Ranieri: “We need to be calm and work hard against Juventus”

Half a season has passed since Sampdoria suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat to Juventus on the opening day of the 2020/21 campaign.

Since then, Claudio Ranieri’s side have performed impressively, accruing 26 points by the halfway stage – and the boss is confident that his team is a world away from the one that lost in Turin some three months ago.

“We’re a different side to the one from the away game,” said Ranieri, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “We’ve brought in new players and other players have got into good shape. I believe we can still improve.”

Ranieri made it clear what Sampdoria would need to do to get anything from the game at Marassi on Saturday evening.

“We need to stay calm and work hard – and we need to get a bit of luck too,” he said. “These teams have great players that can always produce something. Juve are in the title race – they have a new coach but they’re doing well and they’re one of the teams that can win it. This season is very open at the top and at the bottom.”

The coach insisted that the attitude shown by his team would be crucial ahead of the 18:00 CET kick-off.

“All players want to be involved in these games – they need to play with desire and determination, not like we did in the game in Turin,” he said. “I’m not wedded to one particular system, but it helps to have as much quality as possible on the pitch. You need to strike the right balance. We made a few mistakes at Parma – we can’t leave ourselves so exposed. We had [Emil] Audero to thank for getting us the win. I like it when the team plays well and scores goals, but I also like not conceding. We’ve had 12 different scorers, which is a lot. It’s a good sign, because football is about hard work, sacrifice and helping each other out.”