22 October 2017
Juventus hit six at Udinese to come from behind with a man down and record three points. Massimiliano Allegri revealed post-match that it was “just what the doctor ordered because it was important for us to play with a man down. The players all worked hard for the cause and defended well to seal the win. A negative result would have been hard to stomach whereas this match will prove a turning point in our campaign.”
After a draw at Atalanta, the loss to Lazio and the Champions League win over Sporting, the Bianconeri once again recorded maximum points in Serie A. “We have to congratulate the lads because it wasn’t easy today,” continued Allegri. “They responded in fine style. We put in good performances against Atalanta and Lazio albeit despite switching off at times, which we did again today either side of the interval. That’s football though. You can lose or draw and sometimes the big moments decide matches. Ironically though of all our recent fixtures the one we deserved the least to win was actually the Champions League game where our technical levels dropped. We stayed the course today, barely had any hairy moments and hit six goals. The team were switched on. We’ll hit our stride in terms of our fitness levels in November and some of our other injured players will return.”
It's a while since Juve scored this many goals but the Bianconeri are also leaking more at the back, a point Allegri was keen to address: “We’ve played four away matches and conceded seven goals. We have to improve on that score but we will keep clean sheets on our travels too. The team defended well today once they made it 2-2 and we were so switched on that it was hard for them to score past us. We’re a lot more attacking team this term. When the opportunity is there we get forward and we have to hurt the opposition by stretching them with our pace and trying to score goals.”
The standout performer was Sami Khedira who bagged a hat-trick. “Sami is improving,” said Allegri of the German midfielder. “The more he plays, the sharper he gets. He’s effective in a two-man midfield and makes the same late forward runs that he did when we played with three in there. He’s improving a great deal as is [Miralem] Pjanic.”
Mario Mandzukic will miss the SPAL game through suspension but Allegri dismissed the importance of his absence. “There’s no issue, I actually wanted to rest him in our next match anyway.”
Speaking of bans, Leonardo Bonucci will likely miss Juventus' trip to AC Milan in two games’ time. “Leo had seven great years at Juventus, he’s improving a great deal and he’s made a decision which should be respected. We have important players at Juventus and we need to work with them but I’d have liked to have seen him out there because you want both teams to play matches at full strength,” concluded the coach.
