Yeah. LOL I think its more Montella than the club itself. Montella always causes us huge problems. I remember back when he was Fiorentina manager, I was always shaking when we played against them. Even when we won the games were really tough and it was a piece of magic from one of our players that brought us victory. Montella loves to cause Juventus problems.
I like Montella as a manger. My only concern with him is whether he has the grinta to demand consistency in his sides. That is why we win.
I hope we rest some of our key players this weekend, especially Higuain, saw himself bit tired the last few matches, I say start Mandzukic with Dybala and maybe Pjaca too. Maybe keep Chiellini resting too. We can have the youngster Rugani in there.
Rugani, Pjaca, Sturaro, Rincon, and even Lemina should be used more often. Juve have two away matches vs Napoli back to back at the very beginning of April (2nd for the league, 5th for the Copa). The CL quarters start on April 11/12 with the return leg the 18th/19th. In between the CL matches, Juve face Chievo (home) and Pescara (away). Also factor in Juve's South American NT players will be traveling a great deal. Allegri will need to use all of his squad. A repeat of the Porto performances won't be good enough vs any of the teams left.
Risking Khedira is a mistake Max can't make he's become fundamental to the midfield. The others need these games to get their game up. Pjaca is the only one he needs to be careful with, it showed that his fitness is not up to par and if he doesn't get this up to par in training, putting him in the game becomes a risk for the team and personally (will be considered a flop too quickly). On the flip side he needs to score and play to really get going with the team. Let's hope he gets his head right and makes the right decision to really push his fitness.
Not a fan of the new format, but whatevs. On to the match. We looked ********ing exhausted and uninterested, but we won. We really need to rotate and get our starters some rest cause we have international break coming up and then like 5 matches in two weeks. Dybala suffered a slight knock and was taken off as a precaution. Higuain still looking like a shadow of his earlier self, missed a ton of golden chances this game. We need him ready and firing on all cylinders against Barca, if its this Higuain that plays against Barca we're in trouble
The team looked gassed today, they didn't look good at all. It's time to let the young guns like Kean play, international break coming up, so there will be some rest, still I want these guys to get a break for few weeks and get ready for Barca.
Is Paulo really ok? everyon is freaking out on 4chan, but that is kinda the operating procedure on the soccer threads there... missed the game today, just saw highlights... How did Rugani play? was Asamoah shaky as usual, everyones posts over there indicated his typical casual playing style was in effect, he did have a great cross for a assist on that goal.
Asamoah played well, but made some shaky plays, but he played well over all. Just a gassed team man, even Mandzukic looked tired, I'm happy international break is coming up, it will give the team as a whole a much needed rest. Our defense held up, just in the last 25 minutes they didn't look good, especially on that last corner kick when only two people jumped on the cross and the rest looked like they were holding on to the players... I was concerned that we were going to give one up at the end, they came close few times.
Dybala's injury didn't look too serious, but I always get worried when I see players go down by themselves without any foul involved. I hope he is ok, but I think people are just worried, because he is such a key player for us and we have some huge games coming up. I hope he takes a rest and doesn't go to Argentina for international break. Rugani had a great game. I think Asamoah actually played well. He did make on terrible mistake, but otherwise he seemed to have a good game.
Guys I honestly think we didn't look too bad this game. We looked amazing in the first 30 min actually, and just got unlucky, but we also have to give credit to the Sampdoria goalkeeper. He did make some real crucial saves. In the second half we did take our foot off the gas a bit, but we didn't play nearly as bad as we did against Udinese or in some other games. Our defense pretty much looked quite solid, and honestly I never felt worried during this game. It wasn't an amazing performance, but I'd say 5-6/10.
Also keep in mind part of the problem was the pitch was really slippery, and a lot of players kept slipping. I think we would have scored a second if it wasn't for the slips all the time.
Juve were fantastic for the first 30 minutes and should have easily been up by multiple goals. Their play dropped once Dybala left the game. Although Pjaca can be lively and creative in the final third, Dybala helps link the midfield and defense into attack in a way that the Croatian can't right now. Juve's build up out of the back suffered as a result. Juve's press was also ferocious to start but that too died out in the second half. The possession stat tells the story (70% in the first half vs 40% in the second). Overall though it was a grind it out type game. Nothing too much to complain about at this stage in the season after what has been a very long string of matches. Samp were 7 matches unbeaten until Juve end that today on the road. Good win. Let's hope that going forward the team is able to recover physically. As for Higuaín, he creates so many chances for himself and yet has not been able to get one to go in. Some were a result of great goal keeping while others misses come down to poor finishing. Juve need him back to his predatory best after the break. Higuaín had a dry run early this year. That morphed into an insane scoring streak. Hopefully, he is saving his goals for Napoli and Barca.
Khedira: How can you not love this Khedira's attitude? On top of that, Juve's winning percentage when he starts is insanely good. It's not surprise that he has won the CL and WC as well as league titles and cups. He is CLASS.
Here is as good of an explanation of the Juve Mentality as you are likely to see in print, Coming from Pjanic who has seen it from both sides: http://www.football-italia.net/99975/pjanic-‘juventus-controversy-crazy’
Assuming he actually said that, and what was mentioned by Pjanic, it really puts the club into perspective for outsiders. It also gives me the feels on why I love this club so much! Fino all fine
Speaking of penalties, Napoli has more penalties last 2 games than we have had all season (28 games) lol
I forget where I read this but there was an article or post on how much players talk about their clubs when they go away on international breaks. We would be surprised as to how much that matters. Pirlo, Vidal, Tevez, Morata, Llorente, Evra, Alves, Khedira, Pjanic, Higuaín, and Dybala all say great things about the club. I can't remember the last time a big players said anything negative about Juve.
I am so happy that all our players are happy. It makes me so proud to have Juventus as my team, and I really love how all players are treated equally and we are like a family. I just read a few days ago about Bale complaining how Ronaldo gets favored at Real Madrid so much, and it breaks my heart to see these things happening, especially at a top club. I am also extremely happy that even players that do not get as much playing time are still happy. Rugani and Pjaca especially. They have defended Allegri so well, and said while of course they would like to play more, he is doing the right thing, and they trust that their time will come. This is also one of the reasons why Allegri is one of my favorite managers in the world, and why I think he is a great manager. I don't recall any player saying negative things about Allegri.
Miralem Pjanic, Andrea Barzagli, Gonzalo Higuain, Dani Alves and Mario Mandzukic all return to Juventus from international duty early. The Bianconeri have a tough run of games coming up, including the Serie A showdown with Napoli, Coppa Italia semi-final and Champions League quarter-final against Barcelona. It seems as if the Juve hierarchy have made the most of their positive rapport with various Federations to get their players back a few days early from international duty. Some decisions were forced, as Dani Alves and Higuain were booked and will be suspended for Brazil and Argentina respectively. Barzagli was released by Italy due to “personal reasons” and Mandzukic was one of five Croatia players allowed to skip the friendly against Estonia. Also sent home early was Fiorentina striker Nikola Kalinic. Now Pjanic has been added to the list, because Bosnia allowed the midfielder to leave without taking part in Tuesday’s friendly with Albania. The Juventus squad has Monday off anyway, so they will all resume training with Max Allegri on Tuesday morning. Paulo Dybala was on the verge of being sent back because of injury, but today started training with the full Argentina squad and could feature in their World Cup qualifier with Bolivia. Juan Cuadrado and Tomas Rincon are expected back in Turin on Thursday. Gigi Buffon, Leonardo Bonucci, Daniele Rugani and Marko Pjaca should be ready to train on Wednesday afternoon. Awesome news. The only one that will be away for an extended period will be Dybala. It'll be good to have our players fresh for the upcoming games