Sarri: Juventus need to be better in final stages

Juventus held on late to win 2-1 against Parma, with the visitors making it nervy with a brave push in the final minutes of the game. Manager Maurizio Sarri was unhappy with how conservatively his ended the victory that saw them go four points clear of Inter Milan at the top of the table.

“I prefer to concede on the counter than spend 10-15 minutes in our own half.

“We can improve in the way we read the game, especially in the final stages, as I do not like us passing it around in our own half. As I tell my players, I’d prefer to concede on the counter rather than sit there under pressure for 10-15 minutes. If we have the chance to close the game, we have to take it.

“There were some hiccups along the way, but in general we were doing well this season. We had the chances to close the game today and didn’t take them, so naturally Parma started to cause us problems towards the end because it was still open.”

Aaron Ramsey got the start with Gonzalo Higuain and Douglas Costa also getting some minutes.

“I saw players who were tired after the Coppa on Wednesday and had to change things. I wanted to send a signal to my team and balance things out again with Douglas Costa, because it was still open.

“Adrien Rabiot and Ramsey arrived from very different leagues, had a lot of fitness problems in these first few months and haven’t been training as much as they wanted to, but both lads are improving as the season goes on.”

Andreas Cornelius had pulled Parma level with a header from a corner.

“We had improved on defending from set plays, but tonight we conceded against one of the specialists in this scenario. It’s about staying alert and making the interception before the ball gets there.”

Cristiano Ronaldo took his tally to 11 goals in the last seven Serie A games with the brace against Parma.

“You have a world class player who might cause you a few problems every now and then, but can also resolve 100 of them. So you have to take him into account and work around his characteristics.”

Lazio are two points behind with a game in hand on Inter and made it 11 consecutive Serie A wins this weekend.

“Lazio are in such spectacular form right now, that we can only hope it doesn’t last!”