Luciano Spalletti’s national team is backawaiting the two Nations League matches against Belgium (Thursday in Rome) and Israel (next Monday in Udine). The Italy coach spoke at a press conference from Coverciano talking about various topics, focusing among other things on the team’s progress: “Are we starting again to consolidate the September system? Yes. At the beginning there was something to change, now the key word is to give continuity. Our champions have understood that making good use of these blue days is also good for their team’s future. I saw that after doing well in the September matches, the Italian players did good also with their team. The championship always offers alternatives, we certainly have some injuries here, but in my opinion they depend more on psychological pressure than on muscular causes. This morning I saw them very enthusiastic and this I’m pleased, we’re going to play with confidence.”
How much does this Retegui make you feel at ease?
“I’m happy when I see players growing and full of moments of good things. Mateo had already shown us that he is an extraordinary professional and a reliable goalscorer, he is an expert player for our national team in that department, a strong footballer. Clearly if they score goals, the enthusiasm increases and they do even better things.”
TMW – Retegui is evolving, he spoke well of Zaniolo. Then there’s Ruggeri, Scalvini and Scamacca will return. Also for how Italy plays now, how much is this Atalanta a reference for you?
“It’s like this. You get it from Atalanta, it’s a model of football in general. Also of club management. Gasperini is a very stimulating coach, worth getting to know and discovering. I went to see him a couple of times and he doesn’t say many things, he takes a few precautions (laughs, ed. I also had the chance to go to dinner together, but I always paid, he’s a friend and Atalanta is making many of its players available to us). We are happy, he has a very European way of playing football with physical and structured players. Then there is also this fact that he now has a stadium capable of representing our country well: in the Champions League we see matches in facilities that cannot be played. we need to see these stadiums and it’s not just a football issue, it’s a social issue. Seeing certain matches in certain stadiums is sad and we need to hurry up to get up to speed. People want to see the matches and for this needs to be done again in the stadiums.”