Why Gabbia earned Italy call-up over Gatti: ‘We can still call up another player’ | OneFootball

Luciano Spalletti says that he is pleased to be able to hand an Italy call-up to a Milan player after selecting Matteo Gabbia for upcoming Nations League fixtures against Belgium and Israel, and insists that there will be plenty of opportunities to come for Juventus’s Federico Gatti, who has not made the cut this time around.

The Italy national team head coach gave the first press conference of his training camp on Monday afternoon, ahead of the upcoming round of Nations League fixtures scheduled for October 10 and 14.

Why Spalletti called up Gabbia instead of Gatti

Spalletti feels that Gabbia has earned his call-up of his own right, and went on to explain that Gatti needed extra time to recover after a brief spell on the sidelines in recent weeks.

“Matteo has shown that he knows how to command the defensive unit,” Spalletti said. “He’s shown that he’s a very intense and attentive player in the way that he does things. He always plays a high line, he always speaks with his teammates. “We needed something like that and it’s an extra pleasure to call up a Milan player, because that is a club that can help us a lot, even if they do not have too many Italians right now.”

There will also be opportunities in the future for Gatti, who has not been included this time around. The other central defenders in the squad include Gabbia, Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori, Alessandro Buongiorno and Caleb Okoli of Leicester City.

“Gatti has a slight issue to resolve. He would have needed to recover if he had come with us, but we want healthy players. Fiorentina informed us of Kean’s situation last night, so we are fine.

“To do well, we will need an extra player, but we are lucky to have midfielders who are confident and scoring goals, and this helps us feel calm. We can still call up another player if we need to, even the day before a match. But if everything goes to plan, we are fine.”