Allegri: We must be smart, keep our heads and stay focused

NO LAZIO HANGOVER

“The atmosphere in the camp is good. We need to restore the right balance and not get too depressed as losses and draws happen. There are times when things go well and things go wrong in football, it’s normal that we have to work hard on correcting the errors that we made and work hard until the end of the season.”

“We’ve started the campaign well, Napoli are going good this year, but there is a long way to go until the end of the season. I’m thinking about where we will be in March with five or so games to go and what our situation will be like then.” 

“What matters most right now, however, is tomorrow’s match against Sporting CP, who will be a difficult opponent, as they defend well, and have a strong and experienced coach. They played a great match against Barcelona, so we must be smart, keep our heads and stay focused. It’s going to be 180 minutes against Sporting and we are ready to face them.”

TOMORROW'S PREPARATION

“We must work on the little weaknesses that we have and try to improve so that we remain focused on the defence, as well as the management of the match. It’s going to be a difficult game, but I don’t think that we need to change our system because we have played many matches together in that formation and up until the 47^th minute on Saturday, we were playing very well.”

“Sporting have very good players with a lot of technical skills, very pacey and a very nice defence. But if we win these next two games then we will be in the last 16 so that’s our aim. If it doesn’t happen then we wait to face Barcelona, it’s simple mathematics.”

“With Dybala, I spoke to him yesterday because it’s normal in managing each player that we need to find the right balance and he will have to find his own balance. He shouldn’t get too high when scoring against Sassuolo or too low missing a penalty. This is part of football, this is a typical part of the growth process.  Paulo will still be the penalty taker, sometimes he might make mistakes but he’s always scored penalties so that won’t change.” 

SPORTING CP TEAM SELECTION

“I haven’t decided anything yet because we still have today’s training session and tomorrow morning’s. Pjanic has recovered and is rested. I need to see how he does in training, but he’s in great shape. Matuidi running a lot and pressing greatly benefits the midfielder next to him especially when Pjanic plays the ball moves very fast. He’s an extraordinary player with very important qualities and when you have technical players the ball will flow much better.”

“The two solutions for right back are Sturaro and Barzagli, apart from taking into account Sporting’s characteristics, I need to evaluate the conditions of these two players.”