13 August 2016
After watching his men come back from behind twice to earn a 2-2 draw against Espanyol on Saturday night, Massimiliano Allegri had both positives to draw and areas of improvement to underline from the Bianconeri’s display during their fifth pre-season friendly ahead of the 2016/17 campaign.
“Tonight’s match was another good work out for the boys,” opened the Tuscan tactician. “We had a few lapses in concentration at the back, but we managed to exploit the opportunities that came our way.”
The start of the second half saw Allegri field three strikers simultaneously, with Paulo Dybala deployed just behind Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic. Asked whether he thought the system could work in the long term, the 49-year-old said, “It’s an idea but I’m not sure whether it’s definitely the right one. They’ve the attributes to play that way and we’ve now several guys capable of playing between the lines which is a great advantage.”
Moving on to matters further back down the pitch, Allegri picked out Miralem Pjanic for praise after a largely composed performance in his newfound deep-lying midfield role.
“Miralem is a top player and I believe he can become one of the world’s best in that position just in front of the defence. He just has to learn to play the kind of passes, which are more typical for that area on the field.”
With Wednesday’s friendly at Villar Perosa against the club’s Primavera representing the final fixture before next Saturday’s Serie A curtain-raiser against Fiorentina, Allegri ended his interview with a look ahead to the new season – one in which he stressed the importance of racing out of the traps early on.
“We start on zero points in the league just like everyone else. In order to reach the 90-point mark we need to win 30 matches and that requires plenty of hard work every day, just like last season when we mounted that incredible fightback and charge to the title.”
He concluded: “This year we need to start the campaign better and we must be humble enough to understand that we can’t be presumptuous as that gets you nowhere in football.”
