Max Allegri is keeping his tactical options open for Juventus after a 2-0 victory over Torino, insists the ‘target remains the same’ for this season and has a message for Paul Pogba.
The Bianconeri had to reinvent the attack without Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa, so were understandably rather toothless in the first half and Moise Kean had a goal ruled offside.
Things changed with the introduction of not fully fit Arek Milik, as first Federico Gatti bundled over the line from a chaotic corner kick, then the Poland international rose to nod in another set play.
Allegri is known as the master of derbies, having won 13 of them in his career.
“I have trained some very strong teams that allowed me to do that,” smiled Allegri when told of this statistic.
“Toro were very aggressive in the first 25 minutes, then we got a bit more organised. Miretti did good work, as I needed a player between the lines, then after the break having Milik and Yildiz we knew that we could change the game.
“It was a mature performance, so we are improving in that sense, and I am happy.”
Allegri less angry than the 0-0 draw away to Atalanta, but once again found himself reshuffling his tactics as time wore on.
“We made some wrong choices, above all when in control of the game and 2-0 up. We should’ve gone for the shot to finish off the moves and not allow Torino to stay in the game when they were struggling.
“The same thing happened in Bergamo, they opened up the midfielders quite wide and we struggled to close them down. When we moved to a more organised 4-4-2, we allowed them very little after that and above all were more aggressive.”
It is not the first time that Allegri has started with a 3-5-2 and moved to 4-4-2, so could this be a sign of things to come?
“It is very important to have different solutions based on the characteristics of the players, which you can use from the start or as the match goes on. We managed to bring home a good result in Bergamo, despite it not being the best performance, especially in the second half.”
Juventus are now just two points behind leaders Inter, awaiting the result of Milan’s trip to Genoa this evening, so Allegri was asked if they are still not considering a Scudetto push.
“The objective remains the same. That doesn’t preclude us from looking at other things, because naturally we are Juventus. We must keep our feet on the ground and bring back what for many years was normality at Juventus, in other words winning games.
“We still need to keep reminding the players what they need to do, especially as after the break for international duty we will have a game against Milan.”
What improvements does Allegri want to see from his team this season?
“There are many things we need to improve. First of all, today the team defended well both as individuals and as a team, covering the spaces. What we do need to improve is what we do with the ball at our feet.
“There are some young players with very little experience, for instance Kenan Yildiz has such talent and nobody has ball control like him. He’s smart and ice cool too. Moise Kean did well today and I am glad he received the call-up for the Italy squad, he deserves it.
“I also hope that the stadium atmosphere will always be like this for the rest of the season, because this is what we need.”
The news came through that Paul Pogba’s B sample tested positive for a substance that raises testosterone levels, though the midfielder insists he did not knowingly take any banned substances.
“On a human level, I am very close to him. I knew him since he was a young boy. It is a great pity for all of football to lose a player who was special. It is a difficult moment for him and we can only wish him the best.”
Chiesa was out injured today, but is in Luciano Spalletti’s squad for the EURO 2024 qualifiers against Malta and England.
“Chiesa was starting to feel a little better today, but not enough to feature. Fagioli and Miretti I expect to get called up for Italy soon enough too.”