He said midfielder Tim Brown would not start the Group F match in Nelspruit, despite his rapid recovery from a serious shoulder injury picked up on the eve of the finals.
"He's part of the squad now which is great. He's done what he's needed to do so I don't think we'd have any hesitation if we needed to use him now, but Paraguay is probably a better target for him, although he's made some great strides."
Asked if Brown was fit enough to play now, Herbert said: "He's close to it, I wouldn't say he's 100 percent but he's a lot better than he was."
"We scored three goals and on any given day for a side to score three against the Italian side, they're doing well," Herbert recalled.
"But it was a friendly, it was the lead into a big tournament, and I think everybody was shuffling the deck a wee bit.
"We got a feel of what they're like (but) tomorrow's completely different. It's a World Cup game, there's a hell of a lot on the line."
"This team's done an incredibly good job at putting football in New Zealand back in a marvellous place," he said.
"The group's in a very tight position as we speak and whatever the outcome (against Italy), we're still in with a chance of going through, going into the third match, and no one would have predicted that."
