Italy’s Bold Post-Euro 2024 Evolution Under Luciano Spalletti Tactics – Tactical Analysis

Following their failure in UEFA Euro 2024, Italy have been trying to start a new chapter under the management of Luciano Spalletti.

Italy quickly turned the page on Euro 2024, starting its UEFA Nations League journey with an important 1-3 away win against France.

Then, they beat Israel away and drew 2-2 against Belgium in a complicated match at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

After that, they defeated Israel once again, this time 4-1, at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine.

This latest win allowed Italy to top a tough Group B standings with four wins, a draw, and no losses.

Unfortunately for Italy, they failed to end their UEFA Nations League group stage with a win and therefore lost the first spot to France, losing 1-3 at San Siro.

The result was unacceptable, as France ended up topping the group despite their two-goal win margin.

However, we cannot argue that Italy played poorly or that they started underperforming again.

In fact, the latest game against France was very difficult for both teams, as the pace was high from the beginning.

France were intelligent enough to exploit Italy’s weak moments, especially at the start of the game.

They scored two crucial goals in the first half, complicating Italys task, who responded with one goal but failed to equalise.

The reaction shown and the numerous dangerous chances created in that match confirm that Italy did not underperform.

However, that does not exclude the fact that the Azzurri still have a lot of work to do in both phases.

They need to commit fewer mistakes against the top teams, with one of Portugal, Spain, or Germany waiting in the first knockout-phase match.

Even though Italy had the opportunity to top the group and face one of Croatia, Denmark or the Netherlands, the prospect of competing against Portugal, Spain, or Germany should not represent an issue.

It will be more beneficial for them to play against top teams to assess their progress better.

Moreover, Italy tends to play better when they face bigger teams and tend to underperform when they are the favourites.

Therefore, Italy should not overthink who they will face in the knockout round and focus more on improving their tactics and fixing what has not been positive during the group stage.

This tactical analysis and scout report will focus on Italy’s attacking and defensive phases.

We will highlight their improvements and also discuss what still needs improvement within the team.

The football analysis will also focus on Spallettis change of formation and player choices following Euro 2024.

Italy’s Back-Three Defence

Following Euro 2024, Spalletti focused on fixing his mistakes and made striking changes to his formation.

He started the UEFA Nations League with a 4-4-2 against France.

Even though this formation was effective against France, Luciano Spalletti opted to switch to the 3-5-2 against Israel.

With the integration of new names like Alessandro Buongiorno and Federico Gatti, and the reliance on Moise Kean up front alongside Giacomo Raspadori, Spalletti began forming a stronger, more compact, and more dangerous team with the 3-5-2 formation.

With defenders like Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori, Napoli’s Buongiorno, Inter Milan’s Alessandro Bastoni, and Napoli’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo as a centre-back when needed, Italy started to have a more solid defence.

Their trios made things more organised on the defensive level.

Moreover, with Federico Dimarco and Juventus’ Andrea Cambiaso retreating regularly to contribute in the defensive phase and mark wingers on their respective sides, as well as three midfielders always present and effective in terms of marking and ball interception inside the final third, Italy have started to concede fewer goals lately.

Their overall team balance has improved a lot.

Spalletti also made a few changes to the team’s midfield in the last four games, switching to the 3-5-1-1 formation, which uses three central midfielders and another who plays just below, or sometimes alongside, the main striker (Mateo Retegui).

This idea provides more security to the second line of defence, as someone like Nicolò Barella defends well in the out-of-possession phase.

This makes the formation a 3-6-1 when out of possession and sometimes a 5-4-1 when both Dimarco and Cambiaso retreat.

Depending on the match situation, these formation changes have been beneficial for Italy so far and have helped them become tough to beat.

To consolidate this idea, it is fair to say that France could beat Italy mainly through set-pieces and by exploiting Italys early issues.

Italy’s Formation Under Luciano Spalletti 

Italy’s Attacking Improvements

So far, Italys xG has reached 1.56, and theyre scoring 1.67 goals per game — a positive number.

Italy shoots 11.67 times per 90 minutes, with 36.6% of its shots being on target, a statistic that highlights the high number of chances created per game under Luciano Spallettis style of play.

Moreover, Italy tends to hold 54