Sarri: 'My Dybala opinion doesn't count'

By Football Italia staff

Maurizio Sarri hit out at Juventus for the “embarrassing situation” with players who need to be sold, while declaring his “opinion on Paulo Dybala counts for zero.”

The Coach was his usual brutally honest self in a Press conference after the 2-1 International Champions Cup defeat to Atletico Madrid in Stockholm.

“I am fairly satisfied with the performance and I liked the attitude, especially in the first half, against a team that was in better physical shape than us.

“We should never concede a goal like the second, but that’s all part of pre-season work and training. We moved the ball around well technically in the first half and I’d not seen that for such long periods.”

Sarri was asked what his ideas were for the transfer market and immediately cut off the reporter.

“Sometimes, I get really astonished when I read your papers. You go on about Sarri’s choices, the choices of (director of sport Fabio) Paratici.

“Did you look at the Juventus squad? We have to cut six players to fit into the Champions League list, which I haven’t read anywhere. Otherwise these choices might look insane.

“We have to cut six players from the current squad and that puts me in a difficult position. The last 20 days of the market will be difficult for us, it’s an embarrassing situation, because we risk having to leave out players of a very high level.

“It’s a situation we have to resolve and it is not just about the decisions made by Coach or club.”

Dybala was on the verge of joining Manchester United and then Tottenham Hotspur, only for personal terms to stall everything, so Sarri was asked how he saw La Joya in the side?

“Dybala only had two training sessions with me, so all evaluations are premature. Clearly, he can’t be at the top of his condition physically and that also affects what he can do as a False 9.

“I think he has the characteristics to play in that role, but we’ll have to see how we can fill the penalty area with that solution.

“As I said before, I can talk to Dybala all I like, but the market goes in a certain direction and my opinion counts for zero. We have to cut six players, that’s all there is to it.

“I’d love to keep them all, but our problem is that we don’t have players who grew up at this club, there’s only one, so our entire Champions League squad will be 22 players with three goalkeepers. That forces us to make decisions on the market that we don’t want to make.”

Sarri was asked if he thinks his Juventus will be ready for the opening Serie A game against Parma on the weekend of August 24.

“Usually, I don’t start seasons well. Aside from Chelsea, where I think I set a record for going unbeaten at the start of a Premier League career, in Italy I always struggled in the early weeks.”

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