Adrien Rabiot admits Juventus were ‘sluggish’ and have lost their defensive solidity after the 2-2 draw with Verona, letting go of the Scudetto dream. ‘We must be realistic and fight for second place.’
It was a frantic encounter at the Stadio Bentegodi, as Verona twice went in front with a stunning Michael Folorunsho volley and Tijjani Noslin strike, twice pegged back by the Dusan Vlahovic penalty and Rabiot angled drive.
Hellas remain in the bottom three, but Juve have now picked up just two points in the last four rounds against Empoli, Inter, Udinese and Verona.
“We certainly should’ve done more, we dropped points along the way recently. We got back into it, but started playing a bit too late in the second half,” Rabiot told DAZN.
“Details make the difference, for example the second goal, as there were too many of us there to allow a goal like that. We must rediscover the unity and solidity that we had before, when we hardly ever conceded goals.
“Verona are a talented side, we must get back on track, because it is important to rediscover victory and confidence.”
Max Allegri had said in his press conference that there was no need to scrap the 3-5-2 formation, but Juve seemed to play better tonight after moving to 4-3-3 for 30 minutes.
“The coach will decide, we are on the pitch and must find the strength to be more attacking. It’s not about the system, we have done very well with the 3-5-2 as well, so that is not the issue. We have faith in the coach, it’s about being solid and not conceding, that is what we’ve lost.”
If Milan win against Monza tomorrow evening, they will leapfrog Juve into second place.
Meanwhile, the Bianconeri are nine points adrift of leaders Inter, who have a game in hand to be played against Atalanta on February 28.
“We must be realistic right now, Inter are on their path and we must fight to keep hold of second place. We got here with 53 points being what we were, we just need to rediscover that again and fight it out for second.
“We were too sluggish tonight.”
Elite mentality from Juventus after the restart 🥶
Adrien Rabiot finds an instant equaliser… what a game!
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