Luciano Spalletti has never been particularly keen on Manuel Locatelli, which has led to the Juventus midfielder being consistently overlooked since Spalletti took charge of the Italian national team. Despite Locatelli’s experience and quality, he has not received a call-up under the current regime, raising questions about his future with the Azzurri.
Locatelli was a key figure for Italy during the early stages of Euro 2020, playing an important role in their eventual triumph. At the time, he was considered one of the country’s brightest midfield prospects, and many believed he would go on to replace Marco Verratti as a mainstay in the national team. However, circumstances have changed significantly since then.
Following Italy’s Euro 2020 victory, Roberto Mancini continued to include Locatelli in his squads, but when Mancini left his role as Italy’s manager, Locatelli’s international career stalled. Since taking over, Spalletti has opted for other midfielders, whom he seemingly believes are better suited to his tactical approach. As a result, Locatelli has had to work even harder at Juventus in the hope of earning a recall, though his performances for the Bianconeri have not been enough to convince the Italy boss.
Italy’s performances in the recent international break have left much to be desired, prompting renewed debate over Spalletti’s squad selection. Pundit Sauro Fattori has been among those questioning why Locatelli continues to be overlooked, particularly given his importance at Juventus. As quoted by TuttoJuve, Fattori expressed his concerns:
“Since we stopped criticising the national team coaches, we haven’t been to the World Cup. Ricci may be a good player, but no big team wants him, let’s ask ourselves a few questions. Locatelli has been playing for Juve for five years, I would like to understand why he wasn’t called up.”
Locatelli remains a highly capable midfielder with top-level experience, and his exclusion from the national team continues to be a talking point. Given his consistent performances in Serie A, it is surprising that he has not been given a chance to prove himself under Spalletti. It remains to be seen whether he can change the manager’s mind in the coming months, but for now, he will have to continue performing at a high level and hope his efforts are eventually recognised.
5 Comments
The answer is simple. Juventus are not good enough at the moment and Locatelli is not good enough either. If these two things changed, his situation would change too. Although he has a much harder time with a two-man midfield, Juventus’ midfield has been humiliated to the ground many times this season.
Alex, 100% agree. I am more baffled why Orsolini is not on the list.
Locatelli had his best season yet, but he’s far from being a top-tier player—he doesn’t even come close. At best, he’s a reliable rotation option. It’s unclear why Fagioli was given so few opportunities, especially considering his superior talent and potential. However, Fagioli does struggle with managing pressure, which might have been a factor
Honestly that’s what they need in the midfield. An enforcer, Allegri molded locatelli into that type of player. His attitude isn’t brash like gattuso of old during his paring with pirlo. But I can say his tackling greatly improved under Allegri. Verrati then assumed the tackling/enforcer role. He was excellent at this aspect. Now with spallettis front foot approach he really needs an excellent tackling defensive midfielder to stop counter attacks and clean up in from of the back line. Especially now that the back line isn’t as formidable of old. Bastoni and califiori are a lot more front foot than defensive. This heightens the need for that clean up midfielder. At this point locatelli is the best Italy can do. Maybe ricci in time can overtake him. I don’t think it was a coincidence that goretzka scored after novella came off and ricci came on.But barella is a box to box player and can’t fill that role. Not can fratessi. Nor can tonali, as he’s a box to box aswell. This team is also missing the classic regista.
I don’t really care about the national team, but your description clearly highlights why the Italian national team is in such a big trouble right now.
1.) Bastoni and Calafiori as successors to Chiellini and Barzagli? Jesus….
2.) Barella is an OVERRATED box-to-box player. The Juventus-inter Milan match showed it perfectly when the Koopmeiners-Thuram duo made a fool of the inter midfield. All this has happened this year, under a bad coach, with a disintegrated team that sometimes had its better moments.
I think in modern football a team can only fit a classic Regista (or a dinosaur-style player Locatelli) if the team have a world-class Chiellini-Barzagli duo behind them and a Marchisio-Vidal duo (perhaps Pogba) in the form of their lives, in front of them.
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