Saturday, January 17, 2009
Ranieri : "Now Is The Time To Work Hard…"
The first round ended with yet another victory. Now after the victorious intermezzo in the Coppa Italia Juventus are about to fly to Rome where they will meet Lazio in what promises to be a spectacular but difficult match.Claudio Ranieri speaks of this and much more in the press conference held on the eve of the match.
The first match of the second round of the championship sees Juventus playing away to Lazio who are fresh from a good victory last Sunday and who have the likes of Zarate and Pandev in the team.
Do you have a formation in mind already? What about Lazio?
"I will think of the formation tonight. You know which players are available and which are not. Lazio is in good form. They have a good team, Delio Rossi and Loitto put together a good squad. I had spoken of them as being amongst the top teams".
"They had problems last year because of injuries so they couldn’t repeat the performance of the previous season. This year we will be playing a difficult match. They are fast and organized. We however are ready and will do our best".
What about Buffon and Chiellini?
" Buffon should be in the starting line-up. I will talk to him but things seem ok. He rested against Catania and is now ready. Chiellini has this muscular problem. It seemed like a little thing but it was more then we thought. He came back from the break and felt something. Certain small injuries take more time. There are some players who recover fast and others who need more time".
How do you fell about the problems in the defence?
"I feel as always. We had problems before in the midfield which I overcame by changing Nedved’s position,. This is the first time this season we have so many defenders missing but I have good players and we’ll see what we can do".
What about Ariaudo? Will he be in the starting line-up?
"I have to think and and consider everything because there are various aspects and so I must think well about it. Lazio have fast players so I have to think before taking a decision".
Do you feel demoralized since you had hoped to find the full team available after returning from the Christmas break? Will Juventus buy any new players in January?
"I am not demoralized. Things aren’t worse then they were before the break. We have to deal with Chiellini’s injury and Grygera’ suspension but these are not long term problems and we should have everybody back in two weeks time. No. I don’t think we need new players,. We cannot have a squad of 40 after all only 11 go on the field".
What do you think of this new trend of big investors trying to poach champions away from their teams? Do you fear losing Buffon? Will Milan be weaker without Kaka’ and would you sell him?
"I think that until there are people ready to invest in football they are welcome as long as they don’t open a vortex. As a sportsman I wouldn’t like Kaka’ to leave because Italian football would be loosing a champion but I can’t interfere with Milan’s plans".
"Buffon? They seem to be thinking of others so I don’t think I have the worries Ancelotti has at the moment. Milan without Kaka is different but here we have a number of beautiful examples of players leaving but the squad still going strong: Vialli, Baggio, Zidane, Platini..."
What do you expect the table to look like after tomorrow?
"Honestly, I don’t look at the table but think of what we can do to do well. We will look at the table at the end of the season. Now is the time to work hard".
What are the things to think about? Do you think Milan will be weakened if Kaka’ leaves?
"The more good teams the better because the points are more open. I think of my team and at the moment of Lazio. I know what Lazio is capable of doing when in good form so I look at what I can do and not what can happen to others".
Do you think Juventus are capable of changing tactics since you seem to have a 4-4-2 formation as default?
"We did it when we needed to. We changed formation as was necessary. It depends on how you express yourself best. Up to now Juventus has always been clever enough not to allow the other team to impose the game but dictate theirs on others".
Juventus.com
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