Champions League, tonight the bianconeri want their first win of the season in Malmö In Sweden the coach finds Dybala and the other South Americans and tries to shake up the team
the case
SENT TO MALMÖ
Medicine is bitter, like the admission of the Juventus crisis. “Nobody expected such a disastrous start,” says Massimiliano Allegri struggling with a bad start in the league and a debut in the Champions League full of unknowns. The bianconeri, however, cling with all their strength to the richest and most beautiful Europe to heal from current ills and chase away even a few ghosts too. There is not only the specter of Ronaldo hovering over a Juve that had the best possible lightning rods in CR7, as well as the bombers, but also an attitude that forces Allegri and the old guard to sound the alarm bell.
Seven years have passed since the first time in Europe of the Juventus coach and there is always the Cinderella Malmö in the middle, but Allegri seems to relive the return of those “pale faces” that he himself had often denounced to get Juve out of the obsession- fear of the Champions. «In 2014 there was a negative air about the elimination in the groups of the previous year – he remembers -, but we had a good start in the championship. Now it’s the other way around ». And on the contrary, it also seems to be his Juve, still without head or tail, but above all in search of itself. «There is a problem at the level of mental continuity – Leonardo Bonucci denounces -: we find humility, we team up and we don’t look for excuses. We cannot be Juventus seen up to now ».
The words slip away hard and precise, with a clear goal to shake up a team that is not yet a team. “Young people are no longer young and we need to wake up – says Allegri without half measures -: now we need even more sense of responsibility”. Bonucci nods at his side: “In the national team some seem more relaxed, but they must understand that if they are at Juve they must give their best, net of criticism.” The coach made himself heard in the locker room after Saturday’s defeat, which pushed Juve to the bottom of the standings with a point in three games, but now it’s up to his players to redeem themselves and achieve their first win of the season. There will be no Church, who remained in Turin to avoid worse problems for the flexor, as well as Bernardeschi: we go towards the 4-4-2 with the return of the South Americans and Cuadrado jolly on the right wing, while Dybala will have to lead the recovery also as captain of the game (Chiellini should rest).
Starting the Champions League with a success is fundamental and Allegri, the man of nine consecutive qualifiers in the second round (out of nine attempts), seems to have preferred to bet everything on the cup in this complicated start. “The goal is to enter the top 8 teams – he underlines -, but the Champions League is strange … We are not among the favorites, as it was in the past, but it does not mean that we do not have the desire to win”. Two years ago he was sent away because he failed to win the cup after Ronaldo’s signing, coming out in the quarterfinals against Ajax, but whoever took his place did worse. And now that the CR7 is no longer there, the downsizing is automatic, but starting with the lights off could be an advantage for this team still under construction. –
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