08 September 2017
It's back to business for Massimiliano Allegri and Juventus on Saturday as they return to league action in Serie A matchday three at home against Chievo Verona. Here's what the Juve manager told the media at Friday's pre-match press conference:
SQUAD CHOICES
With players returning from international duty and others carrying injuries, Allegri gave some insight into the starting eleven we could see on Saturday afternoon.
"Tomorrow [Blaise] Matuidi will play. Matuidi and [Miralem] Pjanic will start, then I have to evaluate whether to accompany them with an extra midfielder. I'll evaluate this after training.
"There are players to choose but [Sami] Khedira is unavailable and [Claudio] Marchisio too. [Giorgio] Chiellini is out this weekend, but we hope to have him back for Barcelona. [Juan] Cuadrado and [Paulo] Dybala have returned from overseas duty, but they did specialist training yesterday.
"Tomorrow [Gianluigi] Buffon will rest and [Wojicech] Szczesny will play. [Andrea] Barzagli is back in training today after two days of rest. He will be available, and then the others are all fine."
SATURDAY'S OPPONENT
"Chievo are a well-organized team that have been going well for many years in Serie A. This is a difficult team to face especially in the first part of the season where they have already beaten Udinese and only lost to Lazio in the last minute...Tomorrow is an important test for us and we have to take the three points."
FOCUSED ON THE TASK AT HAND
"Tomorrow is the most important game because we have to take three points first and foremost. Barcelona will also only be thinking of their game tomorrow...As I said before, Chievo are our next opponents and then we will think about Barcelona.
"As for fielding new players, absolutely tomorrow there will be new faces in the starting eleven, but the team will mostly be formed by guys who are already established. That said, we expect the new players to do well."
BERNA & BENTANCUR
"[Rodrigo] Bentancur may work well with Pjanic in the midfield as he is proceeding well, but we do not want to put all the responsibility on him because he is still a young boy but with great quality and above all a great personality. I am happy with what he is doing but, like Bernardeschi, he needs his time to gel with the squad.
"Bernadeschi has grown a lot since he came in and will surely be an important player for Juventus, but he needs to set out his own path just like every young player who joins this club."
