21 November 2017
IMPROVING THE MENTALITY
“A lot of tomorrow night is going to depend upon on our movement on the pitch and the approach that we’re going to take in both the offensive and defensive phases of play.
“We have lost two matches in Serie A so I can say that we need to improve our attitude and mentality, especially in the defence, and we need to find the right balance in order to bring the results home.
“Good performances can’t always be maintained, so the result is more important than how you play. People said last year that Juve weren’t playing well and scoring a lot of goals, but this year we are playing well and scoring lots of goals but haven’t got some of the results. Historically, we've had some hiccups at this stage of previous seasons too, but we've always done well over the course of the whole campaign."
DYBALA VS MESSI
“[Paulo] Dybala will start tomorrow and in relation to the comparisons with [Lionel] Messi, Paulo is a lot younger and still needs time to develop his game. They both use their left foot but they are very different physically and in the way that they move the ball around the pitch.”
"Paulo started the season very well, but then he had a dip in form when he missed two penalties, but it’s typical to have these ups and downs. He will still continue to take penalties for us, as he is still growing as a player.”
“Of course, we have to be aware of Messi tomorrow night who is an exceptional player. Even if there are just 10 centimetres of space, he will take the ball into places no other players would even think of trying. He is a difficult player to stop.”
FACING BARCELONA THIS YEAR
“Every match is unique and there aren’t two that are the same. I’m a practical coach and Barca haven’t lost in 14 league games and four Champions League games. They have only conceded twice and scored 22 so right now they have a greater balance than us. It will be a difficult match against them and we need to qualify, but nothing has been decided yet. Tomorrow we have the opportunity to reach our first target of the season.”
“We need to seize our chances when they come in the Champions League, as the competition is stronger this year. We need to take it one step at a time and after we qualify we’ll see what the last 16 draw has in store for us and then take it from there.
“Tomorrow we will need to be ready to make sacrifices and give it our all, whilst remaining balanced on the field.”
