Player Talk : Legro

Legrottaglie: «When we have a full crew we're really strong»

The decisive moment of the season is coming – three matches out of the next five will be against rivals for a place in the top four, i.e. Udinese, Roma and Fiorentina, plus the derby – and Claudio Ranieri can smile again. One after the other, all the injured big names are coming back (Camoranesi, Chiellini e Buffon) and fortunately it also proved to be a false alarm for Trezeguet, who hobbled off the pitch during Tuesday's training session.

And what a full-crew Juventus can offer is obvious to everyone, as Nicola Legrottaglie himself confirmed during the press conference in Vinovo: «When we're all fit, we're really strong as a team. The recent lapse in form is understandable because some of us have played a lot and it isn't easy to keep up for several matches in a row. Luckily we held on, we got a few draws and never lost a game. It's true, Sunday we missed a chance, but we're happy with how we're doing».

The Puglia-born defender is becoming more and more of a leader, on the pitch as well as in the changing rooms. And he had words of praise for the whole team today: «All teams find it hard to beat us when we have a full squad. We've played an excellent tournament up until now, no-one was expecting us to do so well, and we want to continue like this. We have some important matches ahead of us now. Our wish is to repeat what we did in the first part of the season and winning Sunday in Udine would be a huge leap forward, it would allow us to fight for 2nd place with Roma. We've always done well against the big teams; we have to do it again».

An important moment at the Friuli for Juventus and their defence, then: Legrottaglie defends how the back four have operated, getting ready to team up with Chiellini and Buffon again and getting more in tune with Sissoko too. «When the defence has its own mechanisms that work it's easier than when you have to change all the time. We did very well with Giorgio. Buffon? When a big star like that is missing you feel it, even though Belardi replaced him very well, but Gigi earns points on his own and makes you feel safe. Sissoko has made a good impression on me. He's young and physically powerful. He is a complete player and will do well in Italy. With him, Zanetti, Nocerino and Tiago we won't have any problems in midfield for the rest of the season».

(juventus.com)