MANCINI SURPRISED BY ITALY, NOTES THAT PELLEGRINI ‘NOT A 10 LIKE TOTTI’ | SPORTSON

 MANCINI SURPRISED BY ITALY, NOTES That PELLEGRINI ‘NOT A 10 LIKE TOTTI’ | Sportson


Roberto Mancini admits he ‘did not expect’ Italy to be doing so well after the massive Nations League revamp, while he defines Lorenzo Pellegrini’s particular set of skills. ‘He’s not a 10 like Francesco Totti.’

The Azzurri remain top of the Nations League group with five points, ahead of Hungary on four, Germany three and England just two after this 0-0 draw in Wolverhampton.

Whoever finishes bottom of the group at the conclusion of this stage will be relegated into Nations League B, whereas the leaders go into the Final Four tournament.

When going into the competition, Mancini repeatedly warned he would take risks with new faces and that could well mean losing a few games for the long-term project, but instead they’ve seemed more solid than the group of veterans who won EURO 2020.

“I’ll be honest, I did not expect this, I thought it’d be worse,” confessed Mancini in his press conference.

“We still have a lot to work on, there’s a long road ahead full of dangers. We certainly need to score more goals and if Davide Frattesi had scored in the opening five minutes, it would’ve been a different game. He’ll get it next time.

“I didn’t expect us to do so well in these three weeks together. It’s important that we haven’t changed our style of football, even when the personnel did.”

Italy have one more Nations League match to play before the season comes to a close, visiting Germany on Tuesday evening, but Sandro Tonali is suspended and Alessandro Florenzi sent home.

Get Premier Sports to watch Germany vs. Italy in the Nations League.

Federico Gatti was given his Italy debut and played the full 90 minutes, despite the fact he’s never even played in Serie A before.

The Frosinone defender was purchased by Juventus in January and left in Serie B for the rest of the season on loan.

“If I play Gatti, it’s because I think he can become an excellent defender for the future. The same goes for Sandro Tonali, he is 22 years old, but one of the best midfielders in Italy.”

Pellegrini featured in all three Nations League matches so far, so Mancini reserved some very special praise for the versatile Roma captain. Have Italy found their Number 10?

“Pellegrini has his own style of football, he’s not a 10 like Giuseppe Giannini, nor a 10 like Francesco Totti. I think he can become much better with time, because he is so good at both attacking and defending. At times he loses balls he shouldn’t, but if he improves that and a couple of other things, he can become simply extraordinary.”

 

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