Juventus coach Max Allegri says he and and his players ‘almost couldn’t believe’ they had won after the Bianconeri’s 3-0 win over Bologna. Juve put in their most convincing performance in some time, with goals coming from all of their forward line in what turned out to be a comfortable victory.
Speaking to DAZN after the game, Allegri urged caution from the team and reiterated the need to take things a step at a time:
I liked the spirit, the solidity of the team, apart from at the end of the first half, when we got a few attacking moves wrong. We should’ve slowed the tempo and kept the ball more in those situations.
We hadn’t won in a month, so it was good to have a clear and commanding victory. Now we need to keep a low profile, remember we’re still a way back and above all have to get our Champions League back on track.
Milik? It was difficult to predict quite such a strong impact, but we already knew Milik is a player who moves well, is intelligent, shakes off his markers and can play well with Vlahovic.
Rabiot and Locatelli? These are very important returns, as will be Di Maria and Chiesa. Rabiot is a player with a different engine to the others, he got into some good battles and played more forward passes. He’s in a good period of form and is the right age to really deliver a strong season.
It was a good performance, I told the lads there is this desire to prove yourselves and try really hard, but that can be counter-productive. We needed patience and focus to build the performance and get the result.
We hadn’t won in a month and almost felt like we couldn’t believe it when we got back to the locker room.
We need to take it one step at a time and hopefully we can close the gap. We closed it last season, we can do it again. It needs to be one small step at a time, we can’t make up that difference all in one go.
I am accustomed to picking the line-up based on the players that I have at my disposal. When I had everyone at my disposal, there was more choice. Now we have these players who have specific characteristics and when I say we need more players, it is also about having options and rotating the squad to stop them getting tired.
At this moment, we need clear and cool heads. It was a disastrous month and in particular a week that started with an event we could not have ever predicted. It all unravelled from there, but we also take responsibility for our own mistakes.”
