Allegri: Nothing to comment on suspension

It appears there are different rules in the Serie A for different teams after all, with Max Allegri getting suspended for one game for an almost unnoticed complaint against the referee in the last Juventus game, while Jose Mourinho went unpunished for his own tirade against the match officials after two AS Roma players were sent off midweek in a 3-1 loss to AC Milan.

The result of this is that Juve travel to the capital tomorrow with Allegri staying back in Turin while Mourinho will take his spot on the Roma bench. Speaking ahead of the game during his customary pre-match press conference, Allegri did not want to get drawn into comment on the sporting judge’s decision.

“It happened and there’s nothing to comment on. Tomorrow is always Juventus-Roma which is always a complicated game because they have very good individuality.

“We have to play a good game at a competitive and technical level and we have to prepare well.”

Would Paulo Dybala start this game in Rome?

“I’ll evaluate the team today and there will be some changes because some have played a bit too much.

“We’ve come from a week of hard work and the other night we were a little less focused, but this work will be important later on.”

In other squad news, Allegri said Juan Cuadrado would play on Sunday.

“Cuadrado will play tomorrow. Pellegrini doesn’t have 90 minutes in his legs.”

Both Allegri and Mourinho were high profile and veteran managerial appointments this last summer, did he see any similarities between the two?

“I came here knowing that it was a year in which we had to work to get back to competing for the Scudetto in one to two years. Roma are three points behind us and Mourinho is doing a good job. You can’t change everyone in a few months because no one can work miracles.

“The team is improving and you need a bit of patience and I knew that. I’m not scared by this. It’s normal that everyone wants to win, but you have to build the team to fight for the Scudetto.”

In an interview recently, former Bianconeri midfielder Sami Khedira claimed the issue with the current squad was that there was a lack of leadership in the middle of the pitch.

“I always say that you think about changing players but everyone has their characteristics. Juventus have changed a lot before, they had a lot of experienced players, now you have to work on these players who have other characteristics. That’s why there are cycles.”