Spalletti relieved to see Juventus bounce back
Luciano Spalletti admitted Juventus's defeat to Sassuolo last week had created doubt in the Bianconeri's ranks, and he was delighted to see his side banish that feeling by beating Atalanta.
Juve suffered its first defeat of the Serie A campaign on matchday four, conceding a stoppage-time winner to Vasilije Adzic in a 3-2 loss to Sassuolo.
However, it bounced back in style with a 2-0 success against Atalanta and it former coach Maurizio Sarri, with Francisco Conceicao and Bremer on target.
Juve has won three of its first five games of a Serie A season while keeping a clean sheet in each victory for the first time since 2017-2018, when it went on to win the Scudetto under Massimiliano Allegri.
With a three-week international break now on the horizon, Spalletti was relieved to see his team cast aside the negativity of its previous Serie A outing.
"There was a moment when we were forced to defend, then we had to change something and, from there, we got back on track and played on an equal footing in the second half," Spalletti said.
"We can certainly get better with the start of our actions and in the build-up. We could have hurt Atalanta more.
"But that's okay, also because the defeat against Sassuolo had created some doubts for us."
"He had a really good game. I was disappointed when he popped up one-on-one with the goalkeeper because he deserved to score," Spalletti said.
"But he was still very happy at the end and we joked about it. We're all happy because now we can recover some of our strong players, who would have been useful to us recently."
While Juve is seventh in the table going into the break with 10 points on the board, Atalanta are four points worse off in 11th.
Sarri – a Scudetto winner in his only season in charge of Juventus in 2019-2020 – has now lost nine Serie A matches against the Bianconeri, his joint-most against any club.
Though La Dea have now lost three straight games, Sarri insists there is no crisis brewing in Bergamo.
"I don't think so, the first three games were a lower level of performance, but we have been improving," he said. "This team needs to have more character, to light up that fire in its soul. This is a side with certain capabilities and we need to access them."
Luciano Spalletti
Juventus FC
