Old principles and new men: how Roberto Mancini’s Italy 2.0 was born and developed

I’Italy with two wins in the last two games of the group of League of Nations won a pass to the Final Four of the last UEFA national team tournament of the 2022-2023 season. After the fiasco against North Macedonia and the lack of qualification for the World Cup in Qatar, a few months after winning the European Championship, the Azzurri began a process of renewal in which there is still a lot of work to be done, but which has already saw the first steps from June to today.

Let’s try to understand how Roberto Mancini he thought his Italy 2.0at least in these last months of 2022. The coach chose to move from the 4-3-3 that took us to the top of Europe to a more buttoned-up 3-5-2 but with very specific ideas and protagonists.

It is a module, with related variants (3-4-2-1 or 3-5-1-1) that is widely used in Serie A and also by several European technicians, this probably allowed us to work with certainty and will not insert new concepts. From Inter to Atalanta, passing through Roma, Turin, Salernitana and also PSG, use this tactical idea on which the Italian coach decided to focus.

The first thing that immediately stood out was the excellent pressing movement of the azzurraagainst both England and Hungary: we didn’t move the ball with the fluidity of the months before EURO 2020, but we occupied the field well and were aggressive without the ball at the right moments.

The attack of spaces with half wings and the central role of the scraper in the offensive phase of the selection of mancio: Cristante and Barella are always ready to go deep or occupy the area, along with the forwards and one of the outsiders. The excellent performances of Di Lorenzo and Dimarco come from the wings, but, as already mentioned, the centrality of the attacking maneuver passes through the feet of the Napoli striker: Jack is very good at communicating with the ball carriers in our midfield. to give you one more chance to play, but at the same time manage to be found in the area ready to hit with good clarity.

There are a lot of things to improve, both in the construction phase and in the finishing phase, but attention must be paid to the defensive clash: many goals balls left for Hungary against a more cynical team can turn the games in a very different way. , without harming Donnarumma’s performance and brilliant defenses. The performance of the Bonucci-Toloi-Acerbi trio satisfied, but up to a point and even Bastoni’s entry did not improve the situation.

Maybe this isn’t the beautiful and funny Italy we’ve seen in recent years, but it showed more than a few ideas from which we can start over to erase the global disappointment. The Nations League Final Four for the second consecutive edition will never be able to alleviate the bitterness, but it could be the first step towards a new blue course.