Andrea Pirlo confirms this is the Juventus he wanted to see after crushing Parma 4-0. ‘We are now aware we need this attitude whether we’re against Parma or Barcelona.’
This was probably the best Bianconeri performance of the Serie A season so far, with a Cristiano Ronaldo brace, Dejan Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata on target.
When Parma did create chances, Gigi Buffon was alert and reacting with the saves, despite the fact he turns 43 next month.
Andrea Pirlo confirms this is the Juventus he wanted to see after crushing Parma 4-0. ‘We are now aware we need this attitude whether we’re against Parma or Barcelona.’
This was probably the best Bianconeri performance of the Serie A season so far, with a Cristiano Ronaldo brace, Dejan Kulusevski and Alvaro Morata on target.
When Parma did create chances, Gigi Buffon was alert and reacting with the saves, despite the fact he turns 43 next month.
It came just days after the 1-1 draw with Atalanta in Turin, which saw Ronaldo’s spot-kick parried by Pierluigi Gollini.
“Ronaldo was quite rightly angry with himself after missing a penalty, but fortunately he didn’t have much time to stew over it and immediately got the chance to show just how much he loves to score goals,” the coach told DAZN.
“We weren’t happy with Wednesday’s result, but the performance was good. This evening we wanted to recover the points we dropped against Atalanta and I think we achieved it.”
Pirlo was asked if this was the Juventus he wanted to see with the style of football he had in his mind from the very start.
“This evening was the Juventus I wanted to see. We needed to win this game, our strikers Cristiano and Alvaro both needed to get back to scoring ways. We needed to work as a collective and Aaron Ramsey also had a really good game.
“We’re slowly getting to what we all want, not just me, but also the players. I like in particular the high press when the opponents have the ball, we can win it back quickly and that allows us to control the game. That spirit is getting into the lads and we’re improving game by game.
“We are now aware that we’re on the right path, that we’ll have this attitude in every game whether we are against Parma or Barcelona. We must press high, be aggressive and win back the ball so we can control the match.”
Weston McKennie has been a revelation this season and a real box-to-box midfielder with an extraordinary work-rate.
“McKennie is great at winning back the ball, but is also very strong when pushing forward. He is young and needs to work on his technique, but that will come.
“As we didn’t have time for pre-season training or even friendlies, we were testing things out from the first game. As time wore on, we realised the positions of certain players had to change and we made some adjustments.
“It’s a two-man midfield that can become three in transition.”
Juve also found the net with Morata, who had been insulted on social media for his failed back-heel flick against Atalanta.
“Morata was our first choice, it was just that Atletico Madrid wouldn’t let him go, so we looked at other objectives. We knew Morata was the ideal forward to play in our collective. When he’s in great shape, both physically and mentally, he can do anything,” continued Pirlo.
“Alvaro was very disappointed after Wednesday’s game and the criticism he received, but I told him that he was working hard for the team and misses can happen. As long as he moves like that and gets himself into those positions, the goals will come by themselves.”