Disappointment and the desire to start again. Less than 24 hours after Italy’s disastrous exit from the European Championships, at the hands of Switzerland, Luciano Spalletti has earned the trust of federal president Gravina and in the press conference he rewound the tape and analyzed everything that went wrong: “I am pleased to thank the fans for the closeness and love they have shown us – began the coach -, the players for their willingness to try to put basically what I asked for and above all the staff of the entire Federation, in the quality and willingness to find solutions for any small problem that might arise. It was not possible to see their level of quality because they remain trapped in what is the. general idea that is done through a result, but they are top collaborators. I am the one who has the most responsibility of all. I have always been careful in my life to look at what to do next I saw something I did wrong. I tried to rejuvenate the team a bit, since I’m staying here this will be done even more in the future. We haven’t seen the best Spalletti in these 10 months, otherwise I wouldn’t be here making these speeches today. I read that they attributed to me having raised the tone too much and using myths to follow. But I have examples to follow. There are still many things to show. We also need to be honest in the story of these games played: I arrived at a time of urgent results and for what the moment needed we were good up to a certain point. We weren’t able to grow in this mini-course we took and yesterday was a game where we took a significant step backwards, which cannot be accepted. But we start again from there and I think I know what we need to do”.
“We must find new leaders”
“It becomes difficult to find players of the caliber of Chiellini or Bonucci, but it has also been seen that, by giving space and opportunities to players like Calafiori, important leaders can be found inside the field, beyond what may be the experience lived in the national team – added Spalletti -. And we have to take this path, go straight to believe that there is potential that passes through the game, the actions and not the speeches. We knew we had a group with maximum difficulties, because history also tells us that they are organized teams, with experience. We are one of the youngest in terms of experience and average age, among the first 5-6, even the second to last in terms of presence of players called up in this competition. But it was a choice we had made, we expected more reaction. Up until the qualification, all in all, there was an adaptation, a reaction in the matches that was different from what we saw yesterday.“. And on the relationship with the players he explained: “After every day I always had discussions with the team, I always said that you have to see with their eyes and hear with their ears when managing a group. Dialogue becomes fundamental. I’ve always done it since I put on the coach’s suit and I haven’t seen any particular critical issues regarding the relationship. I said that I was too busy in the sense that I always gave 100%. It all seemed quite normal to me, because I’ve been through similar situations. When you fight not to relegate from C1 to C2 it’s the same thing. The volume changes because the blue shirt is up for grabs, but our conditions are the same, regardless of the category that the spectator makes it, the love that is around. And the Italy shirt is the best you can hope for in terms of pressure.”
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“Objective differences between coaches and national coaches”
“Was yesterday my most complicated night? No, my life has been complicated, sometimes even managing victories has been complicated – continued the coach. I have received many pats on the back, I have made thousands of friends, the most obvious one being the phone call from Matilde (the daughter, ed.), the one of ‘I love you’. That surpasses everything. As for the mood that was inside the team, it was perfect, there was the right reflection on what was the importance of the tournament. Inside the group we always said the same thing, that a solid group was being born, it’s not like you’re going to tell lies. I saw them calm in the things that we had to do inside and outside of training, all very close, very friendly, very joyful. In the evening always together playing and joking together. Can the blue shirt become a burden? I don’t know, but given the result of this match here we will try to go and talk to the players and get some answers. Yesterday, before leaving the morning meeting, we asked who wouldn’t have felt like taking the penalty kick: those who wanted to take it raised their arm, the others kept it low. And there was more than one who kept it low. These tests will also be done to understand who feels like managing all this, but a complete discussion must be had. There is already a fuss, it is useless to go looking for things that do not exist”. Finally a joke about the differences between a coach and a manager “They are objective – he concluded -. In a club today I tell a player something, tomorrow to get a reaction I pay him a compliment, then I let him play and put him back in if he hurts. Here you can’t do that, there is no possibility of playing psychologically with the subject’s mind and with his experience.. If these differences have led to complications, I too must quickly correct them and learn new things.”
