Maurizio Sarri gave his first interview to Juventus TV on Thursday, where he touched on several of the issues he raised during his unveiling.


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My first feeling is the awareness that I’ve arrived at a very important club. Then, beyond the clubs, the feelings are created by people, and last night I saw a group of people with a great mentality and determination, which was great. My impressions are that they’re a club with great harmony and compactness.

About the Chelsea experience: Going abroad was a decision that I’d thought about for a while, and after doing it I realised that it was an extraordinary experience. It’s clear that right now, the Premier League is the best League in the world in terms of visibility, and the technical level is very high, with great facilities. The atmosphere in the stadiums is fantastic, the fans all go together to the stadiums, showing their support in their numbers, with children and families all around the benches.

On Cristiano Ronaldo: It’s easier for a great player to make a manager great than vice versa. When, as a manager, you start at 35 years of age, you think you can have a certain type of impact, then with experience you realise you have an impact until a certain point, but to go beyond that the quality of your players is decisive.

About the next season: Wins are always the result of your work. I have a tough legacy to follow as this is a club who have won a lot. It’s going to be hard in the next five years to repeat the results of the last five, as well as the numbers reached. Therefore, we have to try to forget about all these responsibilities, have fun and entertain while prolonging these sequences of victories and experience playing in Europe for what it is. In that, I mean such a winning and overwhelming Juve in Italy makes you think it should be the same in Europe, but unfortunately Serie A TIM isn’t like that.

The Bianconeri’s coach was then asked about his approach to set-pieces, before giving his verdict on the new season: I show all my players different tactics for set pieces, like all teams do, and of course we keep them for 2-3 games or sometimes we change them every game. From a coaching aspect, it’ll be a season that very much sparkles. That’s because Antonio Conte is back at a big club, Giampaolo finally has his chance at a big club, which he’s deserved for many years. There’s Ancelotti at Napoli and the arrival of Fonseca, who in my opinion is a young guy that deserves a lot of attention. At Sassuolo there’s De Zerbi, whose one of the young emerging Coaches. I don’t how all the other negotiations will end and I don’t want to leave anyone out, but the movement of all the Coaches has made us feel like we can start something new and make some changes.