Exclusive: Stephan Lichtsteiner says Juventus must rediscover hunger - 'The only thing that counts is winning'
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Updated 05/11/2022 at 11:09 GMT
Stephan Lichtsteiner has backed Juventus to return to the top of Italian football despite a difficult season under his former coach Massimiliano Allegri. The former Switzerland defender won seven Serie A titles in a row in Turin, and believes the Bianconeri need to rediscover the hunger for victory that they possessed when he was there. Juventus face Inter Milan in the 'Derby d'Italia' on Sunday.
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“When you arrive at Juve, you must know that you have to win.”
Few understand the culture of expectation at Juventus better than Stephan Lichtsteiner.
During the Swiss defender’s seven-year spell in Turin, the Old Lady won seven consecutive Serie A titles, five Coppa Italia trophies and reached two Champions League finals.
Only a handful of players have won more Scudetti than Lichtsteiner, who is the most decorated foreign player in Serie A history.
“There’s no alternative at Juve. The only thing that counts is winning and that’s it,” Lichsteiner says in an exclusive interview with Eurosport.
This season, however, the Turin club have found plenty of alternatives.
Juve's nine-year period of domestic dominance, started by Antonio Conte and continued by Massimiliano Allegri, seemed unbreakable in Lichtsteiner’s day, but standards began to slip not long after his departure to Arsenal in 2018.
Allegri left in 2019 with five consecutive league titles to his name, but returned two years later after Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo lasted just a season each, the latter finishing fourth.
Allegri could only manage another fourth-place finish in his first season back at the helm last term, but things have unravelled further in 2022/23.
Last week, Juve lost 2-1 at home to Paris Saint-Germain to end their Champions League campaign with five defeats from six games, including a humiliating loss to Maccabi Haifa. It is the first time since 2013 they have failed to get past the group stage.
Things aren’t much better in Serie A, where Juventus sit in seventh place, 10 points off top, ahead of Sunday’s high-stakes ‘Derby d’Italia’ clash with Inter Milan.
"I think it’s normal that after a period where they won almost everything and reached two Champions League finals, a problematic moment can arrive,” Lichtsteiner explained to Eurosport.
“I’m convinced the club can resolve these problems, because we’re talking about Juve, we’re talking about important directors and coaches. Even if it’s difficult now, very difficult, they are too big a part of the sport of football.
“A lot has changed in the last few years. There were some players who ended a cycle, some players left. This is a new team, and it needs to re-form into a winning team, it needs to create something like what we had over the last 10 years.”
Lichtsteiner played alongside legendary figures like Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Pirlo in Turin, but he believes the discrepancy between his team and the current one goes beyond the playing squad.
“Apart from the quality that we had, which was monstruous, we also had a hunger in the group – everyone managed to set aside their individual interests to win,” he said.
“In the end, you can find a lot of strong players, but few know how to win. That was a strength of the team; it had great players, but with the mentality to never lose that hunger.”
Allegri has come in for repeated criticism for a negative, sluggish style of play that has resulted in a defeat to Serie A debutants Monza and points dropped against the likes of Salernitana and Sampdoria.
A potentially critical point in the season is coming up on Sunday against Inter, where a win would lift Juve above their rivals but defeat would pile yet more pressure on Allegri.
“Allegri is an excellent coach. Not just for everything he’s won, but he was great at how he managed the team, he truly did an excellent job,” said Lichtsteiner, who is currently coaching FC Basel’s Under-15 side.
On the Inter clash, he added: “Every match is always very important, but it’s a different game, it’s special, there’s a lot of rivalry.
“Obviously both teams want to win, to take the three points for the league standings and because it’s the Derby d’Italia.
“In the end it’s a match like any other. But obviously it’s a big game and you have to be ready; you need to absorb the small details and do everything to win.”
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The Derby d’Italia isn’t the only major rivalry that will be staged in Serie A this weekend.
Further south in the capital, Lichtsteiner’s former club Lazio face Roma in a mouth-watering Rome Derby, where one point separates the Giallorossi in fourth from the Aquile in fifth ahead of the game.
“It’s true that if you win it, it gives you a lot of confidence,” said Lichtsteiner, who spent three years at Lazio from 2008 to 2011 and scored his first league goal for the club in the Rome Derby.
“The derby is very important, very passionate. As a player, you must find balance because the pressure rises, the fans care a lot, but in the end it’s worth three points like every other game.
“But it’s a Rome Derby, it’s talked about from two or three weeks before, there’s a lot of excitement so it’s always great to win it and obviously it gives you confidence for the season.”
He continued: “Apart from the last game (a 3-1 defeat to Salernitana), Lazio are having a very good season.
“It’s great for the club and the fans, for the team, because Lazio is one of the biggest clubs in Italy. It would be great if they can at least get back in the Champions League.”
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