Maurizio Sarri believes Juventus will ‘pay what they have to and then they will get back and become strong again.’ The Lazio boss was speaking after his sides 1-0 defeat to Juve in the Coppa Italia and explained why he wasn;t disappointed by the performance as well as his expectations for new signing Luca Pellegrini:
“I am disappointed by the result, but not the performance. We were just lacking something in the final third, but we largely allowed Juve very little and were in control.
“We just failed to make our mark when it came to filling the box, taking the initiative and breaking through, as there were very few spaces with Juventus sitting deep to wait for us. We needed that initiative to find a way through.
“It’s disappointing to go out, but we are not disappointed by the performance. Unfortunately, Ciro’s injury put us in a situation where these lads have played a lot throughout January, so perhaps they lost a bit of sharpness when playing so often.
“We play every three or four days and have basically not trained in a month. Ciro’s return will therefore help us to rotate a bit more.
“Milinkovic-Savic? He played all of the last six games and it was only right to give him some rest today. There are other situations and tournaments that we cannot under-estimate.
“This lad has already played 3,000 minutes on the field this season, he needs to rest whenever he can.
“I think the reactions to the World Cup event have been very individual, so they differ with each player. Matias Vecino looked not great mentally coming out of the tournament, Sergej a bit better, but these are very subjective situations. It’s difficult to tell.”
“The Juventus investigation and 2019/20? I was not sitting in the board of directors, we did nothing if not a favour to the club when they asked (by agreeing to forego three months wages).
“This is the history of great clubs, sometimes there are these moments. It has happened to other elite clubs. Juventus are a strong club, they’ll pay what they have to and then they will get back and become strong again.
“Pellegrini? I didn’t coach him for too long. I remember he sustained an injury in July and then I had a problem in August, so we hadn’t met many times on the pitch.
“He is a natural left-footed defender, but I delivered him the bad news. A defender arriving on January 31 has never become a regular starter with me. I did it with midfielders and strikers, but never with defenders. It’s not the players’ fault, but mine. I play with a different defensive style, keeping a high line, so it’s not easy.”
