BORDEAUX // Antonio Conte, the manager of Italy, finds himself under a special obligation at Euro 2016, besides the usual pressures. That is to assure the followers of his Italy team that he is thinking only in one shade of blue for the next few weeks, the darker hue, not the blue of his next employer.
Conte takes over as manager of Chelsea next month, an exacting job for which plans are being made, transfers lined up, tactics and strategies being formulated. Conte maintains, as he must, that his thoughts are 100 per cent focused on his international commitment right now. What may be very difficult for him is to resist comparing his current task, of getting Italy to play as the tournament heavyweights they traditionally are, with his next one, elevating Chelsea back to their previous high status, and not to look at his next set of players enviously.
The feeling may be unavoidable on Monday. Italy, a squad of apparently threadbare resources of creativity, take on the Belgium of Eden Hazard in Group E. That’s the Hazard of Chelsea, the Premier League’s Player of the Year in 2014/15, when the inventive, elfin winger guided his club to the English title.
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Conte must find ways of stifling the Belgium of Kevin de Bruyne, scorer of 17 goals across competitions for Manchester City this season, and provider of 16 assists. That's the De Bruyne who Chelsea let go less than two years back, because they had too many creative types on their roster.
On Monday, in Lyon, De Bruyne is likely to be teeing up opportunities for Romelu Lukaku, a striker who hit 28 club goals in 2015/16, yet a centre-forward who Chelsea bought and cultivated as a teenager and then decided was not quite the forward they needed. His latest goals have been scored for Everton; he was prolific too for West Bromwich Albion, to whom Chelsea loaned him before he moved to Goodison Park.
Conte is said to have asked Chelsea to look at signing Lukaku, 23, again. Certainly, he would like to have a finisher of his calibre at his disposal as Italy manager. The pool of strikers in Italy's squad in France is under scrutiny. Three of those to whom Conte might look for goals – Ciro Immobile, Stephan El Sharaawy and the Brazil-born Eder – changed clubs in January and only El Sharaawy's move from Monaco to AS Roma can be said to have meant a sharp upturn in form. Immobile struggled at Sevilla; Eder's promising form at Sampdoria slowed when he joined Inter Milan.
As for creativity, Conte scrapes around to find a player with the guile or imagination of a De Bruyne, a Hazard, or even a Moussa Dembele or a Dries Mertens, to name another pair of creators who Belgium can also call on. Italy had some bad luck with injuries, with Marco Verratti, Claudio Marchisio and Riccardo Montolivo out of contention, but Conte also acknowledges this a barren time to be picking Italy sides that excite the public.
“We are in a difficult phase,” Conte said, “and you can’t hide the fact that we no longer boast great riches of attacking players. I honestly don’t know if it is just a generational thing. I like to think so because that would mean there will be a new crop coming through. It’s hard enough even finding a strong group of Italian players, when only 40 per cent of Serie A players are from Italy.”
What Conte does have is the solid, all-Italian, enduring back line from serial Serie A winners Juventus to assure him that, if there is a lack of zest up front, there should be security in defence. Gigi Buffon, 38, expects to have his goal protected by Andrea Barzagli, Leo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini. That foursome boast over 350 caps between them, and Bonucci, at 29, is by a long way the junior member of the quartet. They are Italy’s olden generation – up against Belgium’s much vaunted golden generation.
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