The Scotland manager will demand a high-tempo, pressing performance, similar to those by the Scandinavians which so unsettled Giovanni Trapattoni’s team. He has already put together a video of Italy’s 2-1 qualifying defeat by Wales to show how they can crack under pressure.
“When we play Italy we must put them under pressure and play at high speed. We need heart and emotion, the kind we showed against Holland at Hampden. We must forget that they are the millionaires from the Italian league,” he said. “But we can’t make one mistake in defence. They have Christian Vieri, Francesco Totti and Alessandro del Piero in attacking positions. That’s the Italian style of football, they wait for one mistake or two mistakes. We need good organisation in defence and also we need a lot of good saves from our goalie, but I am looking ahead very positively to our matches.”
Vogts cited Francesco Totti’s spitting at Christian Poulsen of Denmark as evidence that the Italians can be rattled out of their stride. “We know about their mentality. Look at Totti, why did he spit? It shows that he doesn’t like players pressuring him. He can play much better than he did. There were only two good passes from Totti, but he is still an outstanding player, a world-class player.
“Fabio Cannavaro is the same. He is one of the best defenders in the world but he didn’t show that when he was under pressure. Even Alessandro Nesta can be the same. We have to get at Italy, through the middle and out wide, the way the Danes did and the Swedes did in the last 20 minutes. Wales beat them and we have put together a video for the players. It has the positives from Wales and the negatives from Italy.”
Advertisement
Whether Scotland possess the players to cause the same problems is debatable. Not for the first time, the manager noted the lack of rapid attackers available to him. Denmark stretched Italy through the speed of Dennis Rommedahl and Martin Jorgensen and the movement of Jon Dahl Tomasson, while Wales prospered through the pace of Ryan Giggs and Craig Bellamy around the focal point of John Hartson.
“The Danes played with very wide players, wing players. We don’t have so many high-speed players like Rommedahl and Tomasson. They changed very quickly from defending to attacking, especially the wing players. That’s important. Also, Tomasson played very well. Excellent, in fact. That’s a problem for us, but we have to play the same style and that was helpful for me to see. Maybe we could play Darren Fletcher wide on the right, James McFadden on the left and Kevin Kyle in front, or maybe McFadden could play like Tomasson behind Kyle. I have to think about that and I don’t know what will happen in seven or eight months.”
Vogts believes central midfield is the one area where Scotland are potentially superior to the Italians. “We have players who could get into the Italian team. Darren Fletcher would play ahead of Mauro Camoranesi and Barry Ferguson would play ahead of Simone Perrotta.”
He knows Trapattoni well, but the 65-year-old is expected to step down after Euro 2004, with Marcello Lippi or Fabio Capello tipped to succeed him. “I worked closely with Trapattoni when he was coach of Bayern and I was the German coach. He is a typical Italian coach: 1-0 is always enough. It is big pressure being Italy’s coach because if you lose you will be the scapegoat of the press. When you win, you are the hero.”
Despite his focus on Italy at the championships, where he is a member of Uefa’s technical study group along with Dr Jozef Venglos, Andy Roxburgh and Gerard Houllier, Vogts wants Scotland to concentrate on their performances against the lesser lights in the qualifying section which starts when Slovenia visit Hampden on September 8. “The key is how we do against the other four nations, Norway, Slovenia, Belarus and Moldova, and we also don’t want to lose to Italy at Hampden.
Advertisement
“Norway are ahead of Slovenia, who have changed coach and have big problems. Belarus will be tough on their own ground and Moldova won’t be easy either. That’s why it was so good for us to go to Estonia and win 1-0 (last month), 1-0 will be enough in those away games. The win in Estonia gave the players confidence.” And no, the restaurant wasn’t an Italian.