Italy and Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci believes the key to the Azzurri’s success will be to follow Antonio Conte’s instructions at all times.
The 27-year old spoke ahead of Conte’s first competitive game in charge of the national team, a Euro 2016 qualifier against Norway in Oslo on Tuesday night.
“In a football team, it’s the coach who makes the decisions,” said Bonucci, who worked with Conte at both Juventus and Bari, as reported by Tuttomercatoweb.
“For the players, all we have to do is follow the coach’s orders. This is one of the secrets to winning.”
“Playing with [Andrea] Ranocchia? We are very good together. We spent six great months together at Bari.”
Conte’s first game in charge of Italy was a 2-0 victory over the Netherlands, with Bonucci’s pass providing the assist for Ciro Immobile’s opening goal, and the Juventus man revealed their link-up was the fruit of careful pre-match planning.
“Before the game I told Immobile and [Simone] Zaza to make runs behind the defence, and it worked well.”
