MY ACCOUNT
Massimiliano Allegri accepts the only way Juventus can turn around their season is to approach big matches with less fear after going down 2-0 to Milan on Saturday.
Juve’s recent upturn in results, in which they had picked up their first back-to-back wins of the season against Bologna and Maccabi Haifa, came to a halt at San Siro.
Fikayo Tomori’s opener late in the first half was added to early in the second by Brahim Diaz, who ran half the length of the pitch before firing past Wojciech Szczesny.
Eighth-place Juve are at risk of dropping into the bottom half on Sunday depending on results elsewhere, having collected just 13 points from their opening nine matches.
And Allegri, who has come under fire for his tactics this season, accepts his side have taken a step backwards with their performance against his old club Milan.
“After tonight’s game, there is little for me to say,” he told DAZN. “We are in a moment where we seemed to be out of the negative period with these two victories.
“But we fell for it again. It’s a pity, as we did well for the first 20-25 minutes, then got deeper and deeper without even being forced into it.
“We made a lot of misplaced passes and inevitably you pay for that.”
The defeat was Allegri’s first against a Stefano Pioli-coached side in the 17th encounter between the pair in the Italian top flight.
It leaves Juve winless in their opening four away league matches for just the second time in their past 40 campaigns, the other instance coming in the 1993-94 season.
Asked if his side are struggling physically this season, as vice-president Pavel Nedved suggested ahead of the game, Allegri said: “I think it’s psychological, too.
“It’s not easy at the moment. We dropped a lot of points against the lower-mid table teams, then in these big clashes we needed more confidence.”
Juve were not happy Tomori’s goal was allowed to stand due to what they felt was a foul from Theo Hernandez on Juan Cuadrado in the build-up to the corner he scored from.
Diaz’s second was also preventable, with the Milan forward collecting a stray Dusan Vlahovic pass, knocking the ball past a couple of players and charging through on goal.
Milan had earlier twice hit the post through Rafael Leao with the scoreline level, and finished the game with an expected goals (xG) return of 2.35, compared to Juve’s 0.75.
That suggests a huge gulf in quality on the day, and Allegri has demanded an improvement in Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Maccabi Haifa.
“It’s unfortunate we conceded from our own mistakes on both goals,” Allegri said. “We need to stay calm, roll our sleeves up and go to Haifa with the mental strength to win.
“It is strange because at a certain point we just stopped playing and started to back down. After Leao hit the post, we started going backwards.
“There are also some passes that are just impossible to get wrong. It’s not as if two good games can resolve all the problems.
“It was five against three on some of our attacks; we need to score goals in those situations. We’ve got to be more determined in the challenges and shake off our fear.
“If we don’t do that we won’t have the balance to go far this season. If we shake off the fear, we can turn things around.
“When you pass the ball backwards, the other side will push forward and don’t even need to press you that hard. We need to work on that and improve.”
