Allegri wants Juventus to stay quiet and work harder

Juventus have no time to lick their wounds after watching Sassuolo slice them to pieces on the counter attack to pick up all three points midweek, and now face a challenging trip to Verona where they will take on Hellas, who are currently managed by former Juve defender Igor Tudor. The Croat was an assistant to Andrea Pirlo at the Bianconeri last season, and recently stepped in after the departure of Ivan Juric at Hellas.

“I expect a difficult game. Since they changed coach, they play in a totally different way, closer to last year, with aggression and men all over the pitch. They are in a good moment.”

“He has followed up on what Juric had done. They are aggressive and have good technique. They are a good team.”

Allegri provided a squad update, with some good news for the Bianconeri.

“Federico Bernardeschi should be back, he trained with the team today and let’s see if the pain in his shoulder has completely disappeared.

“Mattia De Sciglio is out, Moise Kean the same.”

The coach was asked what he had said to his side in training following the late demise at the Allianz Stadium on Wednesday night.

“Yesterday, I didn’t speak to the team. It was correct to let the players be a little bit. We will watch the things we did wrong, the goal conceded in stoppages and some other situations.

“It makes no sense to give explanations now, we have to stay quiet and work to achieve better results. The team is giving a lot.

“I can’t blame them for anything, the lads always want to win. But sometimes you must understand the moment of the game. We made a mistake on the first goal too; you can’t think of scoring if the others have the ball.”

The goals appear to have dried up for Juve in recent games, and they are yet to score more than once in exactly a month, a period of six games.

“There are moments when you score goals, others when you don’t. We created a lot against Sassuolo, but we didn’t materialise.

“Then the result changes the mood and the judgment.”

Allegri has persisted with a back-four despite the defensive woes, would he be looking to switch to a back-three any time?

“Right now, we have tomorrow’s match, which will be important and difficult. Then on Tuesday we have the Champions League, and we want to advance.

“Then we will have time to work, and the team needs it. Now is not the time to try certain things.”

Juventus have been bitten by the ‘smaller’ sides in the league more often than not in recent years, and the coach warned that they cannot get complacent and start thinking of Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday instead of focusing on Saturday’s clash.

“We have to face them with great respect and in all games, we have to do the same thing on the pitch. Both against the big teams in Europe and the smaller ones in Italy.

“We cannot afford to lower our attention.”