Max Allegri offered some hints on his starting XI for Juventus’ Coppa Italia match against Salernitana on Thursday. The Bianconeri boss spoke at length about his tactical decisions for the match, confirming that Federico Chiesa will be on the pitch from the first minute, but youngster Joseph Nonge is still not ready to start:
“Happy New Year to everyone. For tomorrow, it’s a competition we care about, Juve have always cared about it. We play for the Coppa Italia and the championship, tomorrow we start against a team that won in Verona, they’re in good shape. We must try to get to the quarters”.
“Nonge? He won’t start, but he can have space. The formation? Tomorrow morning I’ll decide, Perin will definitely play in goal, then Rugani and Chiesa, for sure. The others we’ll evaluate. Locatelli is disqualified on Sunday, we’ll field the best formation to get the best result. The stadium will be full, matches must be won on the pitch, everyone does it first. We just have to wait until tomorrow night”.
“Transfer market? There are directors who watch the market. We think about working, Pogba and Fagioli have been out for 4-5 months, the team is growing individually and as a team. Let’s keep working.
“Coppa? At the beginning nobody cares about it, at the end it’s always a trophy. Especially at Juventus, it’s a catastrophe if you draw. We have to draw as little as possible and win as much as possible. We need to do the best we can. So we can move on and face Frosinone.
“Yildiz plus two in a trident? It’s a question that’s already been asked. Everything can be done, it always depends on the moment, the conditions, the availability. The team has found its square, if we are good we will also play with Frosinone. It allows us to put games in the legs. Especially where the players who have played a little less, but nevertheless have been very important, can also play. We know that with fewer games there are more sacrificed players. We have the goal of playing Champions League football next year and we have to move on from this year”.
“Yildiz will not play tomorrow. About the moment: when a young player plays and is celebrated, even though he has had good games, he must remain calm and continue to work. It’s not two games that say whether you’re a champion or whether you’ll have a great career. One needs to work day after day, at the end of one’s career having shown what level one has been and done. The rest is now instrumentalised chatter about a good player, but with two games at Juventus.”
“Raising the trophy is always important, we play to win trophies, especially at Juventus. I’m used to taking one small step at a time. After two days we have the Salerno game, they won in Verona, they have good players and are well coached. Let’s take one step at a time, if we go too far it’s not good”.
“I don’t think about the championship, tomorrow there’s the cup. Whichever game we play, we always have to play at our best, with the best approach. We know very well that a result, a draw from Juve, is different from other teams in Italy. The pressures are different, everything is different. There are burdens and honours. At Juve it’s like that. That’s the great thing about being at Juve. In fact, we’re lucky. To live like everything is fine is not good”.
“I’ll talk about the championship on Saturday, now we have Salernitana. Winning is not easy, it’s always complicated. The more you go on, the more the margin for error gets smaller”.
“Mckennie? It’s not that he’s changed. He has grown, experience at Leeds has matured him. He didn’t have a good experience because they relegated. He’s come back, stayed with a desire to stay. But we are halfway through the championship and he has five months ahead of him where he absolutely has to do better.”
“I am very happy with Miretti, he has been playing for a year and a half. In Florence he scored an important goal for three important points. He can only grow and will remain at Juventus”.
“Favourites? The championship is a 38-game course, completely different from the Coppa Italia. We have to see the elimination of Inter and Napoli, we need to have our heads straight. Anything can happen in a match. In 38 matches values emerge, anything can happen in one match.”
