Massimiliano Allegri described himself as “angry” after he saw his Juventus side surrender a goal advantage to draw 1-1 against a depleted AC Milan.
The result means the Bianconeri are winless from their opening four Serie A fixtures, with their two-point haul leaving them 18th in the table. It’s their worst start to a league campaign for 60 years.
It appeared for much of the contest that Juventus were heading towards their first domestic victory of the campaign, however. The hosts dominated proceedings in the first half after Alvaro Morata gave them an early lead. After the break, however, they failed to lay a glove on an improving Milan as Allegri’s conservative approach handed the Rossoneri a route back into the contest.
Although Juve did a good job at preventing the visitors from creating anything, Milan eventually equalised through Ante Rebic after some poor set-piece organisation on the Bianconeri’s behalf.
It was a huge missed opportunity for Juventus, and the result left their manager fuming.
Angry Allegri
“I’m angry tonight. We had a good first half, in the second half we risked losing it. Until the 1-1, we were in full control,” Allegri told DAZN (via Football Italia).
After Rebic levelled things up, Milan looked the likelier of the two sides to snatch a late winner. Rebic and Pierre Kalulu both spurned promising openings for the Rossoneri.
Juventus didn’t know how to react after Rebic’s equaliser, although Allegri did respond by introducing Dejan Kulusevski after Moise Kean and the returning Federico Chiesa had already been brought on.
However, Kulusevski’s arrival onto the field at the expense of the instrumental Paulo Dybala did raise some eyebrows and Allegri admitted post-match that he got his substitutions wrong. Although, it probably isn’t for the reasons you suspect.
“I will admit that I made mistakes on the substitutions, I got it wrong. I should’ve put more defensive players on and put the 1-0 lead under lock and key, so I take responsibility for that,” he added.
More defensive players? Really?!
Nevertheless, it was certainly a surprise to see Adrien Rabiot, Manuel Locatelli and Rodrigo Bentancur last the full 90 minutes considering they were all involved from the outset against Malmo, with Rabiot and Locatelli completing 90 minutes on that occasion as well. There’s no doubting that a fatiguing engine room was a factor in Juve’s second-half demise.
Aaron Ramsey and Weston McKennie were unused options off the bench on Sunday.
Those final 15 minutes
A visibly frustrated Allegri throughout his post-match duties persistently lamented the final 15 minutes in which Juventus looked vulnerable to suffering yet another domestic defeat.
Fortunately, though, the out of sorts Wojciech Szczesny saved superbly from Kalulu late on to preserve a point.
“What makes me angry are the final 15 minutes. We should’ve suffered more, been ready to fight tooth and nail. At those moments, you can’t look at being aesthetically beautiful, you just take the result home, even if it’s ugly,” Allegri said.
“I know you lot love talking about tactical systems, but when you are in front with 15 minutes to go, having practically not allowed Milan any shots on target, the system is irrelevant. You can be disorganised, but you need to be determined. If we take this attitude, it’s unlikely we can win the league.
“We could have lost the game in the end, luckily the referee blew his whistle,” the boss added.
Following a pair of tough fixtures against Napoli and Milan, Juventus can now look forward to a trio of winnable encounters before they host Jose Mourinho’s Roma on October 17.
The Bianconeri take on Spezia, Sampdoria and Torino in the Derby della Mole before the next international break.