Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri concerned by 'bad vibes'

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has delivered a warning for his players after sensing they are not totally focused after winning the Serie A title for the fourth year in succession.

The Bianconeri defeated Lechia Gdansk 2-1 in a friendly on Wednesday night, thanks to goals from Paul Pogba and Mario Mandzukic, but it was only the result that pleased Allegri.

He was not happy with the attitude of some of his players, particularly Alvaro Morata, whom he withdrew only 25 minutes after sending him on.

"Alvaro annoyed me," Allegri said in a news conference. "It wasn't his day and I wasn't happy with him. It wasn't only the mistakes he made, but it was his attitude. It was wrong. Each time he got something wrong, he just stopped and that's why I brought him off."

Morata headed straight for the dressing room, ignoring the coach's calls for him to take his place on the bench.

 "I've got to praise him because after he came off, he put himself through a full training session all by himself," Allegri said.

That is more the attitude Allegri hopes to see from his players moving forward having seen things he does not like since returning to work after the summer.

"There are some bad vibes around here," he said. "Everybody's saying that we're favourites, but let me tell you that's not true. It's going to be difficult to win this year so before this negativity gets contagious, it's best we stop it immediately."

"We've made progress physically, but we need to improve the quality of our game, the speed and our passing. We've got plenty of new players and they need to get used to playing together and get to know each other.

"We still need a bit of time, even if we've got the Supercoppa coming up already and we've got to get there in the best possible condition."

Morata eased the tension after the match by posting a tweet in which he said it had been "a good game for our preparations," showing him smiling together with his teammates.

In a tweet of his own, Allegri spoke of "progress in our game, our decision-making and in our form, but we can still get better. Thanks to Gdansk for the welcome!"

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