Former Italy national team head coach Cesare Prandelli feels that a new ‘revolution’ is underway under Roberto Mancini, and while he is full of praise for the returning CT, he says that his predecessor Gennaro Gattuso was unlucky with the circumstances during his reign: ‘Bastoni was sent off under him, he scored twice this time around’.

It has been a positive start to Mancini’s second spell in charge of the Italy national team. The Azzurri began the extra-long September-October international break with a 2-0 defeat at home against Belgium , but put in a particularly encouraging second-half performance, then beat Turkey 4-1 away from home , drew 1-1 away against France before beating Turkey 3-1 at home in Bologna earlier this week.

Mancini has also launched a new generation of Italy hopefuls, handing debuts to seven new players in Alessandro Romano, Michael Kayode, Matteo Ruggeri, Issa Doumbia, Mohamed Ali Zoma, Sebastiano Esposito and Antonio Vergara this break. This means that Mancini has now handed Italy debuts to 64 players across his two spells in charge.

Speaking in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday, former CT Prandelli described this as the start of a new revolution and says that there is no going back for Mancini.

“The revolution has begun, there’s no going back. We’re no longer the benchmark and we have to recognise that. But, if we work with our youngsters, get rid of archaic systems and give more weight to technical players, we will become great again,” said Prandelli (via Calciomercato.com ).

Prandelli says that he would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for Mancini’s half-time team talk during the 2-0 Belgium defeat given the difference in the Italy performance in the first and second halves.

“One day, I’d like to ask Roberto what he said to the players at half-time of the Belgium game after a disastrous, unwatchable first half. I want to know how he transformed the team in just a few minutes.

“If you noticed, he stressed several times about how important the first half hour of the second half was. A coach doesn’t just say things at random, he must have seen exactly what he was looking for. That’s where we found our courage again.