Max Allegri insists he is ‘not worried’ by the Angel Di Maria injury, but admits the cooling break gave Juventus the chance to regroup and then crush Sassuolo.
The Bianconeri started the season on the right foot with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Sassuolo, as Di Maria scored on his debut, followed by a Dusan Vlahovic brace.
There were concerns too, as Di Maria limped off with an adductor issue, then Denis Zakaria was limping in stoppages.
Initial reports suggest it is the left adductor causing the problems and the Argentina international will be evaluated on Tuesday.
“I am not worried,” Allegri told DAZN after the final whistle.
“We’ll see what the tests say tomorrow. Unfortunately, these things happen in football. He had this adductor issue a week ago too, perhaps I should’ve taken him off when we were 3-0 up, but he was enjoying himself out there. Zakaria just had a cramp, nothing more.
“The important thing is that we won a game that we really wanted to win, which was by no means simple.”
Juventus were struggling and allowed several Sassuolo chances in a row before the cooling break allowed them to regroup.
“We started strong, then lost the ball two or three times playing out from the back and you could see we were fragile at that moment,” continued the coach.
“We couldn’t get hold of the game. I put Di Maria wide and Juan Cuadrado on the other flank, that’s all. After the break we threw the ball away too many times, we needed to finish the moves better.
“I am honestly amazed by how well Bremer has settled in. He is very calm, I only had to tell him off once in the second half when he tracked Domenico Berardi to midfield, in those situations, you need to let it go.”
Vlahovic failed to score throughout the summer in pre-season friendlies, so seeing him bag a brace will have boosted his confidence.
“He is happy when he scores goals, but as always he needs to improve his choices. I am happy for him, he needed those goals.”
There are reports Leandro Paredes is on the verge of a move to Juventus, fuelled tonight by news the PSG midfielder was watching this game on social media and cheering on Di Maria.
“They are friends, both from Argentina, so that’s natural. I don’t know if they can play together, I have to work with the players at my disposal. The club has done well, we lost important players and brought in good replacements.”