Massimiliano Allegri underlined the ‘great pressure and a great sense of responsibility’ at Juventus as they look to bounce back from the loss to Sassuolo in their next game against Lecce.
The Bianconeri were always on the backfoot at the Mapei Stadium on Saturday evening and painful mistakes from Federico Gatti and Wojciech Szczesny capped off a truly miserable evening for Allegri’s side, who ultimately lost 4-2.
Prior to that defeat, Juventus had looked strong in the early weeks of the new season and their lack of European competition gives them a slight edge in the fight for a top four finish, a key objective this term.
Speaking in a press conference via TMW, Allegri was first asked how Gatti and Szczesny are doing after their mistakes against Sassuolo.
“Gatti must remain calm and quiet, he has just started his career. Other mistakes will happen, maybe not like the one on Saturday but they will happen.
“Szczesny is the starting goalkeeper and he’ll play tomorrow, knowing however that Perin is an important goalkeeper.
“We have a little problem with Kean, he has a tibia problem that has flared up. We’ll assess him today, the others are all fine.”
He discussed the leaders in the Juventus dressing room.
“We have Danilo, there’s Szczesny and then Alex Sandro, even if he is injured now. Rugani himself has grown a lot. We’ve lost in experience compared to last year, but gained in speed and light-heartedness.
“We must continue to work with balance, knowing that difficult situations like Saturday can happen. But Saturday’s were individual situations rather than team situations.
“We can only grow, but it’s normal that if we don’t have internal balance, we start to go on a rollercoaster ride and this mustn’t happen.
“We must have the desire and the will to get maximum results. There is great pressure and a great sense of responsibility. The guys must remain calm, choices have been made for the present and the future of the club.
The Juventus coach reflected on the team’s start to the new season and the qualities of their next opponents Lecce.
“Tomorrow, we challenge a solid team, D’Aversa is a very good coach and he is doing well with Lecce. They play very well, they have technical players and they are solid.
“Then they have Corvino who is very good, one of the most experienced directors who always manages to build good teams like last season.
“Inter, Napoli and Milan are the three teams above the others. Inter are proving that they deserve first place in the table, and we must be good to fight for the top four places, it would be an important result without setting ourselves limits.
“When you reopen a cycle playing in the Champions League is very important, getting into the top four is decisive from all points of view.”
Allegri was asked if Daniele Rugani, Arkadiusz Milik and Kenan Yildiz would feature against Lecce.
“Yildiz comes back from a beautiful goal he scored with the Next Gen. I’m happy with their win, they came from three defeats, and it wasn’t easy. He is a very good guy to play, I like him a lot.
“Rugani is fine, Milik the same. With Kean we’ll see if he’ll be in or out, I’ll have to evaluate Chiesa and Vlahovic, they’ve played two important games.
“One of the two can start from the bench. After that there is another match in Bergamo.”
He commented on the qualities of Federico Chiesa.
“He is doing very well, he is much more present in the game, I am happy. He can only improve, he is aware of the new role he has.
“I will have to evaluate, he spent a lot on Saturday as did Vlahovic. Tomorrow is intense, as always the changes will make the difference.”
He was asked how Juventus could improve from here.
“It’s not that we improve if I say we raise the bar…. We improve on the pitch every day. We have to know our limitations and they have to be turned into strengths. The reality is that there are three teams, on paper favourites for the Scudetto.
“Then the pitch can overturn the hierarchies and this does not mean that we stop at fourth place, the goal is to get into the top four, then we’ll see. But Roma are also fighting for the top four positions, Atalanta are equal to us.
“There’s Lazio, Fiorentina, it’s not easy… When you start a new cycle, the dangers of being out of the Champions League are many. We have to stay good and focused, as we go along, we’ll see if we can stay ahead.
“With Sassuolo we could stay ahead for a night, and we didn’t manage it. Dreaming is nice but tighten up. To desire yes, but desire takes you somewhere. Dreaming is good to tell.”
The coach touched on Dusan Vlahovic’s start to the season.
“Dusan has to make a path that leads him to find the right balance. The important thing is to stay focused on the game, he is an important and extraordinary player and in a few years’ time he will be a completely different player.”
Allegri was asked if he fears other mistakes from his players.
“We must not think negatively and believe in what we do. The other night we paid with individual mistakes and Szczesny had a bad night.”
He commented on any possible warning signs ahead of the Sassuolo loss.
“It had been a week a bit like that, with the post-victory euphoria. We tried to remedy it, but football is not an exact science. We thought and reflected together on the negative evening.
“The team is motivated, especially sorry, and angry about what happened against Sassuolo. We will play a more careful game.”
He spoke about some of the team’s weaknesses.
“We had a meeting yesterday to discuss what happened against Sassuolo. We didn’t play a bad game on a technical level, but we defended badly and made technical mistakes.”
Finally, Allegri spoke about the need to find a vein of good form soon.
“We hope to get it as soon as possible, we are working for it. Tomorrow’s match will be a tough one, with a team that has conceded few goals, good at playing. We must have the determination to overturn the negative incident.”