What is Gennaro Gattuso’s KRA (Kean-Retegui Attack) Italian mode that turned chaotic in 5-4 win against Israel?

Manuel Locatelli, who had a roller coaster of a game, told Sky Sport Italia, “It was a crazy game, as we conceded goals, scored, conceded for 4-4, then won 5-4. I think the thing we ought to remark is the character of this team. We made a lot of mistakes too that need to be analysed, we didn’t have the right approach from the start, and that cannot happen. We weren’t solid enough, as Israel were dangerous on the counter-attack ”

Italy had switched up its 4-2-3-1 formation from the 5-0 win over Estonia to more of a 3-5-2 in Debrecen – a neutral land dubbed Israeli home game. Italy who have missed two World Cups now, needed a win badly but Israel had proven tricky for Norway too. “We need to analyse the match, but the victory is what we needed, and we achieved that.” Locatelli hinted at a mire proactive attack, saying, “We are trying some new things, but perhaps it was the excessive desire to score more goals for the goal difference that led us to make mistakes.” He added to Sky Italia, “We scored a lot of goals, but conceded too many as well. These three points are golden, especially after a match like that.”

However he saw the beginnings, green shoots of an Azzurri attacking duo up front. “If there is something Italy can celebrate, it is the emergence of a growing attacking partnership between Kean and Mateo Retegui. They are truly talented strikers, and also really nice guys, which is crucial for us in the present and the future.”

Moise Kean too cohered with Locatelli’s assessment. “Mateo and I had to work hard today, we made an impact and play well together, so we want to keep that going,” Kean told Sky Sport Italia.

“I believed to the end and am slowly getting to know Mateo’s characteristics, so I thought the ball would go there and I followed it all the way. As soon as the game was over, I still had to realise what had happened, but this is the joy of football, especially wearing the Italy shirt and winning at the last minute. We had to figure out how Israel were set out at the start, they are very quick and good on the attack. We never gave up and got a great result,” he explained.

Matteo Politano who struck one right in the middle of that chaos, told Sky Italia, “It was madness, an incredible match where everything happened, but we are happy that we were able to bring the result home. I don’t even remember when my last Italy goal was! I am very happy with the way we faced these two games, this is the right attitude and we must continue like this. We’ve not been working long with the coach, so there’s a lot of work to be done. We conceded too many goals, but we showed character and pushed to the end for the win.”

Italian live blogs were savage. ‘”Quality isn’t enough,” said Gattuso. Just as well, because we didn’t see much of it,’ one wrote. The problem was Gattuso’s ambition to score lots of goals to secure a decent goal difference, which meant Italy barely defended deep.

Things got sour far too soon when in 16th minute, the wrong floodgates opened. Israeli Biton reached the by-line on the right, and pulled back to surprise Gigi Donnarumma – as he had neen earlier. With Bastoni hovering it would have mase sense to hoof it out for a corner, but Locatelli got disoriented in his slide and accidentally put it into his own net from three yards.

Donnarumma’s troubles on long free kicks and crosses to the back post had started as early as in 3rd minute, when he botched a dangerous Biton low cross from the left by-line and Bastoni had packed it off for a corner.

Italy levelled coming from behind and even took the lead, but as the football Italia blog noted, “We can’t have nice things.” Bastoni, after saving all this while the right way, ended in the wrong place at the wrong time, and used his shin most obtusely for an attempted clearance on the Revivo low cross from the left – for the second own goal.

Defense was in shambles, as Israel stayed vulnerable on the counter-attack. However Keane got in a brace to extend his fine form for Italy scoring three goals in 3 World Cup qualifiers. In the 54th, he belted it in from inside the area with a right footer after it was delivered from a bounce down by Retegui. It was polishing of his first goal in 40th, when Barella sent in a long ball over the top, was controlled by Retegui for Kean, who from the edge of the area drilled it hard and low into the near bottom corner.

When Tonali struck in the 91st most unexpectedly, there wasn’t exactly an echo of Pirlo in it. But the Toon Tonali said he bought in to Gattuso’s attacking plans, never mind how crazy it drove everyone.