Are you sure that Spalletti is the right coach for Italy? His mission is to distort our DNA

Spalletti, at least in this case, must be recognized for his sincerity. In the press conference, when asked about the next match against Croatia, he replied: «we make the difference with the choices we have to play the ball. If we don’t have choices, it’s hard, but I don’t know how to teach other football, I don’t like football that is just waiting.”

“I don’t know how to teach other football, I don’t like waiting football.” The crux is all here. The theme – they would have said in the First Republic – is political. Last night Italy-Spain was an absolute novelty for Italian football. It was probably the first time in history that our national team played dully. Without intelligence. Without taking into account the opponents, their history, their strong points nor their weak ones. Italy has become the typical team of any coach of the nouvelle vague, those who play my football, who play in the same way whether they face Francavilla or Real Madrid. Is this really what we want?

To those who rightly point out that Spain has stronger players on average (“the only champion we have is Donnarumma”, said a certain Carlo Ancelotti), we invite you to take a look at the 2016 Italy-Spain lineups with Antonio Conte on the bench . It ended 2-0 for Italy, goals from Chiellini and Pellè (sigh). We’ll link you to the scoresheet here: sit down before reading it.

Spalletti replicated Icaro’s presumption

The point is very simple: are we certain that Luciano Spalletti is the right coach for the Italian national team? Spalletti is a very good coach, no one would deny it, but today he is the bearer of what General De Gaulle would have sarcastically dismissed with the expression “vaste programme”. Spalletti is convinced that he has an anthropological-cultural mission to complete. The scudetto won in Naples, perhaps also because it was a success achieved late in life, accentuated that preacher trait that he has always had. Nowadays there is no statement from Spalletti that isn’t full of redeeming accents. Or imperial. Certainly educational. Educational. There is a need to change the habits and customs of a people. Starting from a football field. To then overflow. Spalletti has spoken a lot in recent months, he has had his say on the behavior of young people and on many other aspects. Like a preacher, exactly. Only on racism was he left embarrassed because he wanted to bring Acerbi to the European Championships.

But let’s get to football. Spalletti replicated Icarus’ presumption that struck him on the eve of a memorable Manchester United-Roma match second leg of the 2006-07 Champions League quarter-finals. He played it openly. Then it ended 7-1. Last night, fortunately, only 1-0. Also because, regardless of what the many Italian commentators who have tried to sugarcoat the pill say, this Spain is strong but it is not a memorable team. He won on an own goal a match that should have ended 5-0. But if you have the presumption of facing Spain on their own soil, it ends badly. Only in Italy we haven’t understood it. The other day, interviewed by La Stampa, Fernando Llorente recalled the Euro2012 final, the one in which Spain gave us four goals.

«You have distorted yourselves and we have discovered that we are so special as to take away certainties from you. A huge recognition. You have left your tradition. We really didn’t expect it, we were ready for a fight, for exhaustion. I think Italy tried to play like us and it was impossible. We were a crazy team.”

More clearly than that, you die. Llorente himself said: «The tiki taka was a key suitable for exalting those men, whoever made it a dogma understood nothing. It’s not a religion, it’s a style.” Words that should be posted in schools. Not in football schools. Right in schools: from elementary to high school.

Modernity is fine but they come to us for the spaghetti not for the quinoa

Last night Italy lost its character, at the behest of its coach. Because this is the mission that Spalletti feels invested in. In other times, against a team like Spain, we would have enjoyed making them bounce, making them go crazy in search of the goal that would never, ever arrive. And then maybe we would have put them on the counterattack. The real drama of last night is that Italy no longer knows how to counterattack. It’s a national tragedy. As if we no longer knew how to cook spaghetti. Modernity is ok, we want to feed ourselves on kurkuma, seitan, quinoa, that’s fine, but in Italy foreigners come to eat spaghetti, pizza. Let’s get over it. Now we are ashamed of it.

This is the drama. Football, of course. Is the goal really to change our football DNA? Of course, football, like everything, evolves. But each participates in evolution based on their own characteristics. What’s the point of distorting yourself? What is happening in Italy – on a media level, we could also say culturally – is somewhere between the grotesque and the dangerous. Defending yourself is considered an offense. If yesterday we had drawn in the 95th minute, we would almost have been ashamed. This aberration now only exists in football: does anyone really choose a lawyer based on the style of writing appeals? Or does he do it based on the percentage of victories in cases? How do you select doctors, surgeons? Based on the posture or furnishings of the office, or on the results they obtain in the treatment of diseases? Wake up, we’re all getting stoned. Now we are realizing that Allegri was right. We don’t have a man-jumper. And we don’t have it because football schools – as Allegri has always denounced – are infested with young coaches who play at being mini Guardiolas and ruin the talent of children and teenagers. We laughed in his face, at Allegri. And by the way, with him as coach we would never have lost yesterday’s match. By the way, the Spaniards today have footballers who jump over men. They understood. Ten years ago they didn’t have them.

Let’s wake up before it’s too late. If this is the football that interests us, if we want Italy to become Spain, very hard times await us.