Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella is ready to become a key element for new Italian national team coach Luciano Spalletti.
This is the view in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, who stress how the 26-year-old is in some senses the ideal box-to-box midfielder for the new Azzurri boss’s style of play.
In recent years, Barella has become a regular starter for Italy.
The 26-year-old had initially broken into the Azzurri squad whilst a Cagliari player.
And since he joined Inter in the summer of 2019, Barella has become more and more one of Italy’s main men.
The Nerazzurri midfielder was key for the Azzurri in their victory at EURO 2020. This was under coach Roberto Mancini.
And Barella’s tactical development under Antonio Conte and then Simone Inzaghi has been key to his prominent place in the national team.
That, the Gazzetta suggests, can bode well for Barella under Spalletti.
Inter Star Nicolo Barella Can Be Key For Italy Under Luciano Spalletti
The surprise recent departure of Mancini to take over the Saudi Arabia national team mean that the Azzurri went in search of a new coach.
Luciano Spalletti’s availability proved to be too tempting. The 64-year-old former Roma, Inter, and Zenit St. Petersburg coach had left Napoli right after guiding the Partenopei to the Serie A title last season.
Now, it is up to Spalletti to shape the Italian national team in his own tactical image.
Over a career that has lasted decades, Spalletti has developed his own brand of football.
The coach expects his players to be versatile enough to switch positions relatively fluidly on the pitch. This is particularly the case in the middle of the pitch.
Compared to some Italian coaches, Spalletti is not a tactician who devises rigid roles for each midfielder.
Rather, the new Italy boss likes to have his midfielders comfortable in deeper areas all the way to the opposition penalty area.
And in this respect, Barella represents an almost perfect player for Spalletti.
When the Italian arrived at Inter from Cagliari, he was a somewhat deeper-lying midfielder. Conte played Barella as a sort of midfield general, using his physicality and dribbling ability mainly.
But under Inzaghi, Barella has had far more license to get forward.
And the 26-year-old has relished that opportunity. Barella has become a regular goalscorer for Inter, whilst his variety of passes and crosses have meant he’s also assisted plenty more goals.
Spalletti will have taken note of this comfort in the final third.
Like Piotr Zielinski, a key player in Napoli’s title win under the coach, Barella is comfortable in tight spaces and breaking forward in and around the penalty area.
And these could be just the elements that Spalletti needs to make this Italy team his own.
