Senior Team Discussion

to be fair Retegui was in argentina minding his own business next thing he knows Mancini is calling and he's off to Serie A next thing he knows he's being offered 30m salary to play in Saudi ..basically 30m to stay in shape and then go back to europe when he wants. For a kid that was probably on 200k in Argentina it was likely hard to say no to.

But I agree I don't really rate any players not playing in Europe for the national team.
We have no idea if he was another Atalanta wonder other than he has been good for us against weaker teams.

 

Best shot stopper in the world.

I don't even like putting this in the ether --- but if any of these games go to kicks --- Italy have the ultimate weapon between the sticks.

He is always going to give you a chance to dig out a victory in PKs. Has to give the team juice knowing he is going to pull out a save or two to give you a shot to move on if you convert.

 

A lost art of goalkeeping

 

For the life of me, I don't know why we try to play the ball out of the back at all. We've sucked at it for about 4 yrs now. Gigio isn't good at it...and our defenders give up the ball too easily. Teams know they just need to do the high press on us and we turn it over.

I 100% agree. Just counterattack this MFers and make them pay. Kean and Retegui are VERY good at shielding the ball and hold up play. Let's take advantage of that. They want to press us high...we play it over the top and make them pay.

 

Good analysis by Riccardo Trevisani on Cambiaso

https://youtube.com/shorts/2nSCvIimgiY?si=zfV-f0Vv4r1Fsg4t

 

Fagioli with a nice finish against the stranieri. It's important for our national team that Fiorentina do well based on the amount of Italians that they field.

 

Kean makes it 2-0

 

Good timing for Kean to start finding the back of the net again.

 

Great win for Fiorentina. Their shit season was very bad for the national team as they could have supplied more players to the squad.

 

𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐢, 𝐜𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐞‼️😨

L’attaccante della Nazionale sbaglia il più semplice dei gol colpendo il palo ❌#sportitalia #saudileague #retegui pic.twitter.com/yBJBxOUaEH

— Sportitalia (@tvdellosport) February 13, 2026

 

So according to Gazzetta, Gattuso has reached out to FIFTY players so far leading up to the March playoffs. I have full sympathy with him because I understand it isn’t easy, but it signals that he’s a little unsure of himself.


Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham), Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Elia Caprile (Cagliari), Alex Meret (Napoli).

Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Matteo Gabbia (Milan), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Diego Coppola (Brighton/Paris FC), Giovanni Leoni (Liverpool), Honest Ahanor (Atalanta).

Wing-backs: Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Marco Palestra (Atalanta/Cagliari), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham), Leonardo Spinazzola (Napoli).

Midfielders: Nicolo Barella (Inter), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Marco Verratti (Al Duhail), Nicolo Rovella (Lazio), Samuele Ricci (Milan), Niccolo Pisilli (Roma), Fabio Miretti (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna/Fiorentina), Nicolo Fagioli (Fiorentina), Cesare Casadei (Torino).

Trequartistas/Wingers: Matteo Politano (Napoli), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Antonio Vergara (Napoli), Federico Chiesa (Liverpool), Daniel Maldini (Atalanta/Lazio), Nicolo Cambiaghi (Bologna), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Nicolo Zaniolo (Udinese).

Strikers: Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah), Pio Esposito (Inter), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Giacomo Raspadori (Atalanta), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds).

 

Click bait.

Followers of the Italy team know who is in contention to be called for these Playoffs. Leoni could very well have been called but absolutely not in contention.

 

Damn, no Bartesaghi for at least a chat.

 

That list is not accurate, he met with Gattuso:

🚨Davide Bartesaghi has reportedly been called-up tonight by Gennaro Gattuso for a dinner meeting in Milano alongside other Italy National Team players

A strong sign that his FIRST senior call-up for the playoffs in March COULD be IMMINENT📲👀@NicoSchira pic.twitter.com/6vZcVxF9I9

— AzzurriXtra🇮🇹 (@XtraAzzurri) February 9, 2026

 

Omg an Italian finally scored for Como

 

He would call up an injured Leoni or an inform Kayode?

 

No to the former, yes to the latter, obviously.

Same question back at you. Thoughts?

 

I thinh this list is not entirely accurate! He has surely met with Bartesaghi and Kayode amongst others.

 

Fiorentina beating Como gives me hope for italian football

 

Lol

 

The Gnonto consideration is mind blowing.

Palla also gives me hope

 

The fans know just as much as journalists right now, which is nothing. Giovanni Leoni is injured but so is Di Lorenzo and he met with both Gattuso and Buffon last night along with the rest of the Napoli Italian players. Very doubtful he will be ready for the playoffs. We don’t know what Gattuso is going to decide

 

I don’t doubt he also spoke to both Kayode and Bartesaghi. I think the article is correct that he is speaking to everyone

 

Gattuso has very tough choices to make in the wingback positions. Palestra is a no brainer and undeniable at this point. But he also likes to play a winger in the RWB position like Politano. Cambiaso is the joker card you can put on either side. Where does that leave Kayode?

On the left Dimarco is the undisputed starter. Then he has Spinazzola who is his experienced hand. Udogie has had a difficult year with injury and has been up and down. Do you insert Bartesaghi now over both? Not everyone can play.