"We need to make all Italians excited, we are the team, the group of all Italians. In addition to getting results, we need to create this love. Having said that, we are now the 'selected' of the National team, it will be what we do on the pitch that will tell if we are Italy". Luciano Spalletti he is preparing for his debut as Italy coach: tomorrow, at Skopje , there is the Macedonia, stage of the journey towards Euro 2024.
Absent Church e Pellegrini, “two important footballers but like there are others – Spalletti commented to Sky -. We have a very important history behind us, which is beautiful and has some wounds. It's up to us to mend these wounds." Tomorrow the coach wants a team that "will try to play the game, we will try to have an order that also leaves room for creativity and imagination. We did our job, receiving total availability from the boys: I was very happy with how I saw them on the pitch this week, I am confident that they will be able to develop their game and their quality".
"Injuries don't change anything, they don't change anything at all, we have 30 players available, we trust all of them and there are others too. It's the first time I have a president who takes all the ones I wanted. – jokes Spalletti to the microphones of Rai Sport -. These are things that are disappointing, but we used a method as if we were a club. We didn't insist, at the first sign of trouble we let them go, we could have also tried to recover them for the second match, but we also decided because this way we have other strong players like Pellegrini and Federico". Who instead of Church? "Weather in Zaccagni it's more of a role, Breakers he knows how to do it, in Napoli he played there recently, then there are others too”.
Immobile: “Spalletti loves dialogue. We are all indispensable”
The Ciro Immobile, captain, spoke again on the eve of the challenge: “Spalletti is very available as a person and as a coach, he is a coach who talks a lot with the players, he really likes dialogue and this is important for us given that here we have less time than at the clubs. From the beginning he made a great impression on us”.
First as captain for the striker of Lazio: “The emotion and responsibility are enormous – he confesses to Sky -. It's something that fills me with pride and satisfaction, it means that the work I'm doing in my career is bearing fruit, both as a footballer and as a man." With Spalletti he will be called “to make the team play, to keep the line high to allow the midfielders and wingers to move in, all important things to ensure that the whole team works well”.
Macedonia recalls the painful defeat in Palermo that denied the World Cup to the Azzurri "but it's the ideal opponent, not for revenge but for a new start. Whichever team we face, we'll have to give them a hard time." Absent Church e Pellegrini: “It’s a shame but injuries are part of this game, I know something about it. Whoever replaces them will do their best, the coach told us that we are all indispensable for his way of seeing football”.
Article published on 8 September 2023 - 20:33
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