The message from Italy coach Luciano Spalletti was clear: put away your PlayStation and start focusing more on scoring goals.
The results have been amazing for Gianluca Scamacca, who has scored nine goals in 11 appearances for Atalanta since Spalletti dropped him from the Azzurri squad in March because of his video game obsession.
“If someone wants to waste their time, that’s their choice. But then don’t come to my national team,” Splitti said, noting that ahead of the decisive European Championship qualifying match against Ukraine in November. Many players stayed up all night. The Azzurri drew 0-0 – just enough to qualify.
“It would have been the same thing if they were watching TV series. It’s an addiction and it’s not good for sleep, doctors say,” added Splitty.
Now Scamacca is set to fill Italy’s void at centre-forward just in time for Euro 2024 in Germany.
Ciro Immobile has been Italy’s go-to man at centre-forward for years but has never performed as well with the national team as he has at Lazio and, at 34, he has a number of players behind him. is likely to have a great year.
The crisis at center forward became so severe that former Italy coach Roberto Mancini recruited Argentine-born striker Matteo Retigo to join the Azzurri. And Retegui has been impressive with four goals in six matches.
In 15 matches with Italy, Escamaca has only scored one goal against England. But in the past two months he has developed as a new player, finally realizing the potential that has been hovering over him since coming up through the youth systems of Lazio and Roma.
He is a player who is physically and technically complete, capable of powerful shots on goal while standing with both feet or during leaping, acrobatic efforts.
His skills were on full display recently with a brace in Atalanta’s 3-0 win over Liverpool in the Europa League quarter-finals, a goal and a brace in the Italian Cup semi-final first-leg loss to Fiorentina. Assisted the finish, and scored the opening goal in Thursday’s 1-1 draw at Marseille in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final.
“He was exceptional against us — really, really good. Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp said he was difficult to play against. “He was very good in the air and very good on the floor. I didn’t know him well when he came to West Ham. It didn’t work 100% well there, but that might be because the Premier League is a tough league to play in. You can see he has great quality.
“But for a certain style of play, I think he’s a great option. A really focused player who can bring the ball down and give time to push forward. He’s a threat in the box. A really interesting package,” added Klopp.
Italy haven’t had a true centre-back since the days of Christian Varry, Luca Toni and Alberto Gallardino.
So if Scamacca can deliver from the No.9 position, he will provide a reference point for the likes of fellow forwards Federico Chiesa, Giacomo Raspadori and Nicolò Zaniolo.
Atalanta is a team that usually relies on developing home-grown talent or buying young foreigners with latent potential on the cheap. But the Bergamo squad spent 25 million euros ($27 million) to bring Escamaca back to Italy from West Ham, where he scored just three goals in 16 Premier League appearances and had his season cut short by a knee injury.
But Schemka excelled with West Ham in the Europa Conference League, and now has six Europa League goals this season – showing his commitment to the continental game – which could also bode well for the Euros. , where Italy is in a group with Spain. Croatia and Albania.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer
Credit : www.independent.co.uk