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The reigning Serie A champions began their new season with a new coach and a more offensive style of play.
Andrea Pirlo has unleashed the shackles and given Juventus players much more freedom to attack opponents, according to veteran defender Leonardo Bonucci.
Juve replaced Maurizio Sarri with rookie coach Pirlo last month and the legendary midfielder began his tenure with a 3-0 win over Sampdoria in Juve’s opener in 2020-21 Serie A on Sunday.
Reigning champions Juve registered 20 shots at Allianz Stadium and scored on three of them, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Bonucci and rookie Dejan Kulusevski finding the back of the net.
And after a largely disappointing campaign last time with Sarri, Bonucci believes Pirlo has already made big changes during his short time on the bench.
“We saw some new ideas proposed by the coach and his squad, a new way of interpreting the game, a lot of excitement both in possession and off the ball,” he said. Sky Sport Italia.
“The big difference is the way we are attacking the game and taking the initiative, trying to bring the result home. Looking at the work of the last few weeks and this game, I think it’s better.
“There are different movements, since with Sarri we moved much more as a group in defense, while with Pirlo we are more one against one, which gives us more freedom to be aggressive and recover the ball more frequently.
“We have four central midfielders with the right characteristics to play like this. They are aggressive and also good at passing the ball. That way, we have more quality in possession, which I see as a difference from last season.”
– Goal (@goal) September 20, 2020
Sarri was reportedly fired by Juventus after failing to conquer the locker room with his style of play, which earned him many fans at Serie A rival Napoli.
However, Bonucci insisted that rumors that the club’s old guard forced Sarri out the door are misplaced.
“We accept any changes made by the club,” he said. “This season, the new coach is Pirlo, who changed the way we understood football that we had last year.
“It is too early to say if he is right or not, but he is different, with a very precise mentality of being aggressive and not wanting to conceal goals.
“We had the same attitude last year, because you can’t win nine Scudetti in a row without it.
“We are old enough to behave like true professionals. Pirlo is now our coach and we have the utmost respect for all of our coaches, as well as we try to help all of our coaches from inside the locker room.”
“Fortunately, this is a team full of great men who are used to working with great champions. That makes it easier for everyone involved.”
When asked if Pirlo reminded him more of Sarri or Massimiliano Allegri, another of his former bosses in Turin, Bonucci said: “Much more like Allegri, that’s obvious.
“Pirlo has the same impact that he had as a player, you knew you could give him the ball and trust that he would not lose it. Now he is the same as a coach. There is the same confidence.”
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