Max Allegri believes Juventus did better with three midfielders on their pitch during their 1-0 win over Sporting Lisbon. The Bianconeri left it late, eventually taking the lead through defender Federico Gatti who scored the only goal of the game, earning them a vital edge ahead of the return leg in Portugal next week. Speaking to Sky Sport Italia (as quoted by TuttoJuve), Allegri offered his analysis of the match, explaining why adding an extra body in the centre of the pitch helped his team over the line:
How has the group cemented itself in this period?
“Credit to the boys, to everyone who works around the boys, inside Continassa there is a group of people, the warehousemen, the people who work, with whom we go to play matches, they are all available and they put us in the conditions to do well. The guys are growing, we still need to improve, we made some mistakes tonight. There are moments in the match where we need to understand better, like in the last cross, where Perin made two decisive and important saves. We needed to understand and perceive the danger quicker.”
Juve changed formation many times and brought home an important result.
“In the second half we did better when we set up with the three midfielders, which certainly gave more geometry, more width. In the first half we did a lot wrong, they ran a lot, they pressed a lot, then they dropped. In the second half we had favorable situations, then we had to adapt, Angel had run a lot, Locatelli asked for a change and with four midfielders it is normal that we were a little bit in trouble. Theirs is a technical team and they created favorable situations. Congratulations to the boys, they played a good game, it was not easy to come back to victory and not concede goals.”
What had happened with Paredes? Had he lost his shirt?
“We were making the change with Miretti, then Locatelli asked me for the change, I had to change two and at that moment Paredes had already taken off his jersey because he thought he was not going to get in anymore. The game stopped but it was also good.”
Can you continue with the three strikers or did the team do better with the three midfielders?
“I always say that football is not a mathematical equation, tonight I decided to put myself with the three up front, we certainly often stayed beyond the line of the ball and this created difficulties especially against a strong team like Sporting, which dribbles you close to the area. On the other side we had to do better in the first half, in the situations we had, in the last pass, we missed so many, and in the development of the game. Tonight it was like that, with Lazio we had done very well at home with the three strikers, so maybe on Sunday I will play them again, maybe I will take out a defender. I will have to choose to give balance to the team. It’s normal that next to one you need a certain type of characteristic, next to another you need another type of characteristic, otherwise we lose balance and we risk losing the certainties that have brought us up to this point in the season anyway.”
Where do you think you added value?
“It’s not an easy season. Kids have to be waited on, you have to let them grow: there are times when they are good and others when it seems like they have never played football. Gatti is a sponge, he learns a lot and still has room for improvement in possession. We have an important goal: to target Atalanta, we’re now four points behind, to consolidate second place in the league. The boys have been very good at believing in it. In football, technique also counts, but the most important thing is moral value: without heart and passion, you go nowhere. We must not settle, on Sunday we will have to try to bring home the three points with Sassuolo to resume the path in Serie A.”
