Ferrara looking for Maccabi redemption

Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara admitted his team were looking for redemption when they tackle Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League in Turin on Wednesday.

Juve have not won in five matches in all competitions and have yet to win in the Champions League — two draws in two games has left them third in the early table and outside a qualification place for the knock-out rounds.

“There’s a great desire to redeem ourselves for this negative moment, even if it’s not a disaster,” said Ferrara.

“It’s true that it’s not normal for Juventus to not win for a month but the draws were all different and there were reasons for each one.”

Juve cannot afford another draw against the Group A whipping boys who sit bottom after beginning with two straight defeats, 3-0 at home to Bayern Munich and 1-0 at Bordeaux, both teams with whom Juve drew.

“Maccabi are well organised and they have quality. They lost at home to Bayern after playing well in the first half.

“They lost at Bordeaux but they lost only to a late goal. They must be respected.”

Even so, Ferrara cannot contemplate anything other than a victory.

“We have to win. In cup competitions there’s few second chances. We’ve already drawn with Bordeaux (at home), now we really need the three points,” he added.

“We’re not going through a disastrous period, not at all. We haven’t won for a few games and we have to end this run.

“Against Fiorentina (on Saturday, a 1-1 draw) the team was fired up, created several chances, it was a good reaction.”

Ferrara admitted he is also considering a new formation, with a lone striker, two holding midfielders and three players behind the forward — the 4-2-3-1 system preferred in Spain.

That would mean only one out of Amauri and Vincenzo Iaquinta starting with playmaker Diego given more licence to roam as the central player of the three behind.

Playing behind a front two, Diego has been forced into too much defensive work for the team.

However, having already changed from Juve’s usual 4-4-2 system this season, Ferrara is wary of abandoning that formation so soon and trying out yet another.

“We’ve worked on something different, the 4-2-3-1 but I want to wait until tomorrow,” said Ferrara.

“Sometimes you change system due to your team and sometimes due to the opponents but it can be due to both and the quest for better balance.

“But we also had balance with the 4-3-1-2. Now we can say that we can play with different systems.

“Juve always played 4-4-2, we knew that the move to 4-3-1-2 would not always go smoothly and there’s still problems.

“With respect to our opponents we’ve gone through a complete tactical overhaul.”