Allegri will make changes for Juventus at Sassuolo

Juventus travel to Sassuolo tomorrow looking to not only consolidate their hold on fourth place in the league table, there is even an opportunity to catch one time runaway leaders Napoli sitting in third place. From the chasing pack, both Fiorentina and Roma lost, so a win away at the Mapei will go a long way towards securing Champions League football in Turin next season.

Speaking ahead of the game, coach Massimiliano Allegri indicated the difficulty of tomorrow’s clash.

“It’s an important game for them because it would be a prestigious result for them. We need the right performance, otherwise we’d come out with broken bones.

“I still have a close bond with the Squinzi family, it’s always a pleasure to return there, even if sometimes they gave me a hard time. We haven’t reached the fourth place yet, but we have qualified for the Coppa Italia final, which is still a target. We’ll make our assessments at the end of the season.”

The Bianconeri’s rash of injuries in the middle continues to plague the run-in with Arthur still not ready to return, and now it’s looking unlikely that Weston McKennie and Manuel Locatelli will feature again during this campaign.

“Arthur won’t recover; hopefully, he will be back against Venezia. I will decide who will play after the training. There will be a few changes.

“McKennie ran a little yesterday, so he is improving, but the end of the season is close. Locatelli is still behind, I don’t know if he will be back before the end of the campaign. Adrien Rabiot is doing well, he is slowly coming close to scoring more goals. He is improving and has many years to do well in his career. De Ligt is fit and he can play, I must pick one between Bonucci and Chiellini.”

Former Juventus goalkeeper Stefano Tacconi remains hospitalized in critical condition after suffering an aneurysm, and the coach sent him a message.

“I want to send my best wishes to Stefano Tacconi, I hope he will recover soon,”