Allegri: ‘Juventus have time to catch up’ after Napoli defeat
Max Allegri ‘cannot reproach my players for anything’ after Juventus’ 2-1 defeat to Napoli and assures there’s ‘plenty of time’ to turn their season around.
The Bianconeri have had a disastrous start to the campaign with one point from three rounds, drawing 2-2 with Udinese, losing to Empoli and Napoli.
“I cannot reproach my players for anything this evening. We put in a worse performance against Empoli, but today unfortunately we paid the price for errors,” Allegri told DAZN.
“We weren’t as precise technically and lost the ball a few too many times in the second half. Napoli played very well, but in football when you don’t win, you can only shut up and work hard.”
Kostas Manolas was caught in possession by Alvaro Morata for Juve to take the lead, but the Bianconeri returned the favour with howlers from Wojciech Szczesny and Moise Kean to gift Matteo Politano and Kalidou Koulibaly tap-ins.
“Hopefully we can start the Champions League in a better way than the Serie A season. At this moment, we pay a heavy price for every single error, but these moments can happen in football. We should’ve been sharper, gone for the second goal when 1-0 up.
“We conceded the equaliser and then this goal on a corner. There are many positives from the lads too. If you make mistakes like that, then naturally you’re going to concede on the counter.
“I saw giant steps forward, the lads did everything they had to this evening, but there are moments during the season when the ball goes in and others when it doesn’t,” continued Allegri.
Juventus are already eight points adrift of Serie A leaders Napoli, who have a 100 per cent record after three rounds.
“It’s a long season, we need to chase the other teams down and there is plenty of time to recover. I’ve had worst moments than this. What matters now is Tuesday, putting in a good performance against Malmo, then we’ve got Milan on Sunday.
“It’s disappointing, as we had started strong tonight, but of the five goals we’ve conceded this season, quite a few of them were our own fault.”
Allegri was asked if he needs to nurture or protect Szczesny after a series of errors so far this season, for both Juventus and Poland.
“Szczesny is the first-choice goalkeeper at Juventus. He had some good games before this, the ball got away from him on the equaliser,” insisted the coach.
“I didn’t have many options off the bench to change things. It was honestly a surprise to have Ramsey available, as he only had one training session. Pellegrini hadn’t played basically in six months and had cramp.”