Well that gives us a 3 point lead and the tiebreaker over them. They have the Kos at home next and Barca away to finish. We have the opposite.
We picked up a point on a day when a number of guys were off their game. And it was away. I will take the positive.
PSG probably will not win the UCL, usually best defense in group stage never wins UCL, and same with best goal difference.
Gotta say though if we won we could have a chance to win the group. Well I say we still do. Beat Barca 3-0 at home, we could still have a chance. Barca's goal difference is not as superior to ours as I thought it would be, well I mean that is if we do beat them 3-0 at home.
I had hoped we would have won today. Hopefully, we take a minimum of four points from the final two games.
Well I hope we beat Barcelona. We need to win 3-0 if we want to top the group (4-0 to be sure), and of course beat Olympiacos as well.
His assist and creation of that was nice. How did he do the rest of the game? was he not also partially guilty for being passive when the other team was shooting on goal and the rebound came to the space in front of him? He recovered quickly, but his and pjanics pace were both slack. Obviously its most on Giorgio for getting shook so freaking bad.... but this is nothing new. I did not watch game due to work, just wondering what you all think. I just caught highlights and MDS and Sandro looked very casual based off the shot chance and the cross in the box. Did they play with any intensity? Bit frustrating to see Max leave off Berna till the 83rd minute... giving someone 7 minutes of play time does nothing. He might get 3-4 touches on the ball and maybe one shot on goal.
He is a ghost like 75 percent of the games he plays... You would think that after 45 minutes of it, Max would say enough with how hard he is on the young guys in them having to earn their playing time. When you leave on vets who dont deliver, your sending out a message that contradicts it's self and you place more pressure on the younger guy, in addition to stunting their growth. Plus a much better veteran in Blaise is ready to go. Blaise should be starting all CL games, when he doesnt play... its very suspect as to what the reason for that being is. Everything a coach does is under the microscope, so what is the justification for allowing a player who is struggling or not delivering when a better option is on the bench. Sami is like... a good sub to put on for last 30 minutes if you tell him to just man mark the guy and provide himself as an option to recieve the ball, once in a while he will do something that is impressive, but its mostly just the basics he displays that makes him seem invisible when other players on the pitch are doing the good and wow work. Sami is a hard worker, but he just clearly is not a difference maker, he will have his big games in Serie A once in a while... very seldomly in CL tho( he did have one big game in the CL run last year)... he was completely outplayed against a very good Real in the final so much that it made him look like a bad player(which he is not)
Can we stop with the Cuadrado bashing? He was the only attacking player who was lively on the ball in the first half, creating chances, when Higuain, Dybala, Pjanic and Mandzukic were shit; and he had a nice assist on Higuain's goal. FFS I don't understand how people here can be consistently critical of the guy when he was arguably our only solid performer today. Chiellini played one of the worst games I've ever seen him play. Sandro has been poor all season. Mandzukic and Dybala were useless the whole game. Khedira was a ghost all game; thank goodness he pulled him for Matuidi. And we pick on Cuadrado FFS? What game are some of you watching? You all seem to love Allegri, yet many are critical of his constant selection of Cuadrado. I'll be the first to admit I couldn't understand why Cuadrado continued to get the nod over the new signings, but now it's clear. He has been a solid performer all season; and, quite simply, Douglas Costa and Bernardeschi haven't been all that special.
I'm not understanding why Matuidi isn't getting the nod over Khedira. Khedira plays one good game in every five and he constantly gets the start over Matuidi who has been good in every match. The other issue is that when Pjanic and Khedira start, there is literally zero defensive cover to help out the shaky defensive line. I worry what will happen when we play top sides. We all saw what happened against Barca. At this stage, there is no reason why Matuidi shouldn't be starting.
I have no idea what cocktail Gaby was drinking when he wrote those reviews. He also gave top grade to Cuadrado. The guy hustles, he loves the Juve shirt but he kills a lot of play because he does not know what he wants to do with the ball. On the goal, he did not think, he just passed and it worked. But too often he stops the movement, dribbles too long and gets his passes to his teammates late. Timing is everything in this game and he kills it. If some can't take that criticism, too bad.
Lol when I heard about it I was like wtf. Time for EPL to take a back seat, they are inferior to serie a.
To be honest, today's result should not have come as much of a surprise given the quick turnaround from the last game, and with the exception of MDS and Barzagli, it was pretty much the same starting eleven as in the big San Siro showdown. I have said it before -- Barzagli needs to be phased out. Also, the practice of having both Mandzukic and Higuain on the pitch is a bad one. Costa should be played on the left wing just to ensure that come the business end of the season, the Croat still had plenty of gas left in the tank. In spite of his hard work and willingness to sacrifice for the team, I see him as a striker. Our boys should have their batteries recharged by Sunday when we host Benevento. After that is the last international break of 2017. I wanted a win today, but I will take the point.
I think Matuidi is our best midfielder, after he entered the game the midfield game started looking so smooth instead of playing through Dybala. Dybala needs to really play closer to goal, the current position he plays is really bad because he gets dispossessed every time he tries to dribble someone. Max hopefully realizes this before it’s too late.
Bernadeschi has barely played... his stat line from last year is much better then Juans and he was not on a stacked Juve team. He is a better player. I am not bashing Max over him playing Juan, I am criticizing why he plays Mario and Juan for nearly or entirely 90 minutes when he has two fantastic change of pace and style wingers in Costa and Berna on the bench. Now if we subbed out Juan today, maybe we dont equalize and Juan deserves credit for that. But why is it that in both the league and CL, Juan does not get relieved when he is not playing well. This is Juventus, its amazing that we are talking about why is young italian future star riding the bench and a foreign player who is up and down is getting preferential playing time. Why spend 40 million dollars when Max is gonna treat him like he is this delicate sensitive player. Both Costa and Berna can play either wing... rest Mario and Juan if they are your number ones. If something is not working out, make a change. It is the best thing for both players, no one wants to get subbed so it will make Juan better next time he gets the start. We needed 3 points tonight. We should have had 3 points, this team needs to score goals because what got us to the final last year... its not happening right now and it wont happen this year, our defense is very prone to leaks in both 1v1s and guys slipping behind defenders coming back post and up the middle of the box. Better teams will punish them and finish these chances.
I still wouldn't lose hope on our defense. In 2014-15 it wasn't that impressive at the beginning of the season either. Yes we only conceded four, but we did not have Barcelona in our group.
Max plays favorites and he always has, for some reason he has this penchant for a duo midfield of Sami and Pjanic... Pjanic I can get behind, but last year in the final... Sami played over Claudio... and Claudio only got 30 minutes... Another instance where a sub par foreigner plays over an italian. I really wonder how Claudio is going to fit into this team to be honest because its obvious that a Pjanic - Matuidi mid is the best we have. Assuming Claudio comes back on, then we lose a striker by going to a 3 man mid. Thankfully... it looks like Benatia getting preferential treatment is finally tapering off. He has hardly been fit, but it def seems MDS is also a favorite, he sure looks timid out there on the pitch which makes me wonder about him telling Rugani that he is not ready because he is not physical enough. Old Italians are typically stubborn as ********, and nearly impossible to change... so this is the shit we are stuck with. Hopefully Juan gets like a torn hamstring, just a little temporary minor injury to allow the kids some decent playing time and chance to prove them selves. Looking at last years stats, its insane to say Juan is better then Berna. Juan in 2016 - 3 goals and 7 assists in 29 starts Berna in 2016 - 13 goals and 5 assists in 32 starts
Berna cannot or will not play defense right now. That is why Juan is playing. He got his assist while playing RB. His recovery speed is top class.