Maurizio Sarri has ‘discovered patience’ while working for Juventus, but warns there are still too many unknown elements in the Champions League with Lyon.
The Bianconeri inevitably took their foot off the gas after securing their ninth consecutive Scudetto and rested numerous players in the 3-1 home defeat to Roma.
This attitude simply won’t be sufficient in the Champions League, as they must overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit against Olympique Lyonnais.
Maurizio Sarri has ‘discovered patience’ while working for Juventus, but warns there are still too many unknown elements in the Champions League with Lyon.
The Bianconeri inevitably took their foot off the gas after securing their ninth consecutive Scudetto and rested numerous players in the 3-1 home defeat to Roma.
This attitude simply won’t be sufficient in the Champions League, as they must overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit against Olympique Lyonnais.
“We must recharge our mental and physical batteries. We did rather let go in the last few games, as perhaps after beating Lazio we felt as if the job was done, but it’s much harder to get that focus back,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.
“A little fear might do us good. We have to get back to feeling like it’s a real game with genuine consequences, but I have no doubts we will have a completely different attitude to the one we’ve seen in the last few games.”
While Juve have come to the end of a constant stream of fixtures between Serie A and the Coppa Italia, Lyon’s only competitive match since March was last night’s Coupe de la Ligue against Paris Saint-Germain.
That ended 0-0 after 120 minutes and PSG eventually won in a sudden death penalty shoot-out.
“I watched Lyon for much of their game with PSG and was surprised at how good their fitness levels were. The problem with these entirely anomalous situations is that we don’t know how they will affect teams. I don’t know if we’ll be in better shape or they will.
“The important thing is to judge our own season and not what those on the outside might think. I don’t believe that those who preceded me had bad seasons because they didn’t win the Champions League. Considering all the problems we had this term, we could very easily have lost the Scudetto, so we can be pretty happy to have won.”
Paulo Dybala is progressing well after a muscular issue, but the coach warned “we need energy more than quality, so that’s going to be taken into consideration too.”
Sarri was asked what he had learned or improved most in himself this season, after winning his first Serie A title?
“I discovered patience. I was entirely lacking in it before, but now I seem to have found a little bit.”