The coach of the Italian National Team Roberto Mancini spoke to Tutti Convocati today about his team, the future of the Azzurri and his thoughts about the differences between coaches in Italy and England. Here are his words:
“I call myself a belgiochista: I’ve always tried to set up teams to play well and win, but it’s true that you can’t always do that. You can’t always have a good match and win.”
On bringing the National Team together:
“I got into a difficult situation with the national team, we had to try to do something for the present and especially for the future. This made me realise that it was the right opportunity to call in some players who weren’t unknown anyway. Many of them had already been called up by their respective youth teams, you could see that they were strong. Then the clubs were good for making sure they play, it was good for everyone. Now we’ve summoned those who hadn’t been in the squad yet and those who’d been away from the national team for a while. The aim was to understand what margins they have and I have to say that there were two good days, we found good players with great technique.”
On his tenure as the manager of the team and his ambitions in the future:
“After a year I don’t hide the fact that there’s been difficult moments because too many months pass between one game and another. Overall it’s been fun, we were quick to find a fairly competitive team but there is still a lot to do. For example, we pass a lot and create a lot of space and opportunities, without scoring many goals. Despite my controversial past with the national team, I spent my life in Coverciano and I progressed through all the national teams. I was upset that I couldn’t win the 1990 World Cup in Italy, especially because we were too strong to not win it. Now my hope is to win it as a coach. Euro 2020? To win it we have to get there, be good in the next two games against Greece and Bosnia. We’ll find times that will fight against us to the end.”
On the difference between coaches in England and Italy:
“We know it’s always too much here. Let’s think of Pochettino: 5 years at Tottenham, he has a great team and has won nothing. In Italy they would have killed him. The same goes for Klopp. In Italy there are coaches who win and are questioned.”
