Player Ratings
Buffon – N/A
Bonucci – It was his forward pass that led to the defensive disaster allowing Pjanic to open the scoring, other than which big Leo was in imperious, untroubled form. 7
Chiellini – Great to see him almost back to his best, for besides a slip late on, which went unpunished, he ran no risks and drove forward when nothing seemed open ahead of him. 7
Barzagli – Quiet as a mouse but made one vital clearance with one of the few useful balls played into our box. 7
Alves – Definitely growing on me as he grows into the team. Supported the attack with clever passing and impressive control and forced the fourth with his deflected free kick late on. 7
Evra – Seemed a little rusty, but showed good stamina and played a solid part in the victory. 7
Hernanes – Went about his work with tidiness and discipline, maintaining keen positional focus and came close with a long range effort. I like the balance he brings to the side, and in absence of Marchisio, he is fast becoming the most obvious option at DM. Safe, intelligent and calm. 7
Pjanic – Was alive to the chance which fell his way for the opening goal, produced a gorgeous assist for Higuain and his distribution throughout was top drawer. A shame he went off injured and I hope he returns to the ranks soon. 7
Khedira – Off the pace and culpable of wasting several promising opportunities in the final third through poor control. Largely ineffective. 5.5.
Dybala – He works so damn hard and I was overjoyed to see him break his duck in sublime fashion. Picking up the ball 35 yards out from goal, he found the channel, and unleashed a superb finish. Also had a chance late on but couldn’t get enough power on his shot. 7
Higuain – Took his goal splendidly, other than which was crowded out by an extremely defensive opponent. Five games, five goals. A promising start to his career in black and white. 7
Cuadrado – Brought on to play in a CML position, where he fared well enough against a beaten side. Seemed more lively when moved to the right. Average. 6
Pjaca – Was close to scoring when showing superb acceleration to find the angle for a shot. He looks dangerous every time he plays. 6.5
Mandzukic – Fumbled one chance then simply made up the numbers. 6.
Reasons to be cheerful
A 0-4 away victory in the champions league is a fine result, regardless of the very average nature of our opponents. I cannot suggest that we played anywhere near our potential, but we were improved defensively and the major difference between the Palermo game was that we took our chances.
Another clean sheet, our third on the trot, the defence and midfield are becoming more balanced, with just the one chance conceded from the header against the bar. Other than which, we rarely moved out of second gear.
Higuain, Alves and Pjanic, are all swiftly finding their feet in our colours. It is early days and we have far more to come, but despite the lethargic performances sandwiched in between the more confident showings, we have played 6, scored 13 and conceded 4. Which has found us leading Serie A and top of our group in the champions league. If this is how we fare, in terms of results, when we are out of form, still trying to find our feet, the future looks very bright indeed.
The Empoli and Udinese fixtures give us a a great opportunity to build upon this result, and gain some momentum for the crunch tie against Lyon, which if won, seems likely to put us in a strong position to qualify for the second round.
Whilst we were superior in all departments, and ran close to zero risks, I must repeat my happiness at seeing Hernanes in the side. He uses his experience intelligently, and offers far more maturity and adeptness in the integral DM position than any other we have played there thus far this term. However, he is yet to play against anyone decent, but so far, so good.
Reasons to be bothered
The one chance we conceded came yet again from a set piece. I believe that 3 of the 4 goals conceded this season have come from corners. We are improving at the back and in the middle, but we must improve our concentration and marking. I believe that the BBC have taken a while to regain their sharpness after their extended outing through the Summer in France. Now we are returning to resoluteness at the back, and this improvement must continue, for we will face far tougher tests in the future.
Khedira was listless yet again. We could afford to carry him in this tie, yet perhaps it is for the best to give him a break and offer Lemina the chance to impress in a role where he seems more comfortable than anywhere else. Sami had a busy summer and has been involved in all but one of our games this season.
As Higuain noted after the game…
“At times I ask him to play closer to me, though it all depends on the circumstances of the game,” Higuain told Mediaset Premium.
“I prefer him closer, but in the end it’s his choice. I am in a good moment of form, but we’re still at the beginning, settling in with new teammates and system.
“I will improve game after game and winning helps you to win. We are not yet at the top of our capabilities, but we are getting the results in the meantime.
“I am happy to be here and felt at ease from the first moment I arrived. Now we are trying to work out the best movements, but with time it will improve.
“We wanted to play with the right attitude this evening and we did that.”
Dybala has appeared to be playing deeper this season, as aforementioned in previous comments, his movement is very much combined between a RM and AM, rather than a second striker. I can but assume this is intentional, which also translates to less goals, and perhaps once (or if!) we can strike a better balance in midfield, we can move Paulo higher up the field, where we know from last season, he can prove more potent.
Overall, we have to be content with the performance and especially the result. We did all that was needed and sharpness if not yet cohesion is blossoming throughout the squad. Zagreb were playing 8 behind the ball for much of the first half, and we showed patience and our quality shone through. No new injuries, more gold in the coffers for the victory, comfortable standings domestically and in Europe, and we are still to recover Il Principino, Sturaro, Mandragora and give Pjaca the chance to impress with more than 20 minutes remaining on the clock.
A job well done. I doff my virtual panama to Allegri and the lads.
Post-Match comments from the boss:
“Dybala got his first goal of the season, I am happy for him and for the team. It was important to get our first Champions League win of the season,” the Coach told Mediaset Premium.
“The side took the right approach. We made some mistakes in the second half, when we could’ve played better, and still need to improve. We need to play cleaner.
“We are working, we’ve only been together for 40 days and there are players who arrived after the Euros. It takes time to get the players into a unit and we’ve had a fairly decent start, all told.”
“When we moved to four at the back to rest Andrea Barzagli, we played with two more attacking wingers. It was also an experiment for the future to see how it worked.
“Cuadrado played at Palermo and tonight, but before that he hadn’t played a game for four months.”
Forza Juve.
During the CL anthem https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0145a8a39e3f57228ba0ed7c33104b581da1a5acc6827d61d9e5591e23b99eb2.jpg
Dobra ova!
It’s an odd stadium isn’t it! No roof on any sides.. is that correct from the pictures I saw? Does it not rain in Zagreb, or are Croats too hardy to bother with a bit of damp? I’ll take the latter.
It’s one of the ugliest stadiums I’ve been to, and I have been to San Siro as well 😀 But seriously, the stadium is a wreck, no roof, unfinished stands, it would be better to demolish this one and make a new one.
But from what I’ve heard that there were plans of making a new stadium like Ajax Arena in late 90’s, but then the board stole the funds of roughly €300M for the new stadium and ‘upgraded’ the current one. And their current owner, Zdravko Mamic, again stole money meant for the new stadium and simply yet again ‘upgraded’ this one.
It really is a shame that this is a national stadium for Croatian team.
Nice directors they have….
Great picture Igor! Personally I did not watch the game because of work but I did follow live commentary. A great result honestly, I was expecting less goals and perhaps a bit more spirit out of Dinamo but its understandable. They sold their best players (Rog to Napoli, Pjaca to Juventus) so they are a bit weaker this time around. Non the less, Dinamo is the best and most successful squad in the Balkan region of Europe. Really hoping Pjanic’s injury is minor at best, we need him as much as we need any Juve player this year. A great result to build on but I still have trouble over our consistency, we seem to be destroying these smaller teams but struggle against tougher opponents. Not really sure what the future holds, the defense has been fragile. I’ve yet to make any kind of assessment of this team but the result is certainly a positive one.
Pjanic is set to be available for the weekend, Jas. And if anything has improved of late it is the defence and midfield are less error prone and more balanced…It will be interesting to see if Allegri continues with Hernanes as the pivot? Perhaps give Sami a break and bring in Lemina for the right, or even give Sturaro a roll of the dice in the RCM position. I am ever keen to see him involved…
“Khedira – Off the pace and culpable of wasting several promising opportunities in the final third through poor control. Largely ineffective. 5.5.”
Yet again, and ultimately a weakness therefore against a much better team than Zagreb.
Hernanes, Pjanic and Lemina. I’m sticking with that idea after this match. No more Sami for me starting, at least until Marchisio comes back.
In his present form, I will agree, DB. He was in fine fettle earlier this season…although I do agree that he very much gone off the boil of late. A game or two out the side may prove the remedy.
It does look as if the Hernanes solution is working. Pjanic seemed more free and perhaps we would of seen the same of Lemina had he played on the right.
What was made abundantly clear to me, given the perfect camera angle of the replay I watched, was that this idea of 3-5-2 being in any way rigid is a fallacy. We move constantly between 4-4-1-1, 3-4-2-1, 3-4-3 and even 3-3-4 (now and then both wingback push up as well as a midfielder). The system is more fluid than ever before. Not that this really matters, other than when people discuss changing the formation from X to Y. I do not believe Allegri sets the team up like this, it really is a 3-4-whatever.
What I liked seeing about the goal from Pjanic is that he was up top closing in on goal without being surrounded by a bunched up midfield! There he can be more effective than Sami imo. He can make things happen in open space with his talent in a way Sami can’t. After all isn’t that how he was so effective for Roma, and therefore why we bought him?
Hernanes and Mario should be behind him! Firmly shielding in case possession is lost. With Sami you can’t rely on that as he seems to want to be in and around the box himself too much, making him out of position if we lose the ball. That’s ok if the dm shield is there, but if he and Pjanic play it doesn’t seem to work.
Eddie Howe quote (said in relation to him taking over from the Sam Allardyce debacle), “don’t buy star players for the sake of it, trying to fit them in somewhere – buy them because you know where they are best”. I think Pjanic should always sit behind Gonzo and Dybala.
So I like a 3 4 1 2 in effect with Pjanic as the 1.
PSG reportedly want Mandzukic in January. I would go for a straight swap for Matuidi.
Both are cup tied though.
Can we recall Zaza? I read West Ham intended to send him back anyway and he isnt cup tied.
Everyone happy!