Didn't Dybala have a shot in the 89th minute or something like that? Regardless, poor showing. Deserved loss.
We won't win anything the way we have been playing the last couple of weeks. We were beaten to every ball in half 1. Only when he put on Ramsey did we start to make a push. Too little too late. And I agree on Sami. He maybe past it a bit, but we play better with him because he does get into the box like Ramsey does. All those crosses from Sandro and no-one there to meet them other than CR7. Midget Dybala and featherweight Cuadrado not gonna cut it. if we are playing that way Higgy and Sami and Ramsey need to be on the pitch.
If you look at any team that tries to play possession based soccer who look to practically pass their way to goal, quick and incisive passing has to be there. If they don't move the ball quick enough, they become predictable and have to resort to crosses to players who are not big enough to win headers. Barca, Spain, Sarri's Napoli, and Man City. Shoot, the (very) few times when we move the ball quickly we actually look as if we can score freely. The issue is that Sarri hasn't been able to get the players to fully embrace it. Which is on the coach and his staff to drill into his players. Adam Digby had a great discussion about it on his podcast "The Turin Crowd."
I also watch a lot of Dortmund matches and Emre Can looks like a completely different player since he moved over. It's not just the management and transfers but something else going on with the squad. Maybe it's Sarri but last season with Alegri wasn't much better.
Last season Can became ill & that set him back a good bit. This season, Sarri left him off the CL squad & that put him in a bad funk. He is motivated to make the German side for the EC. Thus the difference.
This match was lost in the summer when Juve decided to spend money on garbage players like Rabiot and Ramsey and do nothing to fix the Pjanic problem. He's been literally walking in the midfield for two years now. No wonder our midfield sucks. Add to that the fact that Sarri doesn't have the players to fit his system which is way too inflexible (he's completely wasting Bernardeschi), and you have a recipe for this garbage. Once again we'll probably squeeze out another Scudetto and crash in the CL. I still think we'll get past Lyon but then get exposed. You know what would be nice for this team? A box to box midfielder with skill. Problem is...our fckin management wasted time signing crap like Rabiot while Conte plucked Barella. Its disgusting.
The decision to go for the two players on a free instead of Barella is squarely on Paratici. Marrotta continues to outdo Paratici since his departure.
Barella wasn't coming to Juve, he only wanted Inter. According to ESPN, he was an merda supporter. https://www.espn.com/soccer/italian...at-the-top-of-juventus-and-chelseas-wishlists Curious seeing someone with a picture of Belotti in a toro shirt saying things like "we" and "us" like he's a Juvetino?
Capello also said he wasn't ever going to manage Juve. Things change when you are offered the chance. I have a hard time believing Barella would have chosen Inter over Juve.
Are you saying that Juve didn't try for him Barella? There are multiple reports that say we attempted to sign him. Unless we were going to give him wages like that of Rabiot or Ramsey, I doubt he would have agreed to Juve. Obviously I don't know how any negotiations occured, but all signs pointed to Juve trying to sign him, Barella wanted Inter. And Capello jumped ship as soon as we were relegated. He also wasn't choosing between his boyhood club and Juventus.
I think too many here are pessimistic after a dreadful set up for 70 minutes of that match. Juve dominated the last 20 minutes and were simply wasteful. Will that come back to haunt them? Absolutely could. With that said, Sarri and Allegri over the last 12 months have been too conservative. Allegri gets a pass because he literally had almost all his attackers injured in the 2nd half of last season. When did Juve look their best? ----Ronaldo--Higuaín---Dybala -----Bernardeschi----Ramsey ----------------Bentancur Obviously that is very attacking, but using two attacking minded players in midfield in Bernardeschi and Ramsey completely changed Juve's play. Rabiot and Bentancur ahead of Pjanic are simply not goal threats They also don't create very much. So it required that Dybala be the creator which meant that Lyon only needed to worry about Ronaldo. He was completely isolated a times. I'm shocked that Pjanic, who used to play this role as a creative midfielder in the final third, hasn't been used this way. ------Costa-----Ronaldo--Dybala --------------Pjanic--Ramsey -----------------Bentancur Sandro--Bonucci--De Ligt--Cuadrado That to me is a better set up than what Sarri put out. Bernardeschi can replace Costa if need be and Pjanic can be dropped for Matuidi if the balance is too attacking.
I agree and think that the only reason that Pjanic isn't used in that role is he may not have the legs to play as a mezzala. I think we are better off utilizing a solid RB with a more attack minded midfield, which may be better to start De Sciglio. I know he doesn't offer much going forward, but I feel a little more comfortable defensively than Danilo. A big thing I noticed from the match at Lyon, was that one of their forwards was man-marking Pjanic and he didn't seem to know what to do about it. Something that Pirlo was great at if he was getting man-marked is that he would take his marker to difficult areas and make him run all around trying to find him. Opening up passing lanes to other midfielders or forwards.
The reason I have a Belotti pic is because I like the player and that photo shows his passion. I'm also a supporter of gli Azzurri and would like to see Belotti do well in that uniform. Anyone who knows me from my 16 years here knows my support of Juve. I've been waiting since we lifted that trophy in 96 to get the CL back. I've rarely been more disappointed. This is a team with tremendous resources that continues to squander them on older broken players. Calcio is still a young man's game and the front office has lost sight of that. It makes zero difference if Barella loved Inter. Money always talks. Did you know Inter couldn't even afford to buy Barella outright? They are paying 10 million to get him on loan this year and 40 million next year for the rest. They had to finance the deal. If Juve wanted him they could have had him. But no...we had to break the bank on a defender who isn't worth the price we paid all while doing nothing to improve our greatest weakness ... the midfield. The current Juve front office is garbage. They have no plan or vision. They should be buying younger players and building a core group but they lack that vision.
No plan or vision? Not buying younger players? What are you on about? Kulusevski, Romero, Rabiot, de Ligt, Pellegrini, Demiral all 24 or under. They are targeting Tonali, are interested in the Mbappes of the world and yet they have no plan or vision? The moves they have made may not be the best right now, but to say that they lack a plan or vision is just plain wrong
You may be right though I don't recall us heavily linked to Barella. If I'm not mistaken, the Rabiot and Ramsey agreements were already in place before Barella agreed to the Inter transfer. If my history is correct, then yes, we didn't pursue him. They wouldn't have tried to sign another midfielder under those circumstances.
Kulusevski cost almost as much as Barella, It was very close. I like the player, but Barella is better and a top flight player already at a very young age. Bad management because they didn't even try to go after him. That is unforgivable given our midfield. Rabiot sucks and that was obvious even last summer. His issues were not hidden. De Ligt was badly overpaid. Demiral and Romero do nothing for our midfield which is and has been the weak link for a long time. What Juve has done the last few years is buy a few young players but often never giving them a chance and sending them on perpetual loan. What I'm talking about is building a core of young players that you are actually playing. It would be great to get Tonali for example. He's a tremendous talent but will he play? Will he rot on the bench or get loaned because he doesn't exactly fit the system? I'd be more than happy to sacrifice some Scudettos and take some 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place positions if it means we get to play a young core of players that build towards a dominant world class team that wins CLs on a regular basis. I'm sure many other Juventini would as well.
Pjanic's time is up. He is not a regista and i've been saying this for last 4 years. Bentancur must be given the chance to make the regista position his own. The difference was clear as day once Ramsey came on and Bentancur was moved to his more natural position. Our midfield presence went from non existent to dominant. You can no start two soft midfielders such as Rabiot and Pjanic with the expectation of dominating the midfield. At most the midfield should include one of those two players. However, my preferred set up is for Ramsey, Bentancur and Bernardeschi to start. The midfield has far more dynamism, ingenuity, and physical presence to impose itself upon the opposition.
Ramsey has been working out in his new role. If Pjanic can't make it work behind the strikers in a diamond midfield with Bentancur and Ramsey plus Matuidi/Rabiot his time is up. Swap out Pjanic with Berna and look for a attacking midfielder. Bentancur looks like a player that can be as good if not better than SMS or Pogba if he gets a full season or two under his belt. If you put Tonali there then you need to double spend.
Intervallo di lione-Juve, Ronaldo: " i centrocampisti non ci danno abbastanza supporto, siamo da soli"Dybala: "non la prende nessuno"Ronaldo: " si anche sulle seconde palle, niente" pic.twitter.com/hmD4VlOD45— Emilio (@emi_80_te) February 29, 2020 “We are left alone out there, the midfielders are giving us no support,” complained Ronaldo. “Nobody is getting the ball,” replied Dybala. “I know, not even the second balls, nothing,” This season is gonna be such a huge dud, even our forwards are complaining about how shit our midfield is
The responsibility lies squarely with the upper management. They've dicked around for years while the backline and middle of the pitch aged or moved on and they did next to nothing. They only started to seriously rebuild our defense last summer when they should have started at least three seasons ago. Don't even get me started on our pathetic excuse for a midfield... seriously, how long are we going to give Pjanic to prove over and over again that he's not good enough? It inexcusable, unacceptable and if we have a repeat of this next season, then Paratici needs to be gone.
Bentancur as a box-to-box is too limited in the attacking third. His height and cover speed make him pretty good in front of the defense. He just needs two other mids that can carry thr ball. Ramsey and Bernardeschi provide that. A 4-3-3 with Cuadrado or Costa on the opposite side that turns into a 4-4-2 can cover for Dybala and Ronaldo. There were times in the Lyon match where Ronaldo would drift wide and Dybala drift into midfield to retrieve the ball. There was no one anywhere near Lyon's final third or box.