Mancini says the Serie A system is to blame for Italy's lack of talent

Roberto Mancini

said that

's problems are caused by problems in

Serie A

, where "coaches don't let young players play because they're afraid of making mistakes."

Last July, Italy beat

England

in a penalty shootout to win the European Championship for the first time since 1968. In March, the Azzurri lost a heartbreaking World Cup play-off game against

.

Italy lost by a score of 1-0, so they didn't make it to the World Cup for the second year in a row. They didn't make it to Russia in 2018 or Qatar in 2022. When Italy didn't do well, there was a lot of criticism of their domestic game. Critics say that younger players aren't given as many chances to grow and that they prefer to rely on foreign players.

This was shown by the fact that Mancini relied on older players like Giorgio Chiellini,

, Ciro Immobile, and Lorenzo Insigne at Euro 2020, while most of the younger players stayed on the sidelines. When Mancini talked about Italian football at a forum on Friday, he admitted that not much has changed in recent years to help develop talent in Italy. He also said that this worried him.

CalcioMercato reported that he said, "In the last four years, not much has changed, and the national team is always the same. The first thing is to trust the coaches more like Milan did with Stefano Pioli. Two years ago, it looked like he was leaving, but now he's winning the championship.

"Many coaches don't let young players play because they don't want them to mess up. Only 32% of the players in Serie A are Italian, which is very bad for all national teams. "When [Nicolo] Zaniolo first got to Italy's training base in Coverciano, he looked like a child. After two months, everything has changed. The boys learn fast."

Mancini was quick to praise the race for the Scudetto this season. Milan only needs a point at Sassuolo on the last day to win the title ahead of Inter, who have a worse head-to-head record. But he said again that he thought younger players should be given more chances. "First of all, we have to say that it was a beautiful championship, where many teams fought until recently for the Scudetto," he said.

"I'm not sure who will win, but I think Milan has a slight edge. But the games have to be played. Whoever wins, Inter or Milan, will have earned it. Even so, both teams have had a great championship. To be honest, I hoped that more players would make it, but things haven't changed much in the last few years. There are a lot of good young people who can't find chances."

Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup, and Mancini wants his team to make up for it when they play Germany at home on June 4 to start their Nations League season. "We didn't deserve to lose by any means, but we have to take it and start over," he said. "We know we don't have many options, but we have to come up with something like what happened four years ago."

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