While there is plenty of criticism abound for England players after defeat to Italy last night, it was not the case for West Ham United’s Gianluca Scamacca and Leeds United’s Willy Gnonto.
Quite the opposite in fact, as Gazzetta dello Sport have praise for both players in their coverage of the game today.
They provide their usual ratings for the game, scoring the player’s and manager’s out of ten for their performances.
As you’d expect the England squad have not fared particularly well, with criticism and harsh words plentiful for several stars.
Italy naturally fare a little better, although nobody scores higher than a seven, but the scores do make good reading for the West Ham and Leeds men.
Scamacca started the game and is handed a six out of ten for his performance, putting him in the middle order of the scores.
The newspaper say he ‘immediately’ took his chances as a ‘real centre forward’ when they came, although there is some criticism, as he’s labelled ‘slow and unresponsive’ in some parts.
He also struggled with pressing and when dropping back, but there is an acceptance Italy didn’t play to his strengths and he ‘needs balls’ if he is to succeed. We believe that means crosses more than in the literal sense, but we’ll leave it up to interpretation.
Either way, Gazzetta seem relatively happy with the West Ham man, who will be hoping to gain some confidence in the international break after a slow start to life at the London Stadium.
Leeds forward Gnonto, meanwhile, gets a lot more praise after he replaced Scamacca from the bench in the game.
Gazzetta say he offered his ‘usual pace, with those legs swirling’ alongside ‘constant pressure’ and ‘good control’ of the ball.
They believe he is ‘well integrated’ into the Italy squad at this point but do say it was a tough evening for him coming up against tall English defenders like Harry Maguire and Eric Dier.
He is also awarded a six out of ten, which is good going indeed for a second half substitute and points to a good evening for him and Scamacca overall that we’re sure Leeds and West Ham fans will be delighted to hear about.
