Tag: Consistent

As Juventus prepare for their upcoming home game against Tuscan side Empoli — whom they drew 0-0 earlier this season in September — manager Thiago Motta reflected on the game ahead and, more broadly, the team’s season thus far.

After two straight losses — the first at the hands of league leaders Napoli and the other against Portuguese giants Benfica earlier this week in the Champions League — Motta spoke of Sunday afternoon’s lunchtime matchup as an opportunity to gain momentum and confidence as the race for the top four in Serie A intensifies domestically and the club’s Champions League campaign transitions from the group phase to the knockout stage.

“I want us to win against Empoli: it is an important match, at home, and we have to put in a great performance,” Motta said. “We’re not happy with the latest results, the important thing is to focus on tomorrow’s match and to achieve success. In football everything counts, including, but not only, mentality: we work on every aspect of our game and sometimes it is frustrating when we have worked hard and not achieved the desired result.”

As the season intensifies and amid growing criticism about the Italo-Brazilian’s suitability for the Juventus job, Motta spoke about the club’s overall progression, reiterating his squad’s accomplishments while acknowledging their shortcomings. Despite representing a significant setback and a talking point throughout the season, Motta asserted that the club’s injury problems, although meaningful, can no longer be used as a scapegoat.

“The team has improved over the past few months, we are growing,” Motta said. “Injuries are not an excuse, but instead a reality that we are faced with: we will never use this as an excuse and we won’t do so in the future either. We have suffered defeats and we have to make sure we change these kinds of results.”

One of the areas that this season’s injury woes have particularly affected — and that the winter transfer window has attempted to remedy — is the defense. With key defenders Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal both out for the season with ACL injuries, and other players picking up periodic injuries due to exhaustion, Motta spoke of the defense as an integral area for improvement.

“We must improve in all aspects: defensively, apart from the mistakes that will naturally happen, we must be able to limit those situations from which we concede,” Motta said. “The objective is to become a more solid and aggressive team, to know when to press, when to strike and hurt our opponent: all aspects that we will need against Empoli.

Motta argued that the team, above all, must strive for consistency.

“To be a top team you must be consistent: in the league, instead, we have had ups and downs, due to everything we have already said,” Motta said. “We still haven’t been able to find consistency: we’ve had games where we have played well without winning, in other words without achieving what is our main goal, which we work towards every day.”

Motta also discussed his potential lineup choices against Empoli, specifically clarifying the involvement of Pierre Kalulu — who, after picking up an injury against Benfica last week in the Champions League, is the latest victim of Juventus’ injury-plagued season.

“It’s a pity we won’t have Kalulu with us, who has been almost ever present since he arrived,” Motta said. “He won’t be available tomorrow and the others I’m sure will do well in his place. The new arrivals will give us a boost: let’s see if they will help the team from the start or as substitutes tomorrow.”

However, although hampered by injuries in defense, the club — especially with the recent arrival of striker Randal Kolo Muani from Paris Saint-Germain on loan — has an abundance of options up top. Motta said, regarding his forwards and the competition that the lack of space up top has created, that: “The forwards we have in the squad can play together, because they have great characteristics and are complementary.”

Finally, Motta spoke about how the club might compensate for Kalulu’s recent injury against Empoli tomorrow. New loan signing from Chelsea, Renato Veiga, might represent an option, while shifting certain players from midfield to defense might be another.

“Veiga I see as a central defender, but not only that: he has also played as a full-back and in midfield,” Motta said. “When we need him, if we need him, I will talk to him about it — as has happened with (Weston) McKennie, who proves every game that he can play in several roles. When Kalulu got injured, (Teun) Koopmeiners was the first to come to me and offer to play as a central defender: this is the attitude I want to see from the boys, who are willing to put themselves in trouble or sacrifice themselves in order to help the team win.”