Max Allegri has a tactical warning for Juventus and injury updates, while preparing Angel Di Maria and Adrien Rabiot after the World Cup. ‘The minimum objective is top four.’

The Bianconeri had another friendly test as they work towards fitness following the break for the World Cup, having beaten Arsenal 2-0 in London, they today earned a 1-0 victory over Croatian side Rijeka thanks to Moise Kean’s solo goal.

It saw the return to the field of Arkadiusz Milik, Filip Kostic, Wojciech Szczesny and Weston McKennie, who were all in Qatar with their national teams.

“Those coming off the World Cup are in good condition, they just need a little time to get back into this match scenario,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.

“The Brazilians will return from December 27, while for the Argentineans and Adrien Rabiot it will need a few more days. I saw many young players impress today.”

Juve are back in action with their Serie A match against Cremonese on January 4 and Kean missed two absolute sitters before scoring the decisive goal.

“We need to stop passing it back to the goalkeeper all the time. It’s a good tactic in some situations, but not constantly, we need to learn when to vary our approach.”

The next friendly test will be against Standard Liege in Turin on December 30.

“I think Federico Chiesa will be back for that game, we’ll see about Mattia De Sciglio, but it’s a no for Leonardo Bonucci and Dusan Vlahovic.”

Argentina won the World Cup in Qatar with Di Maria showing just what he is capable of, scoring a goal in the Final and winning a penalty against France.

The Seleccion also visibly lost momentum after El Fideo was substituted, so Allegri must be looking forward to finally having the veteran available in good shape.

However, getting him and Rabiot to fit into the 3-5-2 formation that Juventus seem to be sticking with now might be tricky.

“Di Maria had an extraordinary performance in the Final and he is an extraordinary player, so must be an added bonus for us in the second half of the season.

“Angel and Leo Paredes know they must be important for us after a few fitness issues in the first half of the season. I spoke to Di Maria, he’s fired up, just like Paredes.”

Juventus went into the break in third place in Serie A, but dropped out of the Champions League into the Europa League.

“There are five important months ahead of us. The minimum objective is to finish in the top four, but also get as close as possible to Napoli, who are on quite a roll.

“Then there’s the Europa League and the Coppa Italia. It would be great to reach the end of the season with another 36 competitive matches played.”

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