Juventus paid price for 'win at all costs' approach, says Sarri

by · sportskeeda

Juventus paid the price for wanting "to win at all costs" in their surprise 2-1 defeat to Udinese on Thursday, says Maurizio Sarri.

A victory at the Dacia Arena would have seen Juve clinch their ninth successive Scudetto and Matthijs de Ligt's superb 20-yard effort put them en route to doing exactly that.

Ilija Nestorovski restored parity in the 52nd minute and the Bianconeri laboured in their push for a winner.

They were caught on the break in the second minute of added time and Seko Fofana slotted home to give Udinese an unlikely victory.

Juve's advantage at the top will be cut to three points if Atalanta beat Milan on Friday, but the leaders can still seal the title by defeating Sampdoria on Sunday.

"This is what has been happening lately, we've lost our organisation and shape," Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.

"After a good first half we wanted to win it at all costs and we were messy, making the game more dangerous. We lost it in the 92nd minute because we wanted to win at all costs.

"It is difficult [to find balance], we are all more tired and teams struggle to be aggressive. Organisation is now more important than aggression.

"In the first half we did well. After the equaliser we had a bad reaction. We had to play with more serenity.

"It's difficult to keep up mentally and physically for 90 minutes. We must learn from these lessons and try to fix it."

Juve have dropped 18 points from winning positions this term and conceded 38 goals in Serie A, the most since they shipped 47 when finishing seventh in 2010-11.

Asked about their defensive record, Sarri said: "We have also had 12 penalties against – it's not a number that great teams usually suffer.

"But it has increased for everyone, it's reached an all-time record, even if we have increased more in percentage terms.

"We have missed Giorgio [Chiellini] all season. In the long run you feel the absence of his personality, which would have been more than useful.

"The season has gone like this because of injuries, but we have to keep going."

Published 24 Jul 2020, 02:36 IST
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