Antonio Conte remains confident despite the fact that Italy enter this summer’s European Championship as underdogs.
After winning their qualifying group for the tournament in France, Italy remained unseeded as a result of their FIFA ranking and were drawn into a group with Sweden, the Republic of Ireland, and Belgium.
“It doesn’t matter to me if we’re favourites or not,” the coach stated in an in-depth interview with FIFA 1904 magazine.
“We have ambitions. We will be dangerous outsiders in France.
“My main target is to prepare for the European Championships as best we can, because you have to get a lot right to win a tournament.”
“My job is similar to a tailor, I have to work with the material at my disposal. If a coach wants to impose a system that is too complicated for a team, he will probably fail.”
Conte then stressed his belief that Italy need to play attacking football.
“I learned a lot while playing for the national team, and reached two different finals in 1994 and 2000,” Conte added.
“However, I’ll still be asking for advice from some other coaches before the Euros.”
“I was fortunate to be able to learn from good coaches, Marcello Lippi, Giovanni Trapattoni, Arrigo Sacchi, Carlo Ancelotti… so it is certainly worth making a few calls.
“I do not want to simply copy somebody; I want to learn from the past and take all I possibly can from it.
“Good attacking football is all about the art of switching quickly into attack after winning the ball, but still finding a balance between defence and attack.”
Conte admitted Serie A lags behind other leagues in Europe, but is optimistic that Italian football is improving.
“England is currently the best, followed by Spain and Germany,” Conte stated
“Italian football used to be in a far better state, we use to be the most attractive league in the world, where everyone wanted to play.
“When we became world champions in 2006, 66% of all players in Serie A were Italian, and that figure was even high still when I was playing.
“Today the figure is only 34%.
“And of course the national team suffers as a result.”
