Italy boss Roberto Mancini vows to ‘win as quickly as possible’ as manager

Italian football is currently undergoing significant change after the Azzurri’s failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup earlier this year. After weeks of chaos, Roberto Mancini was hired as manager and he has chosen a rather promising squad for the upcoming international break.

Now, Mancini has vowed to make a mark and win as early as he can with the national team.

He was speaking to the press ahead of the tie against Belgium later this week. Mancini was asked a host of questions and he revealed that the idea for the call-ups was to have a balance between youth and some experience.

He said – via Di Marzio: “We’re just starting out. There are players who haven’t played much and others who have played a little more. Now it’s about who has minutes in their legs, because there are always difficulties in September. We’ll be paying close attention to their physical condition.”

Mancini revealed his ambition to take Italy back up the FIFA rankings soon.

“We don’t know how long it will take, but we’ll have to be quick to understand the players we have and what they can give us in the future. We have important matches, official straight away and without the possibility of making mistakes. We need to win and move up the rankings.”

He also made it clear that his ambition is to start winning quickly and the aim is to dominate matches.

“I’m here to win as quickly as possible. I’m leaving to have a team that dominates , that plays well, that always gives its all. You can’t always win, but we’ll leave to do that, to win. We’re all positive”

Italy take on Belgium on Friday evening and then travel to Turkey next week for their second game. The big game comes on the 2nd of October, when they will lock horns with France.

Kaustubh Pandey – GIFN