Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri wouldn’t reveal if he will play the trident against Sampdoria tomorrow or if he would decide to rest Cristiano Ronaldo.
After the impressive displays against Udinese and Bayer Leverkusen, the fans are calling for Sarri to play Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain and Ronaldo in a lethal trio, but the coach is not sure if it will be the case against Claudio Ranieri’s men.
“I still don’t know if I will play the trident again tomorrow, I want to see how the players are,” Sarri said at a press conference. “Yesterday, we did some light training, I must do another training session before the match, to figure out how to deal with Sampdoria.
“They’re a team that comes from an enthusiastic success in the derby and the teams of Mr. Ranieri is always difficult to play against.”
Lazio beat Cagliari 2-1 on Monday and their next game is against Juventus in the Supercoppa, giving them two extra days to rest before the showdown in Saudi Arabia.
“That’s the calendar and it’s OK,” Sarri said. “The mistake was to make the Biancocelesti play on Monday. Now, they’ve chosen to do it like this, and it’s useless to linger.”
Sarri admitted that he hasn’t decided if he should play Cristiano Ronaldo in his fifth consecutive game.
“Let’s see, I still have to decide. In general, those up front seem fine. Douglas Costa and [Aaron] Ramsey are also returning.
“[For Adrien Rabiot] it seems like he still needs more time to play, if he has completely recovered, he can safely enter the pitch. We are asking for a lot of sacrifices from [Blaise] Matuidi, maybe he will just do a little bit this time.”
Juventus are drawn Olympique Lyonnais in the last 16 of the Champions League, but Sarri wants to focus on what’s to come next.
“I don’t care right now, there are other games in between them and there’s also the transfer market. It wouldn’t be fair to give a judgement right now.
“The biggest fear was to face Real Madrid and we avoided it, so it could have been worse, yes. But, anyway, it’s always difficult in the Champions League.”