De Zerbi: 'Sassuolo won't change for Juve'

Roberto De Zerbi insists Sassuolo ‘mustn’t change our identity’ even against Juventus, as after four consecutive victories, the ‘objective is to catch Milan’ in the table.

It kicks off on Wednesday at 20.45 UK time (19.45 GMT).

You can read the betting preview for Sassuolo vs. Juventus on Eurotips.co.uk.

“The victory with Lazio fuelled our enthusiasm, but tomorrow there’s an equally difficult game, perhaps even more so,” said the coach in his press conference.

“We’ve found our identity this season, it is precise and we mustn’t change it based on the opponent or situation. Juventus are the leaders, but we must maintain our own approach to football and do what we do best, aware we also have to be more focused than ever to avoid errors.

“After all, a loose ball in the path of Cristiano Ronaldo or Paulo Dybala is different to the same ball at the feet of a player in a mid-to-low table team. The important thing is that when we’ve got the ball, we do what we know best.”

Sassuolo are certainly not shy of going forward, as they have scored 17 goals in their last six Serie A games, including 3-3 draws with Inter and Hellas Verona.

They are unbeaten in six and on a run of four consecutive victories, which increased the Neroverdi’s ambitions.

“Milan are just in front of us and they are having an extraordinary campaign, especially in the second half. If they hadn’t equalised with Napoli, we would’ve closed on them in the table,” continued De Zerbi.

“We respect Milan, but the objective is to target their position in the standings and we shouldn’t be ashamed of having that as our aim. After the four straight wins, people look at us differently now, but we are still the same team and we’ve not reached our end goal yet.”

Sassuolo have rotated the squad probably more than any other team since the restart, showing remarkable strength in depth.

“I change because it’s necessary, not just to keep everyone happy. Sassuolo cannot afford to play the same men every three days and I know there are replacements who are different, but by no means inferior, they just have different characteristics.

“I have to keep the fitness levels up, because our style requires a lot of running.”

Gregoire Defrel, Pedro Obiang and Filippo Romagna are still out injured.