Juventus 18/19 Serie A Season Thread for May [R]

We are in the mix of who gets that fourth CL spot.

 

Polish Guy
Cancelo--Bonucci--Chiellini--Spinazzola
-------------------Pjanic
---------Emre Can-----Matuidi
Bernadeschi-----------------Roanldo
-------------------Kean

In possession Emre Can drops back a little to join Bonucci and Chiellini to turn into a 3-4-3 which allows Spinazzola and Cancelo to join in the attack more. Bernadeschi and Ronaldo can rotate a little more for better goal scoring opportunities.

3-1 to Juventus.

 

Is Bentancur suspended? I don't recall any injury issue with him.

 

We can't play with two brainless twits on the right flank.

 

1-1

 

The new kit is blasphemy

 

what boring game, the entire team looks uninspired.

Ronaldos first touch is very sloppy and Paulo is getting bullied and turning over the ball in basic situations.

 

This game has to send a message to Agnelli, the entire midfield is weak, failing to do the basics, failing to execute the basics.

 

Game over, Matuidi is a goner, the midfield is shit and defense is the same.
Today’s loss should tell us how much work we need this summer.
Dybala must be sold.

 

It's going to be impossible to change 5-6 players in the squad. Certain players need to be sold, the midfield requires one more addition on top of Ramsey, while Juve need to find a solution for when Chiellini is unfit. That said, Juve need to get more out of this still very talented group. That is why this season has felt to underwhelming for me. Too many players have regressed or underperformed this season. That can't continue next year or we can't expect much more than what we have already seen.

 

I think it is clear now that a new voice is needed.

I do think perhaps the players already know Mad Max is a goner. We have played very poorly since we went out of the CL and esp. since we won the Scudetto.

 

What is there to play for? They are going through the motions for the most part. Some had no break last summer because of the WC. Results are of little meaning now.

 

When Allegri leaves, he deserves to be mentioned along the other great Juve coaches. His record speaks for itself.

That said, aside from these meaningless matches, I think there is a very strong possibility that we will look back and see that Allegri's Juve peaked in Cardiff. Juve were built on a solid defense, but that slowly has eroded as players are retiring and regressing. Unless that changes, I doubt Allegri can offer this team control in possession or an attacking identity to make up for that. Those elements are just not his strengths.

If Juve were to go into next year with this team, they would likely start to allow over 30 goals while scoring 70. Luckily Serie A is weak enough where such totals are good enough to win the league. However, I doubt that would be enough to move beyond a CL QF unless Juve get lucky. So I fully expect the management to react. Should Allegri stay, they need to provide him with defensive/ midfield additions that can enable this team to continue in his style of winning matches 1-0 or 2-0.

 

To add to that, I also feel that Allegri's style also needs a really good midfield. 2014-15 was by far his best season. That was when we had 4 world class midfielders. 2015-16 and 16-17 were both fairly good as well, but then we started deteriorating bit by bit.

Pjanic honestly was not being used right, and he is the only world class midfielder we have. Because of Pjanic not being used right, Matuidi was forced to do more covering and could not exploit best of his abilities. One thing I really am always gonna question is lack of trust in Claudio Marchisio after he returned from injury. He should of played a lot more.

 

Pjanic has basically occupied the role of Pirlo obviously not close to his level of control. Matuidi played the Pogba role by covering the left flank and joining the attack. Pogba in the offensive phase is miles ahead. Khedira when healthy was very underrated. He was as good as Vidal in terms of goals and assists. The difference is that Vidal was much better defensively. So yes, Juve's CMs were a downgrade. It's so hard to find three CMs that fit together better.

Marchisio's injury was insanely unlucky. He was unbelievable with Pogba from Dec onward. Seeing how he has done at Zenit, that injury has essentially ended his career at the top level. It's really really too bad. I'd love to give scene a top Marchisio with Pjanic. It was a huge shame as Marchisio was one of my favorites.

 

I dont like this notion that Marchisio was finished after his injury. This label can attributed to the fact that he wasn't at his best last season; however, that was down to Allegri idiotically playing Marchisio as a b2b midfielder when it has been clear as day to everyone that his best position is as a regista, where he is abs world class. But, for some reason Allegri has fawned over the idea of Pjanic as the club's regista and thus an aging, "injury prone" Marchisio was played in a high intensity position which was clearly not his best.

In the very few games which he was actually played as regista he was abs fantastic and brought the control and comfort on the ball which Pjanic just could not bring.



Here is a perfect example as to what Marchisio could still bring as a regista.

 

Comment in the video which perfectly sums up the disservice done to Marchisio last season and how we suffered as a team because of it:

"This is what we are lacking from our plan. Marchisio calms us down & sets the pace. Pjanic is not this player, Pjanic is much better moving forward and is wasted in this role. Furthermore Pjanic quits the second he gets marked and loses focus. Shame on Allegri for not realizing this, or for holding some petty grudge, whichever it is."

 

I am not so sure Marchisio's physical form could have withstood a lot of playing time, but I do think this is pretty spot on with respect to those 2 players.

Pjanic is much better closer to goal while Claudio could serve well as a deep lying regista as he proved when Pirlo got hurt.

However, physically he has just not been the same since his injury which was a real shame for him, for Juve and for the Azzurri.