Ranieri Talk

Ranieri: It's not enough...

His Juventus shot back into Serie A with a 5-1 win, but Claudio Ranieri was still not entirely happy with the performance.

“The team continued to believe in itself and played its usual style. It wasn’t easy because Livorno are strong defensively and then try to hit you on the break, but we stayed calm and waited for the right moment to pounce,” said the Coach.

“We made a few too many mistakes, though. There were a few uncertainties in defence. We were condemned in the pre-season friendlies because we were unable to take our chances, but that wasn’t an issue this time.”

David Trezeguet netted a hat-trick and substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta – who replaced Alessandro Del Piero – bagged a brace.

“It is always wonderful for a tactician to deal with so many quality forwards. I took Del Piero off because he had international duty midweek and I wanted to keep him fresh,” explained the former Chelsea and Parma boss.

Trezeguet had announced his departure the last time he played an official match at the Stadio Olimpico, accusing the club of making an “insulting” contract offer.

“When he made that gesture at the end of the game last year I was surprised, as I had already been appointed and had a very different idea of him from our meeting in the locker room. Perhaps he thought he wasn’t part of my plans. That was not the case and you can see that now.”

Livorno grabbed a late consolation goal with Massimo Loviso, but Coach Fernando Orsi did not disguise his anger on the sidelines at the 5-1 scoreline.

“It was an acceptable performance up until the 80th minute, then I got furious because we destroyed a match in which we had kept on an even keel with Juve,” he slammed.

“With those distractions we ruined everything. We could have avoided three of those goals instead of leaving the field like this.”

When asked if he missed Cristiano Lucarelli after the move to Shakhtar Donetsk or was looking at any more reinforcements, Orsi got even more upset.

“Lucarelli is not here, so there’s no point talking about him. I am happy with my players, but tonight I would have gladly head butted them all after the fifth goal. It was totally inadmissible.”

(channel4)