Pressure Mounting On Ancelotti
Wednesday 1st November 2000
Juventus� 2-1 defeat at home to Udinese has increased the pressure on Carlo Ancelotti and the manager admitted after the game that his side are giving opponents too many chances to score.
Ancelotti was the only Juventus representative speaking after the 2-1 defeat as the players continued their boycott of the press.
"This is not a good time for us," Ancelotti admitted after the game.
"We suffered a new defeat today but it was not all bad. We played some good football until Sosa scored, dominating a good team like Udinese, but after the goal we opened ourselves up for their counter-attacks.
It was a pensive Ancelotti who spoke and went quiet for a while before saying: "I think we are in a good shape physically and the players are not afraid. Our problem is that we concede too many goals. We give our opponents too many chances and we didn�t to that last season.
"There is a very thin line between heaven and hell in football," he added.
He refused to admit that Paolo Montero�s was the reason for Juventus� shaky performances recently. "The problem is not Montero. We played very well against Milan without Montero and that is not where the problem lies.
" I think I know where the problems are and I will discuss it with the players," Ancelotti said.
Udinese manager Luigi De Canio meanwhile was a happier man altogether. "There is a long way to go," he said. "We must go on step by step, match by match. It�s really too early to dream about being top of the league.
"We cannot afford to miss chances like that however. We won today but we might not have on another day.
De Canio also refused to talk about coaching a bigger team. "I don�t want to think about that. I only want to think about Udinese," he said.
