Spalletti blames ‘tempo and sharpness’ for dreadful Italy

Luciano Spalletti again tried to insist the biggest problem for Italy was the lack of ‘tempo and sharpness,’ but he will have big questions to answer after a dire 2-0 defeat to Switzerland.

The coach spoke of courage and determination, but there was precious little of that on show at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, which was where Italy won the 2006 World Cup Final.

Switzerland dominated the game and secured a 2-0 victory with goals from Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas, the second particularly painful, as it came 27 seconds into the restart after the Azzurri gave it away from the kick-off.

“It’s true that the goal at the start of the second half knocked the confidence out of us. Even if we were in their half, we were not incisive,” Spalletti told RAI Sport.

“What made the difference was the tempo, we were too slow compared to them in the first half. Even in terms of individuals, there was a different tempo of the movements and the duels.

“Unfortunately, sharpness and tempo makes the difference. Last time I thought perhaps if I gave them time to recover and change a few players, they’d be sharper. At this moment, for too many reasons, we are unable to do more than this right now.”

Spalletti said similar things about Italy against Spain

Italy disappointed throughout the EURO 2024 tournament in Germany, fighting back to beat Albania 2-1, losing 1-0 to Spain when the scoreline would’ve been far worse if not for Gianluigi Donnarumma, then scraping a last-gasp draw with Croatia.

If not for that Mattia Zaccagni goal, they wouldn’t even have got out of the group stage, and Switzerland laid bare all the defects seen until then.

Spalletti came in to replace Roberto Mancini midway through qualifying in September 2023, but now he must prepare for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

“There is a long path ahead, we’ll approach that slowly, but naturally we need a higher tempo from the team. Even without talking about quality, we need more spirit of sacrifice, more consistency closing down the opponents, getting back into shape, pressing.

“Unfortunately, many things also came from the way we ended the season. Our players weren’t in exceptional form and with the temperature this high too, it becomes difficult.”