Mancini: Italy don’t have a striker problem

Date: 9th October 2018 at 9:30pm
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Italy coach Roberto Mancini insists the Azzurri don’t have an attacking problem ahead of their friendly match with Ukraine on Wednesday.

Mario Balotelli, Andrea Belotti, Patrick Cutrone and Simone Zaza are all unavailable – either due to being dropped or injury – meaning the tactician has to rely on the likes of Sebastian Giovinco, Ciro Immobile and Kevin Lasagna to lead his forward line.

Mancini isn’t worried about the players not at his disposal, as he believes he has ample solutions available to him.

“There isn’t a problem in attack,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “After [Simone] Zaza’s injury we called up [Kevin] Lasagna and there are various solutions we can try in the upcoming 180 minutes.

“We will play with an attacking trident, this is certain, but I haven’t decided on the players. There will be some that play two matches between Ukraine on Wednesday and Poland on Sunday in the Nations League.

“[Marco] Verratti is coming off an injury and it’s important I see him with the other players because it’s different when he’s with his club as opposed to having him here with the national team.”

Italy have only registered one win since Mancini took over in May, and the 53-year-old has told his players the time has come to buck that trend.

“We must start winning because it is important, and because winning breeds winning,” he added.

“I don’t think we suffer from a friendly hangover, but Ukraine are a great time with a coach like [Andriy] Shevchenko that knows our football.”

Wednesday’s match against Ukraine kicks off at 20:45 local time from the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa.

 

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