Prior to Sunday’s significant clash against Fiorentina, Max Allegri held his pre-match press conference.
The Bianconeri endured a three-match winless streak, but managed to turn the tide with a Coppa Italia win over Lazio followed by a comfortable 3-0 victory in Salerno last Tuesday.
However, the Juventus manager feels that this weekend’s encounter will be trickier. Thus, he hints at a return to a more cautious and pragmatic approach, based on maintaining solid defenses and exploiting the spaces on counter attacks.
“After two big wins against Lazio in the Coppa Italia and Salernitana in the league, we can expect a different sort of game against Fiorentina tomorrow,” said the 55-year-old as published by the club’s official website.
“They’re always a tricky side to play against: they play good football and run and press hard. We’ll need to keep things tidy and bide our time.”
Allegri also provided some updates on the injury front. The coach expects to have his captain Leonardo Bonucci at this disposal for Thursday’s Europa League match against Nantes.
However, the situation remains more complicated for Paul Pogba who’s yet to fully recover. The manager avoided offering a timetable in this regard.
“[Leo] Bonucci will be available for the game against Nantes on Thursday. [Arek] Milik is improving. Kaio Jorge is still unavailable.
“[Paul] Pogba is not ready for the matchday squad. He’s working hard to be available but I can’t put a timescale on it. We’re all waiting for him to return – no one more than me.
“Danilo is fine. He can manage himself playing in this position. He’s an increasingly important player for us.
“[Adrien] Rabiot is 27 and has reached the level of maturity you often see in players of that age. He’s certainly not a gamble. He’ll play tomorrow.”
Finally, the Juventus manager insisted that he didn’t like his team’s performance in the last 30 mins against Salernitana, calling for improvements ahead of Sunday’s clash.
“Right now we must focus on the small targets and catch the sides ahead of us. The lads are working well but we can do better still during the match.
“I didn’t like the last 30 minutes against Salernitana. We’ll need to perform better if we want to beat Fiorentina tomorrow. We can improve the directness of our play.”
