‘You drive me crazy with this rubbish!’ - Angry Massimiliano Allegri loses his temper with Juventus '1-0' claim
- Bianconeri docked 15 points in Serie A
- Dropped into the Europa League
- Struggling for consistency in 2022-23
WHAT HAPPENED? The Bianconeri are enduring a testing 2022-23 campaign, with a 15-point deduction for “financial irregularities” dropping them to ninth in the Serie A table and out of contention for Champions League qualification. They also slipped out of Europe's elite club competition at the group stage, forcing them to join the Europa League knockout play-off round. They are facing Nantes, with a 1-1 draw played out in the first leg of their tie on Thursday after an early effort from Dusan Vlahovic was cancelled out on the hour mark in Turin.
WHAT THEY SAID: When it was put to Allegri afterwards that his team play to secure narrow wins, the experienced coach hit back at Sky Sport Italia reporters by saying: “I never said I wanted Juve to win 1-0, you drive me crazy with this rubbish. It’s this cliche that I want my teams to win 1-0, but that is not accurate. It’s simple, look at all the statistics of my teams, I always had the best defence and the second best attack. You cannot escape from the statistics. Look at Milan and Juventus, that is my record.
“My teams always scored 70-80 goals per season. You lot chat about nothing, I talk about numbers, that is the problem. I know you have to sit there and talk about nothing to fill time, but I don’t. You imagined this, created the story and then keep spreading it. You see things abstract, I see what is concrete. You’ve got all the statistics, look at them. In football, there is just one thing that counts: winning games. It doesn’t matter if it is 1-0 or 5-0. Nonetheless, the fact remains my teams always had the best defence and second best attack.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: While Allegri is eager to defend his record, Juve have struggled for consistency throughout the current campaign. Only Serie A leaders Napoli have conceded fewer goals in the Italian top flight this season, but five teams have scored more than the Bianconeri.
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WHAT NEXT? Juve, who have been waiting all season for World Cup winner Paul Pogba to shake off untimely injuries and become a key man for the club once more, will be back in domestic action on Sunday when taking in a trip to Spezia.