Spalletti muses over where to fit Chiesa into new Italy 3-5-2
Luciano Spalletti explains how Federico Chiesa could fit into this new-look Italy side after his transfer to Liverpool, as the Azzurri are dominating their Nations League group.
The Azzurri came back from an early goal to beat France 3-1 in Paris on Friday, then this evening emerged with a 2-1 victory against Israel.
Davide Frattesi consolidated his status as Spalletti’s top scorer by finding the net again in Budapest, followed by a Moise Kean strike.
“The team proved itself very mature, despite generally being of a young age,” said the coach in his press conference.
“There was difficulty running into the traffic of the Israeli midfield, it was far more dense and blocked up than against France. We had to keep the balance and ran very few risks, but also didn’t get frustrated.”
Spalletti has a versatile view of 3-5-2
He said that it would be a 3-5-2 formation from now on, but as we have seen in the two games so far, it can be interpreted in very different ways.
In the first half against France, it was Lorenzo Pellegrini acting as support for Mateo Retegui, whereas Giacomo Raspadori was more of a genuine striker near Kean tonight.
“Frattesi works so hard and creates this superiority in different areas, but he also knows how to read the game and always finds himself in the right place at the right time. It’s true that we didn’t give Kean enough service, but we did better in the second half and won thanks to our maturity,” added Spalletti.
“I thought long and hard before choosing these players, as I wanted to bring down the average age of the group and the response was perfect. I made a few modifications and the team showed it had the quality I expected.
“Now we just need to reinforce that initial idea and be open to letting others in, along with the two or three who were left at home this time.”
There are injuries for the likes of Nicolò Barella, Gianluca Scamacca, Giorgio Scalvini and Nicolò Zaniolo, but Chiesa was left out following his deadline day transfer to Liverpool.
Considering that Chiesa had struggled to find a role within Max Allegri’s 3-5-2 at Juventus, unhappy with being a support striker and tending to drift out wide, can Spalletti solve that problem?
“I imagine he can play as a support striker, but with more freedom to go near the flanks,” replied the coach.
“This 3-5-2 is versatile, at times it can be a centre-forward with a wider figure, it doesn’t necessarily have to be two central strikers.”
