Cristiano Ronaldo cannot play 75 games in a year, says Maurizio Sarri

Juventus won in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo on Sunday but head coach Maurizio Sarri said that there is still room for improvement in their performances. 

Ronaldo was left out of the squad after scoring 10 goals in his last six games in Serie A to take his tally to 20 goals this season but Paulo Dybala and Juan Cuadrado fired in his absence on Sunday.

Apart from Ronaldo, Sarri was without Douglas Costa, Federico Bernardeschi, Sami Khedira and Merih Demiral. 

However, the injured Giorgio Chiellini finally featured for the first time since August as a second-half substitute. 

Juventus boss thought that the Portugal star needed some rest to put his feet up given the workload he has for the club and country. 

Sarri said, “It is difficult. We have many strong players and some are out. They are all atypical players, without a specific role. We have many situations to fix. Ronaldo is a center-forward, who starts off center.”

“Today Cristiano had to rest, he cannot play 75 games a year between the national team and the club, so we decided to let him recover.” 

Sarri also applauded Chiellini’s courage, who put himself in the team, having told the manager a day before the game. Sarri agreed to his decision as he felt the defender has already made six months of great sacrifices.

Sarri was seen very concerned for his team as it was the Old Lady’s only second win in their last five matches. 

Sarri said, “We can improve on everything. On a defensive level, we have room for improvement. We also have room for improvement in our attack. 

"We have hit the post five times in the last two games, so a little more luck would help us. We must focus on ourselves, instead of looking to others.”

Juventus will be facing SPAL on the coming Saturday and Ronaldo will most probably a part of it as the Portuguese captain is set to play his 1,000th career game.

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