Miralem Pjanic insists Juventus can’t be sucked into the negativity surrounding the club because the objective for the players is to keep winning.
A loss against Sampdoria and a lacklustre draw against Barcelona has seen Juve drop to 3rd in the league while Champions League qualification will go down to the last match, but Pjanic believes the criticism is justified at the moment.
On the criticism of Juventus
“It’s obvious we have to play better football, but then we are accustomed to criticism,” Pjanic told TuttoJuve.
“We were up against a great Barcelona side, who are certainly among the favourites to win the tournament. There are things we need to improve and we know that too, but then there is criticism because Juventus drew 0-0. There are positives and negatives.
“The positive is that we kept a clean sheet and were pretty solid, so it’s something to build on for the future. We know full well it’ll be important this season to concede as few goals as possible.
On improving going forward
“In terms of our football, we need more movement in general, as we’ve got the quality and certainly haven’t lost that. We can just improve by getting more out of the extraordinary potential and talent in our squad.
“We’ve shown already this season that we can score goals, but it’s an issue of how we move in general.”
On the month ahead
“It’s an important month with many head-to-head clashes and it’s up to us to make up lost ground. It’s not a problem for Juve to be chasing Napoli, as we are not far off our points tally at this stage last season. We just tip our hats to those who are doing very well indeed, like Napoli, Inter and Roma.
“It’s a good level of Serie A this season and everyone wants to beat us, but we remain confidence and have the same desire to take this Scudetto. The important thing right now is to stay up there.
“We can’t get sucked into negativity, because while everyone would love us to lose, our objective is to keep winning.”
Is the Champions League the real target this season?
“I don’t think so. Our real objective is the Scudetto, obviously. The team is built to play in every competition to the end, but then we know that you need a little luck in the Champions League. There are key moments of the season where you need everyone fit and available.”
