Juventus played out a disappointing 0-0 draw against Barcelona, leaving qualification from the Champions League group stages to the last game.
Player Ratings
Defence
Gigi Buffon: Made a few easy takes but was caught off his guard by Rakitics’ free kick which hit the post. A spectator in the second half and mostly untroubled. 5.5/10
Andrea Barzagli: Solid for the first half – Kept a close eye on Luis Suarez, keeping the striker relatively contained. Alternated between right-back and right centre-back well enough. 5.5/10
Medhi Benatia: Looked in good form for much of the first 45 – Made a few good clearances, dominant in the air. Improved as the game progressed, making interception after interception. Read the game brilliantly. Man of the match. 7.0/10
Daniele Rugani: Strong start, looking very confident at the back. Played well alongside Benatia and kept the Barca threat at bay. 5.5/10
Alex Sandro: A better display than in recent weeks but still a world away from the player he was last season. Off the pace at times. Average at the back. Needs to improve rapidly. 4.0/10
Juan Cuadrado: A poor mistake early on almost let Iniesta in. Linked up well with Dybala to play a clever one-two but blazed his effort over the bar. Didn’t make much of an impact in the second-half and faded out of the game. 4.5/10
Midfield
Miralem Pjanic: Good in possession, smart passing and kept the ball well – Made a poor tackle to get booked early on and was careful thereafter. Replaced by Bentancur in the second-half as he looked more frustrated than anything. 5.0/10
Sami Khedira: Anonymous for the first half, offering little going foward and little in front of the defence. More or less absent in the second half. Hard to justify his inclusion at present. 3.5/10
Attack
Paulo Dybala: A lively start, driving Juve forward when in possession – Had a really good chance in the first which he fashioned out of nothing, but fired his effort over the bar. Could and should have won the game late on. 5.5/10
Douglas Costa: Had a great solo effort after just a few minutes but lacked the power to get the ball past Ter Stegen. Cut in from the left really well and merits a starting place at the moment. 5.5/10
Gonzalo Higuain: A bit of a spectator for the first 45 minutes, looking isolated and a little sluggish at times. Really struggled in the second half as he lacked any service of note. 5.0/10
Substitutes
Rodrigo Bentancur: A cameo appearance as it seemed Allegri was content with a point. 4.5/10
Blaise Matuidi: Played in the closing minutes of the game N/A
Claudio Marchisio: Showed more in a brief cameo than Khedira did all game. Warrants a starting place in the XI when fully fit as the midfield sprung into life with him on the pitch. 6.0/10
zzzzz a game. Higuain is a slow dunkey when we play counter attacks. Allegri must step up NOW. Matuidi should have replaced the other slow dunked Khedira after 45 min. Mandzukic should have replaced Higuain with two fast wingers around him. Bentacur is already more important than many senior players. Sandro must get a grip and a new right back is imperative in January.
Agree with the ratings. Let me add Allegri 3. Many players are under performing and that means we have to qualify between inter and napoli. Worrying prospect indeed. Sporting will not beat Barcelona away mind even if they play with their Ball boys:)
Hmm.. i thought we played a very good game today. Higuain was isolated, but through no fault of his own. I agree that mario should been subbed in for him at some point. I specially want to defend khedira, though. I don’t understand what was bad about him tonight. He is allegri’s best midfielder for reading the game, and he would be my go-to for most big games.
No other midfielder in our current team understands quite as well as he does when to play fast and when to slow down. We were slaughtered in september at camp nou because of betancur, matuidi, and pjanic’s insistence on pushing the ball forward too quickly and losing possesion. Khedira has been very good at managing the tempo in all of his games for us vs barcelona. I would start him against this team any day of the week. He recovered more balls than pjanic, pushed forward more as well, no yellow card to his name.. yet he gets the hate… i guess he is now the fashionable passenger on the juventus hate train. You know we always have one of those.. i’ll agree about cuadrado though
How our defending should be
– Double marking (scaled) like we used to do in conte days with Vidal. We need a pitbull midfielder with bite grinta and aggression.
– Aggressive (Like most Spanish teams do)
– Synchronized high pressure
– Old school Italian gladiators and champions hungry for glory and blood thirsty in all the lines
How our defending is:
– Zero double marking
– Static positional with zero bite. Except centerbacks all players just fill a position and watch opposition either pass, dribble or run past em.
– Poorly synchronized. Mainly because we always have “experienced” players with high average age.
– Soft without grinta or aggression. Italian art of defending is dying and noone seems to care.