DEL PIERO WILL NOT TAKE ON ZIZOU ROLE

The brilliant Italian international, who is finally coming back to the kind of form that for so long made him the golden boy of both the Azzurri and the Bianconeri, has seen the arrival of several key men in Turin - and believes that new coach Marcelo Lippi will keep him in an accustomed role.

"I can sacrifice myself and adapt in certain situations. It's already happened this summer against Napoli. But no one has asked me to play in that position next season," said the mercurial forward.

"The possibility of me playing in the Zidane role has not even been considered. Lippi has been very clear in the fact that he has told us that we need to learn to play in a different way.

"He's looking at what positions suit the players best. But it's clear that in every side there are eight or nine players that are extremely happy while the others will just have to play as they are told.

"I think we're progressing well and if something is not working well that is down to the fact that we are still not fully fit. We've got games against Inter and Lazio coming up which will show us how we are going.

"At the moment we are trying with a 3-5-2 which offers more freedom for [Pavel] Nedved. But we'll just have to wait and see how that develops."