Juventus, Spalletti on Vlahovic: "He's pulled a muscle, out for some time" | OneFootball

After the match between Juventus and Cagliari, Luciano Spalletti spoke at the press conference to the official channels.

Juventus, Spalletti: “Vlahovic has pulled a muscle and we’ll lose him for quite some time! Yildiz can win you the game out of nowhere”

The Bianconeri coach, Luciano Spalletti, spoke at the press conference after the 2-1 win against Cagliari. Here are his words, as reported by juventusnews24:

On the match

“We went onto the pitch timidly, doing basic things. Better things are expected from people like us. Better things are expected from the coach and the players. We lost a ball that was impossible to lose and conceded a goal. At that point, we realized we had to do things differently. We created situations at Juve’s level and made two or three plays. Yildiz is the one with the intuition that splits the game in two, and then things went our way. The team started to play and got dangerously close to the area. Then we weren’t good enough at finishing. Cagliari did well on the pitch and played a good game. But they had two chances and we had 14, so we deservedly won. But clearly, you have to finish more, otherwise the others gain courage.”

On Vlahovic

“He pulled a muscle, he got hurt. He’s in pain. Precisely for this reason, to avoid overloading him, we had kept him out. Against Bodo, I had thought about putting him on at 2-1 for us to hold the ball, and in that, he’s the strongest we have. Then the others had played little, so I thought I’d leave him out to keep him fresh for today. Players need to play. We even gave him a day off. The problem is that he wanted to hit the ball hard and instead he almost missed it, and this thing of swinging and missing made his leg twist. If he had made the right contact with the ball, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

On Yildiz

“Was he born for Juve’s number 10? Yes. He has the quality of a champion and of a number 10. He can win you the game out of nowhere. In our system, we give him the freedom to go to the left or stay behind the striker. We put him in a position to see the goal and to score. He needs to improve in choosing when to keep the ball and when to give it and go. But he is top level, extra top.”

On returning to Naples

“I can imagine the happiness I’ll feel inside myself when I return to that stadium. I don’t know how they’ll behave, but for me, it will be very easy.”

On David

“In my opinion, he had a connection with the team, he played the ball around, he linked up very well. Technically, he’s very clean, when you play the ball to him, he knows how to manage it with the team. He has the ability to be part of the collective in the passing game. Then he was less good down there. There were several balls in the area that always stayed in the middle, even when we had numerical superiority at times. We didn’t make the happiest choices. Calm? I think so, but is he maybe too calm?! He arrives very relaxed. He has top balance as a person, but I can’t promise everyone they’ll play 90 minutes. But I try to put them in the best conditions. Openda was still a bit tired. We’re coming off a tough game… No one has ever beaten us. We didn’t let ourselves get pinned back, we brought it home. We started half an hour later, waited for the right moment. They say, ‘You earn money,’ but it’s tough for us too. Today a good game: timid start, but then I’m happy with the performance. Jokingly, I poured a bottle over someone’s head to show we had won.”

Raffaele Morra

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.