Juric: ‘Atalanta regret at Juventus draw, discovered Sulemana at Southampton’
Ivan Juric has ‘regrets’ after Atalanta were pegged back to a 1-1 draw by Juventus and reveals he ‘kind of discovered’ Kamaldeen Sulemana at Southampton last term.
La Dea had been under the cosh in the first half, yet went into the break leading 1-0 thanks to the Sulemana solo effort, his second goal of the season.
Their game fell apart in the space of two minutes, when Juan Cabal turned in from close range following the Odilon Kossonou fresh-air clearance, then Marten de Roon received his second yellow card.
They held on down to 10 men for a point, meaning they remain unbeaten in Serie A this season and Atalanta have not lost away to Juventus since 2018.
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Juric starting to see his Atalanta
“Juve were better in the first 20 minutes, they had a lot of corners, but then we had regrets because after taking the lead, we had the opportunities to kill the game off where we should’ve done better,” Juric told DAZN Italia.
“We conceded after an error, but I remain very satisfied with the performance and the spirit of the lads today. There were some really young players who stepped up as well today. If we had the two points we deserved against Pisa, then we would’ve been very high up the table.
“I saw players like Honest Ahanor today who did really well and this bodes well for the future. He had already done well for a few minutes, he’s sharp and eager to learn, so he really impressed me in these months. He wants to improve all the details and that’s good to see.”
Ederson and Charles De Ketelaere were back on the bench, but Giorgio Scalvini, Isak Hien, Nicola Zalewski, Gianluca Scamacca and Sead Kolasinac were still injured.
Sulemana was brought to Atalanta from Southampton, where he had worked with Juric, so did he expect such a good scoring record?
“I found him at Southampton and he was practically out of the squad, so I kind of discovered him. He can improve in the final decision, but he’s got quality and is so good when tracking back to help the defence. You can trust him to do the dirty work when needed.”
There were a lot of raised eyebrows when Juric was appointed to the Atalanta job after the departure of his mentor Gian Piero Gasperini, so does he feel underrated as a coach?
“I did very well for years, last season was horrible in terms of results, but wonderful experiences seeing the Premier League and Roma. I was thrown in there both times and it wasn’t easy, but I feel those experiences made me stronger,” concluded Juric.