Spalletti: ‘Italy convinced we have a good team at EURO 2024’ | OneFootball

Luciano Spalletti looks at what Italy did well in the 1-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the areas they need to work on going into EURO 2024. ‘We need to make the right passes.’

Following the 0-0 draw with Turkey, the coach switched from a 4-2-3-1 to the 3-4-2-1 formation and it paid off, as Davide Frattesi in a more advanced role scored with an acrobatic volley on the Federico Chiesa cross from the left, while Gianluca Scamacca forced a few saves.

It also had a double playmaker approach, with Jorginho and Nicolò Fagioli starting together in the middle of the park.

“They did that very well, as they have this ability to move the ball with quality in small spaces and prepare the move,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.

“What we could’ve done is press the opposition more, as at times we allowed them too much of the field and were content to sit back 10 metres, leaving the ball to them.”

Spalletti identifies individual Italy issues

Torino star Alessandro Buongiorno started in the three-man defence along with Riccardo Calafiori and Matteo Darmian.

“Buongiorno did well, he always managed to harass the centre-forward with a nudge and put him off. He’s very good with that kind of physicality. He needs to make better choices, because once they got the measure of us, he made sideways passes that were too simple. We should’ve started more moves from the back that way,” continued Spalletti.

“It was a good game overall, some attitudes at times were lacking energy and desire, we also had a few weak back-passes and didn’t follow their press with the midfielders. We need to make the right passes and make the most of those spaces that open up.”

Scamacca could’ve scored at least one goal, as the Atalanta centre-forward had quite a few different attempts this evening.

“He forced two big saves and worked well with the others, it was good.”

Spalletti was shouting at Chiesa throughout that he was too wide on the left and needed to get more central, a frustration that Max Allegri already experienced at Juventus.

“This is his position, he can play as a support striker behind the centre-forward. By putting him in that sort of middle ground centre-left, we can have the best of both worlds, especially because he knows Cambiaso well from club level. It gives him the option to take different runs and positions,” explained Spalletti.

This was the final warm-up match ahead of the journey to Germany for the EURO 2024 tournament, where they will face Albania on June 15, Spain on June 20 and Croatia on June 24.

“We did what we needed to do, we are convinced that we have a good squad, then we need to get into the tournament mentality. In these friendlies, we played two completely different teams and approaches, to work on what needs to be improved.”