Allegri bemoans Juventus slacking off late against Salernitana

Juventus comfortably beat Salernitana 3-0 away in a rare Tuesday night league fixture with a brace from Dusan Vlahovic on either side of a goal for Filip Kostic to settle the clash.

Coach Massimiliano Allegri was asked to explain his relegation comments from pre-match.

“I look at the reality of the situation. We amassed 41 points, but we’ve got only 26, so to reach 40 and safety we need another 14, then we’ll see where we are. Now I think we’re level with Monza, the objective is to get into the top half of the table.”

Allegri stalked the touchline in the second half, angrily gesticulating at his players despite the scoreline.

“The lads gave a strong response, we had a good 60 minutes, but got a bit superficial after going 3-0 up and allowed too many shots on goal. We were static in our positions, didn’t move around enough and the players know we must absolutely do better.

“This is the step we need to take. The team did well for an hour, was aggressive and pressing, but when we started controlling it in our own half, passing it back to Szczesny, taking too many touches, we let Salernitana back into the game. That is not acceptable. We saw this too many times this season, for example against Monza and Salernitana earlier this season, where we didn’t have the right approach.

“The first 10 minutes we tended to pass it too much down the right, so we need to improve our passing, be smoother and keep it simple.”

Youngster Fabio Miretti had to be stretchered off with what looked like a painful injury, later clarified to be a sprained left ankle. However Allegri has had some relief from the injury crisis with a number of players returning too.

“We need everyone, the young lads have done really well so far, but with a game every three days those who come off the bench are just as important to keep the tempo up.

“We have a lot of players with many months on the sidelines and very little football in their legs, so they need time to fully recover.”

Allegri was asked to expound on his comments about Vlahovic looking in better shape since returning from his injury.

“You can see physically, he just moves better, looks sharper, he also played well on a technical level today. Di Maria was delightful for 45 minutes today and if he can keep that up for 60 minutes, it gives us a big advantage.”

Would he try a starting trio of Vlahovic with Angel Di Maria and Federico Chiesa?

“It’s not about having a certain number of strikers, it’s about them being ready to do the work. Di Maria did really well helping the defence for the first half today, for example.”