21 May 2017
Massimiliano Allegri lauded his Juventus side after a 3-0 win over Crotone saw the Bianconeri crowned six-time Serie A champions at Juventus Stadium on Sunday.
“First of all you have to congratulate the players for winning six Scudetti in a row – they will go down in history,” said Allegri after the trophy presentation. “The club deserves particular credit too because they’ve done extraordinary things alongside the players.
“Every victory is extraordinary, because winning is never inevitable. We have a special kind of confidence – the team has grown and we’ve played every game to win while showing the clarity of mind to understand where and how we can improve.”
Allegri pointed to Juventus’ 2-0 win over Lazio on 22 January as the crucial point in the season.
“It was the game we switched to the 4-2-3-1 formation,” he explained. “The team couldn’t carry on with the previous system – it was time to change because we were struggling to get the ball moving. I thought about it for a couple of days but fortunately – and because of how good they are – the team took to it straight away.”
The Bianconeri coach was eager to stress that Juventus are still hungry for more.
“We’re working very hard to improve, because you don’t achieve your objectives without having that motivation,” said Allegri. “Now we need to recharge our batteries because we’ve pushed hard for this and this is the third season in a row that we’ve had to deal with very many games. In a season with so many twists and turns, every match is difficult.”
Allegri also acknowledged that a more competitive title race this time around had forced his side to raise their game.
“If second gets 87 points and third gets 86, it shows that our opponents have forced us to work hard and keep our concentration high,” he said. “It’s to be expected that we dropped a few points along the way, as we did at Roma last Sunday. We were probably thinking about the Champions League because we’d just got through to the final – even so, we played well.”
