Allegri: Juventus need to score more goals, play with more intensity

Juventus slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Fiorentina with little to play for in a motivational sense with Champions League football already secured. Their Florentine hosts meanwhile confirmed their berth in the third tier continental competition, the Europa Conference League with a win today.

Speaking after the game today, coach Massimiliano Allegri spoke about how the game went today from his perspective.

“The first half was good, we made too many mistakes in the final third and should’ve done better in some situations, but there were also players who had practically not trained at all. Now we need to turn the page and prepare for next year.

“I am happy because we are on the same page and many players naturally need to leave, Paulo Dybala and Federico Bernardeschi at the end of their contracts, so we just have to do everything with calm and focus to fix the squad.”

Rumours of Angel Di Maria and Paul Pogba heading to Turin continue to circle, but Allegri neither confirmed nor deny them, but did effectively say that Juve would be looking towards older players this summer.

“Every day the papers give names, we need to rest tomorrow and from Monday can start thinking about how to sort the squad out. There are good foundations to build on.

“We already have five talented young players: Vlahovic, Locatelli, De Ligt, Chiesa, while Miretti had four good games. I think slowly they will improve.

“It’s natural that you need a mix of youth and experience, as it’s more difficult to win just with lots of young players. The veterans also help the younger players to grow and mature. We need balance when constructing the squad.”

With regards to comparisons with last season, Juve ended up with no trophies won, eight points less than the side managed with Andrea Pirlo last year, 20 less goals scored but the same amount conceded. Allegri seemed to brush off those concerns.

“It’s also a psychological aspect, because we had to chase from the start and knew once we lost to Inter and had secured fourth place, the results after that didn’t entirely reflect the team and are somewhat false. After that push to get back, once the motivation was lacking, we lost intensity.

“Having said that, we also know that we need to score more goals, play with more intensity, we have to keep the good things from this season and improve those that didn’t work as well.”