Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri urged his under-fire team to manage their nerves ahead of Saturday s trip to Serie A champions Milan.
Juve have only won three of their eight Serie A matches this season, and Allegri has faced severe criticism with the Bianconeri already seven points behind leaders Napoli.
While Allegri s team boosted their Champions League hopes by beating Maccabi Haifa on Wednesday, they go to San Siro having failed to win any of their three away league games this term.
Should they fail to beat the Rossoneri, it will be just the second time they have started a Serie A season with a four-match winless run on the road, having done so in 1993-94.
Allegri believes his team s problems are primarily psychological, saying: The other day I was reflecting, we made a mistake with Salernitana [in a 2-2 draw last month], regardless of what happened at the end.
We got too nervous and it doesn t have to happen any more, because the championship is long.
We wasted a lot of energy and we arrived at Monza not in the ideal conditions to get the three points that would have changed the standings.
The most important thing is to give continuity, tomorrow is a great game and we have to play it. We need a high level of performance.
Focus shifts from Maccabi to Milan
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen)
However, they have a strong team, with technical and very fast players. They have [Rafael] Leao who can shift the balance, then they play in front of their fans and San Siro pushes them when full.
You need personality and clarity. It will be a good test.
It is Milan-Juventus, we play against the Italian champions and it will be more difficult than usual because they come from a bad defeat [3-0 to Chelsea], and they will want to make up for it.
Allegri led Milan to the Scudetto in the 2010-11 season, but Stefano Pioli ended the Rossoneri s 11-year wait to replicate that triumph in May.
The Juventus boss heaped praise on his counterpart as he added: He is doing better [than myself], because they have four points more than us.
I can only congratulate Pioli for the work he is doing, for the championship he won last year, which they haven t won since 2011. The numbers are all on his side.
Milan have avoided defeat in four of their last five Serie A meetings with Juventus (W2 L2), having lost 13 of their previous 14 league games against them (W1).
