Juventus Coach Massimiliano Allegri won’t be drawn on Paris Saint-Germain’s Blaise Matuidi – “I don’t talk about players from other teams”.
The French midfielder is a target for the Bianconeri, with general manager Beppe Marotta saying yesterday that he’s “optimistic” a deal can be done.
“I don’t talk about players from other teams,” Allegri shrugged in his Press conference ahead of the Lazio game.
Juventus Coach Massimiliano Allegri won’t be drawn on Paris Saint-Germain’s Blaise Matuidi – “I don’t talk about players from other teams”.
The French midfielder is a target for the Bianconeri, with general manager Beppe Marotta saying yesterday that he’s “optimistic” a deal can be done.
“I don’t talk about players from other teams,” Allegri shrugged in his Press conference ahead of the Lazio game.
“If the director said that it’s his responsibility… At the moment we’re thinking of Lazio. From now until after tomorrow, there’s a break, then there will be four days where there is a flood of transfer stories…”
Allegri was then asked about his team for tomorrow, and confirmed Mario Mandzukic will again start ahead of Gonzalo Higuain.
“The question I have is between [Mario] Lemina and [Miralem] Pjanic. Pjanic is back, he’s in reasonably good condition, it’s normal that he has to adapt to new ways of working which are definitely different to the ones he had at his previous club [Roma].
“Higuain is doing really well, he’s very close to his top condition but in the past two days he’s had to slow down a bit because he’s had a little bit of a strain, so Mandzukic will start tomorrow.
“So the question is Lemina or Pjanic in front of the defence.
“Would Lemina offer more defensive solidity? It depends on the games and the situation. There will be games where we could even play with Panic and three up-front in Mandzukic, [Paulo] Dybala and Higuain, or Pjaca.
“It depends on the situation and the games. Last Saturday I made my choice, tomorrow I’ll make another choice.
“By the way though, Pjanic is a player who is defensively very good. He’s absolutely not a player who suffers physically in the defensive phase.
“Could Bonucci’s absence mean we switch to a back-four? No. Tomorrow we’ll play with three at the back, which is never just three in defence. [Medhi] Benatia could play from the start. Benatia or [Daniele] Rugani.”
Roma, Inter and Napoli have been named as the Bianconeri’s challengers this season, but none of the three have had perfect starts to the season…
“I don’t think about that,” Allegri insisted, despite Inter’s opening day loss, Napoli drawing with Pescara and Roma being eliminated from the Champions League.
“We’ve had the first match. If you think back to last year – to the 10th match even – Juve were given up for dead. I remember that someone wrote ‘Mandzukic doesn’t score goals, Juve are out of the Scudetto race’.
“Now it’s that Napoli are out of it after the first League game, Inter are out of it with their change on the bench, Roma because of unfortunate incidents…
“On Wednesday Roma had two red cards, they were eliminated because nine against 11 is not easy. That doesn’t mean that Roma don’t have the quality to fight for the Scudetto as a team. “When you evaluate the match on Wednesday of course it was strange. But that doesn’t mean Roma can’t fight for the Scudetto.”
Juventus squad to face Lazio: Buffon, Chiellini, Benatia, Pjanic, Khedira, Higuain, Hernanes, Alex Sandro, Barzagli, Mandzukic, Lemina, Pjaca, Dybala, Asamoah, Dani Alves, Rugani, Neto, Lichtsteiner, Audero, Neto