Leeds United winger Wilfried Gnonto looks set to represent Italy against England on Thursday night as the two sides meet in Naples. Gnonto has been a regular in Roberto Mancini’s Azzurri set-up since making his debut last year and despite being just 19 years old, he has picked up eight senior caps.
Ahead of tomorrow night's game against the Three Lions, LeedsLive spoke with Italian football writer and expert Carlo Garganese to get the lowdown on the Whites’ Italian international, his role under Mancini and how highly thought of he is in Italy.
Roberto Mancini is clearly a huge fan of Gnonto’s, was it a surprise though when he was first called up at the age of 18?
Yes and no. It was a surprise in the way that this was a teenager playing in Switzerland for Zurich and nobody in Italy was following him. He wasn’t really very well known in Italy. He had been quite highly rated in the Inter youth system before but left and nobody really followed him after. So it did come as a surprise, but it also wasn’t a surprise in the sense that this is what Mancini has been doing for Italy in the last year and a half. He’s been very vocal about this and he was in the build-up to the England game as well, that there’s such a shortage of Italian attackers.
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There’s really a crisis of Italian attackers at the moment, that this season alone there isn’t a single Italian player in Europe’s major leagues that has scored in double figures. Almost all the Italy attackers are out of form or injured or not playing for their clubs, like Scamacca at West Ham, for example, so Mancini has had to look to obscure places to try and find players and even this week ahead of the England game tomorrow he’s gone to Argentina and he’s picked out an Argentine with an Italian grandmother who plays in the Argentine league for Tigre, on loan from Boca Juniors (Mateo Retegui).
He’s a huge fan of Gnonto, a huge, huge fan and even this week again he has been very scathing of Italian clubs, saying last summer when he was at Zurich and it was clear he was going to leave, everyone knew, I knew, I remember speaking to someone at Zurich at the start of the summer, and that he was available and no Italian clubs went for him. He was so cheap, Leeds got him for such a small price at the end of the window and Mancini was really scathing of Italian clubs, ‘why did no one sign him?’
Southgate has the same problem in England, but there’s such a small percentage of Italians playing in Serie A, less than 30 per cent, he really doesn’t have many players to pick from so he is having to look outside and that’s what happened with Gnonto.
How does Mancini use Gnonto with the national team and what’s his current role within the squad?
He’s used him a few positions really. Mancini’s favoured system is a 4-3-3 and that’s the system that was used to win the Euros. When he came on as a sub on his debut, he played on the right wing and he got an assist against Germany. He has been used on the wing but he’s so tactically versatile that he can play in all positions, right-wing, left-wing, at Zurich he was part of a front two and Mancini has used him in all of those positions. Mancini has in the last year used the 4-3-3 but he’s also used a three-man backline. He’s used a 3-5-2 and a 3-4-3 and Gnonto has been moving around in different positions across the frontline and that’s something Mancini loves about Gnonto, he’s so versatile.
This is why I think he’s going to be such a top player because he can play everywhere, really, and Mancini does see Gnonto as a very important part of the squad.
Can Leeds supporters expect to see him in action against England on Thursday night?
Yes, I think so. Definitely. If it’s not from the start I’m sure he’ll come off the bench. I think he’s the perfect impact player off the bench. He’s too good from Leeds’ point of view to have him as an impact sub, but in many ways he’s almost better as a sub because he’s straight into it, he doesn’t need time to warm up, he’s just straight into the rhythm of the game. There is a possibility that he could come on as a sub but it’s unclear because as it stands, nobody knows who the hell Mancini is going to play on Thursday because so many players are out of form.
Have Italian fans been keeping a close eye on his progress with Leeds and if so, what have they made of his performances?
Yes they have. In Italy the Premier League is very popular, as it is everywhere. They show most of the games and that includes Leeds and they have been very impressed by Gnonto. It’s kind of added to what Mancini is saying that no Italian clubs signed him last summer. This is a player that went for €4.5m and yes, Italian clubs are struggling financially, they certainly don’t have the wealth of Premier League clubs, but they had the money to spend on someone like Gnonto. For me it’s madness and as a Serie A fan I was angry last summer that no one went for him. They are enjoying watching him play and Leeds have become a club that a lot of Serie A fans are following now, purely because of Gnonto. Leeds and Brighton because of De Zerbi, they’re followed closely as well. I think everyone has been impressed by him and he’s a fantastic young player and he’s definitely got a big future in the game.
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