Massimiliano Allegri, bad news: Pulisic at risk for Torino

Massimiliano Allegri spoke in a press conference on the eve of the match against Torino: “We have to be ready to play a solid game, because we have to reverse some numbers against a team that has been giving us a hard time. We will face a team with players with important technical value, they are physical and playing in their home is not easy. We have to play a concrete game being clear about the goal. We are at a point in the season where, from now until the end of January, the standings will be outlined. We have to stay within the top four. Everything depends on the winning streaks that can be made, Inter and Napoli are equipped to win the championship. We have to have the strength to stay there. Bulletin? Gimenezwe hope to have him soon, he is important for us. Pulisiche had a fever tonight, let’s see if he will be there. Fofana we hope to have him with Sassuolo. We have an important week between tomorrow and Sassuolo, the’goal is to make two positive results”.

“For us it is important to follow up on the results, against Lazio we were belligerent and we didn&#8217t have nastiness to bring home the result. This must be seen as an’opportunity for improvement, because when there&#8217s nastiness you hardly get goals on loose balls. We started well with Loftus-Cheek in Lecce, then we stopped. They will come, we need to improve in the loose balls. The important thing is to play as a team, we did that on Thursday and it was perhaps one of the best games. But it is not enough, we need to continue to improve the phases and be clear about what is the’goal”.

In December, however, a first balance can be made: “I am not fully satisfied, not because I am not but because we have to come to Milanello to always improve. We have to work on what we do wrong, we have to have the conviction to improve. Everyone has to work to achieve the maximum, nothing is impossible. We have to work for 10, but if we don’t get to 10 and we work to get there it’s okay. We have to save mental energy, wanting things becomes crucial. We by hook or by crook next year have to play Champions. To win we have to get our shorts dirty, otherwise the result is not taken home: if we leave the field clean, the results are not taken home. When we don’t have the ball we have to defend all together, as the boys are doing. But we have to keep working and improving, every game has the two difficulties: we have to be focused on the final goal by taking one small step at a time. Without getting depressed after defeats, we were very sorry after the defeat in the Italian Cup, but tomorrow we have an opportunity to continue the path in the league. It is not a matter of 5 games, because then we still have 19 more to go. We need 74-76 to get into the Champions League, then I don&#8217t know how many we need for the Scudetto because it will depend on the string of results of those in front. We think one small step at a time, knowing that the ambition has to be maximum, but the goal has to be clear and that is to play the Champions. And it is not easy to reach it”.

“We can also a little bit’change as characteristics of the players. It is normal that when we find teams like Lazio, in blocked matches, you have to score in one of the three chances we had” concluded Allegri.