Allegri stands up for Juventus, Vlahovic and Kean

May 6, 2022

Max Allegri stands up for Dusan Vlahovic and Moise Kean after Juventus fumbled a lead to lose 2-1 at Genoa in stoppages. ‘We didn’t have anyone slowing the moves down.’

Paulo Dybala had scored a splendid strike with his weaker right foot and also hit the woodwork with his left, but Albert Gudmundsson equalised before Domenico Criscito converted a last-gasp penalty.

“More than angry, I am disappointed not to win a game that was on the right track. We should’ve scored a second goal and didn’t,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.

“The thing we really need to work on, although admittedly the characteristics of the players aren’t suited to it, is that once we had to take off Arthur, Minetti and Dybala, we didn’t have any player who could dictate the tempo and slow the moves down. We only had counter-attacking players and it was end-to-end stuff. When you waste so many chances, you are going to be punished.”

Serie A | Genoa 2-1 Juventus: Criscito revives the Grifone

Juve had to rotate the squad and take some of their star names off early to rest them ahead of Wednesday’s Coppa Italia Final against Inter.

“I am sad to lose, but in terms of the table, at least it didn’t make much difference. Now we have the Coppa Italia and absolutely cannot make the same mistakes there.

“Arthur had been out for a while, Cuadrado was just coming back and had an hour in his legs, so we had to try to balance the playing time and reach Wednesday in the best condition.”

Vlahovic seemed very irritable on the bench in the final stages, having forced a couple of saves but again failed to find the net.

“This was one of Vlahovic’s best games on a technical level. I am very pleased with the way he played with his technique. I tried to explain it before, but I was attacked as if I was the one ruining Vlahovic. He hasn’t played that many Serie A games and we need to find a balance here. Maybe he didn’t realise it was a good performance, I think next season we will see a definite improvement in terms of how he balances out the tempo of his performance, learning that he hasn’t failed if he doesn’t score a goal, there’s more to it.”

Kean missed a couple of absolute sitters at Marassi this evening, so what is his next step?

“Kean is a player who usually scores with half a chance, tonight he had five or six and didn’t score, so that’s football for you. He has more experience, despite being very young, but he too needs to play it simple and not use up so much energy in these individual duels that aren’t really helping.”

Considering the drama of Domenico Criscito’s tears after his penalty was saved against Sampdoria last week, what did Allegri think when he saw the veteran step up again?

“Football can give you opportunities that come round and round again. I felt he would score tonight, because at the 95th minute again and at the same end, he was unlikely to get it wrong a second time.

“This is the sport, if you don’t take your chances, you can be punished, so Genoa deserved it.”