it has never really been great. Currently, the midfield is possesed of one trick ponys. Pjanic - ability to recieve a pass and make a quick turn on it, also good at making quick dribbling to set up his pass or shot. His long passing is always hit or miss, best passer in the midfield however. Khedira - tactical awareness to run into space for rest of formation to move into other space. Poor defense ability, doesnt win 50/50 balls. Stuaro - Hustle is his best attribute and a knack for causing high pressure on his marked man. Matuidi - Penchant for hustle and causing strong defensive pressure on his mark, does it effectively. Can win challenges as well, but his passing is stiff and he is not a shooter. Can make good simple passes. Claudio - Dont even see him anymore, but he used to have a good mix of everything. Always applied hustle and good pressure while defending, had the tactics awareness to shut down passing lanes, could play good long passes and anticipate open space for his passes. Betancur - hardly see him, but looked to have good speed, a good motor on his legs to get him around the pitch, could make good simple passes. He looked like a young prospect who could follow the mold of what Claudio used to be for the team.
Rugani has looked pretty good, hope he plays more, very underated player and I think his good performances this year warrant significant inclusion next year. MDS has also had a strong performance today.
What a wasted opportunity for points today. Claudio should have been brought on today. It also illustrates another example of Juve's difficulty against teams that park the bus against it. This formation struggles because when the other team elects to hold 3 mid fields in the center of the pitch, our 2 mids then find many passing lanes shut down in addition to their players getting closer to whoever holds the ball. So the only option is to make a quick layoff pass to adjacent mid( who then finds the defenders closing down new passing lanes and also closing in on him). The rest of the options are wingers on touch lines or a lone gonzalo up top or fullbacks behind them. This means that Juve players would need to possess exceptional and reliable finesse on their passes, lofting a cross outside slows allows the d to readjust and then wingers and fullbacks must pass backwards to reset. Or they can force a cross into the box, but we have seen how poor those are and options are limited in the box anyways.
Based on the info in the post above, I believe the Pjanic experiment has peaked. He has only briefly and occasionally provided the much needed finesse chips, passes, and crosses for Gonzalo or wingers need to be able to put a first touch shot on goal. He is very good at taking passes and making a quick turn on them, he sees the field well, but his passing is calm and collected, but often just ordinary. Granted its much better then any option on the team, but he will not become the midfield needed to reliably set up the attack on teams that just sit back and play defense. He also has not have a man of the match appearance in big games , just a supporting role. His stats over the past 4 years.... 2017 - 4 goals and 7 assists in league, 1 goal and 1 assist in cl 2016 - 5 goals and 9 assists in league, 1 goal and 2 assists in cl 2015 - 10 goals and 12 assists in league, 2 goals and 1 assist in cl 2014 - 5 goals and 10 assists in league, nothing in cl
it depends... Juve need to employ a 4-3-3... this hybrid position formation that gets all attackers on the field will be ate alive just like it was in the CL final last year. Paulo checking back into the midfield would essentially make it a 4-4-2 adding a bit more defensive ability. And juve need to employ speed on the field, Sandro at left back with Costa above him. Everyone including Gonzalo will need to put 110 percent into each game checking back and forth, Mario could be used as a sub as Gonzalo will be gassed an hour into it. Hopefully Sami gets sick or injured, because he has not demonstrated that he is able to make sacrifice for the team and this season has hours of game tape showing his liabilities he has. There has been little improvement this year over his same old mistakes and yet the bias to employ him is still often used. Real Madrid is actively studying this game tape and game planning ways to exploit it. I am disappointing that Max did not field Claudio to see if he can be of use in the upcoming game, he is not even giving him a chance. The idea that Claudio cant play against a serie B team is devoid of truth and it shows Max's extreme bias against him. It's clear that this midfield still has a very big problem. Buffon has had some bad games, but stil gets first choice over a much more aggresive and faster reacting Scezney... Meanwhile claudio doesnt play and we see Stuaro, Sami and Blaise play over him. Claudio does not even get a pity 10 minute sub app.
Credit to Spal in parking the bus. We had too many strikers. Needed to draw the defenders out & let the midfield go through. Can’t do that with only two midfielders. Frustrating result.
When I said Asamoah should be starting over Alex Sandro Dante and Scirea6 mocked me....... Well look who’s taken the starting place.....
I would love to know our record when we utilize the 4-2-3-1 vis-a-vis a 4-3-3. As Falc noted, we were too crowded in attack, and it's maybe not the best idea to play four attackers when your opposition is going to stuff men in the box. I don't understand the fixation on playing with this stupid formation when we have looked best with three midfielders.
Going forward I think we'll see more of them both together at the expense of Mandzukic if we use that formation because we'll need an option off the bench. They do a good job together along with Matuidi on that left side.
There was always a danger that Juve might lack dynamism yesterday given that we had just played Atalanta three days before. Allegri could have done a bit more rotation simply to add some freshness.
Well there is the win by Napoli, no more f ups for the remainder of the season, we need the strengthen our midfield game, put an extra guy on there and we can win the scudetto.
Spal deserves a ton of credit. Allegri warned about their good form at home. At the final whistle they reacted as if they won the league or an important CL KO match. It was great to see. They pressed very well in the first half and gave Juve's attackers zero space in the 2nd. Juve have come through a tough period and the squad was bound for a slip up. It's not easy to win every match. The worrying part is Chiellini's injury. Without him and Benatia vs Real Juve could be missing their starting CBs. That's never good.