Italy face Turin friendly with manager’s future precarious against background of club-v-country rows with Serie A teams
• Conte gets death threats after Claudio Marchisio injury
• Roy Hodgson challenges England fringe players against Italy
It was supposed to be the start of something special. Instead it was the beginning of the end. Italy’s World Cup-opening victory over England in Manaus led more than one commentator to proclaim they had a shot at winning the tournament, but defeats by Costa Rica and Uruguay ensured they went out along Roy Hodgson’s side at the end of the group stage.
Nine months removed from that trauma, the Azzurri are yet to recover. Where England have found strength in continuity, retaining their manager and soaring through Euro 2016 qualifying, Italy are struggling to establish an identity under a new regime that has appeared precarious in recent days.
They arrive at Tuesday’s friendly against England in Turin on the back of a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria that leaves them second in Group E – two points behind Croatia who held them 1-1 in Milan last November. Either side of that result there has been speculation over Antonio Conte’s future as the manager.
Cesare Prandelli cited a lack of collaboration within the Italian game when he resigned in June last year, and his successor is experiencing similar frustrations.Conte received online death threats from Juventus supporters after Claudio Marchisio was injured while training for Saturday’s qualifier against Bulgaria, but has been less disappointed with the behaviour of fans – hundreds of whom gathered to cheer his team as they arrived in Turin on Sunday – than that of the clubs.
John Elkann, the chairman and chief executive of the holding company which owns Juventus and Fiat, accused Conte of working players too hard in training, leading the manager to ponder why he had never heard such criticisms when he was in charge of the Bianconeri. Elkann responded by saying Conte was no longer a manager but merely a “selector” for the national team.
It is hardly surprising Conte’s relationship with Juventus should be frosty, given the manner of his departure. He resigned one day into pre-season training last July, having suggested he would stay, leaving the Old Lady’s preparations in disarray.
Conte has had trouble with others, besides, since taking up his present post. There were rumours he might quit as early as December, so frustrated was he with clubs’ reluctance to release players for anything other than a Fifa-sanctioned fixture. His attempt to arrange a standalone training camp in February was abandoned.
These are the same conditions faced by most international managers, of course, and sympathy for Conte will be limited by the knowledge he was not always obliging with his players’ time when the shoe was on the other foot. But his lament that he finds it hard to properly assess his talent pool under such circumstances rings true. Conte’s Italy remain very much a work in progress.
His vision is for a midfield made up of one creator – Andrea Pirlo, when healthy – and two “incursori”, relentless runners who can take turns charging forward on either side. In Marchisio’s absence he has no players he trusts to fill the latter roles. Lazio’s Antonio Candreva and Genoa’s Andrea Bertolacci were a liability against Bulgaria, drifting wide and allowing Italy to be overrun through the middle.
An even bigger conundrum exists up front. Conte prefers nimble, dynamic forwards who can contribute in all phases, yet there are few of those to be found. The two highest-scoring Italians in Serie A this season are Luca Toni and Antonio Di Natale – each 37 years old.
Ciro Immobile and Simone Zaza have been Conte’s preferred pairing but neither has performed consistently this season. Immobile has scored only three Bundesliga goals since joining Borussia Dortmund last summer, while the majority of Zaza’s eight Serie A strikes came during a five-game purple patch either side of the winter break.
Although Italy are unbeaten in seven games under Conte, their lack of a cutting edge has been evident. They won by just a single goal against each of Azerbaijan, Malta and Albania. The only player to have scored multiple times under this manager is the centre-back Giorgio Chiellini.
It was against such a backdrop that Conte decided this month to call up two foreign-born forwards for the first time. Franco Vázquez, raised in Argentina by a native Italian mother, might not have been such a contentious choice on his own but his inclusion alongside Éder, who qualifies through a great-grandfather, ensured a national debate about the use of what Italians refer to as “oriundi”.
Roberto Mancini was among the most high-profile objectors but Conte found an unexpected ally in the former Bulgaria striker Hristo Stoichkov. “I don’t understand,” he mused. “Whether we are born in Brazil or Spain, we are human beings ... What’s the problem?”
From a purely footballing standpoint, Éder has more than justified his inclusion, coming off the bench to rescue a point against Bulgaria with a gorgeous curled finish from the edge of the box. It was a reminder of the technical quality he has been showing off all season at Sampdoria, his nine league strikes including abrilliant box-to-box run and finish against Fiorentina and most recently a stunning free-kick to defeat Mancini’s Inter.
He has been named in the side to face England, alongside Southampton’s Graziano Pellè in a highly experimental side. Of the 11 players who lined up against Hodgson’s team in Manaus, only Chiellini will do so in Turin. Few in Italy expect this game to be the start of anything special but Conte might just be looking for reasons to believe his project is worth seeing through to its end.
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