On the eve of the match against Turkey, Roberto Mancini spoke to RaiSport to take stock of the National Team. The head coach rejected the criticism and defended the path taken with the Azzurri, emphasizing that the work requires time and patience.

“At this moment I don’t feel that time is my enemy. We know we have started this journey, which will be long, short, I don’t know… But it will certainly take some time to do it, considering that between these two matches we only had two training sessions, one of which was a recovery session,” explained Mancini. The coach then wanted to highlight the positive aspects that emerged in the match against Belgium: “In the match against Belgium, there was a second half that was positive. It wasn’t me who said it, even though I am the coach of Italy and could look only for the positive things, but De Ketelaere admitted it when he explained that they weren’t able to do anything.”

Regarding the match against Turkey, the coach wanted to tone things down: “We must not think that it is a relegation play-off. We have to focus on playing this match, then we’ll see what happens and how the standings will be. No one should be crucified because it’s a football match.” Mancini then raised a question about the importance attributed to the Nations League: “We are playing a Nations League where you can also take some risks and I don’t understand why in the past we played two Nations Leagues in which we reached the final phase and those two placements were not praised at all. On the contrary, now it seems that the Nations League is the most important thing in the world.”

The head coach then clarified the objectives for the match: “I want to see from the first minute a good and positive attitude, I want the team to always play football, even in difficult moments. Then, of course, I would also like a win, because that’s what counts in the end, but if we play a match in which we try to play well, that would already be positive.”

On the possible use of young players, Mancini was open. “They can, of course they can,” he replied. The coach spoke about Doumbia, who moved from Venezia to Sporting: “He is a boy who last year played in Serie B and this year went to Sporting: he started playing in the Champions League, he is playing in the Portuguese league, so he is not a player who comes onto the pitch and can immediately make the difference, because he has experience and has played many cup matches. So we need to give him time as well.” Sebastiano Esposito is also among the interesting profiles: “He has a bit more experience because he debuted in Serie A many years ago, then he followed his own path because he has qualities. They are players who can potentially give us a lot.”

Finally, on the Barella case, who stayed home for this call-up, the coach provided a clear explanation: “It was not difficult to do without Barella because we know his value, but these matches are useful for us to get to know the younger players, the players who will have to accompany our journey in the coming years. If we don’t see them in a match, I can’t do it in two training sessions: there you can’t tell if a player is able or not to be a protagonist in certain matches.”

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