Claudio Ranieri claims he did not sign Xabi Alonso this summer because the Spaniard is too slow.

Juventus were strongly linked with a swoop for the Liverpool midfielder during the close-season as the Reds became embroiled in a long-running transfer saga over Aston Villa's Gareth Barry.

The Serie A giants held discussions with Liverpool in regards to the Euro 2008 winner, but ultimately decided to turn their attentions elsewhere.

Perplexed
"He was a player we wanted," Ranieri admitted.

"But he is a player, who even though he is an extraordinary man and a great professional, left me perplexed by the slowness of his movement in midfield.

"In the midfield of Rafa Benitez's Liverpool, where all of them are little soldiers, he finds himself in a fantastic position.

"But in our midfield, he would have found it hard to support the midfield line seeing as Mauro Camoranesi and Pavel Nedved are not players that come back to give support like Liverpool's wingers."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_4266548,00.html

Ranieri is right, Nedved and Camoranesi or Giovinco in the side mean that we cannot really play with another creative player in midfield, we would create more chances but be torn open in midfield time and again, some Juve fans just don't realise this. You could play two plus Xabi Alonso, an AM and a striker or 4-5-1 but not Alonso in a 4-4-2 with two direct creative players. What we have now is basically a poor mans version of;

Camoranesi - Vieira - Emerson - Nedved which worked perfectly.

Emerson.

“Juventus are Juventus and they are the most important club in Italy,'

“Certain things happened in the summer and I appreciated the honesty of the directors at the club.

“They told me that the position they wanted would need me to do different things on the pitch and that they had decided for Poulsen instead of me.

“These things happen in football. I could've signed for Juve but I didn't because they went with someone else.

“However, to be honest, the attraction on my part has remained intact. I like the way that Juve have been building, I like the directors and everything else there.”