Fresh from two pairs in a row, the national team is obliged to win. Mancini defends Immobile: “He acts as a scapegoat”
In search of the goal, but also the right breath of wind to return to inflate the sails. After the two constipated draws with Bulgaria and Switzerland (more serious, by far, the first) Italy tonight closes this triptych with the easiest of the opponents, Lithuania. With the respect that is due to Lithuania and above all to the imponderability of football, before the two braking points the Reggio Emilia hub would have worried the right.
So instead we have to raise our guard, Italy is in the lead and if they win three games they go straight to Qatar. In short, we give the cards. To be wrong would be a global sin, and then tonight too we have to be at attention.
We are European champions and we have to put the census back on the field as soon as possible. And it does not matter if the opponent occupies the 134th place in the FIFA ranking and in the standings he navigates, so to speak, to zero points with 8 goals scored and only one scored: precisely by grinding significantly lower teams, the National team has built and placed in the engine that self-esteem then came in handy at the right moment. To the Europeans. You have to score a lot of goals, but if the problem is the striker then the duty becomes a tiring obligation to fulfill. And here Mancini makes the big voice. After generating enthusiasm when it was needed (at the beginning of its management); managed the runaway euphoria (during the European Championship), now the coach plays the unprecedented role of lightning rod. Towards the group and individuals, and here we are talking about the Property. «It seems to me that I have gone back to the time of Balotelli, you are looking for a scapegoat at all costs. For the forwards he runs like this, for Ciro it is a special moment, then maybe he will score eight goals in the World Cup ». Legitimate to defend the center forward, but the repeated live talks during the Basel match unequivocally testify how the problem exists.
Then it is wrong to reduce everything to the center forward as well as throw the cross on the national team: there were great opportunities to win, Donnarumma did more as a spectator than an actor, and the missed victories are to be attributed to two voices: inaccuracy and starry. After all, the coach says it too: “At this stage of the season we can’t be as brilliant as at the European Championship when we also had that bit of luck that we lacked now.”
Winning three games to close the discussion, “after all, it’s very simple,” says Mancini and it’s not like he can be blamed. If there is a mistake that this national team must not make, however, it is to start seeing witches where there aren’t any. Jorginho made his voice heard two days ago: rather annoyed by the criticism, the Chelsea midfielder immediately raised the bar. In three abundant years with Mancini, the national team has sailed in a well-deserved comfort zone, the coach denies the tensions (“we are not upset”) and that his team does not have the big shoulders to bear the criticism: “They are all guys used to certain situations “.
Then we can rest assured and resume the journey to Qatar: tonight we need to beat Lithuania and do it the old way. Having fun and having fun. Mancini trusts the players and they trust him: this is how they built the European masterpiece. And they want to try again in a little over a year. –