Ronaldo to start out wide in Sarri's Juventus

Maurizio Sarri has identified his preferred position for Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Juventus' first pre-season match.

Published : Jul 20, 2019 21:08 IST

Cristiano Ronaldo might move to a role he performed with distinction at Manchester United and Real Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo might move to a role he performed with distinction at Manchester United and Real Madrid.
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Cristiano Ronaldo might move to a role he performed with distinction at Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Cristiano Ronaldo "can play anywhere" for Juventus but Maurizio Sarri plans to return his superstar forward to a familiar role at the outset of the season.

Portugal legend Ronaldo moved between multiple attacking positions in his first campaign with Juve, playing on the flanks, through the middle and in partnership with Paulo Dybala.

READ | De Ligt to Juventus could mean danger for Bonucci

But the 34-year-old is set to initially be given a more defined brief under new boss Sarri, a coach noted for being unfailingly faithful to his favoured 4-3-3 system.

For Ronaldo that means moving slightly wider, to a role he performed with distinction at Manchester United and Real Madrid.

"I'm going to first use Cristiano on the left in attack," Sarri said. "But really, with the quality he has, he can play anywhere. He's very experienced and has won everything, individually and collectively."

Sarri's first chance to experiment comes against Tottenham in the International Champions Cup in Singapore.

The Italian confirmed new signing Matthijs de Ligt will "certainly play part of the game" in a bid to quickly integrate the Netherlands international into his new surroundings.

De Ligt, 19, signed from Ajax this week in an €85.5 million deal despite reported interest from Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

The defender denied being swayed by the wage on offer in Turin, though, slamming reports which claimed otherwise.

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"At a certain point it was a bit tiring [hearing all the reports]," he told Dutch newspaper AD .

"The most insane thing I read was that I wouldn't go to PSG because I wanted to earn more than Kylian Mbappe. What nonsense.

"Mino [Raiola] is my agent, he deals with the business side, but that only mattered after my sporting choice was made."

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