Appointed at the head of Squadra Azzurra to just over a year from the 2026 World Cup, Gennaro Gattuso inherits an Italian selection plagued by deep structural and identity doubts. His arrival puts an end to several days of vagueness around the succession of Luciano Spalletti, who left his post after a passage as brief as disappointing. If his name was not the favorite at first, Gattuso was finally preferred to several former internationals also in the running: Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo and Daniele de Rossi. Three prestigious profiles but with mixed experiences on the benches. The choice of the federation reflects a desire to return to a figure of character, capable of bringing back emotional stability and a certain sense of sacrifice, qualities that Italy is struggling to embody in recent years. Apart from a few executives, the latest lists were marked by a glaring instability, and the selection still seems orphan of a real spine since its title at Euro 2021. The site that awaits the former AC Milan midfielder is colossal. He will first have to decide in a pool of unstable players, oscillating between aging frames and a new generation still too tender for the very high level.
The management of leaders – Donnarumma, Barella, Tonali, Bastoni or Chiesa – will be crucial, as is the ability to build a competitive frame around them. Beyond the choices of men, it is a tactical overhaul that Gattuso will have to stimulate, in a selection which alternates without conviction between sterile possession and poorly mastered transitions. Italy no longer scares, and this is perhaps the greatest challenge: to give character to a team that has lost its grinta. Gattuso, an emblematic figure of this character trait, will have to ensure that this identity becomes the DNA of Italy again, while ensuring a coherent rise to the North American World Cup. The reception of the Gattuso rumor first aroused a large skepticism, even a certain disarray, both among supporters and in many observers and journalists. His profile, marked by contrasting experiences in a club and an approach sometimes deemed too emotional, seemed to be against the structural needs of the Nazional. However, since formalization, the tone has evolved. Cold, a wind of curiosity – if not optimism – breathes on the country. Many see in Gattuso a risky bet, of course, but also an attempt to reinject a form of passion, clarity and leadership in a group that has cruelly missed it in recent months. The announced arrivals of Andrea Barzgali and Leonardo Bonucci in the staff go in this direction.
Finally young people?
One of the great paradoxes of Italian football in recent years lies in the glowing gap between the good results of young people and the difficulty in sustainably integrating these talents into the first team. Italy U17, U19 or U21 regularly shines in European competitions, testifying to a rich and well -trained pool, often more competitive than that of certain large nations. However, this tank struggles to feed the Nazional has, in part because of a series has still chilled with its young Italian players. Too few from them benefit from a substantial playing time at the highest level, made by the pressure of the results, the omnipresence of foreign players or short -term choices of many clubs. This imbalance slows down the natural regeneration of the selection. In this context, Gennaro Gattuso could precisely embody a welcome break: whether at AC Milan or Naples, he never hesitated to trust young players, offering them playing time and responsibilities despite pressure. This desire to bet on youth may well become a strong axis of their mandate at the head of the Nazional. Nuggets like Niccolò Pisilli, Tommaso Baldanzi, Cesare Casadei, Samuele Ricci, Michael Kayode, Matteo Ruggeri, Lorenzo Lucca, Giovanni Leoni, Pio Esposito, Luca Koleosho or even Francesco Camarda could come out of the wins of this choice of Figc. Gattuso's Italy promises to be under the signs of youth, authority and defensive solidity. The coach would favor a defense with three, a model he has already experienced before in Croatia after a solid passage in 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. He will rely on a base of solid central defenders – Scalvini, Bastoni, Calafiori, Buongiorno, Gabbia – some have already worked with him in Milan or Naples.
In the locker room, balance will be provided by executives such as Donnarumma, Barella and Tonali, while promising young people will have to embody the future of the Gattuso project, specifies La Gazzetta dello Sport. The objective? Ralling a base of stability, while injecting new blood and a more aggressive identity, with a neat construction from the rear. Gennaro Gattuso has never been an ordinary coach. He imposed himself by dint of work, resilience and a real tactical curiosity. If he has directed prestigious clubs like AC Milan or Naples – with the key to a cup of Italy won in 2020 – it is also in less favorable, sometimes chaotic contexts, that he forged his vision of the game: in Switzerland (Sion), in Greece (OFS CRETE), in Spain (Valence), in France (Marseille) or recently in Croatia (Hajduk Split). These international experiences have refined his gaze, offering him a richer tactical background than what some people summarize too hastily to a simple “grita” football. Teams must embody intensity, pressing and courage, but they are also invited to build properly, to play high, to multiply digital superiority in small spaces (especially in a 3+2 in revival), and to exploit the wings or intervals according to the system (3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1). It will therefore be necessary to expect a daring, structured Italy, which will seek less vertical balloons than the circuits of elaborate passes, to enhance the mobility of its wingers like Politano, Zaccagni or Orsolini.
The whole Italy first welcomed the appointment of Gennaro Gattuso with amazement, even a certain concern. After the refusal of Claudio Ranieri, yet expected as a credible emergency option, the vagueness around the succession of Spalletti had installed a climate of feverishness. Gattuso, with a modest record and the profile very far from the great architects of Italian football (Capello, Sacchi, Lippi, Ancelotti, Trapattoni or Pozzo), does not coexize all the boxes expected for an express recovery. And yet, as emotion gave way to reason, a form of adhesion, discreet but real, began to emerge. Because if Gattuso is not a renowned strategist, he had the merit of accepting this immense challenge, where others have declined. One year before the World Cup, he assumes the role of the volunteer firefighter, ready to wake up a amorphous group, to put rules, courage, and a clear direction to a distress in perdition. In this, he is perhaps the man that was necessary at this precise moment, for a cloakroom in lack of soul. First test for the new coach: a decisive double confrontation in September with the reception of Estonia and then the trip against Israel in the Eliminatoires de la Cup of the World Cup – a baptism of fire which will already say a lot about its ability to federate and react quickly.
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