Don’t let the final 1-0 fool you. This is a very misleading result. With the exception of Italy’s final forcing attempt, Spain hid the ball from us for 80 minutes and only had the flaw of not ending a dominated match sooner. An individual and collective technical difference that was at times almost embarrassing: we knew they were stronger than us, but not that much. There was no competition, they played, we, crushed in our back three, tried to resist thanks to Donnarumma, best on the pitch. Total shots 20 to 4, a huge difference in dangerousness, freshness, dribbling, quality, creativity. Spalletti, despite his doubts the day before, decided not to distort the team by fielding the same formation as the debut: with hindsight it would have been better to change more than one player and perhaps propose a physically tougher Italy from the start. But the distance from Spain was above all technical.
Spalletti is a modern coach, who prefers offensive football made up of dribbling, movement, verticalisations: we admired his Napoli, we know his abilities, his strokes of genius, his brilliant ideas. But ideas walk on the legs of men. And several of our interpreters lack some characteristics that are fundamental in today’s football: intensity, resistance, leg and, above all, the ability to aim and jump the man. Apart from Chiesa, yesterday null and not at all helped by a disastrous Di Lorenzo, there is no one who tries to dribble to create numerical superiority. It is not just a question of technique and individual courage, but of habit. If Spain cyclically manages to recreate groups of high-quality players who constantly attempt the play, it cannot be a coincidence.
Let’s talk about the football movement: they love and seek a more spectacular and offensive type of football than us and fearlessly launch young talents, often very young, giving them space even in the big clubs. They allow them to grow by playing and even making mistakes. Seeing a twenty-year-old as a starter in our top clubs is a mirage. At most, those who have them send them on loan to gain experience or sell them, preferring thirty-year-olds who are more experienced in major competitions. We are always afraid of taking risks, filling our mouths with the “weight of certain shirts” and with the “awe that young people can have at certain stages”. Apologies. Courage and boldness are not part of our mentality which, with very rare exceptions, remains defensive and is geared more towards not taking them than giving them. We are masters of tactics, but not of courage. Since the youth sectors we have been teaching all the tactical strategies, but we have long forgotten to ask our young players to risk their play and dribbling. We prefer the lateral pass at 5 meters, rather than trying to point and skip the man. We have club teams that play more horizontally than vertically. In our Serie A the attackers and wing players who create numerical superiority are few and all foreign. In Spalletti’s initial lineup only Chiesa had certain characteristics: behind Scamacca, invisible yesterday, Frattesi has insertion ability and Pellegrini good quality, but neither one nor the other jumps the man with ease.
In Italy we are very good at getting on and off the wagon. There is a difference between Italy and Spain, but even other celebrated national teams such as England are not shining. The path is still long, certainly today it is difficult to understand where to find the right keys to relaunch a group that emerges reduced in size from this race. But if we cannot compete on a quality level we will try to do so with strategy, trying to win by seizing moments, covering our limits and exploiting our qualities. Playing on equal terms today with Spain by trying to impose the game appears half-suicide. We are not at that level, understanding and accepting it is the best start to finding countermeasures.
Now there is Croatia, although their old talents appear tired and at the end of the cycle, they remain a quality group that can beat us in the single match. We have two results out of three to move forward. By losing we will have to hope to pass together with other third-placed teams. There are a few days to recharge your batteries, find certainties and enthusiasm. Not all opponents are Spain, we compete with many others. So let’s avoid flights of fancy but also the de profundis. Now the important thing is to get through the group, then we will live match after match. There are opportunities to grow with new strategies, but creating players that unfortunately we don’t have is impossible. For that it will take time and a cultural revolution.
