Following Italy's 2-1 away win over Israel in the second round of the UEFA A League, Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti attended a press conference to comment on his team's performance and look ahead to future matches.
Spalletti began by recognizing the maturity of his team's young players in the game: "Despite the youth of our team, we showed great maturity. Against the dense Israeli defense, we maintained a balanced attack and didn't have too much trouble on the defensive end. These young players showed a calmness and confidence beyond their years, which was the key to our victory."
Spalletti also spoke highly of the game's two goal scorers, Fratessi and Moise Keane. He felt that Fratessi was inconspicuous on the attacking end, but did a lot of important work to help his team maintain their dominance. Moise Keane, on the other hand, didn't get enough direct passes due to the plethora of midfielders, but he showed great speed and strength in the second half. Spalletti said that he will utilize Moise Keane's speed more in the future to create more attacking opportunities for his team.
Speaking about the takeaways from the two away games, Spalletti said, "These summaries are going to be very positive. The players we called up were well thought out and I've been thinking about this all summer. I wanted to rejuvenate and the results have met my expectations. The team showed the quality I was looking for and played two very good games. Next we need to reinforce our initial ideas and be cautious because there may be other players added to the squad than the two or three who weren't selected this time but were in our squad before."
Regarding the characteristics of the Israeli team, Spalletti believes that the rate and speed of their attacking players as well as their technical prowess are excellent, and that they are a national team that is on the right path. As for his team's lineup arrangement for the October internationals, Spalletti revealed that he plans to use Federico Chiesa as a second striker, but will give him more free space to move around the side.
Finally, Spalletti also pointed out the areas where Italy need to improve: "Tonight's game made it more obvious that we need to perform better in tight spaces. We need more quality, but we can't lose our balance on the defensive end like we did in these two games. Our system of three center backs is working well at the moment, but it's clear that a lot of our performance also depends on the players who are on the pitch. Going forward we will continue to work on improving the team in all areas."
