Sarri: Chiellini substituted himself, Pjanic status unknown

Juventus got back to winning ways, winning 2-0 over Brescia who played for about an hour with a man down following a first half red card. Goals from Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado brought in the three points, with Lazio and Inter Milan going head to head in the feature game this evening.

Speaking after the game, Maurizio Sarri was satisfied with the performance.

“We did what we had to do. It was a decent start, once we broke the deadlock, we showed patience, hit the woodwork three times and more than earned the victory.”

The manager used the 4-3-3 formation from midweek again, this time with Cuadrado, Gonzalo Higuain and Dybala, as Cristiano Ronaldo was being rested.

“Dybala had more freedom to roam, while Cuadrado had to adjust to his position and help cover the gaps as a consequence.

“It’s a complicated situation, as we have many strong players who don’t have a specific role, they are all fairly atypical. Dybala is a forward, but is good at coming back. Cristiano Ronaldo likes to play wide, Cuadrado can play many different roles.

“We decided to let Ronaldo rest today, as he cannot play every single game, so we came up with this system for this game. At this moment, we are playing more with a trident than a trequartista. That’s because Ramsey has made it clear he prefers to play in midfield rather than as a trequartista. Dybala prefers to be more advanced.

“I thought Ramsey was improving over the last couple of games, he’s much better in the movements and doing well in defence too. It’s clear throughout history that English players struggle to settle into Italian football, as we are far more tactical and not quite as free as they are in the Premier League, but I believe he’s over the hump and on his way towards making a real difference.”

Club captain Giorgio Chiellini saw his first game action in five months, returning from an ACL injury for the last few minutes of the game.

“To be honest, Chiellini substituted himself! I turned around and he was there in my face with his jersey on asking: ‘Mister, how long?’ He’s been going on about it since yesterday, wanting the last ten minutes, so I couldn’t resist!”

There was some bad news though, with out-of-form midfielder Miralem Pjanic taken off in the first few minutes of the game with a suspected groin injury.

“We don’t know the extent of the problem. He felt pain in the adductor and will have the tests tomorrow.”