Three things spotted in Italy’s training session today

Italy set play training – Football Italia exclusive

Italy tested out a very different starting XI ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Norway, with important fitness updates and advice for Gianluigi Donnarumma on set plays.

Their opening fixture in Group I is in Oslo on Friday June 6, kicking off at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT, 20.45 CET).

Luciano Spalletti has been rather forced into a corner when it comes to his defenders, as Francesco Acerbi withdrew from international duty in protest at what he saw as a lack of respect, while Riccardo Calafiori, Alessandro Buongiorno and most recently Matteo Gabbia are all injured.

Italy defensive options very limited

The good news today from the Coverciano training ground is that Juventus defender Federico Gatti and Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who had trained separately on Tuesday, were back in the full squad.

There was one pitch set aside for tactical movements from open play and that included Gatti, Luca Ranieri and latest arrival Daniele Rugani in the back three.

It remains to be seen how many of those will actually start, especially considering Alessandro Bastoni will be available after Inter’s Champions Final and could play in the centre or towards the left.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo can also drop into central defence when needed or be a right-sided wing-back.

Italy working on different issues

According to Sky Sport Italia and Tuttomercatoweb, we could see a 3-4-2-1 formation with Sandro Tonali and Giacomo Raspadori supporting lone striker Mateo Retegui or Moise Kean.

This was the line-up used for the tactical tests: Meret; Gatti, Rugani, Ranieri; Cambiaso, Frattesi, Barella, Ricci, Udogie; Retegui, Raspadori

The other half of the team was involved on a different training pitch on set piece defending routines, which have been a major problem for Italy in recent matches.

The team here was: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Coppola, Bastoni; Zappacosta, Casadei, Rovella, Dimarco; Orsolini, Tonali; Kean

During that session, legendary figure Gigi Buffon, who is now the Team Manager for the Azzurri, took Donnarumma aside and gave him some valuable advice on dealing with these situations.

While Donnarumma proved at PSG he is an exceptional shot-stopper, there are still some doubts over how he can better command the penalty area on set plays.