Luciano Spalletti keeps his cards close to his chest for Italy’s line-up against Israel in the Nations League and is still smarting from the Belgium draw. ‘Once incident can throw it all out the window.’
The Azzurri are top of their Nations League group, albeit now only one point clear of France following the 2-2 draw with Belgium.
They had been leading comfortably 2-0 until the Lorenzo Pellegrini red card, so the Roma midfielder is suspended and replaced in the squad by Nicolò Zaniolo.
“I don’t know exactly what the starting XI will be yet, as this is a very delicate match with many hidden dangers,” said Spalletti in his press conference and to RAI Sport.
“Zaniolo is the most recent arrival, so a start is unlikely, as that would also suggest I was wrong to leave him out of the initial group of 23. I can confirm that Guglielmo Vicario will start.”
Will Juventus midfielder Nicolò Fagioli get a chance and can he co-exist with Torino breakout star Samuele Ricci?
“Fagioli deserves more playing time and he is working hard, but this time I won’t be able to give you too many hints on the line-up,” explained Spalletti.
“He can play with Ricci, I gave him the role in front of the defence because I think it can suit him, but he must also know how to change tempo and direction, shake off man-marking and use the midfield like a trampoline to bounce the ball from one side to another.”
Udine is where Spalletti’s coaching career really took off, enjoying a spell here from 2002 to 2005, taking them to sixth, seventh and fourth place in Serie A.
“It’s a wonderful place and I was fortunate to have spent time here in my career, learning a great deal. I would’ve preferred to be here in different circumstances, because football is joy and we’re not seeing a lot of that in this atmosphere.
“Israel are a good team who can play football, so we need to maintain our balance and organisation, as we already saw in the first game.”
When these teams faced off last month on neutral turf in Hungary, it ended 2-1 for Italy with goals from Davide Frattesi and Moise Kean.
“The squad is working hard, sweating for the shirt, sacrificing themselves. The problem we learned from the last game is that in football one incident can throw all the good work out the window, so we must always learn from our mistakes,” continued Spalletti.
