Prandelli admits to Italian worries

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli admitted there’s an atmosphere of apprehension surrounding the national team ahead of today’s Euro 2012 qualifier against Estonia in Tallinn.
Italy are trying to rebuild and regroup following their disastrous World Cup defence in South Africa, in which they failed to win a game and were bundled out of the group stages following a 3-2 defeat to minnows Slovakia.
Since then there have been changes afoot with Prandelli replacing Marcello Lippi and many of the old guard pushed out and replaced by younger but less experienced players.
But Italy have not won a game in this calendar year and failure to beat Estonia would mean equalling their worst ever run of eight games without a win.
Prandelli admitted that this has produced nerves amongst his group.
“Of course everyone’s feeling fragile because there’s an atmosphere of uncertainty and worry, so it’s natural to feel fragile,” he said.
“Some of these players only started their journey with the national team five days ago so it’s natural to be nervous.
“But there’s also another aspect which is letting them know that they’re doing something important and they’re the protagonists.
“That’s part of the work we do, it’s not just on the pitch but we also work on their psychology.”
On paper this should be an easy game against a team that is only just ranked inside the world’s top 100.
But Prandelli stressed that they need to be taken seriously and that you cannot go into a game believing it will be easy.
“It depends on how we play and what attitude we show, if we lose these games (today’s and Tuesday’s at home to Faroe Islands) I wouldn’t say it’s a disaster but it is what it is,” he said.