Koopmeiners: ‘Juventus enjoy attacking, but must defend better’ after thrilling 2-2
Teun Koopmeiners admits Juventus feel ‘angry’ more than relieved after a 2-2 draw with Lazio, because while they enjoy the attacking approach, it is leaving them unbalanced.
It was a dramatic evening in Turin, as the Aquile had surged into a surprising 2-0 lead with goals from Pedro and Gustav Isaksen.
However, the headers from Weston McKennie and Pierre Kalulu at the 96th minute allowed Juve to claw their way back to a 2-2 draw.
Despite getting it back from 2-0 down, Juve players seemed more irritated than celebratory at the final whistle.
Koopmeiners and Juventus must find balance
“We are angry, because we had so many chances to score, but were lacking something in the final ball, we weren’t precise enough in our finishing,” Koopmeiners told DAZN Italia.
Luciano Spalletti has a very attack-minded approach and that can leave them rather unbalanced in defence, leaking quite a few goals lately.
“We want to attack all the time, and I like that, so does Spalletti. It’s a wonderful approach for Juve and we entertain the fans, but we must do better with our preventative marking. When the opponents win back the ball, we’ve got to get back into shape quicker to avoid the counter-attacks,” confessed Koopmeiners.
“Perhaps we need more concentration, a bit more communication in the way we defend and attack. When you see today’s game, we certainly need to do better in these situations.”
Juventus had 33 shots on goal to just eight this evening from Lazio.
Koopmeiners had the ball in the net when it was 0-0, but the goal was disallowed because Khephren Thuram was offside and got out of the way to let it through, so was inevitably interfering with play.
“I thought it was a great moment, we would’ve gone 1-0 up, but I didn’t see Thuram, I just tried to drill the shot through some legs, I thought they belonged to defenders and not him,” noted the Dutchman.