Claudio Ranieri insists Juventus may be struggling, but they never fell into a real crisis and will prove it against Catania.
The Turin giants slipped to third place after two consecutive defeats and had a boost midweek when defeating Napoli in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals in a penalty shoot-out.
“We lost two games, that is true, but we never went into a spiral,” assured the Coach following losses to Udinese and Cagliari.
“We are not at the top of our form the same way we were in November and December, but neither have we crash-landed. Qualifying for the Coppa semi-final gave us back some of the confidence and motivation we had lost, so we hope there is no setback in the League.
“We made mistakes and the defeat to Cagliari was because we were too hasty in looking for the victory, so we lost our unity. We’ve got to go back to a cold and reasoned approach.”
Ranieri will be without the injured Paolo De Ceglie – who sustained a collapsed lung during that Napoli match – Giorgio Chiellini, Hasan Salihamidzic, Cristiano Zanetti, Claudio Marchisio, Jonathan Zebina and Dario Knezevic.
There are doubts hanging over Nicola Legrottaglie, too, but David Trezeguet is finally ready to start and could partner Amauri.
“I will decide the night before who to field in attack. Trezeguet and [Vincenzo] Iaquinta are recovering well. Amauri is excellent at receiving the ball and similar in that way to Trezeguet and [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic.”
It is a tricky test against Catania, who already held Juventus to a 1-1 draw here last season and the same result in Turin.
“They have notched up a remarkable number of points on home turf and often play with three forwards,” continued Ranieri.
“It is a difficult game which will be played in a passionate atmosphere. They will remember the 3-0 Coppa Italia tie they lost against us earlier this term and will be eager for revenge.”
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