and at the ‘Calcio che l’Italia si merita’ event, Mancini first discussed the title race between Milan and Inter this season.
“First of all, we have to say that it has been a great season, where many have fought for the Scudetto until recently. And even in the relegation zone there will be teams that will fight as well as those fighting for Europe.
“I don’t know who will win, I think Milan have a bit of an advantage because they have two results in their favour. But matches must be played, then whoever wins will deserve it, be it Inter or Milan. Both have in any case had a great season.”
He underlined his disappointment at the lack of regular minutes for promising Italian youngsters.
“I sincerely hoped that more players would come through, but the situation hasn’t changed in recent years, there are many good young players who can’t find minutes.”
The Azzurri coach commented on the lack of progress in Italian football across the last four years.
“Little has happened in the last four years and in fact we are always the same in the national team. The first thing is to give more trust to the coaches like Milan did with Pioli.
“Two years ago it seemed he was leaving, today he is possibly winning the league. Many coaches do not let young players play because they are afraid of making mistakes.”
Mancini spoke about the lack of active Italian players in Serie A.
“Being down to 32% Italian players is strongly limiting for all national teams. When Zaniolo arrived for the first time at Coverciano, he looked like a child, after two months everything changed. The boys improve quickly.”
He commented on Italy’s failure to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
“We absolutely did not deserve to go out, but we must accept defeat and start again. We know we don’t have great choices, but we have to pull out something like we did four years ago.”
The Italian coach gave his thoughts on Giorgio Chiellini’s departure from Juventus.
“I knew he was thinking about it, unfortunately it’s not easy to make certain decisions but he seems calm.
“He’s had an extraordinary career, I know him well, but time passes for everyone even if Juve and I would still have liked to have him.”
Mancini discussed Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile, two players who many feel should hang up their boots for the Azzurri.
“We’ll consider everyone. There’s been four extraordinary years, all the lads should be praised for what they’ve done.
“Lorenzo has decided to go to Canada, Immobile just has to stay calm and read less. The European Championship is there, no one can take it away from us and it will remain a great feat.”
Finally, Mancini spoke about Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali.
“He made his debut in the national team with us, he’s having a great season but he still has wide margins of improvement and the midfield is the area that gives us the least problems.”
#Mancini: 'L'#Italia? In 4 anni non è stato fatto nulla. Siam sempre gli stessi, i #giovani ci sono ma non giocano. #Scudetto? #Milan avvantaggiato' https://t.co/VKEdS1FWc8 pic.twitter.com/Dg1qUgZWdZ
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) May 20, 2022
If they had qualified, Chiellini would still be playing ):
Little will change this time around either. They will just learn to live with crappy circumstances. We don’t care about fielding home grown players. We aren’t Spanish.
Whether we deserved to or not, we are out. Whilst the wider issues are worth having the experts try and solve, we were superior to Switzerland over both games, but didn’t take our chances. And that’s football sometimes. We had a great Euro’s, but we could’ve got smashed by Spain and wouldn’t have had any complaints. They created multiple chances, and didn’t take them. That’s football. As for North Macedonia – we created nothing. Difficult to create almost zero and then say you didn’t deserve to lose.
I love how everyone tries to make this an Italian football problem. The real problem was that they could not score and the coach refused to change. He always used the same formation and the same players. Italy have the talent but do not know how to use it. it is great that they won the Euros but you have to keep changing.
I hate that he says there isn’t much to pick from. Lazzari, Calabria, dimarco, Castrovilli, sensi, frattesi, zaniolo, Zaccagni, balotelli. All guys he didn’t use or bring to play offs. He can blame himself.
The coach should be more ruthless. Tell players like Immobile, sorry your time us up. Give the youngblood a chance. 2010 WC in SA we had the oldest squad and the only bright spark since then was Euro 20. Chiellini should have left after that…. Tell players your too old or not performing so your out. Playing for the Azzurri is a priviledge not a habit.
Clown Mancini!!!
Mancio is too nice to the players who took advantage of him
And it is correct that he left out key players as Carletto cites.
I would put Mourinho in charge in Italian soccer and revamp this senators mentality in Italy, why? because he complains and speaks his mind and not afraid of this senator mentality, Mancio probably left Balo out who has matured and scores under pressure even, so he could not ruffle feathers of the like of Berlosconi etc, There’s too much of that in Italy and that has to change, if you dont change that you will never be able to play the kids in SA, hence soccer improve overall in Euro competitions. You need a sort of Mourinho or himself to force that change. Mancio is too soft. He’s a nice guy. nice guys finish last but do inherit the kingdom in the end, it’s just they suffer at the interim. Mourinho is a nice guy but with bite.
Did you know that in Italy you need a permit to change a door knob?
Italy deserve to be in world Cup, Mancini is a great coach, some mistake miss penalty Gerorginho against Switzerland, to select a player for penalty is very Important , i think twice miss penalty.
Today, Balotelli put on a great performance and scored 5 goals. If we had just used Balotelli as a last resort over Joao Pedro we would’ve had a chance to score 1 maybe even 2 goals