29 December 2017
TOMORROW’S TEAM NEWS
“Regarding tomorrow’s team selection, Pjanic is definitely out, as is Buffon, De Sciglio and Cuadrado. In place of Pjanic either Marchisio or Bentancur will play, or we will switch to a two-man midfield. If I do end up going with two in the middle then there is no preferred pairing, they can all do well together.”
“In defence, I would like to give Barzagli a rest, so two of Benatia, Chiellini or Rugani will start. On the right-hand side Lichtsteiner will play, and as for the left I still have to decide.”
“Nobody in our attack needs to rest as they all trained well this past week, Dybala could start alongside both Mandzukic and Higuain.”
“I also have to bear in mind that on Wednesday we have a TIM Cup quarter-final match against Torino and we have to get through to the next round.”
VERONA PITFALLS
“Although on paper we may be the favourites, paper doesn’t count what matters is what happens on the field. Juve haven’t won away at Verona since 2001, and have lost 10 out of 17 encounters there, winning only seven times.”
“Tomorrow is a game that we need to take three points from, in some matches where we play against our direct rivals for the Scudetto we know that anything can happen, and then there are matches like tomorrow’s where the only thing that can happen is to win. We must believe this, otherwise if we fail to pick up maximum points then we will throw away all the good work that we have done this month. We must stay close to Napoli at the top, because now before the winter break we have two important league matches and we want to close the first half of the season in the best way possible.”
“Moise Kean is doing well on loan at Verona, he is a young man who has strong physical qualities but needs to improve on the technical aspect so he has to work hard, as to reach certain levels you have to make sacrifices.”
GROWTH OF THE SQUAD
“Douglas Costa is clearly improving, he is learning a lot at Juventus after coming from a different league, he is an extraordinary player. Bentancur is also doing well, he is a young man who is improving all the time. I also believe Dybala has improved a lot in his three years at Juventus, but he needs to be allowed to grow here. He is 24 years old and is still improving, in Italy we need to have the patience to let young players grow, because playing in Italy is different to everywhere else.”
“Last year we played with two in central midfield and four attackers, with the two on the outside working very hard to help the two in the middle. At the start of this season we suffered a bit and conceded too many goals so I had to change things a bit, maybe in two months we will play with a different formation depending on the moment.”
“The most important thing is that team knows how to play in different systems and how to handle the matches, depending on the manner in which they need to be played. This gives me the possibility to change things, especially if one or two players are missing, but in a way we always play the same style.”
