Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said the Bianconeri ‘were thinking about the holidays already’ and failed their approach against Fiorentina.
The Old Lady ended the year with a 3-0 defeat to Cesare Prandelli’s Viola and thus lost their first game in Serie A 2020-21.
“It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth,” Pirlo admitted at a press conference. “We hoped to end 2020 with a win, an important performance.
Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said the Bianconeri ‘were thinking about the holidays already’ and failed their approach against Fiorentina.
The Old Lady ended the year with a 3-0 defeat to Cesare Prandelli’s Viola and thus lost their first game in Serie A 2020-21.
“It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth,” Pirlo admitted at a press conference. “We hoped to end 2020 with a win, an important performance.
“But we approached the match badly, without the attitude of wanting to win at all costs. So, it’s difficult. The situation needs to turn you when you are 10 and it didn’t happen.”
But Pirlo is not too concerned and said it’s normal for any team to have an off day.
“The team are very competitive. It happens to have a bad day, but the team are strong and knows where they want to go.
“In the next few days, when we resume, we will start again with desire and determination to achieve our goals.”
The coach pointed out the decisions going against Juventus make the players ‘irritated’.
“It’s a trend for 12 games now, even the players can get angry now and again,” he said. “Since the beginning, they are not going our way and the images are in front of everyone’s eyes.
“I don’t see a fragile Juventus, I see them as strong, with a precise and well-defined mentality. As I said before, it was a bad evening. It started badly with the wrong attitude.
“We can’t afford it, we have to be focused and determined from the start. The break will make us improve for January.
“Today, the attitude was wrong. We were thinking about the holidays already and it can’t happen. We had to close 2020 with a win and it didn’t happen.”
Pirlo stressed he has been trying to get his ideas across to the players since September and believes the Bianconeri will improve after New Year’s.
“I’m trying to put my ideas together, the players are understanding them, and we continue on this game plan started in September,” he said.
“We will try to improve it when we resume.”
Matthijs de Ligt limped off with a muscular problem towards the end and Pirlo hopes ‘he stopped in time’.
“We will evaluate him over the next few days,” Pirlo said about the Dutch defender. “We hope he stopped in time.
“It was fatigue, it will be assessed.”