Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri expects ‘aggressive’ Hellas Verona under Igor Tudor, vowed to work hard to ‘achieve results’, but excluded changing to a defensive trident.
The Bianconeri coach expects another difficult game against the Gialloblu this weekend, as Allegri’s men arrive from their third defeat in Serie A to Sassuolo during the week.
“I expect a difficult game,” Allegri told JTV. “Since they changed coach, they play in a totally different way, closer to last year, with aggression and men all over the pitch. They are in a good moment.”
The Gialloblu coach Igor Tudor spent last season as Andrea Pirlo’s assistant at Continassa and Allegri said the former Juventus defender has continued to build on the foundations laid down by Ivan Jurc.
“He has followed up on what Juric had done,” Allegri added. “They are aggressive and have good technique. They are a good team.”
Allegri then confirmed Federico Bernardeschi should recover in time for the match on Saturday, as he suffered a distorted shoulder in the 1-1 draw with Inter.
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“Bernardeschi should be back, he trained with the team today and let’s see if the pain in his shoulder has completely disappeared.
“[Mattia] De Sciglio is out, [Moise] Kean the same.”
The coach was not happy with the way Juventus conceded two goals at the Allianz Stadium against Sassuolo last time and was asked about his words to the team after the 2-1 defeat.
“Yesterday, I didn’t speak to the team,” he said. “It was correct to let the players be a little bit. We will watch the things we did wrong, the goal conceded in stoppages and some other situations.
“It makes no sense to give explanations now, we have to stay quiet and work to achieve better results. The team is giving a lot.
“I can’t blame them for anything, the lads always want to win. But sometimes you must understand the moment of the game.
“We made a mistake on the first goal too; you can’t think of scoring if the others have the ball.”
Juventus have struggled going forward in recent weeks and haven’t scored more than one goal in any of their last six games across all competitions.
“There are moments when you score goals, others when you don’t,” he said. “We created a lot against Sassuolo, but we didn’t materialise.
“Then the result chances the mood and the judgment.”
Allegri was asked if he might switch to a back-three where Matthijs de Ligt plays with Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini.
“Right now, we have tomorrow’s match, which will be important and difficult,” he said. “Then on Tuesday we have the Champions League, and we want to advance.
“Then we will have time to work, and the team needs it. Now is not the time to try certain things.”
Allegri stressed the Bianconeri can’t afford to ‘lower our attention’ against the Gialloblu on Saturday.
“We have to face them with great respect and in all games, we have to do the same thing on the pitch,” Allegri added. “Both against the big teams in Europe and the smaller ones in Italy.
“We cannot afford to lower our attention.”