Max Allegri resists questions on why Juventus play such negative football after the hard-fought win over Fiorentina. ‘Nobody keeps the ball for 90 minutes, not even in their dreams.’
The Bianconeri had just one Serie A victory in their last nine rounds, but were coming off a midweek 2-0 Coppa Italia semi-final win over Lazio.
He stuck with the same line-up, changing only the goalkeeper, and that proved pivotal because Wojciech Szczesny made a stunning fingertip save late on to push the Nico Gonzalez curler onto the crossbar.
Juve had started strong, with three goals ruled offside as well as Federico Gatti tapping in after the Gleison Bremer header came off the far post.
“We work every day to improve. There are also moments psychologically, as we had not won in Serie A for a while. We ran no risks in the first half, had three goals disallowed for offside by a matter of centimetres, then also created chances in the second.
“It’s true that we risked conceding the equaliser late on after a technical error, but I would not reproach the lads for anything,” Allegri told DAZN.
“They are having a good season, we are doing everything we can to get as many points as possible. We kept a second consecutive clean sheet and victory, so that is important progress.”
Juve seem either incapable or unwilling to play at their best for an entire match, as midweek in the Coppa Italia they started badly and then woke up, tonight they started well and then got pinned back.
“In football there are two teams, with two different jerseys, we are the Bianconeri, they are the Viola. We want to keep the ball for 90 minutes, have 30 shots on goal, but I don’t think anyone can do that even in their dreams.
“We know what our limitations are. At this stage of the season, the most important thing is the result. I don’t see many teams who avoid allowing a single shot on target, we do our best, but the lads are doing well.”
The statistics showed that Juventus completed just 227 passes in this match, compared to 675 for Fiorentina, and had only 25 per cent possession as the home team.
“We try to play in the opposition half for 90 minutes, but there are opponents too. The idea is to play with a high press, push the other team into their own half and pass it more cleanly.
“We should’ve been 2-0 up at half-time, we didn’t get the second goal, inevitably Fiorentina would come out fighting. We had a few opportunities on the counter-attack and should’ve done better.”
Much has been said about Allegri’s future, with reports Bologna coach Thiago Motta has been lined up to replace him, but he continues to insist the Scudetto dreams were just that and never a target.
“We had 62 points, those are evidently what we deserve. We made mistakes in a crucial period of the season, but Juventus are in a process with many young players. It’s one thing to deal with 30-year-old players, another with 18-year-olds. That’s fairly obvious, I don’t see why I should even need to point it out.
“These are extraordinary lads, we have the objective of Champions League qualification and are on track. Perhaps seeing how the season went, we had too many points early in the season and too few in the second stage.”
Federico Chiesa seemed to discuss something with Allegri when he was substituted on the hour mark.
“Federico was not at full strength today, he had a thigh issue, but he worked really well.”