Juve Might Not Hit Form For Weeks, Admits Lippi
Friday 12th October 2001
Juventus coach Marcello Lippi has blamed his side's loss of form ahead of the Turin derby on the transfer upheaval at the club over the summer and a series of suspensions.
"It is difficult to play in Europe without Nedved, Davids and Montero," he moaned.
The Delle Alpi giants have gone four games without a win since their fortuitous Champions' League victory over Celtic, drawing at Lecce, Rosenborg and Porto, while losing at home to Roma.
Juve particularly seemed to miss Zinedine Zidane in their dismal goalless draw in Portugal on Wednesday and Lippi admitted: "We did not play well, that's for sure.
"We made a lot of mistakes and created very few chances. I think the problem is that the squad changed so much over the summer. We don't have the team we thought we would have here.
"It is not a problem with the players. They are not guilty, even if we did play badly last weekend against Roma."
Pavel Nedved, Edgar Davids and Paolo Montero have all been missing in the Champions' League owing to dismissals, while David Trezeguet and Nicola Amoruso are injured.
And Lippi said: "That has been the difficulty. We have lost players because of red cards and injuries. I think we probably need another five or seven games before we see the real Juve."
The derby would be an ideal time to rediscover their form, but Lippi dampened expectations of a Juve victory over Torino.
"This is a match unlike any other," he said. "In derbies, the weaker team usually plays more aggressively than in any other game. We have to play with the same passion as Torino unless we want a lot of problems."
