Nice half. Not without some hiccups, but some great sequences leading to several chances for Frattesi and a couple others. Frattesi buried a much more difficult chance than the others he had.
Half. Weird back and forth game. Little chemistry between the back 3. We go from being comfortable letting them have the ball to controlling possession. But then stupid mistakes give them scoring opportunities.
Frattesi beautiful goal and couldve had 2 more from beautiful passes from Scamacca. Frattesi mb starts vs Albania (we can rest Barella then) but against good teams, he should prolly be a sub.
Fagioli will become our most important mid. He’s great at sweeping up the ball and quickly redistributing, and in the 3/4s he is excellent at threading in a dangerous pass
Frattesi was involved in almost all our dangerous attacks. The guy knows how to be at the right place. Bellanova is not enthusing me too much
1H Thoughts - Is this team too Barella-dependant? - Frattesi shows too much of the ball, twice this he's erred. He ends up getting the ball poked away or it runs away from him. Nice finish, Assist Chiesa. - Comment on X said that if Italy go on a run, Bellanova will make his way to the First 11 in place of Di Lo. I didn't necessarily disagree. However, twice this Half he has made the wrong decision. Why the ******** did he try for goal there? - Given that Orsolini didn't make the cut, is Scamacca the FK Taker? If that FK is to go by anything. - With no Dimarco today I've noticed the buildup is spread around. This is how important Dimarco is for Italy, however, this is a drawback. - Not sure what that Bosnian's issue was there with Fagioli. Absolutely no reason to get physical with him. POS.
Frattesi is playing forward, today. Spalletti could replace one of Jorginho/Fagioli with Barella and keep Frattesi in that 10 role. As a connector/outlet, he's been excellent today. Turned Bosnian pressure into breaks forward.
That’s probably our best option right now. If Tonali was available he’d be perfect to pair with Fagioli
Not only has Bellanova not been too good, but there's been points where Fagioli or Jorginho is facing up-field looking for the next pass, and Bellanova is sitting wide up-field, and they're basically ignoring him. Maybe it's the limitation of the camera view, but it looks like they could get him the ball in space more than they are. That being said, he hasn't been making great decisions with the ball. Even his crosses have been wild.
Bellanova suffers in possession. He is better if we want to play behind the ball trying to hit counters. If Spalletti wants to play a 3-4-3 that wants to control the ball, DiLo is better
Bellanova off. Dimarco on. Dimarco takes his place on the left, Cambiaso moved to the right. This is also a great solution.
Spalletti trying things out now. Folorunsho and Raspadori in behind Scamacca. Pellegrini our #10 is in the mediano since he came on
Califiori is class with this backline everyone can ball that over the top ball from Buongiorno was class. I wish there was a way for Bastoni to just play as the central defender. Fagioli Jorginho worked really well together. Scamacca should have had 2 goals but I am happy we have been able to find him with relative ease against a team with a low block. Good friendly. Obviously you'd want more goals but they managed the game and don't need to kill themselves for a useless goal. The overlaps with Califiori Di Marco Chiesa are scary. Same with Darmian Cambiaso. When we play teams where there is space we will be very dangerous on the counter attack. One negative is when you put on Retegui Folo Cristante we lose our fluidity. Hopefully they are not used as a group very much. I don't think they will be.
Given that France vs Canada are at 0-0 at the 64th Minute, 1-0 vs Bosnia & Herzegovina isn't that bad.
Final. Better second half. I hope Spalletti got all his answers. Shame for Scamacca who should have had a goal. Frattesi was involved in all our dangerous plays. I have a feeling that Spalletti will really run with Dimarco and Cambiaso as his wingbacks. Don’t think Bellanova convinced anyone
This team needs to produce more chances, because I just think we're going to see 1-2 brain-farts from the backline, each match. Calafiori's pass selection is interesting, and (I thought) surprised his teammates, because he made a few passes today (including that one that almost led to a goal) where his teammate was not at all expecting it. The other one that stood out was in the latter part of the match where he went about 25 yards up the field to a center mid, and Folorunsho(?) was sort of backpedaling as Calafiori let it fly, and so he received it with no momentum, whatsoever. What do you all think the back three is going to look like for Albania? Bastoni in the center, or on the left? Depending on Bastoni's position, who plays the other spot? Darmian on the right seems like a no-brainer.