At 02:45 CET on October 12, Juventus will face Cagliari away in Serie A Matchday 6. Ahead of the match, Juventus head coach Spalletti held a press conference. This article presents excerpts from the press conference.

Related Articles

【Spalletti: Locatelli is a selfless leader ready to sacrifice individual performance】

【Spalletti: Koopmeiners is like wearing 3D glasses; he's a world-class deep-lying playmaker】

Good afternoon, Coach. I wanted to ask if you could share details about how the squad was managed during the recent long international break. This includes player mentality, maintaining focus, sustaining fitness and form, and any other details you'd like to share.

Of course. A long international break has both advantages and disadvantages. In this case, managing the squad was straightforward. A longer break means sufficient time to rest and recover, which helps restore physical and mental fatigue from a congested schedule—such as continuous exhaustion. In such cases, rest is the only medicine.

That's how we managed it: with adequate time, we conducted detailed individual assessments for each player who stayed to train and created personalized training and recovery plans for them, maximizing this period.

Coach, I'd also like to ask about the condition of players returning from international duty. Do any of them need rest after consecutive appearances? Also, could a player like Zegrova, who wasn't in the European competition squad, potentially make his first Serie A start tomorrow?

Zegrova is one of those players. In recent training sessions, he's regularly rotated between starting and reserve lineups in small-sided games. I don't recall the exact lineup. I'll review and check the playing time afterwards, then I'll call you. Can I call you sometimes? No, I won't call anyone (laughs)—I've already chosen who I'll call. I'll call him, and he'll pass the information to you and everyone else.

But seriously, I must emphasize that all players returning from international duty have very positive mentality. Their performances in recent training sessions have been particularly good, and I'm satisfied with their focus, overall tempo, and execution during training.

Of course, we've also adjusted their training load based on the matches they played for their respective national teams and their return dates, as some players only returned to training yesterday. Either way, we're delighted to have these excellent players at this time, and we're even more satisfied with their current physical and mental condition.

Cagliari has had an excellent start to the season with unusual statistics: aside from Frosinone, they appear to concede the most shots in Serie A this season, with very high expected goals against (xGA). Yet they've only conceded two goals so far, making them among the best defenses in Serie A and even Europe for fewest goals conceded. What key characteristics have you identified when studying Cagliari? Does facing a team with such paradoxical statistics create additional tactical difficulties?

You've summarized it very well—one must know how to interpret statistics correctly, combining data with reality. Otherwise, numbers are just abstract, lifeless data that can distort and reverse what's actually happening. After watching several of their matches early this season, I believe Pisacane and Giulini (Cagliari president) fully deserve the points they've accumulated so far—though this doesn't include victories from last season that they didn't deserve.

So we know this will be an extremely difficult match. They deliberately cede possession to you—exactly as you've accurately summarized—they'll even actively invite you to push your formation forward into their half because they have players capable of quickly launching counterattacks after winning possession, with excellent dribbling and ball control skills in tight spaces. So even with aggressive counter-pressing like in previous years, they can neutralize it.

They have standout players this season, such as Maldini, who is displaying his full potential in their lineup. Therefore, in that match, we must perform exceptionally well, extremely decisively, extremely sharply, and extremely intensely. Because if you give them space, they know exactly how to exploit and punish you.

Good afternoon, Coach. I wanted to ask about the medical situation and injury list. Besides Cambiaso, have any other players recovered and returned to the main squad? If I'm not mistaken, we seem to have seen Cabal return, and is Cambiaso ready? What's his current recovery status? A week ago we saw him play an hour against Cremonese.

Regarding Cambiaso, he's been completing all training sessions consistently and properly, and is among the players performing well. As I've said before, I'm satisfied with all our current players. You can't avoid obstacles and unexpected situations in life or in a match; standing here constantly describing and discussing them is a complete waste of time. When an obstacle—or what people usually call a problem—is in front of you, the only thing you can do is face it, overcome it, and conquer it. So we're very satisfied with the players we have, and we'll take the field with our current squad, giving everything to try to win this match.

Website AF đã ra mắt! Xem tin tức đầy đủ, bình luận, chi tiết trận đấu và thống kê trên máy tính. Truy cập: www.allfootballapp.com