{"id":212962,"date":"2025-10-09T23:55:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/212962\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T23:55:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T23:55:13","slug":"italy-still-have-doubts-preparing-for-estonia-match-with-new-4-4-2-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/212962\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy still have doubts preparing for Estonia match with new 4-4-2 formation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>              <a class=\"mg-blog-thumb\" href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/italy-still-have-doubts-preparing-for-estonia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/italy-training-session-and-press-conference-uefa-nations-league-2022-23-semi-final.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-819883 has-webp\" alt=\"FLORENCE, ITALY - JUNE 14: Leonardo Spinazzola of Italy warms up during an Italy Training Session during the UEFA Nations League 2022\/23 at Centro Tecnico di Coverciano on June 14, 2023 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa\/Getty Images)\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1200\/800;max-width:1200px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>FLORENCE, ITALY &#8211; JUNE 14: Leonardo Spinazzola of Italy warms up during an Italy Training Session during the UEFA Nations League 2022\/23 at Centro Tecnico di Coverciano on June 14, 2023 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><\/a>              &#13;<\/p>\n<p>Gennaro Gattuso continues to deal with some doubts going into Italy\u2019s World Cup qualifier against Estonia, with the wings and midfield the main concerns.<\/p>\n<p>It kicks off in Tallinn on Saturday at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/italy-training.jpg\" class=\"lazyload lazyload wp-image-912424 has-webp size-medium\" alt=\"First Italy training under Gennaro Gattuso on September 1, 2025.\"  data- style=\"aspect-ratio:1200\/675;max-width:1200px\"\/>First Italy training under Gennaro Gattuso on September 1, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The Azzurri were forced into some changes by injuries, because both Matteo Politano of Napoli and Lazio\u2019s Mattia Zaccagni pulled out of the squad, and they started when Italy beat Estonia 5-0 in September.<\/p>\n<p>This opens up the possibility for two very different approaches to the wings, <a href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/italy-leaning-towards-adaptable-4-4-2-estonia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">which can make this more of a 4-4-2 formation or alternatively a 4-2-3-1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gattuso keeps Italy and Estonia guessing<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Gennaro-Gattuso-Italy-coach-glance.jpg\" class=\"lazyload lazyload wp-image-913156 size-medium\" alt=\"BERGAMO, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 05: Coach Gennaro Gattuso of Italy looks on during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Italy and Estonia at Stadio di Bergamo on September 05, 2025 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot\/Getty Images)\"  data- style=\"aspect-ratio:1200\/800;max-width:1200px\"\/>BERGAMO \u2013 SEPTEMBER 05: Coach Gennaro Gattuso looks on during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Italy and Estonia at Stadio di Bergamo on September 05, 2025 in Bergamo. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sport.sky.it\/calcio\/nazionale\/video\/2025\/10\/09\/estonia-italia-news-probabili-formazioni-qualificazioni-1042203?social=twitter_skysport_link_null\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Multiple sources including Sky Sport Italia and Sport Mediaset<\/a> maintain the big doubts are in those roles, where Leonardo Spinazzola could go on the right and Andrea Cambiaso on the left for a more defensive idea.<\/p>\n<p>The more attacking and open version would have Giacomo Raspadori and Nicol\u00f2 Cambiaghi taking the wide roles, or Bologna\u2019s Riccardo Orsolini.<\/p>\n<p>Another possible change could see another central midfielder introduced, <a href=\"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/cristante-merit-fundamental-italy-call-up\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with Bryan Cristante and Manuel Locatelli eager to step in.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As for the rest of the team, that would appear to be set in stone, including Riccardo Calafiori in central defence, with Mateo Retegui and Moise Kean together upfront.<\/p>\n<p>Italy probable (4-4-2): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Calafiori, Bastoni, Dimarco; Spinazzola, Tonali, Barella, Cambiaso; Kean, Retegui<\/p>\n<p>                                &#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\tPost navigation&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLORENCE, ITALY &#8211; JUNE 14: Leonardo Spinazzola of Italy warms up during an Italy Training Session during the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-212962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}