Devis Mangia guided Malta to its first point in the 2020 UEFA Nations League following a 1-1 draw against Latvia at the National Stadium, on Sunday.

It was a much-needed point after the heart-breaking defeat at the hands of the Faroe Islands in the opening tie of this competition.

Moreover, it strengthened the football ideology that the Italian tactician is trying to implement in this national team. An idea that sees the Maltese players forge a playing identity of their own on the playing field, unlike in the past.

Exporting players, defensive tactics, and lack of discipline on the field are among the criticism that this team gets slammed with after every outing. Revamping the whole movement is obviously far from a walk in the park, but there is always a point that must be a stepping-stone for the bigger picture.

Coach Mangia has chosen the playing identity as the starting point for his Malta project. Despite the pre-Nations League friendlies were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Italian coach’s ideas were very clear in the first two outings.

The former Italy U-21 coach wanted a team that has proactive approach, builds up from the back, applies high pressing, and adopt several schemes on set-pieces. This enabled Malta to find the net three times in two games while creating other goal-scoring opportunities, something that the team lacked in the past years.

“I have only good words for my team,” Mangia told a news conference after the Latvia game.

“The players put everything on the field throughout the whole training camp and I am very pleased with the feedback I got after these two outings.”

Against both the Faroe Islands and Latvia, Mangia deployed his team in a 3-4-2-1 formation with the idea of hurting the opponents mainly from the flanks through the pace of Ryan Camenzuli and Joseph Mbong, and exploiting the creativity of Luke Gambin and Jurgen Degabriele behind target man Kyrian Nwoko.

“Against Latvia, we started very well for much of the first 25 minutes, scoring a very well-worked opening goal,” Mangia said.

In fact, it was a splendid combination between Mbong and Nwoko that helped Malta forge ahead.

However, as the game wore on Latvia started to peg the Maltese back even though their equaliser came through an unfortunate own goal by Matthew Guillaumier.

New approach

It was clear the Maltese team was still not in their best possible physical shape.

Understandably, given that the Maltese sides who played a competitive match since March were Floriana, Valletta, Hibernians and Sirens in the UEFA club competitions.

Teddy Teuma made his debut for Malta against Latvia. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The Latvian players, on the other hand, are midway through their league season, having played already 17 matches.

“Unfortunately after we scored, we started to drop back but at the same time, we faced a team who was in a much better physical condition and played a lot more games than us,” Mangia said.

“Obviously, by the time our next competitive matches arrive in October we will surely be in a better physical condition and we will perform better from this aspect.”

For the Latvia game, Mangia handed a debut to Italy-born defender Enrico Pepe, who has obtained Maltese citizenship, who replaced captain Andrei Agius.

Asked about this change, Mangia pointed out that those who started, including the other newcomer Teddy Teuma, and the ones who were deployed later all came in with a positive attitude.

Meanwhile, defender Zach Muscat, who has just swapped SC Olhanense for Casa Pia, is pleased with the fact that under coach Mangia the team is becoming more dynamic and meticulous.

“At the back, we need to be more cautious of course but at the same time we are also starting to build up from the back, working on different movements upfront, we are creating well-worked goals and this reflects our hard work on the training pitch.”

Source: https://sofascore.com

Heading towards the games against Latvia and Andorra, the Malta national team should be optimistic about its chances of registering an historic Nations League win.

At the end of the day, winning will be a consequence of the playing identity imposed by the Maltese.