for italy manager antonio conte, tuesday's friendly against england in turin should have represented a triumphant homecoming to the stadium where he led juventus to three serie a titles before leaving last summer after all, he remains unbeaten in charge of the azzurri and saturday night's 2 2 draw in bulgaria keeps them firmly on course to qualify for euro 2016 but instead of being guaranteed a hero's reception, conte returns 'home' beset by the same kind of problems that england manager roy hodgson and fa chief greg dyke will recognise all too well from the perspective of another struggling superpower italy manager antonio conte led juventus to a trio of serie a titles before leaving last summer  a bitter club vs country row over an injury to juventus midfielder claudio marchisio on international duty has made hodgson's spat with liverpool boss brendan rodgers over raheem sterling 'tiredgate' and daniel sturridge look like a vicar's tea party john elkann, an influential figure at juventus, said marchisio's knee sprain on friday   originally diagnosed by the italian fa medical staff as ligament damage   was due to being over worked and said: 'perhaps conte would like to be remembered as the cherry picker with the highest number of injuries' it was inflammatory talk and the italian football federation claimed conte had received death threats from juve fans over the internet as a result in addition, there has been criticism of conte's decision to include two south american born players eder and franco vazquez in his squad due to italy's declining homegrown talent pool again, it is reminiscent of overtures made by england to manchester united's belgian winger adnan januzaj last year, a move that was condemned by arsenal star jack wilshere and forced dyke into a hasty u turn conte has come under fire following an injury to juventus star claudio marchisio (right) against such a malignant backdrop, the italian football federation will be relieved sensible ticket pricing means more families and less embittered juve supporters will turn up on tuesday to watch two nations who failed together to qualify from the same group at last summer's world cup even more than in england, there is plenty of navel gazing, politics and recriminations going on and conte, 45, remains half irritated, half cryptic about the gathering storm clouds above his head 'i have the memory of an elephant i only ask to be left to work in peace,' he said enigmatically after eder had scored a stunning equaliser in rainy sofia as a riposte to roberto mancini and others who condemned his inclusion conte is also certain juventus hold a grudge against him because he left in order to replace cesare prandelli at national level the azzurri players are certainly behind conte without attacking stars like paolo rossi, roberto baggio or francesco totti to call upon, the manager has had to rely on teamwork, a 3 5 2 system with wingbacks, and loyalty to his squad conte has also been criticised for including south american born player eder in his italy squad  southampton striker graziano pelle has kept his place despite a run of one goal in 16 matches for his club and should be involved on tuesday night where he could face club mate nathaniel clyne 'he (conte) is a really good manager in italy, it's normal people try to say something bad about the manager but the players have confidence in him, he has given us a lot of new ideas,' said pelle 'there are people who agree or disagree that eder should have been picked as players, we are glad he is with us because he has a lot of quality i played with him for sampdoria and gave him the no17 shirt to wear against bulgaria because i scored in it last time – i said it would bring him luck! 'he is part of italy now and he has to show he is proud of it it has happened before and will happen again' southampton striker graziano pelle has kept his place despite a run of one goal in 16 matches for his club  the reaction of home fans to eder, who moved to italy at the age of 16, and argentine born vazquez will be interesting diego costa, born and raised in brazil, was jeered by some spanish fans when he elected to play for his adopted country, and mancini is among those to condemn the selection of oriundi (immigrant italians) however, conte supporters point out italy's world cup winning teams of 1934, 1938 and 2006 all included players born overseas, the most recent example being mauro camoranese from argentina italy needed eder, named after the 1982 brazilian world cup star, in bulgaria having surrendered an early 1 0 lead to trail 2 1 he was thrown on by conte to salvage a point and did so with an exquisite turn and right foot finish that would have done justice to the original eder on sunday, conte called up newcastle united defender davide santon, currently on loan at inter milan, and ignazio abate to the squad to face england marchisio is ruled out, andrea bertolacci is doubtful with a shoulder injury and goalkeeper gianluigi buffon missed out in sofia with flu 'it'll be a prestigious friendly, so we'll test out some players who i have called up,' said conte
antonio conte's italy england azzurri conte group d world cup
antonio conte's italy side face england in a friendly game on tuesday . the azzurri remain unbeaten under conte's watch . italy and england both failed to qualify from group d at the last world cup 