Giorgio Chiellini insists Juventus “have made a good start to the season”, despite the defeat to Lazio.
The Bianconeri are five points off the top of Serie A following their 2-1 loss on Saturday evening, and were also thrashed 3-0 by Barcelona in the Champions League.
“In the last few years we’ve always been a good diesel engine, and we’re doing the same as last year,” Chiellini shrugged in the Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Sporting CP match.
Giorgio Chiellini insists Juventus “have made a good start to the season”, despite the defeat to Lazio.
The Bianconeri are five points off the top of Serie A following their 2-1 loss on Saturday evening, and were also thrashed 3-0 by Barcelona in the Champions League.
“In the last few years we’ve always been a good diesel engine, and we’re doing the same as last year,” Chiellini shrugged in the Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s Sporting CP match.
“Two years ago we did worse, we’re a team who are aiming to be in the right position in March. We need to find new equilibriums and it’ll take time.
“We’ve made a good start to the season, the false step on Saturday doesn’t affect us, even if it conditions the view of us for the rest.
“If we’ve got two points less than last season though, we’ve done more or less what’s expected. We need to remain calm, because jitters won’t get you anywhere positive.
“We know we need to give more, but we also know we’re a smart group with experience, and I’m sure we’ll respond tomorrow and in the coming weeks, because we’ve always done that.
“There was a lot of regret [about the Lazio result] in the heat of the moment, because if we hadn’t got that wrong then we’d still be unbeaten at home.
“The ingredients are ones I’ve listed before, there are no tactics, formations or other things, we just have to do a little bit more.
“It was a also a particular weekend because the national teams had taken a lot out of us, both physically and emotionally because now the games are getting more and more important, and the tension is growing.
“We lived it as Italians – and we’ll live it even more so in November – and the South Americans even more so because over three or four days they had this in or out thriller, luckily it went well for ours.
“These are small things which aren’t excuses, but that influenced our match. We still had to put something more in though, because fundamentally we knew all this.
“More than concentration,I think we just have to understand the moments within the game and the dangers present because, with the qualities we have, at times it can all seem easy.
“That’s not being presumptive, but we can’t hide from it. With the utmost respect for Lazio – who deserved it, they were brilliant and they have great players – you can’t compare the two squads.
“Every now and then it seems to easy, and if you relax a bit you lose that fear – that healthy fear – and then you risk everything.
“As I’ve said before, it takes calm, hard work and sacrifice and we’ll do what we’ve always done, what we did in the first matches with some blackouts we need to improve.”
Chiellini then did turn his thoughts to tomorrow’s match, the first of a double-header against the Portuguese side.
“Tomorrow is a clash we’ll play home and away to go through, we want the Last 16 because that’s when you can turn things around.
“It’s 99 per cent certain Barcelona will finish first, and that barring some surprises in the last games Olympiakos won’t go through, so this is basically a knockout home and away tie against a good side.
“They’ve strengthened and they have a Coach [Jorge Jesus] who brings with him bad memories for us, so we have a lot of desire to do well regardless of the league.
“We all care about the Champions League, and we know in this home and away tie we’re playing for qualification.
"Sporting have definitely improved as a team over last year, they've signed important players, they have a good coach, they defend well and also they have important technical qualities to hurt you.
"They're certainly the strongest team from the fourth pot, we have a lot of respect for them and we know it will be very difficult to play in a passionate stadium like the Alvalade in Lisbon.
"What we're thinking about though is getting a crucial three points tomorrow."