Luciano Spalletti: Inter showed more team cohesion than us

Juventus lost 1–2 to Inter in a fiercely contested friendly played in Perth, Australia. After the match, Turin side head coach Luciano Spalletti spoke to Sky Sport about his team’s current condition, the performance of the new players and the opponents’ superiority. Goal.com reports that the

According to Goal.com, the performances of the new signings who took part in the match — Randal Kolo Muani and Alajbegovich — did not go unnoticed by the coach. The head coach stressed that he rates these players highly, knew them well even before they joined the team and had followed them closely.

New players and physical condition

According to Spalletti, Alajbegovich had previously also been monitored by Massara, and this transfer inspired confidence within the management. However, both players only joined the squad recently, so their physical condition is not yet fully up to the required standard.

The coach said: “They joined the team only three days ago, and perhaps asking them to perform at full intensity for an entire half was somewhat difficult.” Nevertheless, he praised the new players’ potential and said he would try to use their abilities correctly.

Team balance and the opponents’ superiority

Summing up the result, Spalletti acknowledged that Juventus have enough highly talented players with outstanding individual ability, but said there is still a great deal of work to do to bring them together as a cohesive team and find the right balance.

“We have enough players of significant quality in the squad, but we need to think about how to find the right balance and how to become a real team. In the first half of the evening’s match, Inter showed that they were more of a team than us. This is a demanding process that we must go through,” the coach said.

This test between two Italian football giants was an important stage of their preseason preparations and gave both teams an opportunity to analyse the mistakes they need to address. Juventus must restore balance within the squad and take the necessary steps forward.