Allegri: Dybala to start, Buffon out again

Juventus take on Genoa today in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals, and manager Massimiliano Allegri spoke to the media yesterday, starting with the injury situation at the club.

“We’re evaluating Juan Cuadrado day-to-day. Gianluigi Buffon definitely won’t train this week and it’s difficult - almost impossible - for him to be available for Roma.

“Giorgio Chiellini is available, he’s trained well so he could play tomorrow. I need to decide whether to play him or Andrea Barzagli.

“Stephan Lichtsteiner is back, he’s available, and I think he’ll play tomorrow. Could Carlo Pinsoglio play tomorrow? No, Wojciech Szczesny will play.”

“These are two difficult recoveries, both for Mattia De Sciglio and Mario Mandzukic. Mandzukic has had 13 stitches and De Sciglio has a problem with his flexor, and we’ll evaluate him in the coming days.

“It’s difficult for him to be available against Roma though.”

Then he went on to everyone’s favourite topic in recent days, Paulo Dybala.

“The goal shouldn’t be a problem, I repeat: Dybala is a player capable of 15-20 goals in the league, when he gets 20 then he’ll have done a lot.

“And his characteristics go beyond that, Dybala is a player who must provide assists and score goals because he’s not just a poacher, that’s what Paulo should not do.

“Like the others Paulo is an intelligent player who knows that tomorrow is an important game for him and for Juventus.

“We’ve had a different system of play [4-3-3] in the last few games and I pulled him out, it’s very simple. If Paulo plays, we need to exploit the characteristics he has.

“In this system, the role he can play is as a centre-forward.

"That's another thing I have to decide, whether to play Higuain in tandem with Dybala or play Dybala as a centre-forward.”

On how seriously he will be taking today’s game -

“Tomorrow is a game, an important objective, because it’s a competition which is worth as much as the league and the Champions League.

“It’s a competition Juventus compete in, which the lads have won for the past three years so we need to try and go as far as possible, create the conditions to reach the final.

“If we go through it will give us an important boost to face Roma on Saturday, these are four very important days between tomorrow and Saturday with Roma.”