Allegri labels Juventus a mid-table team
Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri believes his side is a "mid-table team" after a 2-1 loss at Hellas Verona on Sunday (AEDT), acknowledging it is currently no better than Igor Tudor's men.
An early double from the in-form Giovanni Simeone was enough for the hosts to seal the win, despite Weston McKennie's reply 10 minutes from time.
Simeone became the seventh player in the history of Serie A to score two or more goals against Juventus for three different sides (Genoa, Cagliari and Verona). The previous player to do so was Enrico Chiesa, father of Juve star Federico.
The defeat was the fourth Juve has suffered in Serie A this season and comes after a late 2-1 reverse at home to Sassuolo just three days ago.
Sitting ninth in the league after this latest setback, Allegri insisted his team can get out of its current funk but must be realistic as well.
"Words are meaningless right now. We're in a bad situation, we have to accept the reality that right now we are a mid-table team. We can get out of this situation with a little more determination and quality," Allegri said after the game.
"We will drag ourselves out of this situation. There's no point feeling sorry for ourselves, that won't help, we just need to focus on what we need to do and then things will sort themselves out.
"It's a good squad, but things don't always go your way in football. We have to react with pride and determination. We had to play like a team that had one point, and we did, now we have to play like a team that has 15 points.
"We realised Verona was going to make it physical and a battle for every ball, so if you don’t meet them at that level, you will lose.
"Wearing the Juventus jersey does not give us a guarantee we will beat the teams in mid-table. We have to earn every point and do it with the right attitude."
When talking about playing styles, Allegri added: "Football is football, it is not fencing. You need to fight it out on the pitch at the same level. We lost a lot of tackles and aerial duels against Sassuolo too, and they are frankly not a very physical side.
"Verona knew that was how they had to play in order to beat Juventus. Our mistake was assuming we were better than Verona, and right now we are not. We must be realistic.
"There is no big team that has ever won without respecting their opponents. We are lacking that desire to fight it out, because games are a battle.
"There's nothing we can say now, we just need to stay silent and work hard to prove ourselves on the pitch."
