Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri is happy to forego style and win ugly as the Serie A champion looks to turn around its stuttering domestic form.
The Turin giant's unbeaten home record went up in smoke last weekend as Lazio snatched a 2-1 win, its first defeat in 57 games at the Allianz Stadium secured by substitute Paulo Dybala's 97th-minute penalty miss.
Read: Juventus are not in any kind of crisis, says Allegri
The Argentinian also failed from 12 yards in the team's previous league game - a 2-2 draw at Atalanta - putting pressure on the Bianconeri ahead of Sunday's trip to Udinese.
Juve is already five points behind table-topper Napoli, which has won all eight of its league games this season, and Allegri is keen not to let Maurizio Sarri's men get away.
"We need to recover lost points and stop those in front of us breaking away," Allegri told a news conference.
"We have to work as a team and leave aside the issue of aesthetics or beautiful football, because we need to put some points under our belts."
Juve did get back to winning ways in midweek as it came from behind to beat Sporting CP 2-1 in the Champions League.
After his pair of penalty failures, Dybala was subdued against Sporting, but Allegri will keep faith in his number 10.
"Paulo Dybala returned from Argentina and was not in good shape, so he was rested on Saturday," said Allegri.
"He is in good shape, he's able to deal with any issue on or off the field and he will play tomorrow. I said the team was disconnected because it's like when you have a computer and it's not connected to the Internet, it won't go very well. That happens on the field too."
Allegri revealed Blaise Matuidi will miss the trip to Friuli with a muscular problem, with Claudio Marchisio in his squad. Daniele Rugani is set to start in defence.
Comments
SHARE