Lippi puts Del Piero in his place

August 2nd, 2001
Onefootball.com

Juventus coach Marcello Lippi hit back at reports that Alessandro del Piero had refused to drop back in the position vacated by Zinedine Zidane. "If we need him there, Alex must play in a different position," he said.

Earlier in the week, Del Piero made his feelings clear in the debate over who would fill the massive gap left by the Frenchman's defection to Real Madrid. "I'm a forward, I don't like to play as Zidane did," he said.

But Lippi made it obvious thathe was prepared to over-rule the Italy international if it was best for the team. Lippi said: "I know very well that he doesn't like to play as a playmaker. But he is willing to do that, so you misunderstood his comments."

Lippi's side face Internazionale and Lazio in a three-way friendly tournament for the Moretti Trophy later this week. And the coach revealed that he was planning to ditch the tried-and-tested 4-3-1-2 formation to experiment.

"There is our traditional system which is well-known by the team. We will set that aside for a while. We are thinking about two different plans, the 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 formations.

"You saw the team playing that way during the first matches of last season and you will see it again in Bari. All of us have to work hard to understand if these patterns can work in the right way.

"It's difficult to know the real strength of a team during these summer friendlies. We have to wait for some matches in the league to do that. In Bari I would like to see some good football from my Juventus. We are up against two strong teams, who are ready to compete at the top of the league."
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